Chapter 1 Introduction

Viewing translating as a process of conceptual integration can help disclose the potential cognitive mechanism of the translator as well as the dynamic operating process. With the assumption that translations in general are aimed atrealizing cognitive contextualequivalence（CCE）atcertain levels, this research mainly explores the translator's cognitive process for finding out how the translator realizes CCE with the operating motivations also explored. Concept（conceptual meaning）and meaning belong to different layers in that concept is the basic unit of thinking or reasoning in cognition，while meaning refers to linguistic meaning in written forms（Wang，2007：92）. This research attempts to explore one important aspect of translating process by dividing the translating process into two procedures：conceptualization and meaning reconstruction or generation which are also regarded as the processes of understanding and expressing. The research is an interface study between cognitive linguistics and translation，which integrates the mental space theory（MST），conceptual integration theory（CIT）and contextual parameters theory（CPT），aiming at constructing a theoretical framework for interpreting the translator'scognitive process in realizing CCE.

This introductory chapter defines the key working terms，justifies the research rationale，states the general research objective，raises some research questions，and outlines the organizationof this research.