Metaphor,Metonymy And Translation Creativity

Since the 1970 s,with the development of cognitive science,the study of metaphor and metonymy has shifted from the perspective of rhetoric to the study of cognitive linguistics.This cognitive shift has made the study of metaphor and metonymy become a hot topic in the academic circle,and has also extended the rhetorical connection between metaphor,metonymy and translation on many aspects including the process of translation.Due to the traditional rhetoric views of metaphor and metonymy,the translation studies of metaphor and metonymy in the past were only limited to the level of words and sentences,focusing too much on the form and semantics of metaphor and metonymy translation,but paying little attention to the translator’s choice of translation strategies.After the advent of cognitive science,the embodiment basis of metaphor and metonymy has been clarified,and metaphor and metonymy have also been elevated to the height of the thinking organization mode of human cognition and understanding of the world,The definition of metaphor had been renewed as "understanding and experiencing another thing according to one thing".Conceptual metonymy has also been redefined: metonymy is the cognitive process of one conceptual entity(vehicle)to another conceptual entity(target)under the same ideal cognitive mode.The redefined metaphor and metonymy have more powerful explanatory power and stronger connection with translation.On the basis of conceptual metaphor and metonymy theory,through quantitative and qualitative analysis,combined with the description of the translation text analysis and cognitive path selection analysis method,take the two classic translation versions of A Dream of Red Mansions’ translation of chapter titles,names and poems as the corpus,inspected the translations of metaphorical expressions and metonymical expressions.The reasons for their translation decisions are analyzed.Through empirical research,the author further proposes creative translation strategies of metaphorical expression and metonymical expression.The first chapter explains the background,significance and methods of the research.The background of this paper is that as a classic novel,A Dream of Red Mansions has achieved the highest level of artistic achievement in language.It is a collection of poems,poems,melodies,songs,rhymes,proverbs,psalms,and epigrams,which makes it the crown jewel of language art.It is precisely because of its great achievements in language art that his translation activities have never stopped in history.Among them,the two most representative and most accepted complete translations are from Hawkes and Minford and Yang Xianyi and Dai Naidie respectively.These two translations have made great contributions to the spread of the novel in the Englishspeaking world.Then the author introduces the research content,the two classic versions of the novel’s chapter title,names and poems’ translation strategies of metaphorical expressions and metonymical expressions,and based on the results of the analysis of metaphorical expressions and metonymical expressions’ translation,the author then put forward the creative translation strategies for them.Then,the author proposes the significance of this study--to provide a reference for the creative translation of metaphor and metonymy,thus providing more creative possibilities for literary translation,and potentially providing a reference for the study of translation process and the training of translators.In the last section of this chapter,the author expounds the research methods,namely the textual contrast analysis and the cognitive path choice analysis.Contrastive textual analysis method is chosen because this research method isn’t based on the original text unilaterally to discuss the translation problem,but takes a retrospective perspective,fully considers the interaction between the original text and the target text,attaches importance to the relatively independent systematicness and interpretability of the target text,so as to objectively describe the textual relationship from the metaphorical and metonymic dimensions.Cognitive path choice analysis method is adopted because it doesn’t affect the translator during the process,so the analysis results are relatively accurate,and it is particularly suitable for the translation analysis of metaphor and metonymy.Researchers can identify the cognitive path of creative translation according to the different cognitive relations of different translations to the same translation.The second chapter is a literature review.In this part,the author firstly states the development of cognitive science and briefly describes the development course from the first generation of cognitive science to the second generation of cognitive science.The first generation of cognitive science believes that the basic unit of cognition is "symbol",cognitive activities are a series of processing of symbols by computer programs,and human’s cognitive activities can be simulated by computer.Cognitive science at this stage could not identify the category of "dualism".It believed that the body and mind were independent of each other,that human understanding was independent from perception and physical experience,perception and concept were then separated,and that reasoning was an independent existence without metaphorical and metonymic reasoning.The second generation of cognitive science argues that because human conceptual systems and reasoning based on our bodies,the definition of "cognition" should be broadened.In the second generation of cognitive science,cognition covers various mental processes or structures,most of which are unconscious,including visual processing,auditory processing,factory processing,kinesthetic processing,memory,attention,emotion,thinking,language and so on.The mind is not an existence separate from the brain and body,let alone the perceptual kinesthetic system in which we move around in the world.The second generation of cognitive science also recognizes the embodiment nature of cognition,the biological capacities that we collectively possess and the physical and social experiences that we gain from moving around the environment as creatures.Then the author introduces metaphor and metonymy based on cognition,states their development from traditional rhetorical devices to cognitive metaphor and metonymy,and the reasoning functions they play in semantic understanding.Then the author reviews the history and status quo of metaphorical translation and metonymical translation studies and then the status quo of creative translation studies.In the second part of this chapter,the author introduces the Chinese version and English version of A Dream of Red Mansions.After that,the author reviews the research status of metaphorical expressions’ translation and metonymical expressions’ translation in A Dream of Red Mansions.In the third chapter,the author analyzes the relationship between metaphor,metonymy and creativity in translation.The author states the role of image schemaconstrual in translation creativity and the relationship between metaphor and metonymy and translation creativity.In the fourth chapter,the author makes a comparative analysis of the two classical versions of A Dream of Red Mansions in their treatment of the metaphorical expressions and metonymical expressions of chapter titles,names and poems.This chapter first states the reasons for the choice of corpus,and then makes a comparative analysis of the translation of metaphorical and metonymical expressions in chapter titles,names and poems in the A Dream of Red Mansions,confirming the translator’s different cognitive approaches to the same original text by way of review.On this basis,the author analyzes the permission and limitation of metaphor and metonymy for the translation of relevant content.Chapter 5 is mainly about Metaphor,Metonymy and Creative Translation Strategies: Based on the comparative analysis in Chapter 4,the author puts forward corresponding strategies for the creative translation of metaphorical expressions and metonymical expressions.These strategies include clarifying metaphorical schemata,equivalent substitution of preferred metaphorical schemata--construal,construction of metaphorical expression creatively,etc.The last chapter is the conclusion.In this part,the author states the research conclusion,research value and enlightenment,as well as research limitations and prospects.