Metaphors In Yang's Translation Of A Dream Of Red Mansions: A Cognitive Approach

Metaphors are seen in everyday conversations and literature works.According to traditional metaphorical theories,metaphor is a figure of speech or play of words.But the contemporary metaphor theory takes metaphor as a cognitive tool.Metaphor has been playing an important role in literary works as it enriches the aesthetic value,helps to strengthen the theme and conceptualize the things.As one of the four famous Chinese classics,Hong Lou Meng is great in many respects,one of which is its language that is rich and vivid.In this masterpiece,the author Cao Xueqin made use of a lot of metaphors to inspire the readers' imagination and make them feel like experiencing personally what is described in the work so that the readers can get an insight into his characters.The tactful use of metaphor is one of the outstanding characteristics and successes of this literary work.A Dream of Red Mansions, translated by the famous contemporary Chinese.translator Yang Xianyi together with his wife Gladys Yang,is almost the most acknowledged English version of Hong Lou Meng in China.From the cognitive perspective,the paper makes an attempt at using the cognitive theoretical frameworks of Conceptual Metaphor Theory(CMT)and Blending Theory(BT) to study the metaphors used in A Dream of Red Mansions.It points out that utilization of metaphors is pervasive in literary works and a proper use of metaphor contributes to enhancing the value of literature works.With metaphor,the writer could make his/her descriptions much easier to understand and more vivid to visualize,thus leading the readers to develop their thinking and deepening their impression.A proper use of metaphor may turn a work into a rich reserve of ideas that could stand a long time exploring.