On Metaphor Translation From The Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor

Metaphor is traditionally viewed as a device of rhetorical ornament and poeticimagination. Traditional studies on metaphor are based on an understanding ofmetaphor as a figure of speech, whose main function is a substitute for anotherlinguistic expression. This view is challenged by George Lakoff and Mark Johnsonwho in the book Metaphors We Live By propose a cognitive approach to the study ofmetaphor. According to conceptual metaphor theory in this book, metaphor is acognitive activity. The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kindof thing in terms of another.Metaphor has been widely discussed within the discipline of translation studies.Conceptual metaphor theory provides new insights for the study of the translation ofmetaphors breaking the limits of traditional studies on metaphor translation whichmainly focus on static comparison of linguistic forms and literary styles based on theunderstanding of metaphor as a figure of speech overlooking the cognitive nature ofmetaphor.After a brief introduction to the conceptual metaphor theory and an overview ofhow metaphor has been dealt in the discipline of translation studies, this thesiscollects metaphors from the story The Fall of the House of Usher in whichmetaphors play a significant role in generating the unity effect of terror. Based on acomparative analysis of source text and six target texts, this thesis studies the translationof metaphors in The Fall of the House of Usher and goes deep into the underlyingcognitive mappings to analyze the working mechanism of metaphors so as todemonstrate how translators deal with metaphorical expressions. Finally four patterns ofmetaphor translation are abstracted. In short, this thesis tries to test how well conceptualmetaphor theory can account for translations of metaphors and to illustrate what acognitive approach could offer to the description of metaphors in translation and hopesto offer guidance for the proposition of potential metaphor translation strategies.