A Study Of Political Metaphor Translation In Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Speeches From The Perspective Of Positive Metaphor Analysis

The research of metaphor can be traced back to Aristotle.The metaphor has been studied more than two thousand years.Our way of thinking and behavior is basically metaphorical(Lakoff & Johnson,1980,p.3).Human thought processes are largely metaphorical(Lakoff & Johnson,1980,p.6).In the field of cognition,metaphor is a cognitive and thinking mode.Metaphor has become the focal point of research for more than two thousand years.Since ancient times,politicians tend to use metaphor to express the similarity between the source domain and the target domain,which helps people to better understand complex political concepts through political metaphors.Metaphor can help the politicians turn the abstract concepts and ideas into easy understanding words and make their ideology easy to get for most of the ordinary people.In 1980,Lakoff and Johnson published the classic book named Metaphors We Live By,which regards metaphor as a human thinking mode,which has a great influence on the development of modern metaphor theory.Political speech plays a very important and crucial role in both domestic affairs and international foreign affairs.Metaphor is a powerful tool which is used in political speeches.President Xi Jinping used many Chinese special metaphors in his various political speeches in different international stages.These metaphors are very crucial and meaningful in his speeches.It is very important and necessary to identify and explore these metaphors in order to study the ideology behind the metaphors as well as how to translate these metaphors in English precisely.It is of great practical and academic significance to analyze and study the translation methods of these metaphors in English.This study uses the Chinese and English versions of Xi Jinping Wit and Vision(2015)as well as 2018 Chinese president Xi Jinping latest speeches as the discourse corpus,the first step is to identify the metaphors by using MIVPU,and then constructs positive metaphor analysis theory with positive discourse analysis theory and critical metaphor analysis theory,constructing positive metaphor analysis,definition,meaning and extension analysis.From the perspective of positive metaphor analysis,this thesis studies the political metaphor translation of President Xi Jinping Wit and Vision as well as the year of 2018 President Xi Jinping latest political speeches in a positive metaphor perspective,which achieves the innovation of academic theory with a new perspective as well as views the metaphor translation methodology in a political speech with a positive perspective and a harmonious idea.This is helpful to a further understanding of China’s strategic policy and the concept of a harmonious society.Due to this research adopt a new approach-positive metaphor analysis to analyze the political speeches,therefore this thesis has a great theoretical and practical academic innovation and significance.