A Study On The C-E Translation Of Conceptual Metaphors In Diplomatic Language From The Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Recent years have seen the use of many vivid and impressive metaphors in Chinese diplomatic language,which meanwhile have brought a huge challenge to the translation work.Metaphor research has always been a heated topic in academic community since Aristotle,and Lakoff and Johnson’s theory of conceptual metaphor brought metaphor research into a new era of cognitive science.However,compared with metaphor research,research of metaphor translation started relatively late and has just gradually gained attention from researchers in the last few decades.This thesis selects the C-E metaphor translation in Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s press conferences from 2016 to 2020 as the research object,aiming to explore the adoption and translation of these metaphors.This thesis mainly discusses the following three questions: 1.What kinds of conceptual metaphors were used? 2.How are different strategies adopted by the interpreter to achieve optimal relevance? 3.What factors may have affected the selection of strategies for metaphor translation?Based on an analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data,this study has found that(1)the most frequently used conceptual metaphor categories are Journey Metaphor,Engineering Metaphor and Human Metaphor.And metaphors can be in the form of nouns,verbs,phrases,idioms,and other more complex structures.(2)There are mainly four translation strategies: keeping the same image of the metaphor,using the same image with explanation,replacing the original image with a new one,and paraphrase.The interpreter will infer the communicative intention of the speaker first,and then based on his/her own understanding of the target culture,linguistic context and social context,choose a proper interpreting strategy to help the audience to get the optimal relevance.(3)Cultural factor,linguistic factor and social contextual factor will affect the choice of interpreting strategies.It is hoped that this thesis can provide useful suggestions for metaphor translation,and encourage future studies in this field.