On Chinese-english Translation Strategies Of Metaphors From The Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor

As the studies of metaphor shifts from the traditional rhetoric perspective to cognitive linguistic perspective,we realize that metaphor is to construct one concept through another in cognition.Lakoff and Johnson(1980)propose the concept of Conceptual Metaphor and Conceptual Metaphor Theory(CMT)in Metaphors We Live By(1980),which elaborates metaphor from the perspective of cognitive linguistics.From the perspective of CMT,metaphor refers to a series of mappings from the source domain to the target domain,which is very common in our daily life.However,considering the cultural and linguistic characteristics of metaphor,the metaphorical mappings in Chinese do not necessarily have the corresponding mappings in English.Therefore,the translation of metaphor has become one of the most important problems in translation theory and practice.Studies on metaphor translation,so far,have been mainly concentrated on translatability,translation process and translation strategies of metaphors,but there have been relatively few studies on metaphor translation strategies from the aspect of conceptual metaphor theory,and there are not many studies to explore C-E translation strategies of metaphor.My Life as Emperor is a representative legendary historical novel written by Su Tong,a contemporary Chinese writer who won the Mao Dun Literary Prize.In the novel,Su Tong portrays the image of the prince of the Xie Country,Duanbai,who is manipulated to become a tyrannical puppet emperor,turns into a folk juggler and eventually becomes a monk living in the forest.Duanbai’s rough life breaks through the historical norms and presents a man’s resistance to the established life trajectory.As a work of Chinese modernist literature,this novel opens a window for foreign readers to understand Chinese history and culture.With rich artistic imagination and creativity,especially the high occurrence of metaphor in this novel,the translation of metaphor is of much importance to the dissemination of Chinese culture and the promotion of cultural confidence.In view of this,taking Su Tong’s novel My Life as Emperor and Howard Goldblatt’s English version as examples,this thesis is targeted to analyze the C-E translation strategies of metaphors from the perspective of Conceptual Metaphor Theory.Based on the definition,characteristics and classification of conceptual metaphors in this theory,with the Chinese original text and Glodbaltt’s English version being the data source,a total of 27 representative examples of metaphor translation are selected and analyzed with the help of metaphor identification process(MIP),and the thesis focuses on exploring the following three questions:(1)What are the occurrence frequencies of structural metaphor,orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor in My Life as Emperor?(2)What are the translation strategies adopted by Howard Goldblatt in metaphor translation in the novel?(3)What translation methods are used to transform metaphors between the source text to the target text?What are the frequencies of the translation methods applied to the translation of structural,orientational and ontological metaphors? Through analyzing different examples of translation,the author attempts to summarize the translation strategies and methods adopted in metaphor translation,so as to provide some inspiration for translation strategies of conceptual metaphors in literary works in the future.The major findings are as follows.Firstly,the total occurrence frequencies of metaphors in My Life as Emperor are 2,840,with frequencies of structural metaphors1,029(42.6%),orientational metaphors 1,035(36.4%),and ontological metaphors 596(21.0%).Secondly,when dealing with the translation of conceptual metaphors in this novel,the translator adopts two translation strategies: source-language orientated and target-language oriented translation strategies.The translator mainly uses sourcelanguage orientated translation strategies in the translation of structural metaphors and ontological metaphors,and uses target-language oriented translation strategies in orientational metaphor translation.Thirdly,the translator mainly adopts the four translation methods of retention,substitution,paraphrase and deletion in transforming metaphors between the source text to the target text.When dealing with structural metaphors,the translator retains 50.37% of the metaphors in the translation.When translating orientational metaphors,42.03% of the orientational metaphors in the source text are substituted by metaphors in line with the cognition of the target readers.When translating ontological metaphors,the translator also uses retention and 69.13% of the ontological metaphors are retained in the translation.The fundamental reason for the above differences is the cognitive differences between the readers of the source language and the target language.At the same time,it is also affected by the differences in Chinese and English language usage,context and other factors.Through the analysis of Goldblatt’s English translation of My Life as Emperor,the author hopes to enrich the studies of C-E translation strategies of metaphor from the perspective of conceptual metaphor theory,and to provide some enlightenment for researches on metaphor translation strategies in some other literary works.