On The Translation Of Conceptual Metaphors In Traditional Chinese Medicine

Metaphor is a tool for human cognitive activities.Its production is rooted in the human experience of the objective world,which contains the whole process of human cognition.Specifically,metaphor is not a simple linguistic rhetoric phenomenon,but the result of the development of human thought.It is a cognitive activity in which humans use experiences in one domain to interpret or understand experiences in another domain.There are rich ancient philosophical thoughts and unique thinking of analogy in traditional Chinese medicine books such as Huáng dì nèi jīng,so there are a lot of metaphorical expressions in these ancient medical books.It is of great significance to analyze traditional Chinese medicine metaphor translation from the perspective of cognitive theory and propose corresponding translation strategies to highlight the unique image-thinking mode of traditional Chinese medicine.Scholars have explored the translation of conceptual metaphors from different perspectives and different linguistic theories.However,their research rarely involves the translation of conceptual metaphors in traditional Chinese medicine classics.Previous theories have also failed to reveal the cognitive interpretation mechanism of conceptual metaphor and its construction mechanism in the target text.Translation,as a human practice activity,contains humanity’s cognitive understanding of linguistic symbols.As a product of the cognitive process,language can reflect the conceptual structure formed by human perception,understanding,or belief of the world.According to frame semantics,the cognitive framework is a knowledge structure suitable for expressing objective reality in memory,a knowledge network connecting multiple cognitive domains and associated with a specific language form,thus establishing a network of concepts and concepts that coordinate with each other.The meaning of language mainly depends on the cognitive framework,and language expression is the trigger or support to activate the cognitive framework.From the perspective of frame semantics,translation is conducive to revealing the translator’s interpretation mechanism of conceptual metaphor in the source text and the construction mechanism in the target text.In view of this,this study takes the part of Huáng dì nèi jīng on cold evil as the corpus,combines the conceptual metaphor theory and framework theory,and uses MIPVU identification method to identify,classify and analyze the conceptual metaphor in the corpus;On this basis,the translation strategies of conceptual metaphor in traditional Chinese medicine are discussed.This paper attempts to answer the following questions:(1)What types of conceptual metaphors are used in the statements about six evils in the ancient Chinese medical corpus?(2)What are the features of these conceptual metaphors?(3)What translation strategies can be adopted in order to translate conceptual metaphors in TCM based on frame semantics?The research findings of this paper are as follows: First,through the identification and classification of conceptual metaphors in the statements about six evils in the ancient Chinese medical corpus,this paper obtains five different types of conceptual metaphors with the highest frequency,namely,natural metaphors,war metaphors,Yin and Yang metaphors,motion metaphors and color metaphors.Secondly,based on their cognitive basis,we can find that most of the source domains involved in conceptual metaphors are shared by humans,but some metaphors are heavily loaded with culture.From the perspective of frame semantics,the source domain of conceptual metaphor is the trigger of cognitive frame.When the source domain of conceptual metaphor is shared by the source language user and the target language user,the cognitive framework activated by the source domain can find the corresponding cognitive framework in the target language.When the source culture is heavily loaded,it is difficult to find the cognitive framework activated by the source domain in the target language,or the seemingly corresponding cognitive framework has completely different conceptual meanings in the target language.Thirdly,according to whether there is a corresponding cognitive framework in the original text and the target text,the translation of conceptual metaphor mainly involves two types of cognitive framework operations,namely,idealized framework operation and non-idealized framework operation.In the former case,the translator can retain the source domain in the original,that is,the original cognitive framework.In the latter case,the translation strategy of frame shift,frame replacement and frame retention plus interpretation can guide the translator to present conceptual metaphors with rich cultural factors.In the post-epidemic era,the international communication of traditional Chinese medicine ushers in new opportunities for development.High-quality and high-level translation of traditional Chinese medicine will help accelerate the international communication of traditional Chinese medicine.This study is conducive to speeding up the construction of the discourse system of overseas communication of Chinese medicine culture,promoting the exchanges and cooperation between Chinese culture represented by Chinese medicine culture and the world’s multi-cultures in multiple fields,in multiple forms and at a deep level,and helping to build a community of shared future for mankind and enhance the soft power of Chinese culture.