A Contrastive Study Of Animal Metaphor In Chinese And English And Their Translating Strategies

Metaphor plays a vital role in human's daily life, both in thought and action. Since Aristotle's period, studies on metaphor in western countries have continued for about 2000 years. Traditionally, metaphor is considered as a kind of rhetoric method. And the formation of metaphor is based on underlying analogy or similarity between two entities.'Over the past twenty years, cognitive linguists have gradually realized that metaphor is not only a matter of language but also a way to cognize the world. The masterpiece Metaphor We Live By written by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson opens a new page for the study of metaphor, shifting away from the figurative and linguistic functions to the cognitive nature of metaphor. In their theory, metaphor is considered as not only a simple comparison among different entities, but also helps people cognize the abstract world through the concrete one. Conceptual metaphor is achieved by mappings across different conceptual domains, from the concrete source domain to the abstract target one. Some features of the source domain are mapped onto the target domain and people try to understand abstract ideas by using the knowledge they have acquired about the common objects in their world, which is a process of concrete-abstract speculation. Based on George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory, this thesis is intended to study the universality of conceptual metaphor, using animal metaphorical terms in both Chinese and English.Animals, as human's best friends, have been attracting the attention of many linguists, biologists and sociologists. A large number of animal terms exist in both Chinese and English, some of which have been used as metaphors to symbolize people's thinking. However, objective cultural backgrounds and human's subjective factors also bring some difficulties in comprehension. In order to achieve accurate understanding and avoid misunderstanding between the different cultures, it is necessary to conduct a systematic study of animal metaphor in Chinese and English. And as a basic human means to cognize the world, animal metaphor deserves more attention. Animal metaphor may be defined as the metaphorical expressions with animal images in a language, the connotations of which can be understood and accepted by the people in the same speech community. This thesis, employing Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory, attempts to conduct a contrastive study on animal metaphor between Chinese and English so as to explore how animal images as the source domain are mapped the target domain. This study aims to study animal metaphor from a cognitive point of view, which is the core of the paper, and analyze the causes for the similarities and differences from cognitive and cultural perspectives. In the second part of the paper, some strategies are suggested that can be used to translate animal metaphor between the two languages under different circumstances.Major findings of this paper are:Firstly, similarities in animal metaphor between Chinese and English can be attributed to the common basic bodily experiences, as well as the close relationship between animals and human being. Both the experience and the kind of relationship provide basis for animal metaphor. Secondly, differences of animal metaphor in Chinese and English can be explained in the following aspects:different ways of thinking, aesthetic standards, natural environment and social conventions, and linguistic forms. Thirdly, when conducting translation of animal metaphor terms, translators should not only consider the language structures and national features of the source language, but also pay attention to the cultural backgrounds and expressing methods of the target language. This paper suggests five strategies that can be used to deal with animal images so as to express their figurative meanings correctly and properly:image retention, image replacement, image transplant, image omission, and literal translation with notes.The whole thesis consists of six chapters. Chapterâ… is the part of introduction, which tells the aim, significance and structure of the study. Chapterâ…¡reviews some basic terms about Conceptual Metaphor Theory in respect of its cognitive nature, cognitive functions and working mechanism. Chapterâ…¢focuses on the working mechanism and mapping models of animal metaphor:from animal domain to human being domain, to social areas in terms of economic, political and computer areas as well. Chapterâ…£makes a detailed cross-cultural comparison of animal metaphors between Chinese and English and then analyzes the reasons from two perspectives: cognitive universality and cultural relativity. Chapterâ…¤examines some strategies for animal metaphor translation. Chapterâ…¥summarizes the whole thesis and points out its major findings, implications and limitations.