Cognitive Analysis On Conceptual Metaphor Translation In Hamlet

According to the viewpoint of modern cognitive linguist Lakoff, metaphor is not just a special linguistic form in traditional rhetorical sense, but a thinking model and cognitive style of human beings. In his opinion, metaphor is a mapping from the conceptual domain (source domain) to another conceptual domain (target domain) in human conceptualization system that is called"conceptual metaphor". Conceptual metaphors are deeply rooted in human cognition and mind, whose linguistic manifestation is the metaphorical expression. The vividness of metaphorical expressions in the linguistic level is due to the metaphorical characteristic of human thoughts. Literature forms, especially the drama, are abundant in metaphorical expressions that enrich the distinguished features of drama language. Shakespeare's work Hamlet contains abundant metaphorical expressions with the vivid drama language. The work has been translated into several versions by different translators and widely spread in China. The most typical and enduring version among them is Zhu Shenghao's translated work of Hamlet that are cherished by Chinese readers since its appearance. The key concepts of conceptual metaphor theory include cross-domains mapping, image schemata, categorization, conceptual metaphor and metaphorical expressions etc. The paper attempts to apply the systematicity principle and cultural coherence principle of the conceptual metaphor theory as the researching perspectives to analyze conceptual metaphor translation in Zhu's version of Hamlet. The research steps are listed as following: 1. after collecting and classifying the conceptual metaphor and metaphorical expressions in Hamlet from the original according to Lakoff's definition and classification, divide the metaphorical expressions in translated version into three situations: same conceptual metaphors existing in SL and TL; similar conceptual metaphors existing in SL and TL; conceptual metaphor in SL into non-conceptual metaphor structure in TL, and apply the systematicity principle to carry through the concrete analyses; 2. apply the cultural coherence principle to analyze the translation methods adopted by Zhu Sheghao in the translated work of Hamlet: literal translation under the guidance of cultural coherence; free translation under the guidance of cultural coherence; literal translation plus free translation under the guidance of cultural coherence. It is concluded through the study that 1. According to the systematicity of conceptual metaphor, it is operable to analyze the conceptual metaphor translation through its surface manifestation– metaphorical expressions. As for the translation of the same, similar, non conceptual metaphors and the relevant same, similar, non metaphorical expressions, translators adopted different translation procedures to achieve the systematicity of conceptual metaphors in translated work; 2. According to the cultural coherence of conceptual metaphor, translator adopted different translation methods to achieve the faithful reflection and stylistic reproduction of the original so as to maintain the cultural coherence of conceptual metaphor in translated work. Meanwhile, the author has found the limitations of the study as well during the research process. The cognitive analysis of conceptual metaphor translation is a complicated process influenced by plenty of factors including the thoughts, the emotion and the psychology of the original writer, the translator and the reader. The simple cognitive analysis is not enough to illustrate all the phenomenon and problems in conceptual metaphor translation.