A Contrastive Study Between Chinese Metaphors And English Metaphors & Their Translating Strategies

The subject matter of this thesis is metaPhor translation, which has been studied foryears by different scholars. This thesis, based on a large number of convincingexamples and from the angle of cultural analysis, exPlores the differences betWeen the.images used in English metaphors and Chinese metaphors in order to account fOrcultural influences on metaPhors and suggest some stfategies fOr metaPhor translation.This thesis is composed of an introduction, three chapters and a conc1usion.IntroductionMetaPhors are endowed with rich local, national and cultural characteristics. They. clearly express the features of a culture and are undoubtedly influenced by culturalelemeflts. Therefore, metaPhor translation is one of the most imPoftant and difficultpafts in translation. It usually mirrors the tfanslating principles a tfanslator fOllowsand the translating strategies he or she adopted. We will explore some of thedifferences betWeen English metaPhors and Chinese metaPhors, analyze culturalinfluences on metaPhors and try to find solutions in metaPhor tYanslation.Chapter OneThis chaPtef, based on the semamic analysis of meaning, illustrates the differences }+and similarities between images used in English metaPhors and Chinese metaPhors.'And it is concluded that, feW of the English images and Chinese images are fullycorresponding, a few of them are basically corresponding and most of them are pedlycorresponding or not corresponding.Chapter TwoThis chaPter deals mainly with the influences of cultural elements on metaPhoT, whichis of great significance since no metaPhor can exist out of its cultural colltext. It isagreed by most scholars that the cultural influences come from four aspects: (l)ecological and physical, (2) social, (3) linguistic, (4) ideational. APparentlymetaPhors are culture specific and require correct decisions from the pwt of thetfanslators.Chapter ThreeThis chaPter is mainly devoted to translating strategies. The translating strategies hereare divided into two peds: literal translation and free translation; the latter includesthree categories f (1) converting the metaPhor to meaning, (2) replacing the SL imagewith another established TL image; (3) adding or omitting the metaPhor. MetaPhortranslation is a combination of the suggested methods. And it is also noted thatcomprehension, senses & style of the source text, and readership are to be concemedin metaPhor translation.ConclusionThe thesis aims at finding suitable translating strategies fOr metaPhor translation. Inorder to achieve this goal, the thesis does some exploration on English images andChinese images, and analyzes the cultural influences on metaPhors. The study isbeneficial to our work on metaPhor translation.