Cognitive Analysis On Conceptual Metaphor And Its Translation Strategies

Conceptual Metaphor is cognitively analyzed through theoretical analysis at first. The following are mainly analyzed: cognitive causes for the production of metaphor, cognitive functions of metaphor and cognitive conception of metaphorical translation. Then metaphor translation strategy is studied through the analysis of some examples from literature and daily life in Chinese and English. This research attempts to: Firstly, probe metaphor cognition and its enlightening effect on translation, and discuss conceptual metaphor translation strategies; secondly, evaluate the adequacy of the metaphor translation in some examples; analyze the cognitive process of translation strategies choosing, and put forth my own suggestions on the translation of some metaphors. The author proposes four approaches for translating metaphor, including reproducing the same image in target language, replacing images in source language by standard target language images, free translation and retaining the original image with explanatory note, and points out that translators should seek the proper metaphor translation strategies and avoid mistranslating.Conceptual metaphor is very common in language. Cognitive analysis of conceptual metaphor could help people to understand it; the study of metaphor translation strategy from the cognitive perspective is quite meaningful and valuable to metaphor translation. The theory of cognitive linguistics has provided a new angle and theoretic base for translation research. Generally speaking, most of our traditional translation theories were based on understanding of metaphor as a figure of speech, overlooked the cognitive nature of metaphor and focused on static comparisons of differences between literary styles, linguistic forms, and cultures. Analyzing from the cognitive perspective of metaphor, translation is a kind of cognitive activity that people illustrate or understand the experience of one language community in terms of another, otherwise, translation could not achieve the purpose of cultural communication between nations. Metaphor and translation are closely related. Because cognition is the foundation of forming metaphor which is the common core of expressing meaning in all human languages, talking about metaphor translation from cognitive perspective is very valuable.