A Cognitive Approach To The Understanding And Translating Of Metaphor

Metaphor has been traditionally regarded as a figure of speech used to decorate language. However, along with the study on linguistics and the introduction of psychology into linguistics, the research into metaphor is increasingly deepened. Since Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson was published in 1980, the Conceptual Metaphor Theory has been proposed which points out that in nature, metaphor is a cognitive activity that human explains and understands one kind of experience (target domain) in terms of another experience (source domain). Thus, metaphor can be comprehended from a higher level:"a means of cognition" and "a kind of inferring mechanism".Since the nature of translation rests with the conveying of meaning, this thesis holds that the nature of metaphor translation also lies in conveying meaning. The whole process of metaphor translation consists of two steps---the comprehending of metaphors' meaning and the reproducing of the metaphor in the target language. Firstly, from the perspective of cognition, this thesis, taking Lakoff's Conceptual Metaphor Theory as its starting point, explores the comprehension process of metaphors' meaning (this paper mainly refers to conventional metaphors) and how to infer the meaning of metaphors, and analyzes the influence of cultural differences and individual experience on the comprehension of metaphors. Secondly, based on the basis of the nature of translation, this thesis studies the process of reproducing metaphors in the target language. With regard to the reproduction of metaphors, this thesis, revolving around the mapping of the conceptual domains, proposes four concrete translation methods which involve conceptual domains'equivalent mapping, conceptual domains'domesticating mapping, conceptual domains'transplanting mapping and the deletion of metaphors. It is worthwhile to note that in the process of the translation practice, the translator should take all factors into consideration, and then choose proper translation methods so that the version can reach the aim of conveying the meaning of metaphor.The paper aims to prove the rationality of cognitive perspective about the study of metaphor translation and the strong explanatory power of Conceptual Metaphor Theory in the process of metaphor translation.