Translation Of Metaphor In Advertisements From A Cognitive Perspective

Translation of metaphor in advertisements has become a hot topic these days. Thoughgreat progress has been achieved, the current metaphor translation of advertisements is farfrom satisfaction. From the cognitive perspective, a well-translated version must take suchfactors as culture and context into consideration. The translator must try his best to realizeeffectiveness and efficiency of communication by mapping the original text from thesource domain to the TT in the target domain. The thesis employs the qualitative andquantitative methods to carry out the research. The examples used in the thesis arecollected from the Internet and books. By adopting Lakoff and Johnson’s conceptualmetaphor theory, the thesis explores the cognitive operation of metaphor translation, andfinally proposes translation strategies and approaches for the translation of metaphor inadvertisements.From the very beginning, metaphor is considered as an ornamental device. Later, it isperceived as a conceptual system with experientialism as its philosophical basis whichoriginates from the interaction between the experientialist and the environment.Conceptual metaphor theory is one of the most important theories of cognitive linguisticswhich is understood as a cognitive mode we adopt to describe one abstract domain byemploying another concrete conceptual domain. The representative cognitive mechanismsof metaphor are mapping theory and blending theory. According to mapping theory, theinternal structure in metaphor, the diverse mapping from the source domain to the targetdomain can contribute to our comprehending of the metaphor. In blending theory, conceptual integration from two or more input spaces leads to the meaning construction.After exploring the mechanism of metaphor, it is necessary to get some knowledgeabout the cognitive function of metaphor. According to Lakoff’s classification of metaphor,the thesis discusses functions of metaphor respectively. They are helping to constructconceptual system, organize experiences and understand the world. To fully comprehendmetaphor, we must have a clear mind of the culture it belongs to and the context it is in.Besides, metaphor is an indispensable part of culture, so it receives great influence from it.As for context, the metaphorical meanings in different contexts are likely to be diversified.The translation of metaphor from a cognitive perspective is a kind of conceptualthinking which helps people to comprehend and understand the experience of one languagein term of another familiar language. The nature of metaphor translation is the transmissionof cognitive information in different cultures. With this perception, the thesis looks into thecognitive operation of the metaphor translation which is metaphor comprehension andmetaphor deduction. Metaphor comprehension can be accomplished through metaphoridentification and its meaning figuring out. While metaphor deduction is not the same asmetaphor comprehension, it is much like a process of encoding from the source languageto the target language which is restricted by cultural factors and stylistic features.Therefore, the thesis proposes four strategies for metaphor translation: metaphorretaining, metaphorical reconstruction, metaphorization and demetaphorization. There arecommon perceptions and differences between Chinese and English, so during the processof translation, metaphors in the ST can be retained, reconstructed, omitted andnon-metaphors can be converted into metaphors as well. All these efforts are made toimprove the quality of metaphor translation in advertisements.