Translating Body Metaphors From Chinese To English:with References To A Dream Of Red Mansions Translated By Yang Hsien-Yi And David Hawkes

Traditional metaphor studies mainly focused on the metaphor itself, while ignoring its involvement in human cognition, thought and communication. Richards (1936) sponsored to take metaphor as a means of communication among different minds. Later, since Lakoff and Johnson (1980), metaphor has become more of a tool for mankind to know the world as well as a means to know new things through other things that were already known, thus helping people better explain concept formation, thinking process, development of cognition and principles of behavior, etc. With the formation of "upsurge of metaphor", the number of theses on metaphors used in Hong Lou Meng has reached over a hundred. By analyzing related statistic data, we found that in terms of content, domestic research stressed primarily on two aspects:the introduction of overseas research findings and theoretical explorations of metaphor; while in terms of research perspective,90%o f domestic research adopted a cognitive approach, and metaphor studies have expanded to other languages. It can be said, therefore, that metaphor research has made much progress, but there are still lots of issues that remain to be solved. In particular, of the wide range of studies on metaphor till today, research on metaphor translation in particular languages has received little attention, and concerning this, the author chose the most illustrious classics in Chinese history, Hong Lou Meng, to excerpt original language materials of body metaphor and analysis. With reference to the two English versions of Hong Lou Meng, the author analyzed the examples of body metaphor by dividing them into several groups in terms of translation techniques including literal translation, translation plus notes (amplification), free translation, free translation omitting the metaphor.Metaphor as the highlight in Hong Lou Meng has caught many scholars’attention, but research on Chinese body metaphor is something new, not to mention the analysis of English translation methods of body metaphor in Hong Lou Meng. This topic is based on previous research results, and can be divided into six parts. The first part introduces literature review, innovative points and the significance of the topic covered in this thesis. The second part gives the definition, properties, causal reasons as well as features and functions of metaphor, and brings in the concept of body metaphor. The third part illustrates the historical status of Hong Lou Meng and features of its two English versions translated by Yang Hsien-Yi and David Hawkes respectively, and some rhetoric devices used in Hong Lou Meng. The fourth part deals with examples of body metaphor excerpted from Hong Lou Meng. The fifth part analyzes and categorizes the English translation of body metaphor by dividing them into three groups. The last part summarizes the whole thesis and identifies the weakness in the research, and touches upon some future research directions.