On Translation Methods Of Conceptual Metaphors In Political Text From Cognitive Perspective

As we know that, metaphor is a common phenomenon, and a variety of metaphors are applied in our daily life at all times. Richards, I.A (1936), an English rhetorician, believed that every three sentences in oral communication are metaphorical. In the1970s, the pervasiveness of metaphor began to draw scholars’ attention, which can be considered as the era of metaphor fanaticism by Johnson, M(1980). The research towards the conceptual metaphor confined to the field of rhetoric, was not given the due attention from that time. Then Lakoff and Johnson(1980) proposed the metaphor theory, stating that metaphors are no longer just a way of expressing ideas by means of language, but a way of perceiving, thinking and acting. Specifically to say, metaphor represents a mapping device which project from a source domain to a target domain.Up to now, guided by the conceptual theory picked up by Lakoff and Johnson, continuous researches on metaphors in other fields are conducted. However, the research of conceptual metaphors in political text from the cognitive perspective has long been neglected. Thus some of the scholars begin to shift their focus on the metaphors in political field in a view of classifying the metaphors and interpreting the mapping conditions on which the metaphors are organized. Thompson, S(1996) once wrote an essay Political without metaphors is like a fish without water, it’s not difficult for us to realize the important relationship between metaphors and politics. So, metaphors can help politicians to reorganize the reality and create a metaphorical world.Based on the procedures of metaphor identification put forward by Steen, G(2002), the thesis makes a systematic classification of the selected data appeared in the Selected Works od Deng Xiaoping VolumeⅢ, the thesis found out that there mainly exist six types of conceptual metaphors, respectively, human being metaphor, journey metaphor, war metaphor, liquid metaphor, building metaphor and plant metaphor.For the cognitive translation hypothesis proposed by Mandelblit, N(1995), metaphors translation refers to three cognitive schemes of the real world and cultural experience mapping, namely similar mapping conditions, similar mapping conditions but the different lexical forms and different mapping conditions according to the cognitive approach. Compared with the English and Chinese versions of Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume III, we can usually find the similar mapping conditions both in English and Chinese from the following three kinds of metaphors:building metaphor, journey metaphor and plant metaphor, and the literal translation, literal translation plus addition will be the best strategies in translating the previous metaphors. If the mapping conditions are inconformity, free translation and omission should be adopted in situations that those two languages use different source domains for the projection onto the same target domain, and we can usually find this from the human being metaphor. When we translate the plant metaphor and liquid metaphor, the literal translation and free translation are both adopted. However, the literal translation is not always suitable for the similar mapping condition, the same like the different mapping conditions are not always resort to the free translation. Some other translation strategies will also be taken into consideration.The paper is composed of six chapters. The scheme of the papers is as follows:Chapter One is the introduction of this paper, which casts a glance at a research of metaphors on the background knowledge, significance of the research, the data and research methodology and the structure of this thesis.Chapter Two is the literature review. It gives a historical review of metaphor and previous research of metaphors on political text at home and abroad.Chapter Three provides a theoretical framework for the whole thesis. It will mainly introduce the research data and methodology.Chapter Four and Chapter Five are the main parts of the whole thesis. According to the definition of conceptual metaphors and mapping conditions, the author deliberately classifies and displays the conceptual metaphors appeared in the Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping Volume III into six groups, respectively, human being metaphor, journey metaphor, war metaphor, liquid metaphor, building metaphor and plant metaphor. The author will put much emphasis on the interpretation about how the politicians apply the familiar and concrete concepts to explain the complex and abstract political activities. In chapter Five, the translation methods will be deeply discussed by using the theory of "Cognitive Translation Hypothesis", which will not only help people to better comprehend the metaphorical thinking pattern in political discourse, but also stimulate the interpreters and translators how to better transfer the source language meanings.Chapter Six is the conclusion part. It summarizes the whole paper and discusses significance and limitations of its research, and proposes further possibilities for future study.