Translation Of Metaphors From A Cognitive Perspective: A Case Study Of Beloved

Since published in1987, Beloved, masterpiece of the outstanding contemporaryblack writer Toni Morrison, has enjoyed great popularity among the literary criticsand the readers; however, it has been rarely mentioned in the field of translationstudies, and the only two translated versions have not been studied systematically.In the thesis, the author first reviews the present overseas and domestic researchof Beloved and its translation studies respectively. Then taking advantage ofAmerican linguists Lakoff and Johnson’s basic contemporary cognitive theory ofmetaphor, the author elaborates the classifications of conceptual metaphor andexplores the cognitive functions of metaphor and the studies of metaphor translationfrom a cognitive perspective. Based on this, the author selects Pan Yue and Lei Ge’stranslation of Beloved in the body part of the thesis for further in-depth research.Firstly, functions of metaphors in Beloved are summarized. Next, the classifications ofmetaphors in the novel have been carried on using the theory of cognitive metaphor.And then through the comparative and descriptive sampling analysis of source textand target text, the author explores the translators’ transactions of the metaphoricalimages in the process of translation and concludes that the metaphors in Beloved aredealt with flexibly by the translators in the translation. Their rich connotations areretained maximally. But there are also some limitations to be further discussed.Finally, based on the theory of cognitive metaphor translation, the author sums up fivemethods of metaphor translation which includes retaining the metaphor, adaptation,substitution, conversion and deletion, so as to provide reference for metaphortranslation and its evaluation.