Cognitive Analysis On Conceptual Metaphor In Once More To The Lake And Its Chinese Translation

It is widely acknowledged that metaphor is not merely a rhetorical device, but also a cognitive tool in constructing our thinking as well as expressing one’s mind. Metaphor is not only a common phenomenon in people’s daily life, but also one of the basic features of literature. Essays with the characteristic---shape dispersing but spirit concentrating often employ varieties of metaphors to express emotion and highlight the theme. Therefore, comparing the cognitive process and conceptual metaphor in both source text and target text is of great importance for both essay learning and translation.Once More to the Lake, as the most representative essay of E.B. White, a leading American essayist and literary stylist of his time, is famous for its fresh and delicate writing style, which is full of carefully chosen metaphors, soft tone and charming rhythm. Choosing Conceptual Metaphor Theory as the theoretical backbone, and selecting Once More to the Lake and its influential Chinese version 《再到湖上》 translated by Feng Yidai, a famous translator, editor, scholar as well as essayist in China, as the analytical material, this thesis carries out a cognitive analysis on conceptual metaphor in Once More to the Lake and 《再到湖上》 with the attempts to investigate the following questions:How is the cognitive process realized in the essay Once More to the Lake? How do conceptual metaphors help to enhance the theme of the essay Once More to the Lake? Is the cognitive process in Chinese version reconstructed by the translator in accordance with that in the original essay? And what are the similarities and differences between the conceptual metaphors used in Once More to the Lake and those translated in 《再到湖上》?Through the qualitative and comparative study, this thesis finds out that the cognitive process in Once More to the Lake is realized through the four main groups of metaphors---ime system, lake system, human system and other metaphors which include sound metaphors and life metaphors. And these conceptual metaphors are employed throughout Once More to the Lake to highlight the two clues---one is "things are unchanged"’, the other is "things have been changed". Between the "changes" and "non-changes", White expressed his love for the lake, put forward that things are still there, but people are no more the same ones and then he cast the theme of the essay that life is alternative and we should reverence for it.Besides, during translation, the following similarities are found:(1) Some similar conceptual metaphors used in Once More to the Lake and translated in《再到湖上》are shared, such as such as TIME IS SOMETHING, TIME IS A MOVING OBJECT, TIME IS STATIONARY AND WE MOVE THROUGH IT, ACTION IS SOUND, MIND IS MOVING OBJECT, SOUND IS DESTROYER, SOUND IS A SEDATIVE, MUSIC IS FOOD and LIFE IS TRANSPOSITON, etc.; (2) Both Once More to the Lake and《再到湖上》share the same cognitive process---ersonification, animalization and concretization. On the other hand, many dissimilarities are produced by the translator in 《再到湖上》 due to cultural diversity. Firstly, there are some delicate differences of these similar conceptual metaphors, such as the emotional tone, figurative meaning and semantic meaning in deep structure. Secondly, different source domains in Once More to the Lake and 《再到湖上》 are mapped onto the same target domain. Finally, both American and Chinese culture have their unique metaphors, such as Drama Metaphor, Cathedral Metaphor and Magic Metaphor in Once More to the Lake as well as Picture Metaphor and "Having Meals" Metaphor in 《再到湖上》The present study is significant in that it not only helps people to make a better understanding of the essay Once More to the Lake, but also enriches the research in the translation of essays from the cognitive perspective and thus provides evidence, to some extent, to increase the explanatory power of Conceptual Metaphor Theory--CMT can be used to better analyze and understand the conceptual metaphor and cognitive process of the essays and to help translators reconstruct the spirit and reproduce the shape of essays. The author hopes that this research can provide some references to related essay study and essay translation study.