Translation Of Animal Metaphors From The Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor—a Comparative Study Of Two English Versions Of Hong Lou Meng

In traditional view, metaphor is a kind of rhetorical device. Cognitive linguists Lakoff and Johnson first propose Conceptual Metaphor Theory in their book Metaphors We Live By. They hold that metaphor is a way of thinking and a way of cognizing the world. Conceptual systems are metaphorical in nature and humans’way of thinking involves various conceptual systems, thus forming Conceptual Metaphor Theory. People use the concrete, familiar experiences in one domain to understand the abstract and unfamiliar experiences in the other domain, which forms metaphorical cognition. Basically speaking, metaphors have two cognitive domains:source domain and target domain. The working mechanism of metaphor lies in comparing the source domain with the target domain to find out similarities between the two domains to help people to understand the target domain through the source domain. In the course of the development of mankind, animals are always humans’best friends. In the process of long-term contact with animals, people are familiar with their behaviors, habits and characteristics that are used as source domains to understand human beings and human-related things in the target domains, thus forming animal metaphors.Cao Xueqin is a famous writer in China. His novel Hong Lou Meng is one of the four classics in China and its researches are of high value. This study chooses24animal metaphors in Hong Lou Meng as the research target. Those metaphors are grouped into four categories:animal metaphors denoting somatic characteristics, animal metaphors denoting behavioral characteristics, animal metaphors denoting emotional characteristics and animal metaphors denoting intellectual characteristics, and then some representative examples are further analyzed. This thesis first makes a systematic study of the translations of animal metaphors in the Yangs’version and Hawkes’version and analyzes their translating methods and strategies, then compares their gains and losses in transferring the cultural connotations of animal metaphors, finally conducts a statistical analysis of the translation methods and strategies they adopt and the effects they achieve as well as the influencing factors, providing references for animal metaphor translation.The study mainly has the following findings:firstly, there exists cognitive universality and cultural difference in English and Chinese; secondly, literal translation and free translation are the main translating methods adopted by Hawkes and the Yangs; thirdly, both the Yangs and Hawkes use domesticating translation and foreignizing translation, but the percentage of foreignizing translation in the Yangs’ version is higher than that in Hawkes’version, while the percentage of domesticating translation in the Hawke’s version is higher than that in the Yangs’version; fourthly, when translating animal metaphors with rich Chinese cultural information, the Yangs tend to adopt literal translation while Hawkes tends to use literal translation plus explanation or image replacement; fifthly, free translation accounts for46%in both versions, which indicates that the translations of animal metaphors are very challenging. In many cases, faithfulness has to give way to expressiveness. The differences of translating methods and strategies adopted by the Yangs and Hawkes result from their different cultural backgrounds, translating purposes and requirements of presses. The Yangs aim to spread the traditional culture of China while Hawkes wants to give pleasure to English-speaking readers. Foreign language press requires the Yangs to be faithful to the original text and spread Chinese culture as much as possible. Penguin Books aims to make westerners know something about Chinese literature; it requires Hawkes to let his target readers understand his translation and bring pleasure to his readers.This thesis only makes a study of a part of animal metaphors in Hong Lou Meng, so there are certain limitations. But this study still has a certain practical significance because it enriches the research scope of the animal metaphors and provides a new perspective for animal metaphor translation.The thesis consists of five parts. Introduction part presents the background, purpose, significance and the structure of the thesis. Chapter One goes to literature review, which includes Conceptual Metaphor Theory, its working mechanism, the study of animal metaphor at home and abroad. Brief introduction to the nine versions and current study of Hong Lou Meng are done in Chapter Two. After the comparison of the nine English versions of Hong Lou Meng, the Yang’s version and Hawkes’s verison are chosen as the corpus sources for this study. As the core of the thesis, Chapter Three first classifies the animal metaphors in Hong Lou Meng; then compares the translations of animal metaphors in the Yangs’version and Hawkes’version from the perspective of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and discusses whether the cultural connotations contained in animal metaphors are successfully conveyed; finally summarizes the translation methods and strategies adopted by the Yangs and Hawkes as well as the influencing factors. The last part draws a conclusion. This part points out the major findings and limitations of the study as well as suggestions for future researches.