| The study on the translation of Hong Lou Meng, which is regarded as the summit of Chinese classical novels, is immense. However, the study of metaphor translation from the perspective of cognitive linguistics is rare. Metaphor plays a significant role in the great novel.The writer Cao Xueqin has applied a great number of metaphors to depict the characters and reveal the theme. Besides, both the structure and the narration of the novel have been created metaphorically. The numerous metaphors are not only regarded as language arts of Hong Lou Meng, but also as a representation of the unique creative thinking of this novel. To some extent, the use of metaphor is one of the most important contribution factors for the high literary and artistic achievements of Hong Lou Meng. Therefore, the study on the metaphor translation in Hong Lou Meng is an indispensable part of the study on the translation of Hong Lou Meng.With the development of cognitive science, the study for metaphor has achieved the cognitive turn from rhetoric to cognitive research, which highlights the cognitive function of metaphor. More importantly, metaphor is regarded as a cognitive phenomenon in human life,through which people apply the experience obtained in a certain field to approach and understand the experience in another. What’s more, metaphor is an important cognitive tool for people to conceptualize abstract categories. Accordingly, Lakoff and Johnson firstly put forward the theory of Conceptual Metaphor in their book Metaphors We Live By and make further explanation for metaphor. They claim that metaphor is not only a rhetorical device, but also a way of thinking for human beings to cognize the world and metaphor is the mapping between two conceptual domains. The theory brings new inspiration for the study of metaphor translation. The translation of metaphors is a cognitive process mainly based on translators’ cultural cognition experience, and it is also a mapping reproduction in the target language from the source domain to the target domain.Evidently, the cognitive function of metaphor is an excellent perspective to better understand the characterization in Hong Lou Meng. Based on the theoretical framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, five dominant metaphorical concepts about Tan-chun’s image portrayal in Hong Lou Meng are summarized in this thesis: Appearance Metaphor, Character Metaphor, Capability Metaphor, Love Metaphor and Destiny Metaphor, and then each kind of metaphor translation in David Hawkes’ English version is analyzed in a descriptive research method. This thesis attempts to explore whether Hawkes’ metaphor translations have precisely realized the cognitive function of metaphors applied in the original novel and the effects Hawkes’ metaphor translations have produced upon the recreation of the image of Tan-chun depicted in the original novel. Studies show that because of the great culturaldivergences in Chinese and English, a specific literary context as well as a context, in the translation of metaphors used by Cao Xueqin to depict the image of Tan-chun, there often exist the deletions of metaphor images or the poor expressions for conveying the metaphorical meaning in Hawkes’ translation. Therefore, the cognitive function of metaphors applied in the original novel has not been completely and accurately realized in the metaphor translation,and thus the image of Tan-chun has not been reproduced perfectly. However, if additional explanation is added after the literal or free translation, the cognitive function of metaphors mentioned in the original novel might get supplements to some extent. Through this research,it is hoped to cast some light on the future studies on the metaphor translation in other literary works. |
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