On Translation Strategies Of Animal Metaphors In The Book Of Poetry From The Conceptual Integration Perspective-A Case Study Of Xu Yuanchong’s English Version Of The Book Of Poetry

The Book of Poetry, the earliest anthology of Chinese ancient poems, is regarded as the source of Chinese classical literature, which contains abundant metaphorical expressions and provides a valuable resource for linguistics, rhetoric and literary researches. In the traditional study of linguistics and translation, metaphor is just viewed as a rhetoric device in literary works and a decoration in language, the cognitive feature of which is underestimated.Based on the mental space theory, the cognitive linguist Gilles Fauconnier put forward conceptual integration theory (CIT) which reveals the dynamic meaning construction process of natural language and has gradually developed into an important part in cognitive linguistics, also providing a new perspective for metaphor studies. This thesis intends to adopt conceptual integration theory to elaborate the meaning construction process of animal metaphors in The Book of Poetry, to reveal the key procedures in meaning construction and main difficulties in metaphor translation. Then combined with the translation difficulties, a case study is conducted to analyze Xu Yuanchong’s translation methods for animal metaphors to put forward translation strategies for poetic metaphors.To accomplish the research purpose, the thesis adopts qualitative analysis as the main method and quantitative analysis as the supplementary method, and the specific research is carried out from the following aspects:firstly, combining the definition of metaphor, the thesis author put forward the selection criteria for animal metaphors and made a complete survey for linguistic data, selecting out 84 animal metaphors in The Book of Poetry and defining the scope of research; furthermore, based on CIT, the meaning construction process of animal metaphors is thoroughly elaborated to dig out key procedures in meaning construction; then, combined with the key procedures in meaning construction, the difficulties to reproduce the same metaphorical structure in the target language are discussed; finally, Xu Yuanchong’s translation methods for animal metaphors are analyzed and the use frequency of each method is presented, and three categories of translation strategies are put forward for poetic metaphors.The major findings of the study are summarized as follows:1) Conceptual integration theory has mighty explanatory power for the meaning construction process of animal metaphors and the meaning construction process mainly contains the establishment of input spaces and generic space, cross-space mapping between input spaces, the formation of the blended space by selective projection and the recruitment of emergent structure via composition, completion and elaboration. Based on the dynamic process of meaning construction and Chinese-English cultural differences, the thesis reveals the reason why meaning construction process is difficult to carry out in the target language:namely, the lack of equivalents to stimulate the establishment of input spaces, the non-perception of vital relations which will restrict the cross-mapping between input spaces and the lack of context information to promote and confine the integration operations in the bended space.2) To solve the lack of equivalents in metaphor translation, Xu has mainly adopted four kinds of methods:reproducing the same metaphor by literal translation, retaining the original metaphor by amplification, replacing the SL image with a TL image and converting metaphor to sense. To promote the perception of vital relations like analogy and disanalogy, the methods of converting metaphor to simile and adding connective words have been adopted. By rewriting the poem titles and adding cultural notes to poems, Xu has provided more context information for the meaning construction of animal metaphors in the target language. Meanwhile, these translation strategies are not separated completely and translators should feasibly utilize them in accordance to the needs in translation.As for the significance of the research, it mainly lies in the following aspects:firstly, the thesis reveals the dynamic meaning construction process of metaphors, which to a certain degree will promote a better understanding of metaphors from the cognitive linguistics perspective; secondly, the thesis applies CIT to explore translation strategies for metaphors, which will be helpful for the translation practice for metaphors as well as broaden the content and scope of studies on metaphor translation; thirdly, this thesis is a tentative theoretical application of CIT, which will promote the application of CIT in relative fields and provide references for further studies on metaphor translation in other literature works.