A Study On Conceptual Metaphors And Their English Translation In The Governance Of China

Since its publication in multiple languages in September,2014,The Governance of China has received warm responses at home and abroad.One of the major linguistic features of the book is the widespread use of conceptual metaphors.These conceptual metaphors make the abstract and obscure political language vivid,appealing and persuasive.Therefore,it is necessary to make a detailed analysis of how to translate conceptual metaphors into English so that English readers feel the governing ideas and political attitudes rooted in those conceptual metaphors.Although many scholars have done researches on conceptual metaphors and their English translation,the ones in political discourse are rare.The data of the paper derive from 79 passages in the Chinese version of the book as well as its English translation.The paper classifies conceptual metaphors and then summarizes the translation methods,influencing factors of these methods as well as features of conceptual metaphor translation by adopting case study together with quantitative and qualitative methods.Based on the ideas proposed by Lakoff and Johnson,all of the conceptual metaphors in the book have been classified into three categories,which are structural metaphors,ontological metaphors and orientational metaphors.Having calculated the resonance of source domain,a quantitative study shows the usage frequency of those three categories,among which structural metaphors are the most frequently used,occupying 74.01%,ontological metaphors the second,with a percentage of 24.38% and orientational metaphors the least.It is found that each category can be further divided into subcategories and each of them has its own unique metaphorical expressions.Structural metaphors include journey metaphor,building metaphor,war metaphor,disease metaphor and family metaphor.Similarly,ontological metaphors include anthropomorphous metaphor,plant metaphor,water metaphor,container metaphor and metal metaphor.Up/down metaphor,front/back metaphor and center/periphery metaphor constitute orientational metaphors.It is found that seven translation methods of conceptual metaphors have been employed.They are translating conceptual metaphors into the same category,translating conceptual metaphors into a different category,translating Chinese-specific conceptual metaphors into English-specific ones,translating conceptual metaphors into non-metaphorical expressions,translating non-metaphorical expressions into conceptual metaphors,annotation as well as omission.A quantitative study shows that translating conceptual metaphors into the same category is the most frequently used method,occupying 75%,translating conceptual metaphors into non-metaphorical expressions the second,with a percentage of 13.11% and omission the third,occupying 8.05%.The research also shows that there are four factors influencing the choice of the translation methods.They are linguistic factor,cultural factor,cognitive factor and sociological factor.After analyzing the data,it is shown that the features of conceptual metaphor translation in the book are accuracy and flexibility.It is shown that Conceptual Metaphor Theory can be used to guide translation practice in Chinese political discourse,thereby providing some beneficial references for the going out of Chinese ?political culture? and the enhancement of China's international discourse right.However,the breadth and depth of the research is far from enough.It is hoped that future studies on conceptual metaphor and its English translation in political discourse can be inspired.