A Study On Strategies Of Marine Engineering English Translation From The Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor

For readers' better understanding of the complex and abstract scientific concepts, conceptual metaphor is commonly used in scientific text to build a cross-domain mapping between a familiar concept domain and an unfamiliar one. However, the cognitive differences between English and Chinese culture manifested on conceptual metaphors are always undermining the E-C translation in the forms of various conceptual obstacles. To solve this problem, this paper tries to sketch out the E-C translation strategies on marine engineering English from the perspective of conceptual metaphor, with texts of chapters 3-4 of Principles of Yacht Design as examples. Through teasing out the representation of conceptual metaphors in the source language, and the comparative reconceptualization between source and target languages in cognitive style and form, the E-C translation strategies of conceptual metaphor are categorized as follows: metaphor translation (1) with the same vehicle, (2) with different vehicles, and (3) with the loss of metaphor. For the same metaphorical expression in both source and target languages,the same vehicle of metaphor shall be adopted in the translation;for different metaphorical expressions in English and Chinese, different vehicles of metaphor are recommended to create reader-friendliness of the target language; for metaphors without any equivalence in the target language, it is better to give up the metaphorical expression and just convey the original meaning directly. To conclude, when translating conceptual metaphors in scientific text, translators are supposed to choose appropriate strategies based on the analysis of the structure mapping and the differences in cognitive style and realization between source and target languages, in order to convey the original meaning with maximum faithfulness and facilitate readers' comprehension of scientific concepts.