A Study On Metaphor Translation In Howard Goldblatt's Version Of Frog From The Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor Theory

The Frog is a story full of metaphors,written by Mo Yan who won the 2012 Nobel prize for literature.Studies on this work are far fewer than other famous Chinese novels.This thesis studies the translation of metaphors in Howard Goldblatt's version of Frog from the perspective of conceptual metaphor theory.Metaphor is a common language phenomenon in our lives.In 1980,Lakoff and Johnson put forward the conceptual metaphor theory and explored metaphor from the cognitive perspective,which marked the beginning of research on cognitive metaphor.According to this theory,metaphors can be divided into three categories:ontological metaphor,orientational metaphor and structural metaphor.This thesis takes examples of ontological metaphors,orientational metaphors and structural metaphors from Howard Goldblatt's version of Frog and tries to summarize translation methods and strategies of metaphors.The thesis concludes that in dealing with ontological metaphors,a strategy of"translating into the same metaphor" is mainly but not completely used,especially when animals or daily objects are involved in these metaphors.In dealing with orientational metaphors,a strategy of "translating into non-metaphor" is mainly but not completely used.When the metaphor is about to express the meaning of social status,a strategy of"translating into the same metaphor" would be used.In dealing with structural metaphors,a strategy of "translating into a different metaphor" is mainly but not completely used.