Study On Translating Metaphors From The Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor

Metaphor is conventionally viewed as a rhetorical phenomenon or a tool used to ornament speech.However,cognitive linguists George Lakoff and Mark Johnson propose a cognitive approach to metaphor study and put forward their conceptual metaphor theory,moving metaphor out of the traditional view.They believe that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life and human thought.Therefore,metaphor is seen as a cognitive activity rather than merely a linguistic phenomenon.Metaphor studies were no longer limited to rhetoric.And metaphor's cognitive function is drawing more and more attention from linguists and translators.Translation studies are also concerned about how to preserve the vitality of metaphorical expressions and the integrity of concepts.The cognitive approach suggested by conceptual metaphor theory reduces the impact of rhetoric and provides a novel perspective to metaphor translation.The Lord of the Rings is a classic high fantasy novel written by British writer and linguist J.R.R.Tolkien who is honored as the founder of fantasy genre.It has since been reprinted numerous times and translated into 38 different languages.However,scholars often prefer reading the novel with reference to rhetoric,literary studies and culture differences.Little research has been done on its metaphor translation.This thesis aims to analyze metaphors embodied in J.R.R.Tolkien's high-fantasy work The Lord of the Rings in respect of conceptual metaphor theory.Meanwhile,it tries to find universal approaches to metaphor translation by comparing Deng's and Zhu's translated versions.This thesis to some extend proves that conceptual metaphor theory has great explanatory power over metaphor's translation.The thesis consists of five parts.Chapter one is the introduction,Chapter two reviews the development of metaphor study and metaphor translation,Chapter three presents the main ideas of conceptual metaphor theory and briefly explains the working mechanism of conceptual metaphor,Chapter four is to interpret conceptual metaphors embodied in The Lord of the Rings and examine different translation strategies,Chapter five sums up main findings of the whole thesis.The ultimate goal of this thesis is to prove that conceptual metaphor theory has a great implication on metaphor translation and cognitive approaches are justified in the translation of literary works.