The Translation Of Conceptual Metaphors In "The Report Of The 19^th National Congress Of The Communist Party Of China": A Skopos Theory Perspective

On October 18,2017,Xi Jinping delivered a report at the 19^th National Congress of the Communist Party of China?Hereinafter referred to as“the Report”?.Many scholars have paid much attention to“the Report”and a lot of researches also have been done since the publication of it.It is worth noting that a large number of metaphorical expressions are used in“the Report”.How to translate these metaphorical expressions and what effects can be achieved by adopting different translation techniques?There are relatively few studies on this issue.However,the translation of conceptual metaphor is related to the target language readers understanding of the Party's principles and policies to be conveyed in“the Report”.Therefore,it is necessary and practical to study the translation of conceptual metaphor in“the Report”.This thesis takes the Chinese and English versions of“the Report”as the corpus and Skopos Theory as the theoretical framework to study the translation of different types of conceptual metaphors appearing in“the Report”,aiming to analyze whether these translation techniques adopted by different types of conceptual metaphors can help the target language readers better understand the Party's principles and policies conveyed in“the Report”,and to provide a reliable reference guide for the translation of conceptual metaphors in Chinese political texts in the future.This thesis first identifies the conceptual metaphors in“the Report”through MIP?Metaphor Identification Procedure?,finding that ten major types of conceptual metaphors are used in“the Report”,including construction metaphors,journey metaphors,war metaphors,family metaphors,human metaphors,circle metaphors,plant metaphors,container metaphors,animal metaphors and up/down orientation metaphors.The metaphorical expressions used in“the Report”explain more abstract and complex concepts through concrete things,reflecting the cognitive mechanism of the source language.Moreover,based on the identification of the above-mentioned conceptual metaphors,this thesis analyses the translation techniques adopted by different types of conceptual metaphors,and finds that the translation techniques adopted in the English translation of“the Report”can be divided into five categories.The first translation technique is translating conceptual metaphors into the same category which means retaining the same conceptual metaphor as the original text in the translation.The second one is translating conceptual metaphors into different category.The third one is translating conceptual metaphors into non-metaphorical expressions.And translating conceptual metaphors into similes and omission are another two translation techniques adopted in the translation process of“the Report”.At the same time,the study finds that these translation techniques of conceptual metaphors fully embody the Skopos Principle,Coherence Principle and Fidelity Principle which are three principles of Skopos Theory,achieving the effects of conveying the actual intent of the original text,reaching the communicative purpose,and maximizing the meaning of the original text.The study shows that Skopos Theory can effectively guide the translation practices of conceptual metaphor in Chinese political discourse,which has a strong practical significance for the application of the theory to metaphor translation practices,and also has a reference significance for the construction of China's international discourse power in the future.