Chinese Characteristics Of Metaphor Construction And Their Implications In Translation

As an integral part of its traditional culture,Chinese metaphor construction is significantly different from their Western counterpart that has drawn attention to the rhetorical(Aristotle),cognitive(Lakoff&Johnson 1980)and grammatical(Halliday 1985)features of metaphors.An examination of its characteristics,along with possible ways of translation,assumes urgency at a time when China is re-ascending to global prominence.Historically,etymologically and semantically,the Chinese equivalent to the Western concept of metaphor,yinyu(??),comes from pi(?)and yu(?),which is closely related to the larger philosophical and discursive contexts of Confucianism represented by Confucius(551?-479?BCE)and Mencius(372?-289?BCE),who highlights the explanatory values of figures of speech.In The Analects and other classics,Confucius and his followers,while commenting on the Shijing(Book of Songs),developed the ideas of bi(?)and xing(?).Throughout history,Chinese has also resorted to other various ways to construct metaphors.In particular,numerous images and imageries have been established to refer to certain bailments of life and sentiments.Thus the moon is no longer the moon;and more often than not,it refers to one's sense of home and nostalgia.In addition,some Chinese four-character idioms and allusions can also be deemed as metaphors.In this thesis,the theoretical framework is organically interwoven,with the research on the development of metaphors as its diachronic dimension and the research on metaphors at different language levels as its synchronic dimension.Chinese metaphors justify themselves by virtue of Chinese connatural appetency as a metaphorical language and its inherent metaphorical thinking influenced by three main lines of philosophical thinking.The documentary method is applied throughout the whole research.Accordingly,the thesis presents vivid examples to illustrate the characteristics of Chinese metaphor construction.Through summarizing and analyzing different methods of metaphor construction in Chinese,the present study attempts to further the research on the translation of Chinese metaphors.The thesis deems the theory of intertextuality as its guideline for metaphor translation,and some causes for similarities and differences between English and Chinese metaphors have been revealed.Meanwhile,five specific translation strategies are suggested and illustrated by representative examples.Since the study of metaphors has become a hot topic over the past decade,especially from the perspective of conceptual metaphors,the author tries to do research on ways of Chinese metaphor construction by examining its generating mechanisms and its embodiments at different levels from a panoramic angle of view.The Chinese metaphors boast their unique styles and construction characteristics.Through analytical studies,the thesis attempts to provide helpful references for understanding and translating Chinese metaphors into other languages and cultures.