A Study On The Translation Strategies Of Metaphors In Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales

Since the definition of metaphor has changed from the field of traditional rhetoric to cognition,the study of metaphor has always been a hot topic in many disciplines both at home and abroad.Metaphor is a commonly used technique in literary works,especially in children’s literature.Thus,the success of metaphorical translation can have a large impact on children’s understanding of stories.In the process of translation,in addition to dealing with the differences of different cultural backgrounds and other factors,the cognitive development of children at all stages is also a part that translators need to pay more attention to.This thesis attempts to adopt an interdisciplinary research method,combining the children’s cognitive development theory with the translation of conceptual metaphors.Based on the four core concepts of schema,assimilation,accommodation and equilibration in children’s cognitive development theory,this thesis summarizes and sorts out the corresponding translation strategies and methods by analyzing Oscar Wilde’s nine fairy tales as the source text and Ba Jin’s translation as the target text.In the process of metaphor translation in children’s literature,through the comparison between the metaphorical intention in the source language and that in the target language,it is found that when the intention expressed between the two languages is similar,the author often adopts the strategy of foreignization,which is embodied in the translation methods of literal translation.This translation method enables children to have a better understanding of the information in the source language.In the process of translation,when the intention expressed in the source language is different from what is expressed in the target language,the author adopts the domestication translation strategy including lots of translation methods which can help children master new information,such as literal translation with adding annotations,free translation,amplification,substitution and omission.In addition to facilitating readers’understanding of Oscar Wilde’s nine fairy tales,this thesis also provides some enlightenment for the metaphor translation of children’s literature.