A Study On The English Translation Of Happy Dreams Within The Framework Of Conceptual Metaphor

Contemporary American linguists G.Lakoff and M.Johnson pointed out in their book,Metaphors We Live By,which metaphors are everywhere in human life and exist in the whole process of human cognition.Therefore,Conceptual Metaphor can not only solve language problems,but also it is an important way to form human thinking.Lakoff and Johnson summarized the categorization and conceptualization of metaphor,called Conceptual Metaphor.As a literary means,metaphor is an indispensable element in literary works.The combination of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and literary translation provides a new perspective for translation studies.Happy Dreams is a realistic novel created by Jia Pingwa,telling a distressing story of Happy Liu,a rural migrant worker who earns a living by picking up rags in Xi’an.He tries his best to integrate into the city,but eventually has to return to his hometown.The work reveals the sympathetic fate of protagonist.Meanwhile,it also shows the author’s extensive compassion for migrant workers.British translator Nicky Harman accurately reproduces the spirit of Happy Dreams in the English version.Therefore,the thesis intends to take her English version as the research object to explore the English version of Happy Dreams.Based on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory,this thesis studies two aspects from the perspective of ontological metaphor,structural metaphor and orientational metaphor.On the one hand,the thesis reviews the origin and development of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory,summarizes the research achievements in domestic and foreign scholars on the ConceptualMetaphor Theory,and then explains the relationship between conceptual metaphors and literary translation.On the other hand,taking the Conceptual Metaphor Theory as the starting point,this present thesis analyzes the examples in the English version of Happy Dreams to explore the literary values,cultural values and social values in the original work,and analyze its reproduction in the English translation.The thesis indicates that the Conceptual Metaphor Theory can not only help readers to understand and appreciate the values of the original version deeply,but also help translators to reproduce the connotations,thus the Conceptual Metaphor Theory provids a new perspective for the study of literary translation.Under the background of economic globalization,applying the Conceptual Metaphor Theory to study the translation of literary works is conducive to the external dissemination of Chinese culture.