Abstract
The colloquial metaphor is a distinguishing feature of Chinese political discourse. Relevance theory of cognitive pragmatics is instructive and significant for the English translation of colloquial metaphors in political discourse, according to which, in the process of metaphor translation, the translator is supposed to take into consideration the cognitive context and pragmatic-communicative intention of the author, and also the cognitive environment of the target readers. Taking the Chinese an
Highlights
Lakoff & Johnson, in their classic work Metaphors We Live by, bring metaphor into the cognitive category and hold that the conceptual systems of human thought and action are mostly metaphorical [1]
Relevance theory advocates a dynamic cognitive context that embraces the context of linguistic signs, the specific space-time context in which the speech act occurs, the relevant communicative context, the encyclopedic knowledge stored in people's memory and the belief system under certain cultural background
As the carrier of rich cultural information, colloquial metaphors in Chinese political discourse require the translator to seek the optimal relevance between Chinese cognitive context and English cognitive context
Summary
Lakoff & Johnson, in their classic work Metaphors We Live by, bring metaphor into the cognitive category and hold that the conceptual systems of human thought and action are mostly metaphorical [1]. In the context of shaping the image of China as a great power, promoting the spread of Chinese culture and building cultural self-confidence, Xi Jinping's speech is rich in metaphorical expressions with Chinese cultural characteristics, helping to construct a unique discourse system of habitual style, to convey his political and state-building ideas to readers or listeners, so as to establish China's national image. These metaphors stem from the familiar concepts of life practice and lead people to perceive, experience, imagine and understand the abstract political concepts [6]. The author makes a contrastive analysis of the Chinese and English versions of the second volume of 《习近平谈治国理政》(Xi Jinping: The Governance of China) and explores the translation strategies for the colloquial metaphor from the perspective of cognitive pragmatics
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