The underlying ideology of (not) getting the message in metaphors across in conference interpreting: A cognitive-critical-discourse approach

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Abstract Scholarly interests in metaphor translation are predominantly drawn to ‘translatability’ with a focus on cultural universals/specificities, overlooking the underlying ideology in metaphor ‘transfer’ from source texts to target texts. Benefiting from a methodological weld of the cognitive approach to metaphor and critical discourse analysis (CDA), this study examines the underlying ideology in metaphor re-encoding by Chinese conference interpreters at the Summer Davos Forum in China. The analysis demonstrates that the interpreters deploy different metaphor translation strategies to (a) preserve/accentuate positive values and (b) reduce/conceal negative values in metaphor re-encoding for China-related discourses, thus introducing ideological shifts in the TTs. The results suggest that ideology cannot only condition metaphor transfer but override linguistic or cultural factors in metaphor translation/interpreting regarding ideologically charged discourse. The article concludes by highlighting the value of the methodological integration of the cognitive approach to metaphor and CDA for a critical examination of metaphor transfer in translation/interpreting studies.