Tracing Metaphor Transformations in Translation of Fiction by Type and Density

Ivaylo Dagnev,Zlatka Chervenkova

doi:10.32591/coas.ojsl.0401.01001d

Abstract

Heavily neglected by language scholars and ascribed poetics value only, metaphor was reinvented by Lakoff and Johnsons’ iconic study in the 1980s, which showed its pervasiveness in language and thought. Paradoxically, though, the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, especially in its early variants, alienated metaphor research from poetics. The latter has slowly been finding its feet in conceptual metaphor studies, especially with the help of newly developed fields of linguistic research such as corpus studies, which allow for obtaining of ample material for cross-cultural analysis. This paper is an example of such an analysis and aims by identifying the conceptual metaphors behind the metaphorical linguistic expressions in key texts from five of the greatest stylists of the English language, and by comparing them to their translations into Bulgarian, to find out whether metaphor is lost or transformed in any way. The main methodological tool used in the current paper is parallel text analysis. Our findings regarding literature in translation, suggest that the target texts (the translated ones) are not inferior in terms of metaphor type and density to the original ones and are appropriate for close reading.

Highlights

1.1 Understanding metaphor Understanding metaphor has proven a formidable task for philosophers, psychologists and linguists alike for many centuries
Neglected by language scholars and ascribed poetics value only, metaphor was reinvented by Lakoff and Johnsons’ iconic study in the 1980s, which showed its pervasiveness in language and thought
Though, the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, especially in its early variants, alienated metaphor research from poetics. The latter has slowly been finding its feet in conceptual metaphor studies, especially with the help of newly developed fields of linguistic research such as corpus studies, which allow for obtaining of ample material for cross-cultural analysis

Summary

Introduction

1.1 Understanding metaphor Understanding metaphor has proven a formidable task for philosophers, psychologists and linguists alike for many centuries. There are two distinct views of the metaphor phenomenon. There is the traditional view in which metaphor functions only at the level of language. The second view, pioneered by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), advanced over the last thirty years or so, holds that metaphor is a conceptual device relating to thought and has an elaborate relationship with language. Resting on the latter premise, metaphor studies developed into an important area of research having implication in multiple areas of scientific inquiry associated with language, culture, translation, and literature. The Conceptual Metaphor Theory, firmly entrenched into the cognitive realm, generated

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