Translation of Metaphor from the Perspective of Cognitive Linguistics

Li Chunying

doi:10.22158/eshs.v1n1p12

Abstract

Metaphor not only contains the characteristic connotation of the language itself, but also the words that cannot be expressed in a straightforward manner. The traditional metaphor view holds that metaphor is only used to beautify and modify language, but cognitive linguistics regards metaphor as a mapping of thinking, mainly through people’s existing experience and knowledge to understand new things, that is to say, from a known concept domain to understand another unknown concept domain. Therefore, metaphor can be regarded as a medium for establishing connection between the source domain and the target domain, and it also plays an important role in our study and daily life. This paper analyzes the translation of metaphor from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. Through the translation of various metaphors, we find that in the process of metaphor translation, we need to distinguish the source schema from the image schema metaphor; also it is necessary to distinguish the type of text; as well as the cultural meaning behind the text and the value to be conveyed. The translation strategy of direct translation or free translation, naturalization or alienation is used to translate the target domain.

Highlights

Metaphor exists in every aspect of daily life, whether in the use of language or in people’s thoughts and behaviors
The traditional view of metaphor holds that metaphor is only a rhetorical device, while the cognitive view of metaphor holds that metaphor is a thinking phenomenon
This article mainly based on the book Cognitive Metaphor and Translation Practical Tutorial, and has a comprehensive understanding of the concept and classification of metaphor from the perspective of cognitive linguistics using the intentional schema theory to analyze the translation strategies of metaphors, so as to analyze the translation practice of metaphor in various texts. 1.1 Overview of Metaphor Metaphor is a kind of analogy, different from Simile and Metonymy

Summary

Introduction

Metaphor exists in every aspect of daily life, whether in the use of language or in people’s thoughts and behaviors. It is an organizational structure in which humans use their own experience and understanding to understand abstract relationships and concrete images, to understand the foundation of the intentional schema metaphor. Because this schema is usually a common phenomenon and experience in life, people of different cultural backgrounds can create a same schema, the intentional schema metaphor does not make a big difference in the daily translation process.

Results

Conclusion