In Other Words: What’s Happened to Metaphors in the Translation of Political Texts

Liu, Y. and Wang, C. 2021. In Other Words: What’s Happened to Metaphors in the Translation of Political Texts. International Journal of Translation, Interpretation and Applied Linguistics. 3 (2), pp. 16-30. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJTIAL.20210701.oa2

TitleIn Other Words: What’s Happened to Metaphors in the Translation of Political Texts
TypeJournal article
AuthorsLiu, Y. and Wang, C.
Abstract

This empirical study takes a cognitive perspective and examines the translation of metaphors in speeches by Chinese President Xi Jinping as collected in the first volume of the book The Governance of China published in 2014. The study draws upon Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory (1980) and Newmark’s categories of translation procedure for metaphors (1980). The researchers’ data analysis has shown that (1) four out of the eight existing translation procedures for metaphors are employed in translating Xi’s metaphors; and (2) while the use of one translation procedure reflects similar cognitive mapping conditions between the source and the target culture, the use of the other procedures does not always correlate with the similarities or differences in cognitive mappings between the two cultures in question. The research raises new inquiries regarding metaphor translation and the researchers accordingly discuss the implications of their findings for metaphor translation pedagogy and future translation studies.

Keywordsconceptual metaphor
Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT)
sense
rhetorical effect
translation procedure
political text
cognitive approach
JournalInternational Journal of Translation, Interpretation and Applied Linguistics
Journal citation3 (2), pp. 16-30
ISSN2575-6974
2575-6982
Year2021
PublisherIGI Global
Accepted author manuscript
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)
Publisher's version
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.4018/IJTIAL.20210701.oa2
Publication dates
Published in printJul 2021
Supplemental file
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)

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