Abstract:Metaphor researches have been a hot topic for a long time and concerned by linguists, especially rhetoric scientists and literary critics. Metaphor and metaphor translation study are their keen research projects. Human beings have studied metaphor for more than two thousand years. Traditional metaphor researches sort out the metaphor to the domain of rhetoric all the time. With the further investigation of the metaphor, contemporary metaphor researches have already been expanded to the research of many visual angles such as philosophy, linguistics, cognitive psychology. Lakoff and Johnson published Metaphors We Live By in 1980, in which they regarded that metaphor had already not merely been a traditional language phenomenon, but an important cognitive tool and mode of thinking. In the human daily life, the metaphor exists extensively. But because of the national differences in the culture, the background and the mode of thinking, it brings up the numerous difficulties in translating metaphor. So how to choose a correct and suitable translation method becomes the focal point in the metaphor translation study.

Key words: cognition; metaphor; principle; translation

Table of Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. The Domestic and Foreign Research-2

2.1 The foreign research-2

2.2 The domestic research-2

3. The Definition of Metaphor-3

4. Comprehension on Metaphor from a Cognitive Perspective-4

4.1 The characteristics of metaphor-4

4.1.1 The cognitive feature of metaphor-4

4.1.2 The ubiquity of metaphor-4

4.1.3 The systematicity of metaphor-4

4.1.4 The asymmetry of metaphor-4

4.2 The cognitive process of metaphor-4

4.3 The cognitive function of metaphor-5

5. The Translation of Metaphor-6

5.1 The principle of metaphor translation-6

5.2 The methods of metaphor translation-6

5.2.1 Common methods of metaphor translation-7

5.2.2 Metaphor translation from a cognitive perspective-8

6. Conclusion-10

References-11

Acknowledgements-12