[Abstract] In recent years, more and more scholars have made researches on metaphor and an “upsurge of metaphor” has been formed gradually in modern society. The studies on metaphor in foreign countries have developed a complete system, which is typically represented by George Lakeoff and Mark Johnson. And the studies on metaphor in China are also influenced by the two. However, if surveying these research achievements, we will easily find that few of them study the translation of metaphor from English into Chinese. Moreover, most traditional theorists believe that metaphor is only a figure of speech and belongs to the category of linguistics. But in fact, metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also a cultural and cognitive phenomenon. This thesis breaks these restrictions and try to research into the translation of metaphor from English into Chinese from the perspective of cultural differences between Chinese and English. The whole thesis is divided into five parts. The first part is an introduction. Based on the new belief that metaphor is a cultural and cognitive phenomenon, this part states the significance of studying metaphor from the cultural perspective. The second part focuses on the analysis of the close interrelations between language, culture and translation. The third part introduces some major factors about metaphor, such as its definitions, characteristics and classification. The fourth part emphatically illustrates the approaches to the translation of metaphor from English into Chinese in terms of different corresponding relations between Chinese and English. The last part summarizes the main points of this thesis.
[Key Words] metaphor; translation; cultural differences; cultural connotations; corresponding relation 【摘 要】 近年来，越来越多的学者对隐喻进行了探讨，在现代社会逐渐形成了一股“隐喻热”。对隐喻的探讨在国外已形成较为完整的体系，其中以George Lakeoff 和Mark Johnson的探讨最具有代表性。国内对隐喻的探讨也主要受这两个人的作用。而纵观这些探讨成果，我们不难发现，很少有对法语隐喻汉译的探讨，而且大多数传统的理论家认为隐喻仅仅是一种修辞格，属于语言学的范畴。但是事实上，隐喻不仅是一种语言现象，也是一种文化现象、认知现象。本论文克服了这些局限，试图从中法文化异同的角度来探讨法语隐喻的汉译。整篇论文分为五个部分。第一部分是导入。该部分立足于认为隐喻是一种文化和认知现象这一新观点，阐明了从文化角度对隐喻进行探讨的意义。第二部分重点略论了语言、文化与翻译之间的密切关系。第三部分介绍了隐喻的一些要素，法语论文题目，如隐喻的定义，特征及分类。第四部分根据不同的法汉对应关系，着重阐述了法语隐喻的汉译措施。最后一部分总结了此论文的一些要点。
【关键词】 隐喻；翻译；文化异同；文化内涵；对应关系 1. Introduction
On seeing the title of this thesis, the reader may easily find out three key words: translation, metaphor, and cultural differences. In the view of most people, metaphor belongs to the category of language, but as we know that language has very close connection with translation and culture. As Professor Wang Zuoliang, a master of translation, pointed out, translation involves language as well as culture.[1] Translation is not merely a task of replacing one language with another, but also needs to have a good command of the two different cultures represented by the two different languages. When we concentrate on translation studies, we should attach great importance to both language and culture.
Over the past two decades, translation studies have assumed a sound momentum of advancement, and culture, as an indispensable factor in translation, becomes increasingly important. Through thorough analysis, we can find that there are two tendencies in today’s development of translation studies: firstly, translation studies have been more and more integrated with communication theories; secondly, the focus of translation has been shifted from linguistic transfer to cultural transfer. Based on these two tendencies, many scholars engaged in translation studies agree with the idea that translation is an act of intercultural communication.
Since translation involves two languages and two cultures, and in different cultural backgrounds, there are different languages. Both Chinese and English are great peoples with long history and rich cultural resources, and naturally colorful languages. Metaphor, as a category of language, is a common linguistic phenomenon in both Chinese and English, but metaphors in these two different cultural backgrounds have great differences.
Metaphor doesn’t exist on the birth of human. With the advancement of human civilization, the linguistic competence of our ancestors had been greatly strengthened. They gradually acquired the capability to express their ideas through association. In this way, metaphor——one of the most important means of expression in human language came into being. As the foundation of mankind’s conceptual system, metaphor is the common feature of human language. If there is no metaphor in our language, it will be very hard for us to clearly and vividly express our ideas, let along smooth and successful communication. Traditional theorists viewed metaphor simply as an important stylistic device of the poetic imagination and rhetorical flourish, moreover a matter of words rather than thought or action, but in fact, “metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but also in thought and action.” Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. Just as I.A.Richards contends, “all language and thought are metaphorical, and metaphor is the ‘omnipresent principle of language’.”
From the importance of metaphor, we can see that translation of metaphor has great significance to the cultural translation. Peter Newmark has stated in Approaches to Translation that metaphor is at the center of all problems of translation theory, semantics and linguistics. Especially in English, there are a great number of metaphors. It had been said that three-quarters of the English language consists of metaphors. In order to master English and successfully complete the task of translation from English into Chinese, successful translation of English metaphor is essential. Therefore, in this paper, the author attempts to discuss the problem of translation of metaphor from English into Chinese from the cultural perspective in detail.
As far as translation theory is concerned, this paper adopts Eugene A.Nida’s functional theory, i.e. “Functional Equivalence”: the response of the receptors to the translated message=the response of the original receptors to the message when it was given in its original setting.From this point, we know that for truly successful translation, biculturalism is as important as bilingualism, and even more important at times.
2. Culture and translation
2.1 Culture
“What is culture?” is a very difficult question, because culture is such a complex conception and an enormous subject that it is extremely hard for people to give an exact definition to it. One of the oldest and most quoted definitions of culture was formulated by the English anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Tylor in Primitive Cultures (1871). “He defined culture as ‘a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, customs and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society’.”
Although culture is very complicated, we can roughly classify it into three categories in scope: (a) material culture which refers to all the products of manufacture;(b) instituted culture which refers to social system, religious system, ritual system, educated system and kinship system etc;(c) mental culture which refers to people’s mentalities and behaviors, their beliefs, perceptions, concepts of value, thought patterns etc,
In the view of most anthropologists, culture possesses the following features: (a) culture is socially acquired instead of biologically transmitted; (b) culture is shared among the members of a community instead of being unique to an individual; (c) culture is symbolic. Language is the most typical symbolic system within culture; (d) culture is integrated. Each aspect of culture is tied in with the other aspects.
Since language symbolizes and reflects culture, language communication is actually a kind of cultural communication and the communication between different languages is indeed communication between different cultures. From this perspective, the translation of language is essentially the translation of culture, and translation studies should be conducted in the context of culture. In the next section, the author is going to discuss the interrelations between language, culture and translation.
2.2 Language, culture and translation
Nobody will suspect the close interrelations between language and culture. A language may be a small but indispensable part of a culture. The relation between language and culture is mutually cause and effect. They penetrate into each other and cannot exist without each other. Culture embraces and influences language. In the process of communication, the meaning of language is usually determined by its cultural context. On the other side, language is the important constituent of culture and it is also an essential tool for the reservation, communication and reflection of culture. In a sense, language carries culture, mirrors culture, spreads culture and helps develop culture. It is no exaggeration to say that language is the life blood of culture and culture is the track along which language forms and develops.
Just because of the close relation between language and culture, we have to pay attention to the cultural context when we research into language. According to linguistics, the origin of human language is always connected with the origin of human and human society. Therefore, if we need to understand certain language and the laws of its development, we must closely relate it to the history of social development of this language and to the people using it and its history. The existence of culture cannot depart with its certain cultural context.[10]
As for the relation between culture and translation, the author has mentioned above. Translation is, in essence, an act of intercultural communication, and the translation of language is the translation of culture. Nida holds that both language and culture are symbolic systems, and translation is the interaction between these two systems. Thus, in translation we should not only focus on the literal meaning of words or sentences, but also pay special attention to their cultural connotations in certain cultural context. Therefore, translation studies at least contain two types: in narrow sense it is literal translation, which aims at turning the content in one language into another; in broad sense it is cultural translation, which explores in turning the cultural connotation in one language into another cultural form.[11]
So far as now, the author has illustrated the intimate interrelations between language, culture and translation. And among the relations between individual constituent of linguistic system and social development, the most direct one is lexicon. It is because that lexicon is most sensitive to the development of society. And metaphor, as the minor system of lexicon，is most deeply affected by social culture. As discussed in Introduction, metaphor is the common feature of human language and the foundation of mankind’s conceptual system. So when we do translation studies, metaphor is necessarily enlisted in our consideration. Although metaphor differs greatly, the acceptance of metaphor from an alien culture is possible, because human beings all live in the Earth, and they share more or less similar living environment and similar feelings and sentiments. However, the acceptance of metaphor is usually incomplete, because it is limited by the diversity of culture. As we know, different nations have different culture, and in different cultural context, metaphor is surely different. What’s more thinking itself is metaphorical and metaphorical concepts constitute people’s values and thought patterns. Therefore, how to deal with metaphor in translation is a pragmatic problem in translation studies. In the following chapter, the author is going to first introduce metaphor thoroughly. |
