No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Translating Metaphors In Narrative Fiction
Abstract
In the translation of fiction it is necessary to take into account the interdependence of intra‐textual components. This is particularly important in the case of metaphors that function as a characterisation tool If translators fail to do this the target text characters may become mutants of those in the source text Should this happen, the translated novel as a literary work can be affected.
... No obstante, Dagut señala que no se han establecido las bases teóricas para su traducción, ya que en libros importantes y completos como son los de Nida (1969), Vinay y Darbelnet (1960), Kloepfer (1967), Reiss (1971), hay apenas discusiones cortas sobre la metáfora. Aunque se han escrito varios artículos y tesis sobre la metáfora y su traducción (Álvarez 1993, Broeck 1981, Cheng 1997, Kruger 1993, Pelsmaekers 1988, Zahri 1992, no hay una comparación entre el uso de la metáfora en la literatura y el espacio que se le ha dado en los estudios de traducción. ...
This article aims to contribute to the theoretical systematization of constituent aspects of the essay, in order to consider them in the practice of translation of this genre: argumentative superstructure, essayist narrator, ethical responsibility, generic hybridity, cultural references, and figures of speech and thought. To this end, we introduce a critical conceptualization of the essay and we review the theoretical-critical field of literary translation, both of traditional genres and of the essay, on which there are considerably less studies. We conclude that the identification and translation of these features result in the preservation of the stylistic and argumentative intentions of the essayist narrator, via which the translation constitutes an instance of ethical responsibility, both towards the author of the source text and the reader of the target text.
Este artículo se propone contribuir a la sistematización teórica de rasgos constitutivos del ensayo, con miras a considerarlos en la práctica de traducción: superestructura argumentativa, narrador ensayista, responsabilidad ética, hibridez genérica, referencias culturales y figuras retóricas y de pensamiento. Para este fin, nos aproximamos a una conceptualización crítica del género; revisamos el campo teórico-crítico de la traducción literaria, tanto de géneros tradicionales como del ensayo, considerablemente menor. Concluimos que la identificación y traducción de estos rasgos redundan en la conservación de la voluntad de estilo y la intención argumentativa del bnarrador ensayista, con lo que la traducción se constituye una muestra de responsabilidad ética, tanto para con el autor del texto meta como para el lector de éste.
Metaphors play an important role in conveying meaning not only in literary texts but also in scientific genres. Although there have been many translation studies on metaphor in literary texts, studies on metaphor translation in scientific settings seem to have been overlooked and received less attention. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the strategies used in translating scientific metaphors from English to Arabic by Yemeni senior translation students in three universities. This was achieved by using a translation test consisting of (33) metaphors selected from various sources based on Lakoff and Johnsen’s (1980; 2003) classification of metaphor. The test was given to a sample of 91 students who were randomly selected. 72 participants completed the test. Data were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results showed that eight strategies, adapted from Alshunnag (2016), were used. The highly frequent strategy was the literal strategy and the least frequent was the explication strategy. The use of literal strategy indicated the difficulty of finding a metaphorical expression of a different type for the English metaphors in Arabic which might be due to the limited time available for translation and lack of knowledge of the metaphorical structure in both the source and target languages. It was recommended, therefore, that more comparative studies should be done to help improve translation training offered to students who should also be provided with training sessions which are more conducive to learning.
Metaphors have been thoroughly studied as translation problems in recent decades. However, they are still under-researched in the subfield of audiovisual translation. This is strange since this mode of translation, particularly subtitling, has very special conditions which complicate the translating of metaphors, such as the interplay between dialogue, image and subtitles, as well as severe time and space constraints. This paper investigates how metaphors in the British sitcom Yes, Prime Minister were subtitled into Swedish. The results show that subtitlers treat metaphors as an important language feature, less prone to omission than other features. Furthermore, monocultural metaphors, which are not shared between cultures, are subtitled using more strategies than transcultural ones. Metaphors are also subtitled differently depending on degree of entrenchment. Typically for metaphor translation, there is a loss of metaphor force, but more research is needed to ascertain whether this is media-specific or a general translation effect of growing standardization.
0. Introduction
1. Truth and successfulness
1.1 Metaphor as deviance?
1.2 Degrees and dimensions of success. Towards context
2. Context and metaphor
2.1 Global and local context
2.2 Metaphor and global context
2.3 Metaphor and local context
2.4 Possible interaction between global and local context in metaphor
2.4.1 Coincidence
2.4.2 Partial coincidence
2.4.3 No coincidence: When metaphor turns out to be false
3. Metaphor in discourse
3.1 Interactional and textual levels. How metaphor develops in discourse
3.2 Conditions of success/failure
3.2.1 Consistency
3.2.2 Uptake and recognition
3.2.3 When metaphors turn out to be ”unhappy”
3.3 Metaphor and dialogic interaction
3.3.1 Accepting and appropriating metaphor
3.3.2 Refusing metaphor
3.3.3 Understanding/misunderstanding metaphor
4. Conclusion
Natural language communication largely depends on other means than literal expressions. This issue goes far beyond aesthetics,
and touches the very heart of natural language. In the last decades, research in these fields has added much to our understanding
of concerns that have puzzled researchers since Aristotle, but these insights are rarely reflected in the literature on knowledge
representation. This paper discusses how non-literal expressions can be represented in Conceptual Graphs (CG) in such a way
that highly complex phenomena of natural language such as metaphors are rendered clearly for computational purposes. Aspects
of language understanding from metaphor theory and translation theory are used to establish a foundation for such CG representations.
A number of examples are analyzed and presented in Prolog+CG.
This paper argues for the necessity of a textual (i.e. global) rather than a merely syntactical (i.e. local) analysis of interaction processes in poetic metaphor (i.e. metaphorical expressions within poetic texts). It is maintained that metaphorical language in poetic texts is typically characterized by a high degree of detailed specification not accounted for in interaction views of metaphor dealing with local considerations only in an identification and interpretation of isolated metaphorical sentences. Its textual specificity rather than its syntactic incompatibility ultimately determines the interpretation (and to a lesser extent the identification) of any metaphorical expression within a poetic text. In order to capture the complex nature of interaction in poetic metaphor, current terminology is redefined, local interpretative procedures modified and extended and global interaction strategies developed. Both local interpretitive procedures and global interaction strategies, then, direct the complex interactional processes of, for instance, the global interaction between various types of textually specified tenors and vehicles and their modifying focus-expressions. It follows then that any local metaphorical unit may only be textually clarified in a global consideration of its relation to other local metaphorical expressions in the poetic text.
1. Introduction 2. Story: events 3. Story: characters 4. Text: time 5. Text: characterization 6. Text: focalization 7. Narration: levels and voices 8. Narration: speech representation 9. The text and its reading 10. Conclusion 11. Towards...:afterthoughts, almost twenty years later
Examines the problem of metaphor translation and concludes it must be viewed as two separate problems--the problem with metaphor and the problem with translation. (EKN)
Word-processed copy. Thesis (M.A.)--Universiteit van Suid-Afrika, 1990. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 204-210).
Metaphor and interpretation
- I Gräbe
Gräbe. I. 1985. Metaphor and interpretation. Pretoria: University of South Africa.
The philosophy of rhetoric Rimmon-Kenan, S. 1983. Narrative fiction: contemporary poetics. London: Methuen. Snell-Hornby, M. 1988. Translation studies. An integrated approach
- I A Richards
Richards, I.A. 1936. The philosophy of rhetoric. New York: Oxford University Press. Rimmon-Kenan, S. 1983. Narrative fiction: contemporary poetics. London: Methuen. Snell-Hornby, M. 1988. Translation studies. An integrated approach. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
On understanding poetic metaphor Linguistic perspectives on literature
- T Reinhart
Reinhart, T. 1980. On understanding poetic metaphor. In Ching, M. K. L. & M.C Haley & R. F. Lunsford (Eds). Linguistic perspectives on literature. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. 91-114.