Article published in:
Babel
Vol. 62:3 (2016) ► pp. 402–422

Translating developed metaphors

Cognitive understandings of metaphor have led to significant advances in understandings of how to translate metaphor. Theoretical accounts of metaphor not as a figure of speech but as a mode of thought, have provided useful tools for analysis and for translation work. This has usually happened at the level of individual metaphorical expressions, while the deeper lesson of cognitive theories has not been taken to heart by translation scholars, with a few signal exceptions. In this article we explore the potential of Conceptual Metaphor Theory for translating related metaphorical expressions within a specific text. We propose a model for understanding metaphor translation that takes as its unit of analysis not the individual metaphorical expression but the conceptual metaphor, of which the metaphorical expression is but a particular instantiation. It is this theoretical grounding that will allow us to propose a model for translating developed metaphors and related metaphorical expressions.

Keywords: Fourth Gospel, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, metaphor, Italian corpus
Published online: 29 November 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.62.3.03teb
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