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Article published In:
FORUM
Vol. 20:1 (2022) ► pp.116–133

A cognitive approach to metaphor translation in business texts

The case of English into Arabic translation

| An-Najah National University
| An-Najah National University
| An-Najah National University
| An-Najah National University

A metaphor is normally deployed for specific rhetorical and aesthetic functions. However, in the commercial context, metaphor usage displays specific communicative functions as exhibited in the English business texts we sampled for this study. We examine the translation of business metaphor from English into Arabic with a special focus on the game/sports source domain. The authors collected a sample of metaphors from business articles which appear on the BBC, CNN, and Project Syndicate online websites. We use the collected business metaphors to determine the contextual functions as well as the significance and roles each metaphor plays in its context. We adopt the cognitive approach to metaphor analysis in order to identify the level of conceptual systems in the source and target metaphorical references. We have found out that the generic metaphorical instances are translated using the formal translation method while the more business context specific metaphors are simplified, paraphrased, or explicated.

Keywords: business texts, cognitive approach, simple metaphor, complex metaphor, translation strategy
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
  • 3.Conceptual metaphors and metaphorical linguistic expressions
  • 4.Source domain, target domain and mappings
  • 5.Findings and discussion
    • 5.1English metaphor into same Arabic metaphor
    • 5.2English metaphor into Arabic non-metaphor
    • 5.3English metaphor into a different Arabic metaphor
    • 5.4English non-metaphor into Arabic metaphor
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
Published online: 15 June 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/forum.21027.she
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Solá Portillo, Sara
2024. ALTARABIN, Mahmoud. The Routledge Course in Arabic Business Translation. New York, Routledge, 2022, 198 pp., ISBN 9780367773335. Hikma 23:1 ► pp. 315 ff. DOI logo

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