Publications

Publication details [#19626253]

Ba-awaidhan, Awadh G. . 2020. Cycles of Conceptualization and Reconceptualization in Translating Figurative Language : With a Special Focus on Selected Arabic-English Proverbs. In Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, Barbara. Cultural Conceptualizations in Translation and Language Applications. Cham: Springer. pp. 47–63.
Publication type
Article in book  
Publication language
English

Abstract

In terms of ‘conceptualization’ and ‘re-conceptualization’, an abstract idea—in our mind—can be transferred as a concrete message to targets by using communication tools: language, symbols, gestures, pictures, etc. Through this transfer, a number of cycles of conceptualization are carried out. On the other hand, in translation, this conceptual message can be transferred from one language into another. In fact, what actually happens in translation process is that the message is re-conceptualized from a source language (SL), and a source culture (SC) into a target language and culture alike, as cycles of re-conceptualization, (Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, Re-conceptualization and the emergence of discourse meaning as a theory of translation, Peter Lang, Berlin, 2010). Relying on this theoretical framework, the present study offers a new view of translating figurative language ‘proverbs’ based on multi-cycles of re-conceptualization in translation process. It is reconciling elements of Nida’s dynamic theory (ibid.), and multiple cycles of translation process which involve the SL, target culture (TC), and target language (TL) readers, with recent innovations of translating figurative language proverbs from semantic, cognitive, and cultural perspectives. The main focus is put on receiving and transferring a meaning and message in different translation shifts; i.e., an original message is given—conceptualized—by an original author, understood by the translator to be ‘re-conceptualized’ into another language/culture as one cycle, then, the translated message is read by TL readers as a second cycle, and so on. The outcome of this discussion offers a new view of translating figurative language in general, and proverbs in particular. The paper closes by emphasizing on translation of figurative language as a matter of multi-cycles of re-conceptualization, and reveals the crucial replay relationship between original speaker, translator, and somebody who reads the translated message of the proverb which should stimulate the TL reader’s response.