On Life Metaphors And Their Translation In Four Major Shakespearean Tragedies From The Cognitive Perspective

Influenced by the rhetorical view of metaphor,traditional studies of metaphor translation has treated metaphor as a linguistic phenomenon,which used to be confined to comparisons at linguistic level.The internal basis of the choice of translation strategy is rarely involved.Since the 1970 s,with the development and promotion of the Cognitive Sciences,the metaphor research has shifted from a rhetorical perspective to a cognitive linguistic approach.With the cognitive turn of the metaphor research,we can fully recognize the essential relationship between conceptual metaphor and metaphorical expression,and concepts of metaphor translation have also changed.“Life”,an abstract concept,exists widely in everyday language and literary works,featuring as diversity and complexity.The life metaphors in Shakespeare's works are not only the cognition and comprehensive reflection of people from all walks of life in the Renaissance,but also Shakespeare's own unique insights of life.The reasons why his works are considered as the treasure of the world's civilization are the wide use of metaphors and full of new forms and connotations.From the perspective of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory,the present study identifies and collects 112 life metaphors in four major Shakespearean tragedies(King Lear,Macbeth,Hamlet and Othello).Then,according to different source domains,they are divided into 6categories,namely the substance metaphors,the movement metaphors,the flame metaphors,the spirit metaphors,the activity metaphors and the period metaphors.At the same time,their mapping paths have also been studied.In the system of life metaphor,the substance metaphors occupy a strong position,confirming the important role of ontological metaphor in the construction of conceptual system.In order to explore the features and innovation of life metaphors in Shakespearean plays and analyze Zhu Shenghao's and Fang Ping's translation strategies respectively in depth,the 112 life metaphors have been further divided into the conventional metaphors and the novel metaphors.It is found that the conventional metaphors play an important role in the system of life metaphors and the novel metaphors are created on the basis of the conventional metaphors by extending,elaboration,questioning and composing.The development of metaphorical language stems from the metaphorical concept,both the conventional metaphors and the novel metaphors reflect the unified and systemic way of thinking.The innovation of literary metaphor should be based on the universal cognitive experience and be constructed by the conceptual metaphor.This thesis also explores the translation strategies adopted by Zhu Shenghao and Fang Ping in translation of the life metaphors,as well as what the translation effects the two Chinese versions of Shakespeare will exert and what socio-cultural factors have influenced them.The research finds that both Zhu Shenghao and Fang Ping have adopted the strategies of foreignizing and domesticating and the foreignizing strategy takes the dominant position in both versions.However,the proportion of foreignizing strategy in Fang Ping's version is higher than that of Zhu Shenghao's version.The main reasons lie in the different ideological,poetic and patronage manipulation of these two versions.Zhu Shenghao's motivation mainly comes from his interests of Shakespeare and patriotism,hoping to introduce the British classical literature and culture to Chinese people.In the 1930 s to 1940 s,the sinicization on the basis of fidelity was beneficial to the Chinese readers' understanding and the dissemination of the British culture.More than half a century later,Fang Ping's motivation comes from the deeper understanding and pursuit of Shakespeare.Fang Ping emphasizes the relationship between form and content in the classic literary works,purses faithfulness and fluency,and tries to seek a new form in Chinese for Shakespeare's plays as poetic dramas for the stage.All in all,the cognitive analysis of life metaphors in four major Shakespearean tragedies and the contrast of the two Chinese versions not only help to understand the language of Shakespeare and ideological content,but also may provide some inspirations for metaphor translation.