Cognitive Analysis Of Emotion Metaphor And Its Translation In Fortress Besieged:A Study From The Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor Theory

Conceptual Metaphor Theory,first proposed by Lakoff,believes that metaphor is a basic form of human thoughts and cognition rather than a kind of figure of speech.The universality of conceptual metaphors remains to be a controversial topic in cognitive linguistics and thus,more language-specific studies are needed to support the framework of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory.The author examines how emotion are conceptualized through metaphors in the Chinese novel Fortress Besieged by using Conceptual Metaphor Theory.Besides this,the differences between English and Chinese in conceptualizing emotions in Fortress Besieged are analyzed with the focuses on the emotions of happiness,anger,sadness,and love.And the author clarifies what strategies are used in translation of emotion metaphors.Through applying the Conceptual Metaphor Theory,the author finds several common source domains of emotion metaphors in Fortress Besieged,such as orientation,colors,and heat,etc.This demonstrates Conceptual Metaphor Theory is a powerful tool to analyze conceptualization of abstract emotions in Chinese.Besides this,the existence of emotion metaphors in Fortress Besieged may support the claims in Conceptual Metaphor Theory that metaphors are based on human's bodily experience by showing that a number of common sources are used to conceptualize concepts and thoughts in a systematic way.Secondly,the author finds that cultural models and living environment play a significant role in selecting one source domain over another when conceptualizing emotions through metaphors in Fortress Besieged.Finally,the author reveals that the translation strategies such as “reproducing the same image in the targeted language” and “conversion of metaphor to sense” are mostly utilized in Fortress Besieged.