A Study On The Translation Of Conceptual Metaphors In Chinese Diplomatic Discourse

As a way of thinking and experiencing the world,conceptual metaphors play an important role in creating realities.The use of conceptual metaphors in diplomatic discourse is an indispensable discursive mode and strategy of publicizing diplomatic concepts and notions.How to appropriately and effectively translate conceptual metaphors employed in Chinese diplomatic discourse is not just a worthy academic problem to be addressed in the field of the translation of diplomatic discourse,but also a significant topic in the on-going discussion on what ought to be the way to tell China’s stories well.The translation of conceptual metaphors has been explored by scholars from different angles and by using different theories;however,their researches are mainly confined to literature and only a few scholars have explored the translation of conceptual metaphors in diplomatic discourse;additionally,the theories having been applied to the previous studies do not deeply reveal the cognitive operational mechanism and the mechanism of the dynamic meaning construction of conceptual metaphors,so the translator cannot thoroughly understand the conceptual metaphors and translate them precisely and appropriately.Cognitive reference competence is one of the basic cognitive competences of human beings because they tend to construe one entity with reference to another through certain mental paths.As for conceptual metaphors,people conceptualize the target domains by means of the source domains based on their similarities(physical or psychological);therefore,conceptual metaphor embodies this kind of cognitive competence.Exploring the translation of conceptual metaphors from the perspective of Cognitive Reference Point can overcome the shortcomings of the previous studies via revealing the cognitive operational mechanism of conceptual metaphors’ generation and comprehension as well as the mechanism of the dynamic meaning construction of conceptual metaphors,which can provide a new angle to the comprehension and translation of conceptual metaphors.From the perspective of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Cognitive Reference Point,this research is going to identify the conceptual metaphors employed in Chinese diplomatic discourse by using MIPVU and evaluate their translation minutely with the help of BNC and COCA corpus by building a bilingual parallel corpus on the basis of the data on the website of The Ministry of Foreign Affairs(MFA).Based on this,this paper makes endeavors to summarize and analyze the translation problems of conceptual metaphors in Chinese diplomatic discourse with authentic examples and dissects the causes;then,the feasible translation strategies and methods are explored under the guidance of CRP.This paper is going to answer the following questions:(1)What types of conceptual metaphors are employed in diplomatic discourse?(2)What are the translation problems of conceptual metaphors in diplomatic discourse?(3)What translation strategies and methods can be adopted so as to handle those problems according to CRP? The major findings are as follows.First,human metaphors,war metaphors,object metaphors,construction metaphors,plant metaphors,UP-DOWN and DEEP-SHALLOW metaphors,machine metaphors,game metaphors,family metaphors,journey metaphors,nature metaphors and some other types are employed in diplomatic discourse,with the human metaphors and the war metaphors appearing the most frequently.Second,three major types of translation problems of conceptual metaphors in Chinese diplomatic discourse which are undertranslation,overtranslation and mistranslation appear frequently.They are mainly associated with the wrong identification of the cognitive reference points adopted in the source language and the wrong or inadequate interpretation of their conceptual meanings,or the inappropriate selection of cognitive reference points in the target language to convey the conceptual meanings of the source language,which is mainly caused by the lack of political sensitivity and relevant cultural knowledge of the translator.Third,three translation strategies which are CRP maintenance,CRP shift and CRP omission respectively can be used to instruct the translation of conceptual metaphors in diplomatic discourse.Specifically speaking,when both the source language and the target language users have the similar understandings about the source domains of the conceptual metaphors in the source language,the translator needs to keep the cognitive reference points adopted in the source language;when the target language users have different understandings about the source domains of the conceptual metaphors in the source language or the source domains of the conceptual metaphors of the source language do not exist in the target language,but there are source domains with similar conceptual meanings in the target language,the translator needs to change the cognitive reference points adopted in the source language;when the target language users have different understandings about the source domains of the conceptual metaphors in the source language or the source domains of the conceptual metaphors of the source language do not exist in the target language,and meanwhile no source domains with similar conceptual meanings can be found in the target language,the translator needs to delete the cognitive reference points.Based on these strategies,four translation methods which are literal translation,transformation,paraphrasing and omission respectively can be adopted.This paper explores the translation of conceptual metaphors in Chinese diplomatic discourse,which is of great importance.Theoretically,it reveals the cognitive operational mechanism of conceptual metaphors’ generation and comprehension,and the mechanism of the dynamic meaning construction of conceptual metaphors based on CRP,which contributes to the thorough comprehension and better translation of conceptual metaphors;practically,this discussion focuses on the conceptual metaphors used in Chinese diplomatic discourse,which not only broadens the scope of the study on conceptual metaphors’ translation,but also makes some contributions to the translation of Chinese diplomatic discourse.