A Study On Conceptual Metaphor Translation In The Report Of The 19th CPC National Congress From The Perspective Of Newmark’s Translation Theory

Cognitive linguistics regards the conceptual metaphor as a cross-domain mapping from a concrete source domain to an abstract target domain.It is an essential cognitive mechanism for people to conceptualize the objective world.As a programmatic document for China’s economic and social development in the new era,the Report of the 19 th CPC National Congress(abbreviated as Report)reflects the governing philosophy and development guidelines of socialism with Chinese characteristics.It has attracted much attention since its release.The broad use of conceptual metaphors in the Report makes abstract and complex political and diplomatic concepts more lucid and vivid.It helps to disseminate China’s standpoint and voice.In recent years,much of the current literature on the Report pays particular attention to its foreign translation,but the studies on conceptual metaphor translation in the Report remain insufficient.This study intends to answer the following questions to find the best feasible translation path for conceptual metaphors in Chinese political discourse:(1)What types of conceptual metaphors are employed in the Report? What is the occurrence frequency of different types of conceptual metaphors?(2)How are the conceptual metaphor mappings in the Report accomplished?(3)What are the feasible translation methods for conceptual metaphors in the English version? What are the influencing factors of the translation methods selection? In order to address the above questions,this thesis takes the official Chinese and English versions of the Report of the 19 th CPC National Congress as a parallel corpus with 32694 Chinese characters and 24895 English words.Based on Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Newmark’s translation theory,it employs Metaphor Identification Procedures(MIP)to summarize the dominant types of conceptual metaphors and their occurrence frequency in the Report and analyzes the cross-domain mappings of dominant conceptual metaphors.Also,this thesis explores the translation methods in the English version and factors influencing the choice of translation methods for conceptual metaphor translation.The research results reveal that there are 1352 metaphorical expressions employed in the Report.They are categorized into ten types according to the source domain of conceptual metaphors,namely journey metaphors,construction metaphors,war metaphors,human metaphors,plant metaphors,machine metaphors,family metaphors,up and down metaphors,center and peripheral metaphors,front and back metaphors.It is found that the conceptual metaphors with high frequency in the Report are journey metaphors,construction metaphors,and war metaphors,accounting for 32.51%,22.56%,and 20.28% of the total frequency,respectively.According to the six translation methods adopted in the English version of the Report,reproducing the same image in the Target Language(short for TL)and converting metaphor to sense are the most common methods,followed by replacing the original image with a standard TL image,deletion,same images combined with sense,and translating metaphor by simile while retaining the image.These translation methods make it possible that the Report’s significant political philosophy can be disseminated precisely and faithfully in the target culture.The research findings suggest that variations of cultural models,the differences in linguistic expressions,and the requirements for international publicity translation significantly influence the choice of translation methods for conceptual metaphors in the Report.English translators,students,and teachers of translation could benefit from this study a lot.