Strategies For Translating Abstract Nouns From English To Chinese In Light Of Grammatical Metaphor Theory

The present report is based on the author’s English-Chinese translation practice of the sixth chapter of Museums and Empire,an informative historical book of British colonial museums.The author notices the extensive use of abstract nouns in the source text,which becomes the biggest difficulty for him to overcome in the translation practice.Therefore,the author hopes to explore the translation strategies of abstract nouns based on his own translation practice in light of grammatical metaphor theory.Resulting from nominalization,grammatical metaphors reflect the distortion between the semantics and lexicogrammar.In this sense,abstract nouns are often used to metaphorize functional components of clauses.Therefore,it is logical and scientific to apply grammatical metaphor theory to the translation of abstract nouns.The author analyzes the inherent connections between abstract nouns and grammatical metaphors,explores the function of English abstract nouns,and compares the similarities and differences in the use of abstract nouns in Chinese and English.Accordingly,the author puts forward and categorizes his translation strategies with examples selected from the book.Based on whether grammatical metaphors are retained,translation strategies put forward by the author are divided into two categories:strategies in terms of congruent forms and strategies in terms of metaphorical forms.Strategies in terms of congruent forms help to reduce grammatical metaphors in the translation,including the conversion of parts of speech,the conversion into clauses,and special conversions.Strategies in terms of metaphorical forms are helpful to ensure a formal,academic and concise style of the translation,including the addition of category words,the addition of verbs,and conventional methods.The author believes that there is not a consistent one-to-one match between each type of abstract noun and each strategy.The same strategy can be applied to abstract nouns of different types,and abstract nouns of the same type can be translated with different strategies.Moreover,the retention of grammatical metaphors depends on the context and the textual function of abstract nouns.Translators must avoid the mechanical application of strategies when dealing with abstract nouns so as to make sure that the translation is fluent and readable.