Abstract

The idiom is the quintessence of natural culture, which is the epitome of characteristics of the nation, such as the cultural traditions, religious influence, values and so on. As part of the idioms, animal idioms occupy an important proportion. In accordance with the observation, people found that much human behavior can be understood by comparison with animal behavior and expressed in metaphor method. The meanings of animal characteristics that emerged through mapping to different conceptual domains are different, which can reflect different national cultures. Thus, a praiseworthy translation plays a significant role in promoting the cultural exchange between two countries. Based on metaphor theory, this thesis chooses cat-related idioms as examples to analyze the strategies of translation. It is found that, according to the different conditions of mapping, the translator will choose different translation strategies, such as conversion, and the translation of the mapping image in the same domain, and so on. 

Key words: metaphor theory; English and Chinese animal idiom; translation strategies

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1 Introduction-1

2 Literature Review-2

2.1 Research on Metaphor Theory-2

2.2 Research on Animal-related Idioms-3

3 Theoretical Foundation-4

3.1 Theory of Metaphor-4

3.1.1 The Definition of Metaphor-4

3.1.2 The Essence of Metaphor-4

3.2 The Classification of Conceptual Metaphor-5

3.2.1 Structural Metaphor-5

3.2.2 Orientational Metaphor-5

3.2.3 Ontological Metaphor-6

3.3 The Characteristics of Metaphor-7

3.3.1 Similarity-7

3.3.2 Systematicity-7

3.3.3 Cultural Coherence-7

3.4 The Functions of Metaphor-7

4. E-C Translation of Cat-related Idioms-8

4.1 The Translatability of Metaphor-8

4.2 The Strategies of Metaphor Translation-9

4.2.1 The Translation of the Mapping Image in the Same Domain-9

4.2.2 Conversion-10

4.2.3 The Transplantation of Mapping of Metaphor from Source Domain in Original Text to Target Domain-13

5 Conclusion-13

References-15