Chinese-to-English Metaphor Translation in Ecological Discourse from the Perspective of Relevance Theory
Keywords:
Relevance Theory, optimal relevance, Song of Life, metaphor translationAbstract
Metaphors in Chinese ecological discourses convey the ecological concept, culture, and philosophy with Chinese characteristics. This study attempts to explore metaphor English translation strategy and method in terms of the subtitles of an ecological documentary Song of Life (shēng mìng zhī gē) under the guidance of the Relevance Theory. It is found that 1) both direct and indirect translation strategies were adopted along with four different metaphor translation methods: metaphor vehicle retention ranking first (most frequently used), followed by metaphor vehicle omission, conversion, and addition in a descending order; 2) These four translation methods in their own context ensure that an optimal relevance between the Chinese metaphor and its English translation is achieved in the ostensive-inferential process to help the audience understand the Chinese ecological ideas. Finally, two suggestions of metaphor English translation are put forward for translators who involve themselves in Chinese ecological discourse translations.
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Notes
Note 1: The Website link of Song of Life is https://tv.cctv.com/2021/10/22/VIDE7K8AGFejxAFwaa6zYF3x211022.shtml.
Note 2: Metaphor ground means the essential same quality between the tenor and the vehicle of a metaphor.
Note 3: The tenor is the thing being described and the vehicle is the figurative language you use to describe it.
Note 4: “It” here refers to “the germplasm bank of wild species in Southern China”.
Note 5: “它(tā)” in the source text refers to the Asian elephants seen by the villager.
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