Translating the Metaphor: A Cognitive Stylistic Conceptualization (English – Arabic)

Abstract

Metaphor is the key figure of rhetoric that usually implies a reference to figurative language in general. Therefore, it has always been attended to carefully by linguists, critics and writers. Traditionally, being originally a major aesthetic and rhetorical figure, it has been analysed and approached in terms of its constituent components (i.e. image, object, sense, etc.) and types (such as cliché, dead, anthropomorphic, recent, extended, compound, etc. metaphors). However, recently, and in the light of the latest developments of cognitive stylistics, metaphor has received yet greater attention from a completely different perspective of conceptualization and ideologization. Consequently, this change of perspective has its immediate effect on translation theory and practice, which has to be approached equally differently now with respect to translating metaphor. This paper is an attempt to consider the translation of metaphor from a cognitive stylistic perspective, viewing it primarily as a matter of conceptualization of topics, objects and people. All metaphors are in principle reflections and constructions of concepts, attitudes, mentalities and ideologies on the part of the writer / speaker. Hence, any metaphor is conceptualized in terms of source domain and target domain in different texts, especially literary discourse. In translation, an instant positive response to this conceptualization of metaphor is anticipated by translators into the target language, on the basis of the two domains, the source and the target. The conclusion aimed at by the paper is to turn focus to metaphor as a concretized, conceptualized, useful and updated cognitive figure of rhetoric both in theory and practice of translation. This will unearth yet unexplored dimensions of meaning, analysis, comprehension, interpretation, appreciation and translation of metaphor in both languages, the SL and the TL.