THEORY OF TRANSLATION

The Translation of metaphor

Teacher: Ms Truc, MA.

 Rules
• Pay attention
• Don’t make noise
• Participate in all activities
• Do not use phone
• Study hard – Play hard
Check up
 Content

Metaphor and its purpose

Types of metaphor

The procedures of
metaphor translation

Exercises
 Metaphor and its purpose
Metaphor can be defined as an indirect
comparison between two or more apparently
unrelated things or subjects. The point of
similarity ‘may be physical but often it is chosen
for its connotations’
(Newmark, 1988: 85)
 Functions of metaphor
• to define something more closely
1

• a decoration to show resemblances

2

• to create emotive effect

3

• as an object of interest for media

4

• basic element of language where it later becomes

5 dead or literal language
For him, translation theory is mainly concerned
with the serious purpose of metaphor which is,
“to describe an entity, event or quality more
comprehensively and concisely and in a more
complex way than is possible by using literal
language”.
(Newmark, 1988: 84)
There are five terms related to metaphor, which
define its various related concepts.

object • the item described by the metaphor

image • in terms of which the object is described

• the point of similarity’ between object and

sense image

metaphor • the actual word taken up

• a one word image which is used in place of

metonym whole, and has potential to become ‘dead
metaphor
 2. Types of metaphor
Newmark (1988b)

Types of
metaphor

Dead Stock Adapted Recent Original

Cliché
metaphors Metaphors Metaphors Metaphors Metaphors
 2.1. Dead metaphors
They are “metaphors which often relate to universal
terms of time and space, general ecological features and
main human activities”
(Newmark, 1988: 106)
Dead metaphors have become literal language because
users do not recognize them as metaphors, so their
images are lost. Idioms, metonyms, synecdoche, and
words accepted as technical terms also become dead
metaphors. They add to the number of words in a
language.
Dead metaphors can be of three types: firstly
where image and sense is retained in a second
language; secondly thousands of words denoting
objects e.g. metonyms; and lastly non-technical
words which appear to have concrete and
figurative meaning at the same time
e.g. ‘foot of a hill’.
Foot of a hill
 2.2. Cliché
They lie between dead and stock metaphors. These
metaphors are “used as a substitute for clear thought,
often emotively, but without corresponding to the facts
of the matter”
(Newmark, 1988b: 107)
They “usually consist of two types of collocations:
figurative adjective and literal noun e.g. ‘filthy lucre’; or
figurative verb and figurative noun e.g. ‘explore all
avenues’”
(Newmark, 1988: 87)
 2.3. Stock Metaphors
Newmark (1988b: 108) defines this type as “an
established metaphor, which in an informal
context is an efficient and concise method of
covering a physical and/or mental situation both
referentially and pragmatically”. They may have
cultural distance or overlap; may be used
universally or at least in a wide spread sense, and
may have subjective aspects.
He notes that there might be no universal
metaphors, but hopes if ‘societies reach certain
stage of physical health and well-being, there
will be some basic universal metaphors’.
(Newmark, 1988: 87)
 2.4. Adapted Metaphors
They are actually stock metaphors but are
adapted by the writer or speaker into a new
context.
 2.5. Recent Metaphors
Newmark (1988b: 111) defines these metaphors
as “a metaphorical neologism, often
'anonymously' coined, which has spread rapidly
in the SL”. They are often categorized as a slang.
 2.6. Original Metaphors
These metaphors are “created or quoted by the SL
writer”
(Newmark, 1988b: 112)
They “contain the core of an important writer's
message, his personality, his comment on life”
(ibid). These metaphors are not only complex but
have double meanings. They might also contain
“personal or dialectal … irrational element peculiar
to the imagination”.
(Newmark, 1988: 93)
The procedures for translating metaphor
The translator may
replace the image in Translation of
Reproducing the metaphor by simile,
same image in the TL the SL with a
standard TL retaining the image

Translation of
metaphor (or simile)
by simile plus sense Conversion of
Deletion
(or occasionally a metaphor to sense
metaphor plus sense)

Same metaphor Conversion of Conversion of

combined with sense metaphor to sense metaphor to sense

Conversion of Conversion of
metaphor to sense metaphor to sense
3.1. Reproducing the same image in the TL

The same image is reproduced in TL ‘provided that

it is comparable in frequency and use in the
appropriate register’. One word metaphors are more
commonly translated by this method, while
translation of complex metaphors or idioms
depends on cultural overlap. Reproducing one-word
metaphors representing sense of an event or quality
instead of an entity is more difficult
e.g. ‘elbow one’s way’.
Similes are more cautious than metaphors, and
must normally be translated in any type of text.
Lastly, animal abuse can have cultural or
subjective connotations but can be quite
universal as well
(‘swine’ is symbol of filth and dirt everywhere).
 3.2. Replace the image in the SL with a
standard TL
SL image can be replaced with a standard TL
image provided that it is culturally compatible in
TL, and ‘presumably coined by one person and
diffused through popular speech’. Stereotyped
metaphors should be converted to sense whether
they exist in TL or not.
Euphemisms are also metaphors and often have to
be replaced by cultural equivalent, unless reader
has to be informed in similar way as SL reader.
 3.3 Translated as a simile while retaining
the image
This modifies the shock of metaphor,
‘particularly if TL text is not emotive in
character’. This procedure can be used for any
type of word, and original metaphor.
3.4. Translated as simile along with its sense (or
metaphor plus sense)
This is a compromise procedure and combines
communicative and semantic translations
together which address both layman and expert
reader. The main focus here is on the ‘gloss’
rather than equivalent effect. It is noteworthy
that some metaphors may be incomplete in TL
without the addition of a sense component.
3.5 The metaphor can be converted into
sense
This procedure can be applied in any type of
text, and preferred when SL to TL image
replacement is extra broad in terms of sense or
register. To perform this procedure, the sense of
metaphor should be analysed componentially
because image is ‘pludri-dimensional’.
3.6 Delete the metaphor along with sense component if
it is redundant

A caution is that SL text should not be

‘authoritative’ or ‘expression of writer’s
personality’. The translator should make
decision after weighing what is more important
and less important in the text.
An empirical justification of such deletion comes
if ‘metaphor’s function is being fulfilled
elsewhere in the text’.
3.7. Transfers same metaphor along with its
sense
Sometimes translator wants to make sure that
image will be understood properly so he adds a
gloss as well. Thus he transfers same metaphor
along with its sense.
E.g “The tongue is a fire” can be translated as
follows “A fire ruins things; what we say also
ruins things”.
This may suggest lack of confidence in
metaphor’s power and clarity, but it can be
useful if metaphor is repeated.
 Consolidation
What is metaphor?

How many types of metaphor? What are they?

How many procedures of metaphor translation?

What are they?
 Homework
- Do exercise
- Revise the lesson
 REFERENCES
• Newmark, P. (1988). Approaches to
Translation. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

• Newmark, P. (1988b). A Text book of

Translation. London: Prentice Hall.