Canadian Social Science
Conceptual Metaphor Translation and Subtitling: A Case of Lumumba
Abstract
The present study analyzes the metaphors contained in the movie Lumumba. This study aims to identify the movie’s conceptual metaphors and the translation strategies used by the translators to render them into English. In addition, the study aims to draw the motivations behind the choice of these strategies. The study employs Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) metaphor categorization to classify metaphors and Schmidt’s (2014) proposed typology to identify translation strategies. The findings show that the subtitles of the movie Lumumba contain structural, ontological and orientational metaphors. Besides, four strategies were used to translate the metaphors. They are: (1) using the same metaphor in the source text (ST) and target text (TT); (2) using in the TT, a different metaphor with the same meaning; (3) using a non-metaphoric expression; and (4) deletion of the ST’s metaphor. However, a particular strategy that consists of translating a non-metaphoric expression into a metaphoric expression was also identified. Therefore, the TT contains more metaphors than the ST, which shows the translators’ taste for metaphoricity. Finally, the findings reveal that cultural, cognitive and technical motivations impacted the translators’ choice of strategies. While cultural and cognitive motivations are specific to translators and their cultural knowledge, time and space constraints are technical constraints.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/12829
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