Translating Metaphor in Business Texts from English into Arabic
Date
2017-07-05
Authors
Nazzal, Reema Essam Ahmad
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
An-Najah National University
Abstract
The present study is directed towards a comprehensive analysis of metaphor translation in English business texts into Arabic. The study also sheds light on the importance of metaphor as a main characteristic of English economic discourse, and clarifies the significant role metaphor plays in business texts. By selecting some metaphors from business articles on BBC, CNN, Financial Times magazine and Project Syndicate online websites, the study analyzes the data carefully in terms of functions, significance and roles each metaphor plays in its context. The study applies the cognitive approach to metaphor in the analysis of data and sheds light on the significant role this approach has on translation studies. Most importantly, this study investigates the translation strategies and techniques used in translating metaphors of three main source domains: Sport\Game metaphors, War metaphors and Health\Illness metaphors. The findings of the study show that in translating metaphors, which usually cluster in headlines, translators often reproduce the source language metaphorical image into the target language in order to preserve the headline metaphor’s rhetorical effect. The study has also revealed that translators may opt for either preserving the metaphorical image of the source language metaphor or paraphrasing it to make its informative value more explicit; literal translation of some business metaphorical concepts presents itself as a workable solution in many cases because of the shared mood of cognition between English language readers and Arabic language readers. The study maintains that in translating business metaphor, the translator should, first, look for the most circulated translation in the TL, or else; s\he should weigh up the significance and function of metaphor in context and decide either to reproduce the metaphorical image or paraphrase the metaphor and make its meaning more explicit while preserving its informative value.