Applying the Discourse Dynamics Approach to metaphors for women in the Spanish translation of the Chinese novel Wei Cheng

ABSTRACT

The Discourse Dynamics Framework (DDF) assumes that the dimensions of metaphor (e.g., linguistic, cognitive, affective, physical, cultural) are interconnected, which facilitates our understanding of the use of metaphor in discourse. However, DDF is not yet widely used in translation studies of metaphors. Moreover, the translation of metaphors for women has not yet received sufficient attention despite its high social value. Therefore, this study applies the DDF to analyse the Spanish translation of the metaphors for women in the modern Chinese novel Wei Cheng, aiming to propose a multi-level model to help us interpret the metaphors and their translation issues in complex discourses. To this end, we proposed three most important systematic metaphors in the data collected and carried out a qualitative analysis of their Spanish translation. They are WOMAN IS ANIMAL, WOMAN IS PLANT and WOMAN IS FOOD. This study shows that DDF can provide insight into the cognitive, semantic, affective and socio-cultural-historical contexts of metaphor translation and how the ideas, attitudes and values they convey in source text are presented in target text.

KEYWORDS:

• Discourse Dynamics Framework
• metaphor translation
• metaphors for women
• modern Chinese literature
• Spanish translation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Capitalised terms (e.g., ANIMAL) indicate a conceptual metaphor. By contrast, italicised capital terms (e.g., ANIMAL) indicate a systematic metaphor proposed by DDF, which reflects the possible metaphorical thinking and patterns of the participants in the discourse without giving them an independent a priori existence at the level of the social group.

2 Grouping the same vehicle to another semantic label does not conflict with the DDF, as the theory allows a metaphor vehicle to be grouped into more than one semantic label at the same time (see Cameron et al., 2010, p. 122).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hongying Li

Hongying Li is a PhD candidate in the Department of Translation and Language Sciences at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. Her research interests include Metaphor in translation, Metaphor-led discourse analysis and Intercultural studies.

Mario Bisiada

Mario Bisiada is Associate Professor in Translation and Applied Language Studies at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona (Spain). His main research interests include cross-linguistic studies of power relations in discourse, editorial intervention in translation, and migration in translation

Yingfeng Xu

Yingfeng Xu is Associate Professor in Translation and Applied Language Studies at Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona (Spain). Her area of interest is terminology, translation and second language teaching.