论文总字数：64926字

摘 要

《孔子学院》多语种期刊是孔子学院总部/国家汉办主办的系列出版物，以满足各国学习汉语和了解中国文化的多元需求，是我国对外宣传的一条重要渠道。隐喻作为一种灵活、生动、简洁的修辞手法，在表现效果方面起着重要作用。但由于认知方式和文化背景的差异，一些隐喻的英文译本海外认知情况值得进一步研究和关注。

本研究将《孔子学院》英文期刊作为研究语料，选取其中含有隐喻词汇的语句或语段设计有声思维实验问卷，并挑选合适的实验对象实施有声思维实验。使用评价理论中情感、判定、鉴赏三个子系统对有声思维实验结果进行分析，考察英语本族语读者对隐喻翻译文本的接受程度，并从隐喻的分类的角度讨论影响隐喻翻译海外认知度的因素。实验发现，部分隐喻翻译中体现的中国文化特色和易理解性得到了肯定，但仍有部分用法实验对象难以理解，认知度存在不足。同质隐喻与异质隐喻相比海外认知度更高，隐喻翻译在其历史文化背景中越抽象、深刻，隐喻的表达方式越不熟悉，英语母语者越难理解和接受，接受度越低。

关键词：外宣翻译；隐喻；有声思维实验；评价理论

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements i

English Abstract ii

Chinese Abstract iii

Table of Contents iv

List of Tables vi

Chapter One Introduction 1

1.1 Research Background 1

1.2 Research Purpose 1

1.3 Research Significance 2

1.4 Layout of the Thesis 3

Chapter Two Literature Review 3

2.1 Overseas-targeted Publicity Translation 3

2.2 Metaphor 4

2.1.1 Definition of metaphor 4

2.1.2 Classification of metaphor 5

2.1.3 Related Studies at Home and Abroad 6

Chapter Three Methodology 8

3.1 Theoretical Framework 8

3.1.1 Appraisal Theory 8

3.1.2 Rational 10

3.2 Research Questions 11

3.3 Research Tools 11

3.4 Research Participants 12

3.5 Data Collection 12

3.5.1 Data Source 12

3.5.2. Procedure of Data Collection 14

3.6 Data Analysis 14

Chapter Four Results and Discussions 15

4.1 Results 15

4.1.1 Affect 16

4.1.2 Judgment 17

4.1.3 Appreciation 18

4.2 Discussion 19

Chapter Five Conclusion 21

5.1 Major Findings 21

5.2 Limitations and Suggestions 22

References 24

Appendix 1 Think-aloud Protocols Task Materials 27

Appendix 2 Transcriptions of Think-aloud Protocols 31

List of Tables

Table 1 Classification of Attitude System ........................................................................9

Table 2 Examples of Metaphors .....................................................................................13

Table 3 Frequency and Percentage of Three Subsystem ................................................15

Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Research Background

Overseas-targeted publicity is an approach for a country to construct and spread its national image. It is of great significance to strive for its international discourse rights in the international communication. The purpose of overseas-targeted publicity is to “make overseas audiences form a positive impression of China and enhance China’s soft power in the international competition”. (Chen 2010: 223) Overseas audiences have different cultural backgrounds, identity characteristics and communication acceptance psychology. They are wide, diverse, complex, and they have their own choices and judgments when they accept publicity from other countries. They cannot be forced to accept what we want to disseminate to them. Therefore, overseas-targeted publicity translation plays a key role in it.

Metaphor, as a flexible, vivid and concise rhetorical device, plays an important role in expressing meanings. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, cognitive linguists, asserted that we use metaphors without even realizing we’re using them. These basic metaphors not only affect the way we communicate ideas, but actually structure our perceptions and understandings from the beginning. (Lakoff amp; Johnson 1980) At present, most studies on metaphor were focused on the textual functions and translation strategies of metaphor. However, due to the differences in acceptance modes and cultural background between countries, the overseas acceptance situation of some English versions of metaphor deserves further attention and research.

1.2 Research Purpose

Confucius Institutes Publications is a series of publications sponsored by the Confucius Institute Headquarters(Hanban) to meet the diverse needs of various countries in learning Chinese and understanding Chinese culture. In this study, the Confucius Institute Publications was selected as the original research materials. Phrases and sentences which contain metaphorical words were selected to design and carry out the Think-aloud Protocols experiment. 4 English speakers in total were chosen as participants. Appraisal theory was used to analyze the oral discourse of Think-aloud Protocols experiment, and discuss native English speakers’ acceptance of metaphor in the English translation of Confucius Institute Publications.

1.3 Research Significance

With the deepening reform and opening up of China and the growing strength of our country, as the key to enhancing China’s soft power, overseas-targeted publicity translation is particularly important. Therefore, it is very meaningful to formulate a translation strategy for publicity in line with China’s actual situation. In this field, Chinese scholars have done a lot of research. For example, Huang Youyi(2004) asserted that overseas-targeted publicity translation should follow the principles of being close to the reality of China’s development, the needs of foreign audiences for information in China, and foreign audiences’ habit of thought.

However, the problem is that the overseas-targeted publicity translation of our country can not achieve the desired effect, and the related research on this field has not kept pace with the needs of the overall strategic development of our country’s overseas-targeted publicity. The so-called Chinglish is very popular in our country. It has seriously affected our international communication and weakened the effect of our overseas-targeted publicity. When our country shows the world our life and culture, the translation is often based on the literal meaning and word order structure of the Chinese language(Ding 2002: 44). As a result, a large number of non-standard English are produced, including spelling, grammatical and usage mistakes. Moreover, the deeper problem of publicity translation is that translators should have a better understanding of the pragmatic habits and political and cultural differences between the English and Chinese people, so that the overseas audience can effectively accept the translation.

1.4 Layout of the Thesis

The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter introduces the whole thesis, including research background, research purpose, research significance and the layout of this thesis. The second chapter first reviews the history and relevant research on overseas-targeted publicity translation in our country, then clarifies the definition and the classification of metaphor, and reviews the related studies at home and abroad about study of metaphor. The third chapter introduces the theoretical framework of this thesis, research questions, research participants, research tools and data collections. The third chapter uses appraisal theory to analyzes the oral discourse from Think-aloud Protocols from the aspects of its three subsystem, affect, judgement and appreciation, and discuss the factors that affect the acceptance of metaphor translations.

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Overseas-targeted Publicity Translation

In the study of overseas-targeted publicity translation, scholars in China mainly focused on the translation strategies of publicity translation. Chen Hui (2009: 129-130) pointed out Nida’s dynamic equivalence theory, put forward the open principle of translation theory, and created a new approach to translate different languages. Nida emphasizes the communicative function of translation and holds that translation should include the evaluation of the source text by the target readers. Huang Youyi (2004(6): 27-28) asserted that overseas-targeted publicity translation should follow the principles of being close to the reality of China’s development, the needs of foreign audiences for information in China, and foreign audiences’ habit of thought. Translators should also take into account the solidified understanding of some relatively unfamiliar words by foreign readers and try to convey their meanings correctly in popular and accurate language. Lai Huihua (2011: 198-204) discussed the way how China should strive for its international discourse rights in the field of overseas-targeted publicity under the background of cultural globalization in his research. Xiao Shu (2011: 61-63) analyzed how to use the function of translators’ subjectivity to achieve information exchange based on reader’s acceptability and improve the efficiency of external communication. In the context of cultural globalization, the power of discourse lies largely in the acceptance of its values and ideology. Therefore, we should grasp a good principle under the core social values and mainstream ideology, that is, to strike a balance between modernization, internationalization and traditional Chinese culture. Tang Lin (2017: 83-84) explores the meaning of publicity translation and holds that it includes political, economic and cultural aspects. We should consider that the target reader has the cultural background of other countries. The status of the translator in publicity translation deserves our attention. The translator’s subjectivity in language and cultural communication has gradually become prominent, and the translation must be improved according to the reader’s psychology. It can be found that in the field of overseas-targeted publicity translation, most of the existing studies focused on translation strategies. However, the analysis of Native English Speakers’ Acceptance is still very scarce, so this paper will make research on this subject.

2.2 Metaphor

2.1.1 Definition of metaphor

Metaphor has been studied for hundreds of years by the scholars throughout the world, and new theories on this area have been put forward year after year. Traditional metaphor theory regards metaphor as a linguistic phenomenon and a rhetorical phenomenon used to modify discourse. However, metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also a cognitive phenomenon. It is a cognitive activity in which human beings use their experience in one field to explain or understand the experience in another field. The earliest and most systematic explanation of the cognitive phenomenon of metaphor in the tradition of metaphor research is Richards (1936). According to Richards, metaphor is the omnipresent principle of language. Metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also a way of human thinking. People’s daily conversation is full of metaphors, even in the rigorous scientific language, metaphors can be seen everywhere; the more abstract philosophy is, the more we need to think through metaphors.

In the 1980s, in the field of cognitive linguistics, metaphor began to be viewed in a different light. “In this new light, metaphor is defined as a cognitive phenomenon that helps to structure our knowledge and experiences.”(Lakoff amp; Johnson 1980: 56) They hold that metaphor is not only a means of language rhetoric, but also a way of thinking, metaphorical concept system. In daily life, people often reference their familiar, tangible and specific concepts to understand, think, experience, treat intangible concepts which are difficult to define, and form a cognitive way of connecting different concepts. Metaphorical concepts have become a systematic and consistent whole in a certain culture, which plays a major and decisive role in people’s understanding of the objective world. Therefore, metaphor in language comes from the process of metaphorical thinking, which reflects the way the human brain knows the world. Metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also essentially a perceptual and conceptual tool for human beings to explore, describe, understand and explain the world around them.

2.1.2 Classification of metaphor

In terms of classification of metaphor, there are different categories. In rhetoric, for example, metaphor is divided into overt and covert metaphors such as He is as fit as a fiddle and She is an odd fish. Metaphor is also classified from other perspectives such as epiphors and diaphors; conventional metaphors and similarity-based metaphors; active metaphors, inactive metaphors and dead metaphors. Still other researchers classify metaphor in terms of part of speech, and accordingly, there are nominal, verbal, adjectival, adverbial and prepositional metaphor (Shu 2000: 14). Whereas cognitive view holds metaphor consists of root metaphor, which is the basic concept (Life is a journey) and derivative metaphor, deriving from the root metaphor (the starting point of life and the end of life) (Lan 2005: 122). Lakoff and Johnson divides metaphor into spatial metaphor, ontological metaphor and structural metaphor (1980: 10-13).

This research focuses on how culture is correlated to understanding of metaphor, so we adopt the cognitive method of classification. However, the root-derivative classification is too vague and subjective and therefore not practical and workable enough to help select metaphors while Lakoff and Johnson’s classification fails to distinguish structural metaphors (according to Lakoff and Johnson, structural metaphors refer to a substitution of an unknown concept with a known concept) from ontological metaphors(a substitution of ideas, emotions, events and activities with substances and entities) in that the two might overlap with each other since in ontological metaphor, it might also occur that unknown concepts are substituted with known concepts. For example, according to Lakoff and Johnson, ARGUMENT IS A WAR is a structural metaphor in that the unknown concept ARGUMENT is substituted by the known concept WAR while in THE DIFFICULTIES OF LEARNING CHINESE ARE AS FREQUENT AS HAVING MEALS EVERY DAY, which is an ontological metaphor, though the event of learning Chinese is substituted by a physical experience of having meals, the substitution of unknown experience with a known one also occurs.

As this research aims to study metaphor to investigate whether readers with different cultures can understand translation of metaphor, a modified classification is adopted focusing particularly on understanding of different types of concept. Therefore, metaphor is classified according to the only one criterion, that is, in the substitution of CONCEPT A with CONCEPT B, whether substitution between CONCRETE-ABSTRACT concept is involved (see Table 2). If yes, it is classified as heterogeneous metaphor and among all the heterogeneous metaphors in this research, the source is concrete concept while the target is abstract concept; if no, it is classified as congeneric metaphor, in which two cases exist: either both the source and the target belong to concrete or abstract.

2.1.3 Related Studies at Home and Abroad

In terms of the nature and textual function of metaphor, scholars throughout the world have made a lot of relevant studies. In Metaphors We Live By, Lakoff, G. and M. Johnson (1980: 56) argued that metaphor enables us to understand life experience and unintentionally change many concepts and behaviors in our lives. Fan Wenfang (1999: 10-12) analyzed the dual semantic features of nominalization metaphor and its cohesive function. Nominalization metaphor takes the form of "thing" in function and noun in grammar, which makes it possess the attribute of noun. Through the cohesion of theme and rheme, the cohesive function of nominalization metaphor in English discourse can be realized. Li Zuowen and Liu Changqing (2003: 63-67) argued that similarity is the basis of metaphor, and metaphor similarity shows differences in both subjective and objective aspects because of the subjective initiative of people’s understanding. It shows that language is not a complete reflection of all the things in the objective world and their interrelations, but the subjectivity of language is more important.

Metaphor translation is the key of the thesis, and there are also many studies on metaphor translation in China in recent year. Wang Ruiyun (2016: 87-96) took the translation of the Government Work Report as an example to analyze the acceptance of metaphor in different cultural contexts and to study the strategies of cross-cultural translation of metaphor. He asserted that the metaphor translation in the Government Work Report are centered on the target language readers and guided by the reader effect. They effectively convey the spiritual essence of the metaphors in source language and focus on the effect of information transmission. Gao Huaxin and Liu Baiyu (2010: 119-121) systematically conclude that metaphor is ubiquitous in 22 areas of English vocabulary during the financial crisis, and expound the translation of metaphorical words by using three translation methods: retaining metaphorical images, abandoning metaphorical images and borrowing metaphorical images. This is similar to the metaphorical classification used in this thesis. At present, most studies on metaphor were focused on the textual functions and translation strategies of metaphor. Most scholars selected literary and political metaphors as their main corpus selected, while few metaphors about cultural transmission were selected. This paper will make an attempt in the aspect of overseas-targeted publicity translation of metaphors.

Chapter Three Methodology

3.1 Theoretical Framework

3.1.1 Appraisal Theory

Appraisal theory is a new development of systemic functional linguistics. Traditional systemic functional linguistics studies English grammar from clauses. M.A.K. Halliday focuses on the application of discourse analysis and tries to explain the cohesion and coherence of the language. From the perspective of sociology, he studies the three metafunctions of language: conceptual function, interpersonal function and textual function, but neglects the semantic evaluation of discourse. Appraisal theory arose in this gap. J.R. Martin, an Australian linguist, further developed Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) and put forward the appraisal theory on the basis of the original one. It is an important theoretical extension of interpersonal function in Systemic Functional Linguistics. It focuses on how the speaker establishes his attitude and position in the discourse, and people can use it to understand various social relations.

The appraisal theory itself consists of three subsystems: attitude, engagement and gradation. Appraisal system pays attention to all kinds of attitudes that can be negotiated in discourse. It mainly studies how individuals use language to evaluate things and adopt positions. Therefore, it is especially effective in revealing the attitudes of the speakers in narrative discourse, and it is a new development of traditional functional grammar. Appraisal theory is concerned with discourse or speaker’s expression, negotiation, naturalization of the relationship between specific subjects and ideological language resources. Therefore, we use evaluation theory to analyze the attitudes and positions of the participants.

In this experimental investigation, we focus on the attitude system to analyze participants’ acceptance of translation of metaphor. Attitude system is the core of the appraisal theory, and contains three dimensions: affect, judgment and appreciation. Attitude system expresses the speaker’s feelings and comments on people or things. The affect system focuses on the expression of positive or negative emotions; the judgment system reviews people’s behavior according to ethical, moral and social conventions; and the appreciation system involves aesthetic evaluation. (Martin, J.R. amp; White, P.R.R. , 2005:25-26)

Table 1 Classification of Attitude System

3.1.2 Rational

Appraisal Theory has been widely used as the theoretical basis and analytical tool in research home and abroad regarding discourse analysis.

Overseas studies exemplified the application of Appraisal Theory in discourse analysis, including Granato’s research (2005) on the media interview using the subsystems of attitude and that of Redeker (2005) on the evaluation and stance in public and commercial broadcasters.

As for related studies in China, Hu Zhuanglin (2009: 3) justified the adopting of Appraisal Theory in discourse analysis by confirming its practical significance. Many other scholars have adopted Appraisal Systems to evaluate the ideology concealed in the discourse such as business language, news and media. For example, Chen Lingjun and Zhao Chuang (2016) investigated the discourse meaning of news discourse about “the Chinese dream” through analysis of the attitudinal sources.

In short, Appraisal Theory has been justified for discourse analysis. In this research, data collected from Think-aloud Protocols (TAPs) experiment are participants’ oral discourse. In order to analyze and evaluate their understanding and acceptance to translation of metaphor through their oral discourse, Appraisal Theory is adopted.

3.2 Research Questions

In order to explore how English natives understand and accept translation of metaphor, this research intends to answer the following two questions.

Question 1: What attitude do participants express according to the appraisal theory?

Question 2: From the perspective of classification of metaphors, what factors lead to different acceptance of metaphor translation?

3.3 Research Tools

Think-aloud Protocols, referred to as “TAPS”, originated from psychological research. It is one type of introspection to collect data in the thinking process by verbal report. Briefly, TAPS experiment is to ask participants to say as much as possible about what their brains thought during the experiments (Li 2005: 43-46). The researcher requests the participants to express their thoughts about the translations, as much as possible while performing the experiment task. The researcher records the whole process by recording or videotaping, and then transcribes the words of the participants into text for further analysis.

Think-aloud Protocols were first used by Clayton Lewis from IBM in the usability testing field in 1982 and explained in the book Task-Centered User Interface Design: A Practical Introduction. H. Krings first explored the application of Think-aloud Protocols in translation field in 1987. He believed that Think-aloud Protocols were "the most natural and suitable method for exploring the process of translation thinking."(H. Krings 1987: 158-176) Tirkkonen-Condit made a comparative study of the translation process of professional and non-professional translators by using Think-aloud Protocols. He used this method to analyze the translator’s handling of metaphorical expressions in translation. Domestic scholars have also done some research on TAPS. Li Dechao reviewed, evaluated and prospected the application of Think-aloud Protocols in translation. He pointed out that if Think-aloud Protocols is to be further developed in the field of translation, the external factors that may affect the experimental results should be further controlled in the course of the experiment (Li 2005:43-46).

In addition, it is known that in empirical studies, the number of participants ought to be at least 30. Nevertheless, in most TAPs experiments, the number of subjects is not more than 30. (Jääskeläinen 1993: 99-120) Invited 4 participants in his TAPs study and concluded that “the number of subjects of most TAPs researches is 1 to 12”. Meanwhile, it is difficult to find 30 or more participants who share the same education background. What’s more, the analysis is with extensive workload and time-consuming (Li 2004: 385-391). In view of this fact, 4 participants are selected as subjects in this research.

3.4 Research Participants

The participants of Think-aloud Protocols experiment need to express their thinking process accurately and completely, so participants are mainly English native speakers who are talkative, patient and willing to cooperate with the experiment. In the process of this Think-aloud Protocols experiment, participants did not know enough about Chinese culture, so some detailed explanations were given to help participants to understand the background information of the article. Four Americans of different ages and genders were chosen. Two of them are foreign teachers who just arrived in China in a few days, and two of them are college students in the United States who have never been to China.

3.5 Data Collection

3.5.1 Data Source

The materials for this research were collected from Confucius Institute Publications from 2009 to the latest issue of 2018. Columns closely related to Chinese culture and society were selected, including “Culture”, “Picture Story”, “Transcending Times”, “Views of China”, “Discovering China”, “The Tao of Cuisine”, “Travel” and “Lifestyle”. All the articles in these columns were studied and all the metaphors were identified, after which these metaphors were classified into two types, namely congeneric metaphor and heterogeneous metaphor as exemplified in Table 2.

Table 2 Examples of Metaphors

In the 11 sentences, all together 11 metaphors were used and there was one absence of metaphor when translated from Chinese into English. Out of the 11 metaphors, 4 was congeneric metaphor and 7 heterogeneous. Then, all of the 11 metaphors were designed as TAPs materials to testify how English natives understand these translations of metaphors.

3.5.2. Procedure of Data Collection

Two questions were asked concerning each metaphor. The first one is “What do you think the metaphor means in this sentence?” to know if participants can understand the meanings. The second question is whether this metaphor is properly used in this sentence. If yes, the researcher continued to ask them to give other examples where the metaphor can be used. If no, a better metaphor for this context was required. The whole course of the experiment was recorded. Each experiment lasted for about 20 minutes, and finally the record was transcribed into text to analyze the oral discourse based on the Appraisal Theory.

Participants’ verbalization was recorded for later transcription as the data to analyze their attitudes towards the translation of metaphor by applying the Appraisal Theory. After the TAP experiments, the author made an assessment on the quality of the recordings, and all of the four recordings were considered to be suitable for the study.

The transcription should be complete, true, and reliable. The slip of the tongue and repetition recorded were both transcribed. It included both verbal and nonverbal messages such as pauses and silence. Speech pauses were marked with comma or semicolon while silence, where the pause time was longer than three seconds, was marked with the ellipsis(...) or the ellipsis(......) together with the pause time in the parentheses if the pause time was longer than five seconds. For example, the six-second silence could be transcribed as “......(6’)”.

3.6 Data Analysis

The data for the TAP experiment were the transcribed texts and they were analyzed based on the Appraisal Theory, or the Appraisal Systems, which was to evaluate language users’ attitude through evaluative lexis. The Appraisal Systems can be classified into three sub-systems, Attitude, Engagement, and Graduation. Among all the three sub-systems, attitude system were adopted to design the experiment and analyze the transcribed text.

In the transcribed texts, the data concerning with affect, judgment and appreciation were sorted out and used to measure the participants’ acceptance. The affect system focuses on the expression of positive or negative emotions; the judgment system reviews people’s behavior according to ethical, moral and social conventions; and the appreciation system involves aesthetic evaluation. All the three systems have a positive and negative dimension. The positive words or expressions indicated participants’ higher level of acceptance of the given translation while the negative ones indicated lower level.

Words and phrases which belong to attitude system are highlighted in bold and marked with their subsystems and categories. For example, the word “correct” in the transcription was marked as “correct [attitude: judgement propriety]”. Finally, frequency and percentage of words from each subsystem and positive and negative words in each subsystem was counted in order to analyze the acceptance of metaphors in the English Translation of Confucius Institute Publications as a whole.

Chapter Four Results and Discussions

4.1 Results

According to statistical analysis on the oral discourse, a total of 107 attitudinal words and phrases are found, of which affect system has 26 words (24.2% of attitudinal words and phrases), judgment system has 67 words ( 62.6% of attitudinal words and phrases) and appreciation system has 14 words ( 13.1% of attitudinal words and phrases).

Table 3 Frequency and Percentage of Three Subsystems

4.1.1 Affect

Affect system is the expression of people’s emotion and feeling. Affect can also be achieved through the process of relationships. Speakers use these language resources to express the emotional impact of events or phenomena on them, and to evaluate the phenomenon from an emotional perspective. The emotional expression of appraisal attitude may be positive or negative, it may be direct or implicit. It reflects the feelings and positions of the speaker and the author. Judgment system is divided into two subsystems: social judgment and social restraint.

Transcribed text 1: “Oh, uh, yeah, it’s a good [attitude: judgement propriety] metaphor. Here, sandwich layer, we also like to use it, you know, to describe something was stuck between two piece of bread. I think, I think sandwich here means, Chen Xiaopin right? He was facing the great pressure [attitude: affect security] from, you know, can’t afford the house. Maybe China become powerful [attitude: affect satisfaction] but, i guess, people still are not that rich [attitude: affect satisfaction].” (sandwich layered, housing problem)

Transcribed text 2: “I think I misunderstood [attitude: affect happiness] it because I’ve heard that before. Somebody was actually talking about like a couple of days ago. But it seems not correct [attitude: judgement propriety] in this situation.” (a single-log bridge, Gaokao, College entrance examination in China)

In the transcribed text 1, when describing the meaning of “sandwich layered”, the participant used words like “great pressure” and “not that rich” to convey a negative emotional evaluation. On the one hand, it can be found that this metaphor “sandwich layered” accurately conveys the meaning of its expression, and readers can easily understand the great pressure of housing problems which Chinese young people are facing now. On the other hand, although China’s international status has improved a lot, foreigners still have many misunderstandings about people’s living conditions in China, and there is still a gap in the effectiveness of overseas-targeted publicity.

In the transcribed text 2, it can be found that participant use words “misunderstood” , for native speakers seldom use these phrases in their daily life. So when using “a single-log bridge” as a metaphor in the article, it will make readers confused even they have enough context. Readers can understand neither the meaning of this phrase, nor the meaning of the whole sentence. Readers even can be misled by this kind of metaphor.

Emotional words and phrases account for the second largest proportion (26, 24.2%) of the all the attitude words. In all 26 emotional words and phrases, 16 (61.5%) of them are positive words while only 10 (38.5%) of them are negative. Most of the metaphors received positive comments such as “good”, “satisfy” and “understandable”. The rest of metaphors like “a pretty girl of a small well-to-do family” and “the beauty of the moon” receive negative words such as “misunderstood”, “can’t understand” and “confused”. It can be found that most of metaphors’ usage are very appropriate so that participants can accept and understand their original meanings. Only a few metaphorical words and phrases are not appropriate enough. Most of the negative emotion reflected by participants was caused by lack of accuracy and uncommon expression instead of spelling and grammatical mistakes.

4.1.2 Judgment

Judgment is a positive or negative evaluation of human personality and behavior, which is based on the establishment of ethics or rules. Social judgment is related to ethics, morality and psychological state. It usually makes judgments from habits, abilities and resilience. Social restraint is related to laws, regulations and social rules, and it judges from two aspects: authenticity and legitimacy. The judgment system can judge whether an individual’s behavior conforms to the norm, whether an individual is talented and strong, and whether a person is honest and proper.

Transcribed text 1: “I think it’s a little complicated [attitude: judgement normality] to understand.” (flower-like years, Great changes of Clothing fashion in China over the past 40 years)

Transcribed text 2: “I think I misunderstood [attitude: affect happiness] it because I’ve heard that before. Somebody was actually talking about like a couple of days ago. But it seems not correct [attitude: judgement propriety] in this situation.” (a single-log bridge, Gaokao, College entrance examination in China)

Transcribed text 3: “Yeah I know what “24-7” is. It’s pretty straightforward [attitude: judgement normality]. We often use this word.” (24-7, e-museum)

Judgmental words and phrases account for the largest proportion (67, 62.6%) of the all the attitude words. In all 67 judgmental words, 41 (61.1%) of them are positive words, while only 26 (38.9%) of them are negative words. Participants used words like “complicated”, “not correct” and “abnormal” to describe metaphorical words like “flower-like years” and “a single-log bridge”. Meanings of these metaphors can be understood, but it’s difficult for participants to connect them with meanings that expressed in the sentences. However, most of the metaphors like “24-7”, “a window” and “sandwich layered” were judged as “pretty straightforward”, “descriptive enough” and “helpful”. These metaphors have had wide acceptance in native speakers whether they are common metaphorical usages or not.

4.1.3 Appreciation

Appreciation system belongs to the category of aesthetics. It is mainly used to express people’s aesthetic evaluation of the state of things. As a resource to explain language phenomena, appreciation system generally evaluates natural objects or abstract structures, such as products, processes, or policies.

Transcribed text 1: “I have never played go game before, but this metaphor is very clear and digestible [attitude: appreciation composition] .” (a lookout platform, go game)

Transcribed text 2: “It probably means this examine is, hard, and only one student could pass, I guess. It’s perfect [attitude: judgement reaction] , I can’t imagine a better words.” (a single-log bridge, Gaokao, College entrance examination in China)

Appreciated words and phrases account for the smallest proportion (14, 13.1%) of all the attitude words, and almost all of them express positive meanings. Participants used words like “digestible”, “clear”, “straightforward” and “perfect”, highly praised the translation of these metaphors. Participants thought that most of metaphors are easy to understand, including metaphors like “24-7” and “sandwich layered” which native speakers also use in their daily life. Some of the metaphors such as “a birds’ wings” and “a lookout platform” are not their common usage, but with contexts and topics, participants also thought that the use of these metaphors is very appropriate. In conclusion, participants were able to understand most of the metaphors in the Think-aloud Protocols experiments. They highly praised that some of metaphors like “a single-log bridge” and “the beauty of the moon” show Chinese characteristics and they are easy to be understood as well.

4.2 Discussion

Among all 11 metaphorical words and phrases, five of them are considered not acceptable enough while the rest six can be understood by English native speakers. The five metaphors include: “a single-log bridge”, “flower-like years”, “a child face”, “a pretty girl of a well-to-do family” and “the beauty of the moon”.

According to the classification of the metaphors in terms of whether the substitution between CONCRETE-ABSTRACT concept is involved, they can be grouped into two categories: congeneric metaphors and heterogeneous metaphors. Of all 11 metaphors, four belong to congeneric metaphor and six belong to heterogeneous metaphors.

In all congeneric metaphors,“a pretty girl of a well-to-do family” is the only one that can’t be accepted, while “a lookout platform”, “glittering diamonds” and “a bird’s wings” are acceptable. In general, it can be inferred that congeneric metaphors are relatively easy for English natives to accept. For example, in the article, “glittering diamonds” is used to describe rays of sunlight shining through tree leaves, which almost everyone has a similar experience of seeing. The translator successfully grasped the common features of ontology and metaphor, glittering, and all of the participants felt the beauty of the light. However, when describing the cuisine as “a pretty girl of a well-to-do family”, though one of the four participants could understand the features, all of them couldn’t make connections between cuisine and a pretty girl or a well-to-do family.

In all the heterogeneous metaphors, only half can be understood, including “sandwich layered”, “24-7” and “a window”. Participants indicated that these three metaphors were also common usage in their daily life. These translations keep the original meaning and are easy to accept as well, which well embody the purpose-driven translation strategies (Wang 2016: 87-96). The rest of three metaphors are hard to understand. They have the common features that they are all too abstract and their contexts are closely related to Chinese history and culture. For example, a participant thought that “a single-log bridge” made him a little bit confused, for native speakers seldom use these phrases in their daily life. Its original meaning that only one person could pass seems too abstract for English natives to understand. On the one hand, these kind of heterogeneous metaphors contains distinctive Chinese characteristics. On the other hand, the translations excessively keep the original expression of our own language but ignore their acceptability (Xiao 2011: 61-63). Therefore, when translating, translators cannot take it for granted that English natives can easily understand the Chinese characteristic expressions such as “a single-log bridge” and “flower-like years”. They must have audience awareness, which means that they should appropriately add some description of cultural background based on English natives’ cognition (Chen 2013: 95-100).

The one which belongs to neither of the two categories is “the beauty of the moon”. This metaphorical phrase is translated from the word “Chanjuan” in the ancient poem “但愿人长久，千里共婵娟”. The original meaning of this word is beauties or their beautiful appearance in Chinese, and it means moon in the poem. Only under the background of Chinese culture can people understand this metaphor, not to mention combining the original meaning with the reunion of the Mid-Autumn Festival. This cognitive gap between English and Chinese metaphor causes the cognitive absence, so “Chanjuan” was translated into its original meaning “the beauty of the moon”. The translator tried to give readers more mapping condition and construct metaphorical cognition to connect the phrase “share the beauty of the moon” with “the reunion in Mid-Autumn Festival” (Niu 2011: 192-193). However, all of the participants can only understand the superficial meaning, but can’t get the meaning of “the reunion in Mid-Autumn Festival”. So under the situation of cognitive absence in different culture, translations are hard to be accepted by native speakers.

Chapter Five Conclusion

5.1 Major Findings

The purpose of the current study is to investigate the acceptance of English translation of metaphors in Confucius Institutes Publications to English natives. The major findings are summarized as follows:

1. According to the analysis of the appraisal theory, most of the metaphors in the Confucius Institutes Publications can be understood by native speakers. Some of the metaphors are not their common usage, but with contexts and topics, participants still thought that the translations were very appropriate, and highly praised their Chinese characteristics. However, it was difficult for participants to understand some of the translations because English natives do not know enough about Chinese culture. The percentages of emotional words and phrases are the second largest, while the percentages of appreciation category are relatively small, which indicates that most of the translations are appropriate, so participants can accept and understand their original meanings. Most of the negative emotion reflected by participants is caused by lack of accuracy and uncommon expression instead of spelling and grammatical mistakes. Judgmental words and phrases account for the largest proportion of the all the attitude words, and over 60% of them express positive meanings. Meanings of these metaphors can be understood, but it’s difficult for participants to connect them with meanings expressed in the sentences. Appreciated words and phrases account for the smallest proportion of all the attitude words, and almost all of them express positive meanings.
2. As for the terms belonging to different classifications of metaphors, all 11 metaphors can be grouped into two categories: congeneric metaphors and heterogeneous metaphors. Congeneric metaphors like “a lookout platform” and “glittering diamonds”are relatively easy for English natives to accept, while in all heterogeneous metaphors, only half (3 of 6) can be understood. These translations keep the original meaning and are easy to accept as well, which well embody the purpose-driven translation strategies. The rest of them are closely related to Chinese history and culture, therefore they are too abstract for English natives to understand. The example of “the beauty of the moon” belongs to neither of the two categories. Because of the cognitive absence between the English readers and Chinese culture, its ontology is used as its translation. However, all of the participants could only understand the superficial meaning, but failed in getting the meaning of “the reunion in Mid-Autumn Festival”. In conclusion, relatively congeneric metaphors are much easier to be understood than heterogeneous one. The more abstract, profound in its historic and cultural background the metaphor translation is, the more uncommon the metaphor expressions is, the harder for English natives to understand and accept, and the lower their acceptance is.

5.2 Limitations and Suggestions

Although the experiment, analysis and discussion on the native English speakers’ acceptance of metaphor in the English translation of Confucius Institute Publications have been completed, some problems still remain to be solved in this study. Firstly, Since the founding of Confucius Institute Publications, only about 50 journals have been published. The original corpus of the study is insufficient, which leads to the limited number of metaphors can be selected. Secondly, the methodology of this study, the Think-aloud Protocols, needs to be more rigorous, and external interference which may affect the experimental results should be controlled as far as possible in its process as well (Li, 2005(6):43-46). Finally, this thesis does not discuss the relevant translation strategies and specific translation methods of these culture-related metaphors, which deserves further study.

References

Bowles, M. A. (2010). The Think-Aloud Controversy in Second Language Research[M]. New York: Routledge.

Granato, L. (2005). Appraisal in media interview [R]. International Conference on Evaluation and Text Types.

Jääskeläinen, R. (1993). Investing translation strategies[J]. Recent Trends on Empirical Translation Research: 99-120.

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