Article

Name: Metaphor with the source sphere “path” in Boris Yeltsin’s 1999 New Year’s address and the peculiarities of its interpretation in the translation into Chinese

Authors: Chang, Jui-Cheng

National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan

Abstract:

The article analyzes the metaphor of PATH in Boris Yeltsin’s farewell New Year’s Address (1999) and the peculiarities of its translation into Chinese. The aim of the study is to identify the structure and functions of the metaphorical model “THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COUNTRY is A PATH” in the address and to analyze the specific features of its interpretation in the translation into Chinese.

The methodological framework of the study is based on cognitive, semantic, and pragmatic analysis of linguistic units, as well as a comparative analysis of the target text and the source text. The author characterized the frames and the slots of the model. The analysis reveals that Boris Yeltsin employs this metaphor to evaluate the economic reforms in Russia in the 1990s, justifies the necessity of the transfer of power, and charts the vector for the country’s future development. The comparative analysis shows that the translator predominantly used the strategy of preserving metaphorical images, which is facilitated by the presence of similar mapping conditions in Russian and Chinese. The preservation of the model’s frame-slot structure ensures an equivalent pragmatic effect for the target audience. The findings can be applied in courses of cognitive linguistics, political discourse, and theory of translation.

Keywords: political discourse, New Year’s address, conceptual metaphor, sphere source, frames, slots, translation

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