Understanding and reformulating metaphors: An empirical study on English-Chinese sight translation

Xiang, Xia; Zheng, Binghan

Abstract

In this study, 30 Intermediate Interpreting Course students are chosen as subjects and two experiments are conducted on them. The first experiment (within-subjects) involves two texts, one containing several metaphors, the other none; the second experiment (between-subjects) compares the performance of the experiment group and the control group, the only variable being the provision of background knowledge. The Triangulation Model takes the ST assessment scores and ST transcriptions as core data, supported by questionnaires and retrospective interviews. This study concludes with two main findings: 1) linguistic metaphors add greatly to the difficulty of performing ST, particularly in the accurate understanding of the source text; 2) background knowledge markedly reduces the difficulty a metaphor poses to ST.

Citation

Xiang, X., & Zheng, B. (2011). Understanding and reformulating metaphors: An empirical study on English-Chinese sight translation. Waiyu jiaoxue yu yanjiu, 43(3), 422-436

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: May 1, 2011
• Deposit Date: Mar 7, 2012
• Journal: 外语教学与研究/#/外語教學與研究
• Print ISSN: 1000-0429
• Publisher: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 43
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 422-436
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1502894
• Publisher URL: http://www.fltr.ac.cn:8080/EN/abstract/abstract8820.shtml