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Anchor Academic Publishing
disseminate knowledge
An internationally peer-reviewed journal of
Arabic-English translation studies
Sayyb Translation Journal (STJ)
volume 5, 2013
Ali Almanna
Almanna, Ali: Sayyb Translation Journal (STJ) volume 5, 2013: An internationally peer-
reviewed journal of Arabic-English translation studies, Hamburg,
Anchor Academic Publishing 2015
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Druck/Herstellung: Anchor Academic Publishing, Hamburg, 2015
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Printed in Germany
Sayyab Translation Journal (STJ), volume 5, 2013
Sayyab Translation Journal (STJ)
An internationally peer-reviewed journal of
Arabic > < English translation studies
Editors-in-chief
- Said Faiq,
- Ali Almanna,
American University of Sharjah, UAE
University of Durham, UK
Editorial Board
- Rifaat Ebied,
Dinha T. Gorgis,
University of Sydney, Australia
USA
- Abdul Sahib Mehdi Ali,
University of Sharjah, UAE
- Paul Starkey,
University of Durham, UK
- Abdulallah Shannq,
Yarmouk University, Jordan
- Zouhair A. Maalej,
King Saud University, Riyadh
- Hussein Abdul-Raof,
University of Leeds, UK
- Majid Al-Najjar,
University of Applied Science, Jordan
- Raymond Chakhachiro,
University of Western Sydney, Australia
- Sameh F. Hanna,
University of Salford, UK
- Ali R. Al-Hasnawi,
Al-Buraimi University College, Oman
-Adil Al-Kufaishi,
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Founder
- Ali Almanna,
University of Durham, UK
Advisory Board
- Salih Altoma,
Indiana University, USA
- Basil Hatim,
American University of Sharjah, UAE
- Roger Allen,
University of Pennsylvania, USA
- Mohammad Farghal
Kuwait University, Kuwait
- Hassan Ghazala,
Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia
- Ovidi Carbonell,
University of Salmanca, Spain
- Majeed A. al-Mashta,
Babylon University, Iraq
- Rasoul Al-Khafaji,
Middle East University, Jordan
- Saleh Al-Rifai's,
Canadian Arabic Open University, Canada
- Murtadha J. Bakir,
Qatar University, Qatar
- Michael F. Hall,
UK
- Hoda Elsadda,
University of Manchester, UK
ISSN
:
1757-5222
Sayyab Translation Journal (STJ), volume 5, 2013
CONTENTS
Translation of War Metaphors in Economic Texts from English into Arabic
Maria Nader
1
Translating Contrast and Denial of Expectation-Expressing Discourse
Connectives
Hassane Lounis
23
Altered Semiotics through Translation
Said M. Faiq & Reem Sabry
45
Translating Cultural and Literary Expressions from English into Arabic
57
A Qualitative Teacher-Student Oriented Approach to Translation Teaching
Ali Almanna & Hashim Lazim
71
Media Translation and Intercultural Dialogue
Aboudi .J. Hassan
87
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:
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Sayyab Translation Journal (STJ), volume 5, 2013, pp. 1-22
1
Translation of War Metaphors in Economic Texts from English
into Arabic
Maria Nader
University of Portsmouth, UK
ABSTRACT
One of the increasing linguistic practices in writing economic newspaper articles
and reports is the use of metaphors from the source domain of war. In fact, there is
no clear-cut answer as to why this is practiced, but apparently the two domains
have some elements in common even though they are different realms of
knowledge. This paper is based on data collected from economic newspaper
articles which areremarkably abundant in war metaphors that describe the
economic situation in general and the last economic crisis in specific and its
consequences. Various reasons have been detected for mapping the domain of war
onto the domain of economics. Among them is the intention to impress and attract
the audience to read the article, to raise awareness of a certain economic event or
phenomenon, or for prosodic purposes. Also, this paper investigates the techniques
according to which war metaphors are rendered into Arabic. The strategies of
translation may involve aradical diversion from, or even a rigid adherence to, the
source text metaphor.
Keywords:
Economic text, translation strategy, War, conceptual metaphor &
linguistic metaphor.
1.
Introduction
Text typology is a debatable issue in the field of translation studies due to the
different classifications of texts by different scholars. Many endeavours have been
made over the past forty years to create a clear typology of texts, but many of
these approaches failed because they lack coherence in describing the context
(Hatim and Mason, 1997: 128). Reiss (1981) believes there are three
communicative functions of a text
1
: informative (conveyance of content),
expressive (conveyance of artistically organised content) and operative
(conveyance of content with a persuasive character). Snell-Hornby (1988: 31)
states that such dogmatic generalisations can be deceptive because the majority
of texts are hybrid in form in that they have multi-dimensional structures, with a
blend of sometimes seemingly conflicting features: Shakespeare's sonnets contain
technical terminology of his day, while modem economic texts abound in
lexicalised metaphor, and advertisements are characterised by the varying
methods they use to present information.
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Journalists, for example, can expand their cultural knowledge by ample reading
outside their own discipline in that they can benefit from a literary work they have
read and utilize it in some way in their writings. Hatim and Mason (1997: 129)
accentuate that texts are multifunctional, normally displaying features of more
than one type, and constantly shifting from one type to another. Furthermore,
Newmark (1988, 42) highlights the samethought by stating that few texts are
purely expressive, informative or vocative: most include all three functions, with
an emphasis on one of the three. Consequently, there is a consensus on the idea
of multi-functionality of texts as far as the source text is concerned. However, the
translated version of some source texts may function in a different way depending
on the target language which might only use the informative or the aesthetic side.
As for the current study, it is conducted on economic newspaper reports which are
mainly informative text types and to some extent aesthetic in their use of the
metaphorical language. Economics, in general, is a reflection of the pragmatic
aspect of life, primarily the system of production and consumption of a society.
Therefore, the translator of academic and non-academic economic texts must
have a good knowledge of the domain and be familiar with its terminology in order
to communicate it accurately to the target text readers.
In the following sections, there will be an attempt to understand the origins of
metaphor usage in economic language and the gradual development as well as the
significance it gained later in this field. Moreover, the domain of economy is
conceptually interpreted in terms of war metaphors supported by relevant
examples from the data under investigation. More importantly, the techniques of
metaphor translation into Arabic are closely examined and evaluated.
2.
Metaphor in the Language of Economics
This paper looks into the use of war metaphors in economic newspaper
articles/reports and analyzing the implications they pose for translation into
Arabic. This is based on McCloskey's 1995 argument that economic discourse is
heavily metaphorical. Take for examplethe lexical items 'inflation', 'deflation',
'depression' and 'drop'. These abound in economic texts and are metaphorical by
nature. Metaphors are believed to help explain the changes in the economic
situation (Charteris-Black 2000, Boers 2000, Jäkel2003, White 1997, Boers and
Demecheleer 1997). Moreover, using metaphorical language in the economic
discourse is a practical linguistic method to make the latter less abstract and more
graspable to the readership. Metaphor is thought to be unconventional for the
main reason that it ignores the literal resemblance between the topic and the
vehicle
2
of the word and highlights more its figurative meaning. In their joint work
Metaphors We Live By, Lakoff and Johnson (1980) identifythe major implications of
metaphor in language. They argue that metaphors are not arbitrary, because
though they may vary from one culture to another, they are still derived mainly
Sayyab Translation Journal (STJ), volume 5, 2013, pp. 1-22
3
from peoples' physical, social and cultural experiences. Phillips (2007: 292) states
that the role of metaphor in the development of science and contribution to
knowledge is changing for the better; however this is still not widely discussed in
connection to the field of economics. The importance of metaphor in economics
was first identified in the works of Henderson (1982, 1994, 2000), McCloskey
(1983) on economic rhetoric, later by Mirowski (1994), Klamer and Leonard (1994)
and finally Phillips (2007) who looked at mathematical metaphors in economics.
Henderson initiates the discussion of metaphor in economics in the year 1982 and
points out the scarcity of metaphor analysis in this field in spite of the wide and
deliberate use of metaphor in economic texts. In 1983, McCloskey suggests that
metaphor should be investigated in the frame of an economic criticism aiming at
finding out how arguments sought to convince the reader. In the following
years, the language of economics including business and financial aspects has
received substantial attention. In the process of analyzing economic texts,
McCloskey (1983) attempts to demonstratethe ways rhetorical devices such as
metaphors can be exploited to eliminate the vagueness aspect attributed to the
economic language, and to give the impression that what is presented in the
economic scene is an incontrovertible fact. In his article Metaphor in Economics,
Henderson (1994) categorises metaphors in economic discourse into three groups:
metaphors which are applicable more generally, metaphors which have become
conventional tools in economic description and more original metaphorical images
that deal with specific situations. In addition, Henderson (1994: 110) opines that
metaphor in economic discourse functions as: textual rhetoric or perhaps as a
teaching device, to illustrate or exemplify;a central organizing principle of all
language; and as a device for exploring specific economic problems and as a basis
for extending the domain of economic ideas.
Moreover, Dobrota and Maftei (2002: 314) argue that West-European financial
newspapers make use of a big number of metaphors for the purpose of `jiggering
up a series of passionless statistics, or ruthless mergers', e.g. `Ray got rid of the
board and took over the reins', `the roost' and `the head'.According to Mihaela
and Liviu (1996), the lexical itemmarket is frequently used as a metaphor in
economic texts. For example, in one article entitled `Fools fight for favour in the
court of Mr. Market'published in the Financial Times, the author presents market
as a silly old fool who occasionally makes assets available to Berkshire Hathaway
beyond their fundamental value. The use of the metaphor market here is
criticized by Mihaela and Liviu (1996: 660) who consider the whole text is highly
metaphorical, seasoned with sarcasm and irony. Both scholars believe that an
article discussing economic issues should take the journalistic style into
consideration and cannot be subjective or loaded with figures of speech. This is
because newspaper articles have different audience from textbooks, and the
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journalist has to present both information and entertainment in that the latter is
achieved through a moderate use of metaphors to enliven the informative text,
e.g. fall can be substituted by tumble, plummet or other verbs (Mihaela and Liviu
1996: 660).
Some scholars classify metaphors in economic texts into groups. For example,
Newmark (1985: 320) distinguishes two types of economic metaphors: the
conceptual and the affective. Affective metaphors are usually technical or
organisational jargon whereas conceptual metaphors are abstract patterns under
which one source domain is defined by another source domain like talking
economics in terms of war. Lexicographic research has revealed that English, as
the international language of commerce and economic activities, encompasses a
multitude of metaphors belonging to the field of economics in particular and this
illustrates the reason for the various classifications proposed for metaphors in
general (DobrotaMaftei, 2002: 314).According to Dobrota Maftei (2002), the
literal translation of metaphors in economics from English into Romanian is
attributed to the fact that English has already well- established vocabulary in the
domain contrary to Romanian whose specialised vocabulary and even economy
are integrated more into the European and international economic system. This
also applies to Arabic whose economic terms are not completely established but
still in the making. Moreover, the language of economics contains a large range of
metaphoric terms, which can be classified according to different criteria (ibid:
314). For example, Ullmann (1962: 214) classifies economic metaphors into four
types:
1)
Anthropomorphic metaphors in which inanimate objects are ascribed the
features of the human body and its parts, e.g. arm's length price (the price
at which a willing buyer and a willing unrelated seller would freely agree to
the transact), lifting a leg (closing out one side of a long-short arbitrage
before the other is closed), daughter company, sister company, parent
company, etc. The purpose of humanising the economic entities is to make
the process of comprehension easier (cited in Dobrota and Maftei, 2002:
314-315);
2)
Animal metaphor type which is the use of names of animals in the field of
economics. For example, Bulldog market (the foreign stock market in the
United Kingdom), buck (slang for one million dollars), butterfly shift (a
non-parallel shift in the yield curve involving the height of the curve), bull
market (a situation in a stock market or currency market where prices are
rising and lots of shareholders are buying), shark (a person who lends
money at a very high rate of interest) and wildcat (of a project that is very
risky financially) (cited in Dobrota andMaftei, 2002: 316);
3)
Metaphors which identify an abstract term with a concrete property, e.g.
heavy industry, light industry and to catch a cold; and
Sayyab Translation Journal (STJ), volume 5, 2013, pp. 1-22
5
4)
Synaesthetic metaphors which focus on economic concepts and entities
and they are more expressive and suggestive, e.g. hot industry, salt the
books and to cook. In this category, there is transference from one sense
to another to create an aesthetic value butit is less frequently used. The
main point here is that a metaphor which refers to the sense of sight, for
instance, can be translated into another term in the target language with
reference to the sense of taste or smell. In line with this type of metaphor,
Newmark (1988: 43) states that metaphor is the link between the
expressive and the aesthetic function.
Even if business is not war in the literal sense, initial investigations disclose several
elements of similarity between the two fields in that both involve competition
among rivals who manoeuvre to achieve success and markets are seen as real
grounds for conflict between countries or big companies. The following sections
will show how our understanding of economy is mostly structured in terms of war
and conflict.
3.
ECONOMY IS WAR
/
CONFLICT
Initially, metaphors of war have been identified in the source texts and categorised
according to the relevant conceptual metaphor. Then their equivalents in Arabic
have been identified and put in groups each according to the translation strategy it
belongs to. To identify metaphors of war, I have primarily used the online Oxford
English Dictionary and the online Etymology Dictionary along with relevant
literature about metaphor in cognitive linguistics and translation, minor statistics
and personal intuition in some cases. This section addresses the use of war
metaphors in the source texts in an attempt to understand the mechanism and
functionality of metaphor usage in business/economic newspaper reporting. In
section 4, the Arabic translations of the English metaphors will be extracted and
analyzed in the light of the main translation strategies adopted by the translators.
According to the data inspected, the
WAR
/
CONFLICT
metaphor is one of the most
dominant and recurring source domains in the English texts. It is detected in thirty
two articles out of fifty under investigation, and it includes a total of forty one
metaphorical expressions. Some metaphors are reiterated in different lexical
forms, e.g. fightand fight back, attack and attackers, grappleand grappling;
butonly the first form of the lexical item is counted in recording the frequency.
One source text article entitledEuro remains on the right side of history includes
the highest number of
WAR
/
CONFLICT
metaphors compared to the other ones with a
total of sixteen metaphors where army, battle and attackers consecutively are the
most reiterated. However, the lexical item struggle ranks first in the frequency
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with a total of six occurrences in five different articles. In addition to the main
conceptual metaphor
ECONOMY IS WAR
/
CONFLICT
, sub-conceptual metaphors are
highlighted in this section such as
TRADE IS WAR
,
ECONOMIC PROBLEMS ARE ENEMIES
,
ECONOMIC
/
POLITICAL OPPONENTS ARE ENEMIES
,
ECONOMIC CRISES
/
COMPETITION ARE
/
IS
(
A
)
BATTLE
(
S
)(Charteris-black 2005) and
ECONOMIC LIFE IS A STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL
(Charteris-Black 2004: 138). The concept of
VICTORY VS DEFEAT
is underlined as well
as metaphors with authentic militant sense. The following table shows statistics of
the above-mentionedconceptual source domains and the linguistic metaphors
they involve along withthe total number of articles:
Source domain
Conceptual metaphor
Arabic
translation
Number of
linguistic
metaphors
Number of
articles
WAR/CONFLICT
TRADE IS WAR
1
ECONOMIC
PROBLEMS/CRISIS ARE
ENEMIES
1
ECONOMIC
CRISES/COMPETITION
ARE/IS (A) BATTLE(S)
16
ECONOMIC LIFE IS A
STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL
7
VICTORY vs. DEFEAT
-
8
Military terms
4
Unclassifiable
metaphors
4
Total
41
32
Table 1: The
WAR
/
CONFLICT
metaphor
The shift in global trade imbalances caused a surge in the trade deficits.
Therefore, in the past decade, five states have largely driven these imbalances.
Three of them, China, Germany and Japan, contributed to this by running huge
trade surpluses on which they are dependent for domestic employment growth.
On the other side, the United States of America and the trade-deficit Europe
dominated by Spain, Italy and Greece have counterbalanced the first three
countries in a state of challenge on the trade level. This challenge is accentuated
bythe sub-conceptual metaphor of
TRADE IS WAR
in the following example which
includes two war metaphors war and march in reference to soldiers' walk in
military drills:
1)
The world seems to be marching inexorably towards trade war.
Sayyab Translation Journal (STJ), volume 5, 2013, pp. 1-22
7
While the author is metaphorically comparing the world to an army marching in a
battalion to fight in a war in the above example, Europe's heads of government
and central bankers are referred to as enemies in the next example which
underlines the sub-conceptual metaphor
ECONOMIC
/
POLITICAL OPPONENTS ARE ENEMIES
:
2)
Enemies as they are, the two camps share the same prime article of faith:
that the nation-state is and will continue to be the absolute sovereign
within its borders.
Another conceptualisation
ECONOMIC PROBLEMS ARE ENEMIES
is emphasized in
examples 3 and 4 through using expressions like enemy and army:
3)
By focusing on deflation we are picking on the wrong enemy.
4)
The crisis came and the army advance.
Deflation is normally defined as a sustained period of falling prices which is a
common phenomenon in economics. It is regarded in example 3 above as a less
dangerous enemy threatening the economy of the United Kingdom, because there
are other riskier economic factors that contributed to the economic crisis in 2009.
As for example 4 above, the word crisis is metonymically used to underline the
conceptualization of
ECONOMIC CRISIS IS ENEMY
.
This enemyis fought against by the
army represented by bankers and investors. One less commonly used war
metaphorical expression encountered in the ST is hang, draw and quarter in
reference to the Middle Ages punishment forced on those accused of high treason
in England. Main bankers in the UK are the ones who will be punished and treated
like enemies as displayed in the next example:
5)
In the UK, all three main political parties will no doubt compete as to who
has the most bloodcurdling plan to hang, draw and quarter top bankers in
the run-up to the election.
The discussion here is about the fear that the corporate banking business would
leak from the US to Europe. This fear stems out from the fact that some powerful
corporate treasurers argued they need large complex banks to offer services to
their own complex international organisations.So and according to the example
above, the United Kingdom is willing to practise such harsh punishment on
bankers.
Furthermore, such terms as: battle, battalions, army, warning shot, Armageddon,
besiegers, weapon, warrior andbarricadesaccentuate the sub-conceptual
metaphor
ECONOMIC CRISES
/
COMPETITION ARE
/
IS
(
A
)
BATTLE
(
S
):
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6)
In this battle, the citadel emerged as the winner because it finally set aside
hesitation, prejudice and division.
7)
The battle for Europe's future is already taking place at another level.
In example 6 above, the Euro is metaphorically conceptualised as a citadel being
attacked by the market leaders in afierce battle to get rid of it. This example is
taken from an article entitled Euro remains on the right side of history. In this
particular article, things become more complicated for readers due to the
extensive use of war metaphors to the extent that one might feel as if reading a
warlike story not an economic article, or to the degree that readers become
witnesses of a real battle. In other words, the whole article is built on the theme of
the Euro's survival as a unified European currency. As for example 7, the
reference is to the battle that is taking place to save Europe's future by preventing
it from slipping back into a new and devastating debt crisis.
Example 8 next contains two war metaphors, i.e. besiegers and steeledby. The
metaphor 'besiegers' refers to those who believe that the Euro zone is not a
political union and can never become one. They are pictured in the same article as
attacking and besieging the Euro which is represented as a citadel resisting a big
army.
8)
The besiegers were thousands, steeledby convictions all the more fervent
for their extreme simplicity.
As for steeled by, it is most likely a metonym used to emphasise that convictions or
beliefs are weapons which can be fortified, i.e., steeled by in war time.
The use of war metaphors is continued in the same article. This time the image of
making a warning shot before starting a battle or a big war is conceptualised. The
expression a warning shot is used symbolically to refer to the fact that after
applying austerity measures the preliminary figures on UK gross domestic product
for the fourth quarter of 2010 were shocking. This is because the output fell by 0.5
per cent from the previous quarter. This shocking fact is metaphorically depicted
as a warning shot for economic leaders to take precautions to save the threatened
economy before a ferocious battle commencesas shown in this example:
9)
A warning shot for the British experiment.
Besides, an army consists of military units such as battalions. Thiswar related term
is used to accentuate the conceptual metaphor
ECONOMIC CRISIS IS A BATTLE
as
exposed in this example:
Sayyab Translation Journal (STJ), volume 5, 2013, pp. 1-22
9
10)
Its battalions were thousands of dealing rooms, connected into a global
network acting round the clock.
Other metaphors reflecting the idea of battlefield identified in the STs are: front,
the front line, rumble, bulwark, barricades, bloodbath and under the gun.
The consequences of a battle are usually deaths, scenes of destruction and
bloodshed. This image is conceptualised in the following example by using the
word bloodbathmetaphorically:
11)
Should there ever be a funding crisis, it is not clear how the Fed could easily
raise interest rates under such circumstances without causing a political
and economic bloodbath.
The bloodbath here refers to the political and economic depletion resulting from
raising interest rates during a funding crisis.
Charteris-Black (2004: 143) believes that the source domain of war can be used for
all types of human conflict and struggle in linguistic terms. Thus, the conceptual
key
ECONOMIC LIFE IS A STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL
is, according to Charteris-Black (2004:
138), a discourse specific version of
LIFE IS A STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL
. Furthermore,
Charteris-Black (2004:143) asserts that metaphor use in neo-classical economics
that has dominated in Britain and America since the early 1980s can be
represented by a conceptual key
ECONOMIC LIFE IS A STRUGGLE FOR PROFIT
. The
concept of
ECONOMIC LIFE IS A STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL
is accentuated in the data under
investigation by the use of such words as attack (also attackers), fight (and fight
back), defenders, grapple, struggle, ammunition and conflicts, e.g.
12)
It would be extraordinary for the IMF to attack a sharp fiscal tightening by
a member of the group of seven leading high-income countries with a large
structural fiscal deficit.
13)
Jersey was rewarded for its efforts to clean up its act by being granted a
place on a 'white list' of countries that co-operate in the fight against tax
evasion.
The use of the metaphors attack, fight and fight back implies that those who have
financial resources are vulnerable to attack, and even markets and currencies can
be vulnerable (Charteris-Black 2004: 143).
The two concepts of
VICTORY
and
DEFEAT
exist considerably in the data examined
and they foremost stand for victory and defeat in a battle. From a statistical point
of view, terms with a
DEFEAT
sense out number those referring to
VICTORY
in that six
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metaphors have been identified for the first, with just two for the second. The
main expressions representing the
DEFEAT
concept are: defeat, drubbing, rout,
retreat, surrender, capitulateandonly victory and triumph representing the concept
of
VICTORY
. All these metaphors conceptualise the idea of economic-political
competition as a battlefield. For example, the existential struggle with communism
and the collapse of communism are represented by the defeat of Moscow; the
capital of communism, led by Mikhail Gorbachev at the time:
14)
The outlines of the story are well known: West German chancellor Helmut
Kohl's determination to seize the moment to reunite his country; fevered
attempts by France and Britain to apply the brakes; enlightened statecraft
in Washington and an admission of defeat in Mikhail Gorbachev's
Moscow.
In a battle, soldiers re-position themselves depending on the battle progress. This
strategy is metaphorically used to depictthe stance of president Obama, for not
promising to veto the extension of low rates for all taxpayers, as a retreat to a
centrist position:
15)
Once again, his possible retreat to the more centrist position is mapped
out.
In addition, the
VICTORY
concept is represented in the following example as a
Pyrrhic victory:
16)
The multi-trillion dollar question is whether winning this race will be
anything more than a Pyrrhic victory.
The term Pyrrhic, as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary, means Designating
an ancient Greek war dance simulating the movements of combat and performed
in full armour; of, relating to, or resembling this dance. This adjective usually
collocates with victory; however, `Pyrrhic victory' is a victory achieved with heavy
toll and this makes it less cheerful. The race referred to in the above example is
between Frankfurt and Paris for getting into London's business and it also refers to
Asian centres, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo, taking market share from both
New York and London.
The final group of war metaphors found in the STs is the one which includes
military terms such as manoeuvre, militancy, firepower, and counter-attack. These
words are classified as military because they are specific to tactical and strategic
war planning:
Sayyab Translation Journal (STJ), volume 5, 2013, pp. 1-22
11
17)
But, leaving aside the fact that with interest rates near zero there is little
room for manoeuvre, the impact on the real economy of changes in the
interest rate remains highly uncertain.
By definition, manoeuvre means: The planned or regulated movement of troops,
armoured vehicles, vessels, etc; a tactical or strategic movement or change of
position [...] OED. In example 17 above, the term manoeuvre underlines the idea
that there is less freedom for the monetary authorities, which usually focus policy
around setting the short-term government interest rate, after interest rates hit to
zero.
The other military term militancy which etymologically stems out of the warlike
term militantis figuratively used in the economic discourse as:
18)
But those who lived through that era know how different conditions now
are: no serious trade union militancy and negligible inflation.
Here, the trade union is depicted as a military organisation which is not ready
currently to launch any war (no serious trade union militancy).
As a matter of fact, the source domain of
WAR
/
CONFLICT
is a prolific domain for
metaphor in English economic discourse as shown in the above analysis. It
comprises of six sub-conceptual metaphors and forty one metaphorical
expressions in a total of fifty articles collected. The following sections will discuss
the frequency of the war metaphors in the Arabic translations as well as the main
strategies adopted in the translation process.
4.
The
WAR
/
CONFLICT
metaphor in Arabic and Implications for
translation
Data analysis demonstrates four main strategies that have been most commonly
used by translators to transfer the conceptual and linguistic warmetaphors into
Arabic. The following table shows statistics ofthe four techniquesof translation
according to their frequency, the number of metaphorical expressions they involve
and examples on each strategy:
ISSN:
1757-5222
Translation Strategy
Number of
metaphorical
expressions
English examples
Arabic translation
Equivalent
Translation
36
`bloodbath',
`battle', `target'
English non-
metaphor/ zero
metaphor into
Arabic metaphor
4
`to address'
Omission of
Metaphor in the TT
4
`inroads' and
`marching'
Shift into Different
Source domain
3
`hang, draw and
quarter' and
`militancy'
Table 2: Strategies of Translating
WAR
metaphor into Arabic
Equivalent translation is the most dominant translation strategy used in the data
investigated, as shown in the table above, witha total of thirty six metaphors
rendered equivalently into Arabic. While the second and third strategies are equal
in the number of lexical items with four expressions each, the shift into another
source domain comes last with a total of only three metaphors. It is worth
mentioning that Shuttleworth's (2011: 307) terminology of micro and macro levels
of translation will be used in the following discussion. What is meant by the micro
level is the individual metaphorical expressionandthe macro level stands for the
conceptual mappings. It is also noteworthy that some of these expressions are
repeated more than once in the source texts but their translations differ according
to the context. So, they are found in more than one strategy and are included in
the total number of each one of them.
4.1
Equivalent Translation: English WarMetaphor into Equivalent Arabic
Metaphor
This strategy involves translating the English war conceptual metaphor into its
counterpart in Arabicby using equivalent linguistic expression. The source domain
of war includes forty one English metaphorical expressions. On the micro level,
thirty six lexical items are translated word for word into Arabic with one
metaphorical expression, 'under the gun', more explicated in the target text.
Statistics show that Arabic tends to use almost as many
WAR
/
CONFLICT
metaphors
as those used in English in economic news reporting. This leads to the conclusion
Sayyab Translation Journal (STJ), volume 5, 2013, pp. 1-22
13
that both languages are rich in this type of metaphor. Some of the equivalently
rendered metaphors are: counter-attack, retreat, the front line, bloodbath, battle,
target, war, weapon, bulwark, fight back, conflicts, ammunition, Armageddon,
victory, struggle and besiegers, e.g.
19)
ST: Greece, then, is the front line of a wider battle to stay on the path
demanded by European Monetary Union.
TT:
BT: Therefore, Greece is the front line of a wider battle to stay on the path
demanded by the life of the Monetary European Union.
While the translator, in the above example, has opted for two Arabic expressions
equivalent to the
WAR
/
CONFLICT
English metaphors front line and battle, the
metaphorical expression 'under the gun', in the next example, is more explicated
in the TT as displayed in the back translation:
20)
ST: The political commitment to the Eurozone of every country that has
come
under the gun is unwavering.
TT:
BT: And the political commitment to the Euro zone by any country that fell
within the range of gunfire is unwavering.
The expression 'falls within the range of gunfire' is practical here as it is more
familiar in Arabic. It explains the idea of being in danger because of the economic
crisis, which is metaphorically conceptualised as a battle.
On the macro level, most sub-conceptual metaphors like
ECONOMIC PROBLEMS
/
CRISIS
ARE ENEMIES
,
ECONOMIC CRISES
/
COMPETITION ARE
/
IS
(
A
)
BATTLE
(
S
) and
ECONOMIC LIFE IS A
STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL
have been maintained in the Arabic texts except in the case
of the four metaphorical expressions translated into non-metaphors and that will
be discussed in section 4.3.
4.2
English war metaphor into a different Arabic metaphor
This section involves the shift from the source domain of war in the ST into
another in the TT. This translation strategy underlines the fact that different
shifting on the level of linguistic metaphors is a sign of having different
conceptualizations in both languages. In other words, the domain shift occurs on
both the macro and the micro levels.
ISSN:
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Only three metaphors in this source domain have undergone shifts into other
conceptual domains. For example, the metaphor 'fighting' shifts into the
FIRE
metaphor 'igniting' as follows:
21)
ST: But at least the challenge now is seeking a return to normality rather
than fighting new fires, as policymakers have spent much of the past two
years doing.
TT:
.
BT: But at least, the current challenge now is seeking a return to normal
situation and not igniting new fires, as policymakers have spent much of
the past two years doing so.
The ST conceptualises economic crises as enemies which need to be fought
against, whereas the translator emphasises the
FIRE
aspect of economy by shifting
the
WAR
/
CONFLICT
metaphor 'fighting' into 'igniting' in the TT. The literal rendering
of 'fighting fires' is not preferable as the two parts of the phrase do not collocate in
Arabic in that fires are either ignited or extinguished but not fought against. This
comes in line with Chung's (2012: 130) belief that an equivalent expression from
the same conceptual metaphor might still not be chosen by a translator due to
many factors such as collocations and the overpowering of frequency effect (e.g.
the prevailing sayings about the ups and downs of the economy in a certain
language).
Moreover, mistranslation occurs due to misunderstanding on the part of the
translator. Strictly speaking, the message carried by the metaphor in the original
text is to get rid of any new banking issues or problems and not to 'create' them
as the Arabic translation suggests.
Another source domain shift takes place when transferring the term 'militancy'
into the
MOVEMENT
metaphor 'movements' in the following example:
22)
ST: But those who lived through that era know how different conditions
now are: no serious trade union militancy and negligible inflation.
TT:
:
BT: But those who lived in that era know how different conditions now are:
there are no violent movements by trade unions, and inflation average is
so low to be neglected.
In the ST, 'militancy' refers to the systematic and organised activities made by
trade union in relation to helping inflation stay stable and balanced. However, in
Sayyab Translation Journal (STJ), volume 5, 2013, pp. 1-22
15
the TT and as shown in the BT above, the translator opts for the lexical item
'movements' to refer to the same activities but in a more general sense, i.e. there
is no allusion if they are organised or not unlike the meaning of 'militancy' which
implicates discipline.
The third metaphorical expression 'hang, draw and quarter' is shifted into the
RELIGION
metaphor 'punish' in example 23:
23)
ST: In the UK, all three main political parties will no doubt compete as to
who has the most bloodcurdling plan to hang, draw and quarter top
bankers in the run-up to the election.
TT:
BT: In the United Kingdom, there is no doubt that all the main political
parties will compete as to who has the most extreme plan to punish top
bankers in the run-up to the elections.
The action of 'hang, draw and quarter' was common in the Middle Ages as a way of
punishment forced on those accused of high treason in England. The translator, in
the above example, hasmerely communicated the sense by rendering the war
metaphor into 'punish' without referring to this specific way of torture. This
approach of translation might look shallow and uninteresting to Arab readers but
it is more convenient in an economic text.
4.3 English warmetaphor into Arabic non-metaphor
What best describes this strategy is the tendency to tone down English metaphors
by paraphrasing and/or using a more informative explication. Four lexical items
from the
WAR
/
CONFLICT
source domain are translated non-figuratively into Arabic.
They are: 'inroads' which is rendered into 'progress', 'firepower' into 'potentials',
'militancy' into 'movements', and 'marching' into 'heading to', e.g.
24)
ST: I doubt whether Frankfurt and Paris, ranked 13 and 20 respectively in
the Z/Yen survey, will make big inroads into London's business.
TT:
20 13
Z/Yen
BT: I doubt whether Frankfurt and Paris, which both ranked 13 and 20
respectively in the Z/Yen survey, will achieve big progress in the field of
business at the expense of London.
To achieve progress in the field of business is more likely to be conceptualised in
terms of invasion in English than in Arabic in which the
WAR
/
CONFLICT
metaphor
'inroads' above is downplayedinto the non- metaphor 'progress'.
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