An Analysis of Adjustments and Choices in the Translation of Metaphors into Sorani Kurdish in English Prose Fiction

Abstract

Within the realm of Cognitive Linguistics, Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) delves into the intricate nature of metaphor as a fundamentally cognitive and conceptual phenomenon. It posits that metaphors comprise two interconnected conceptual domains, perpetually interacting with one another; while also manifesting themselves through another linguistic layer distinct from the conceptual one. Using the many research and analytic tools developed by the champions of the theory, this research investigates what conceptual adjustments, or simply downright alterations, the translators introduce into the metaphors in the Kurdish translation of two important works of English fiction: Wuthering Heights and Animal Farm. The analysis will draw upon many researchers’ argument within CMT that the conceptual traffic between the source and target domain of the linguistic metaphor has, by nature, cultural implications as well. In other words, any adjustments made in the conceptual metaphor from the English towards the Kurdish equivalent have conceptual, and, by extension, cultural implications feeding into it.