1 Introduction

Currently, with the development of in-depth globalization and the increasing frequency of cross-cultural communication, higher requirements have been put forward for domestic translation, especially the translation of external publicity materials with Chinese characteristics, which plays an important role in the construction of China’s image and the promotion of Chinese culture. (Wang &Ni, 2020). Of all the publicity materials, the government work report is undoubtedly the most concerned. Since it covers politics, economy, culture and people’s livelihood, it should certainly become an important channel for the world to learn about China’s national conditions and development. (Zhou, 2020) To solve the problem of Chinese discourse system and Chinese culture going out, global publicity translation is an indispensable and important link.

Since the conceptual metaphors not only express the political ideas and policies, but also inspire the pragmatic functions of emotion and persuasion of people, and guide the mass political tendency (Shi, 2016), this paper chooses the government work report as the language material to focus on the English translation of the conceptual metaphor in the government work report to explore and analyze those translation metaphors and their effects. The translation strategy is carried out under the functional equivalence theory of Nida and combined with the characteristics of the political discourse in the government work report, so as to make the English translation of metaphor full of vitality and improve the official translation level.

2 Theoretic Framework

Functional equivalence theory is asserted by Eugene Nida, an American linguist who initially applied the theory to the translation of the Bible. In 1964, Nida proposed the concept of “dynamic equivalence” for the first time in Translation Science, arguing that the focus of translation research should be shifted from static text information to dynamic text information. Nida, again in the translation theory and practice in 1969, explained the dynamic equivalence lying in the response of the readers of the translation and the response of original readers to the original basic agreement, and caused the misunderstanding of the dynamic equivalence. (Nida, 1969) It is widely accepted that the translation only pays attention to content but does not pay attention to form. So in 1986, Nida renamed the dynamic equivalence into functional equivalence when translating Bible. (Nida, 1986) It refers to the equivalence not only include the ideological content, but also language form.

Nida’s functional equivalence theory provides a theoretical framework for translation studies. First, it defines the translation criteria: the accuracy of the translation depends on the readers’ correct understanding of the original text; the second is that “the most appropriate and natural equivalence” proposed by him, covering both original readers and translation readers. Third, he breaks the traditional meaning of translation and introduces the concept of “functional equivalence”, so that translation is no longer just a one-way process of source-translator-translation, but also a process of translation readers’ understanding and evaluation of the original text. (Qiu, 2010)

3 Conceptual Metaphor And Translation Method

The conceptual metaphor, proposed by Lakoff, is a cognitive means using relatively familiar concepts to understand and explain relatively unfamiliar concepts. In Body of Mind, Johnson (1980) explains the two cognitive structures of how language is understood or used, namely image schema and metaphor structure, and their material basis. John firmly holds the idea that image schema and metaphor structure are both essential parts of human thinking structure, and also the way people form new associations, while the material basis comes from the interaction and kinesthetic experience between humans and the outside world. (Hu, 2004)

It was not until the Lakoff proposed the concept of metaphor to be the cognitive mechanism did foreign scholars wondered if the metaphor could be translated in the 1970s. Just as Dagut (1976: 22) admits that “little attention has been paid to metaphor in translation field.” And the attitudes are as follows: “(1) the metaphor can be completely translated; (2) the metaphor cannot be translated at all;(3) the metaphor can be partly translated.”

 After academic discussion, western scholars felt obliged to establish the systematic theory applied to the conceptual metaphor translation. They divided the metaphor translation into three aspects: source-oriented and target-oriented. Firstly, in the source-oriented method, the strategies can be put forward as follows that proposed by Van de Broeck (1981:17) : “ transforming, substitution, and paraphrase.” Transforming means translating both the tenor and vehicle of the source language into the target one. Substitution stands for the source language carrier is replaced by in the target language with the same carrier as the primitive carrier body. Paraphrase means using a non-metaphorical expression to explain the connotation. Newmarks (2001) has asserted that the key to metaphor lies in the retention of imagery, summarizing seven methods in translation: (1) reappear the same metaphorical form in the target language; (2) substitute the metaphorical body in the source language with the proper one in the target language; (3) use simile rather than metaphor; (4) integrate simile with metaphor; (5) convert metaphor into metaphor;(6) ellipsis.

Based on the translation methods above, the author will try to analyze how conceptual metaphors in Chinese government reports are translated in English version.

4 Analysis of Chinese-English Translation Strategies

The author chooses ten years’ government report (2013-2023) as the study object. According to Lakoff's different cognitive patterns, the conceptual metaphors can be split into three types: the structural metaphors, spatial metaphors and ontological metaphors.  Above the quantities of metaphors, I find that the structural metaphor shows the most frequent occurrence.

Structural metaphor refers to the construction of a vague and abstract concept based on a concept with a clear structure and clear boundaries. Structural metaphor plays a very crucial part because they allow us to transcend directivity and signified and provide us with the possibility of building one concept from another. In the analysis, I will take“architecture” and “war”metaphor as examples and analyze what translation strategies are being put into use in structural metaphor.

4.1 “Architecture” metaphor

“Architecture” metaphor refers to the metaphorical expressions whose source domain bears relationship with “architecture”. In the government report, the “architecture”metaphor can be divided into two types: one serves as architectural behaviour such as the specific expressions “建筑” and“构建” that originally refer to the building itself; the other serves as the composition of the architecture, such as “pillar” metaphor，“roots” metaphor and “foundation” metaphor.

4.1.1 Retaining

Retaining means to keep the original metaphor and translate with the corresponding word in English. Here showing the retaining strategies in Table 1.

table 1  retaining method in architecture metaphor

As we can see from the table above, the corresponding words retain the same metaphor in English. For example, the sentence “加强廉政建设” is translated into “Efforts to build clean government need to be intensified.” The clean governance is compared to the architectural behaviour, otherwise the corruption will lead to the destruction of the “governance building”.

When it comes to the compositions, in fact, the Chinese source domain expression is very similar, for example, the specific expressions “基础”， “支柱” and “根基”. They are synonyms and the translation version shows the trend of synonyms, too, such as : “foundation”, “underpinned” and “cornerstone”. The composition expressions indicate that stressed things play the most crucial role in whether political and economic development, international cooperation and ideological development and other specific levels. Therefore, the compositions refer to the most important part, and it is because when building a construction, the foundation determines the success or failure of the building.

We can summarize the retaining method in “architecture” metaphor. Firstly, English synonyms can reoccur the same expression, such as “build (建设)”& “establish (建设)”. Secondly, the same English word can reproduce a similar expression in “architecture” metaphor, such as “build (建设)”& “build (构建)”. Thirdly, the English word with the same root can express the same Chinese expression such as “build (建设)”& “building (建设)”; “structure (结构)”& “structural (结构)”.

In conclusion, we can obviously figure out that the retaining method realizes the functional equivalence to the largest degree.

4.1.2 Replacement

Replacement refers to the use of either non-metaphor expression or other types of metaphor contrary to the original one in source language text (government report) in the translated version. In general, the free translation strategy is often adopted, that is, translation is not limited to the semantic meaning and the characteristic of words, but seeks to achieve the maximum dynamic equivalence with the target language. It is mainly used in the context of great cultural differences between the source language and the target language. Compared to the retaining, replacements are apparently fewer. The replacement phenomenon in “architecture” metaphor is shown in Table 2.

table 2  replacement method in architecture metaphor

In the example, “建立重特大疾病医疗救助制度” is translated into “a system of assistance for treating major and serious diseases was put in place”. Being put in place means something has been already prepared well, and it is better to return to its original meaning than to use “build” and “establish”. The translation regards the “建设” as a tough struggle or mission to be accomplished, which reflects the improving process of the culture advances should take great efforts and overcome difficulties.

When it comes to the sentence pattern like this: “以...为基础”，the translation of composition goes like “on the basis of...”; however, it is also translated into “guided by...”. The second version emphasizes that, for example, “以区域发展总体战略为基础”，the development is driven by general strategy for regional development. It can be also understood as “under the guidance of the regional general strategy”. Above all, we can conclude that different types of conceptual metaphor can replace the same “architecture” metaphor in Chinese, such as “put in place (建设)”, and the same “architecture” metaphor can be replaced by the same synonyms. English words with the same roots can manifest the same expression in “architecture” metaphor, such as “develop (建设)”& “development (建设)”. It also ignores the constraints of words’ forms in order to reach the biggest balance. Replacement is a flexible translating strategy and requires scrutiny, as it seeks to reach the maximum effect.

4.1.3 Ellipsis

Ellipsis means to omit the corresponding metaphorical expressions directly in translation, and it is often used in expressing national development. The reason why those corresponding words are directly omitted is because the given expression has already generalized the target meaning. For instance, “社会主义现代化建设” is translated into “socialize modernization”. It is obviously manifesting that the socialist modernization has already been sufficient to the process of establishment of modern socialist. In “基础设施”, there is a fixed usage: “infrastructure”. It neither belongs to retaining strategy nor the replacement. But it also stands for architecture metaphor. And the same for omission in “基础” expression, because the given expression has already expressed the meaning, so the specific expression to “基础” can be omitted. Furthermore, the omission strategy is widely used in metaphorical translation. Here showing the ellipsis strategy in Table 3.

table 3  ellipsis method in architecture metaphor

4.2 “War” metaphor

“War” metaphor is widely used in the government work report. And the expression about the “war” metaphor can be divided into two types: one is the type of battle, and the other is the means to win. Similar to the “architecture” metaphor, the source domain of “war” metaphor also expresses the national development, international cooperation and ideological construction.

4.2.1 Retaining

The high-frequency occurrence of “攻坚战” metaphors indicates the tough situation that China is facing. Here is Table 4 recording different expressions under the retaining method.

table 4  retaining method in war metaphor

From the table, we can see that in the “war” metaphor, there are multiple uses of retaining. It is mainly owing to that both Chinese and English regard the development as a war, and it costs time and efforts to fight against and win. In the types of war, “攻坚战” largely remains the action “fight” and “battle”. And “蓝天保卫战” keeps the “fight” to manifest “战”, but also retains the original meaning of “keep the blue sky” and shows the environmental protection.

As to the means of war, “部署”is translated into a noun, whereas we can regard the Chinese as a noun, too. Therefore, the three translations are synonyms to the closest equivalence to “部署”; the second one “攻关”is even more vividly showing the pass through the critical checkpoint through the translation “breakthrough”. And “斗争”is directly translated into “fight”. When it comes to “攻坚”，the retaining method uses three synonyms to describe overcoming difficulties.

In the result part, the “决胜” is exactly translated into the “decisive victory”. If we separate the “决胜”, it is divided into “决定性” and “胜利”，and in the “war” metaphor it shows the result of a war.

Therefore, in retaining method, English synonyms can be used to describe the same expression in Chinese, such as “battle (战)”& “fight (战)”, and this reflects to use metaphor interpreting the same usage of metaphor in the other language. Moreover, English synonyms can describe Chinese synonyms, such as “tackle key problems (攻关)” & “overcome/surmount problems （攻坚）”, which fully manifests the functional equivalence.

4.2.2 Replacement

Replacement in the translation of “war” metaphor breaks the limit of words’ character and metaphor usage, attaining the greatest realization of the real meaning. Here is Table 5 manifesting replacement in “war” metaphor.

table 5  replacement method in war metaphor

In the types of the war, “坚决打好三大攻坚战”is translated into “we made decisive progress in three critical battles”. The phrasal verb “攻坚” is translated into the adjective “critical”. The use of “critical” highly generalizes the importance of “攻坚战”， and the contest here is to emphasize the importance of the battle but not the process of conquering it, and so as to the expression “攻坚”. In the “攻坚克难”, the English version goes like: “meet challenge head-on”. It also uses a noun phrase instead of the original verb phrase.

In the “部署”， the very different use of “launch” needs to be noticed. The original meaning of “launch” means “发射火箭/导弹”, and the original text in the government report is also related to the military sense.

In conclusion, the Chinese metaphors can be translated into non-metaphor expressions, such as “meet challenge head-on (攻坚)”& “ensure the implementation of...(部署)”. And similar Chinese metaphors can be translated into similar English metaphors, such as “critical battle (攻坚战)”& “critical/crucial stage (攻坚)”.

4.2.3 Ellipsis

In the “war” metaphor，there are lots of ellipsis methods. It is mainly due to the difference between Chinese and English. For example, Chinese tend to add components in the sentence while English tend to express explicitly in the sentence. For example, in the“坚决打赢脱贫攻坚战”, the translation “we need to fight to win the war against poverty” has already sufficiently expressed the main idea of poverty alleviation, therefore the direct expression of “攻坚战”can be omitted. Here is Table 6 showing ellipsis.

table 6  ellipsis method in war metaphor

5 Conclusions

The paper studied the translation method of conceptual metaphor in the government report under the functional equivalence theory by Eugene Nida. Under the guidance of the functional equivalence, I generalized three translation methods applied in the report: retaining, replacement and ellipsis. Retaining means to keep or reproduce the same metaphorical expressions or retaining metaphorical form in translation. Usually the English synonyms and words with the same roots are used in translation. As for replacement method, literally, it cited other types of metaphor to manifest this type of metaphor, and translated the original metaphor to some expressions in order to explain the exact meaning of the target domain. It also used non-metaphorical expressions to explain metaphor. Replacement realized the functional equivalence via using other types of conceptual metaphors or synonyms of other conceptual metaphors to replace the original metaphor. Whether the replacement is complete, partial or replaced with non-metaphorical form, it realizes the functional equivalence. And the ellipsis method applies even wider in the text by omitting redundant components.

Therefore, the three methods which have been put in translation adhere to the functional equivalence theory. But the preciseness of the report needs to be improved. For instance, “2021年工作部署” is translated into “what will the government do.” The expression is too simple but the meaning conforms to the original text, and the translation of “work plan” is more appropriate and adheres to the functional equivalence. Due to the author’s limited capacity, the paper remains shortcomings. I only take the “architecture” and “war” metaphor to analyze, though it is somehow representative, more examples may lead to more precision of the result.

Acknowledgment

My sincere and hearty thanks and appreciations go firstly to my supervisor, Professor Jinhong Yu, whose suggestions and encouragement have given me much insight into these translation studies. It has been a great privilege and joy to study under her guidance and supervision. I’m also extremely grateful to all my friends who have kindly supported me in the course of preparing this paper. In addition, my thanks go to my parents for their unfailing love and unwavering support. Finally, I’m grateful to all those who devote much time to reading this paper and give me much advice, which will benefit me in my later study.

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