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A Study of Translation of Common Sayings in The Governance of China from the Perspective of Grammatical Metaphor Theory

Liyuan Zeng

Abstract


The foreign dissemination of political texts is the key to enhancing the countrys international influence. The English version of
The Governance of China is one of the typical representatives. Since the publication of this series, there are fewer studies related to translating political texts based on linguistic theories, especially in the field of the translation of common sayings. To accurately convey the profound
connotations of common sayings and continuously promote cross-cultural communication, the study of the translation of common sayings is
indispensable. This thesis adopts Grammatical Metaphor as the theoretical framework and takes the common sayings from The Governance of
China as examples. It aims to explore how to choose the grammatical forms, word categories, and transform sentence structures to deal with
the translation of common sayings in political texts. The results of the study are as follows. When translating nominalization, verbalization and
mood metaphors, translators utilize the strategies of naturalization and retaining metaphorization to make the translations easier for audiences
to understand the original text and conform to their habits of expression. When translating modality metaphor, translators take advantage of
the strategies of dissimilation and de-metaphorization, so that the translated text retains the style of the original text. It can be seen that when
translating common sayings in political texts, the methods of metaphorical expression and re-metaphorization are usually used.

Keywords


Grammatical Metaphor; Translation of Political Texts; The Governance of China; Translation of Common Sayings

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.70711/rcha.v2i12.6327

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