How Imagery Variation Influences the Effectiveness of Deliberate Metaphor in Translation

YU Yajing

Foshan University

Page 043-053

Abstract: In metaphor translation, adjustments such as expansion, narrowing, refinement, or supplementary elaboration often occur to the source domain imagery, but the impact of these adjustments on the effectiveness of deliberate metaphors remains to be explored. Taking the cases of deliberate metaphors in the award-winning works of the “Mao Dun Literature Prize” as examples and based on Deliberate Metaphor Theory, this study analyzes the specific impact of the adjustment of source domain imagery on the effectiveness of deliberate metaphors. It finds that such adjustments, when aligned with the original metaphorical intent, preserve cognitive and rhetorical effectiveness while reducing the difficulty of target-readers’ comprehension. The research shows that deliberate metaphor translation emphasizes communicative and cognitive fidelity over literal equivalence and demonstrates that purposeful imagery adjustments facilitate cross-cultural metaphor identification without compromising the effectiveness of deliberate metaphor.

Keywords: deliberate metaphor, Deliberate Metaphor Theory, imagery variation, translation effectiveness, metaphor translation

DOI: 10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202601004

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