Metaphors and the Degree of Conventionality in Translation of Prose Fiction: A Fraction of the Whole in Focus

Abstract

The idea of metaphor classification is regarded as how felicitously they are entrenched in the everyday language spoken by people. Metaphor conventionality can be regarded as a scale whose opposite ends constitute conventional and creative metaphors. Logic indicates that the majority of linguistic metaphors are conventional rather than novel, since an excess of novel metaphors may remarkably bring about «communicative surprise» (Rabadán Álvarez, 1991), thus increasing cognitive processing time. This study seeks to scrutinize the scale of conventionality in the Persian translation of A Fraction of the Whole done by Peyman Khaksar. Based on purposive sampling, some chapters of the novel along with their Persian translations were selected for analysis. MIP known as Metaphor Identification Procedure put forward by the Pragglejaz Group (2007) was employed in the study to identify metaphors. The findings reveal that, sometimes, the metaphors used in L1 are novel or creative, but the translator draws upon conventional or entrenched ones in L2, or vice versa. The aim is to show the translator's choice of metaphor in terms of a conventionality scale using some previous cognitive models in this regard. © 2021 Universidad de Cordoba,Servicio de Publicaciones. All rights reserved.