Arabic-English metaphor translation from a cognitive linguistic perspective

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the translation of Arabic metaphors into English in Naguib Mahfuz’s novel Zuqaq Al-Midaq (1966), which Trevor Le Gassick translated as Midaq Alley. With conceptual metaphor theory based on the notion of main meaning focus (Kövecses 2017) and the cogno-cultural approach (Al-Zoubi, Al-Ali, and Al-Hasnawi’s 2007) as its theoretical framework, it uses metaphor identification procedure (MIP) proposed by Pragglejaz Group (2007) to identify the metaphorical expressions and Steen’s steps (2007) to extract the conceptual metaphors from linguistic expressions. This study explores how metaphors reflect cultural aspects and how the same conceptual mappings can be realized differently according to the cultural context. The results reveal that metaphors of similar mapping conditions realized similarly constitute the most frequent category, followed by metaphors of similar mapping conditions realized differently, and then by metaphors of different mapping conditions. The study concludes with remarks on the strategies used in translating each category.