Representation of motion in translation: A cognitive approach

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Abstract

Motion is one of the earliest, most basic experiences in our life. For linguists, this cognitive concept provides an important window to look into human cognition and language. The present study has considered how motion events are represented in the English text, the chapter 6 of The Hobbit (Tolkien,1937), named "Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire" and it,s Persian translation by Alizadeh (1383). The research questions are as follows:
1- what are the challenges in translating motion events specially the information about manner and path.
2- what are the strategies adopted to overcome these challenges?
The analysis has shown that the author of The Hobbit and its translator have used different translation strategies and linguistic tools to convey motion events. Based on “Thinking for Speaking” (Slobin, 1991; 1996 a,b; 1997;2000) different ways of thinking related to motion events are revealed.

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