Microsoft Word Revised Syllabus Ver doc

Metaphor
We have to bear in mind that languages when seen diachronically consists entirely of 
metaphors. Dead metaphors have lost all metaphorical sense, and are the 'normal', literal, 
sane, rational, logical, clear, pecise, 'scientific' stock of language. As 'metaphors' they present 
to translation problems, and are translated literally (penser=think) where possible. The 
essence of the sense of both stock and original metaphors is that they encompass a wider 
range of meanings than literal language, but that they are less precise. Normally, original 
metaphors have a wider range of meanings than stock metaphors: they are more suggestive 
and, at least initially, even less precise. Thus a reporter, wanting to summarize the situation in 
Iran in one heading, wrote KAFKA IN IRAN. What is a translator to make of this? If Kafka 
is well known in the TL culture, he sighs gratefully and translates literally; otherwise, as a 
heading; Bureaucracy, Police State, Chaos or Misery in Iran could be considered.
Metaphor is the concrete expression of the ability to see resemblances differences 
which is one definition on intelligence as well as imagination sign of innovation in language 
as is invention in life. The translator, working on imaginative writing of any kind (football or 
financial reports poetry) or attempting to enliven a dull, as well as poorly written, text 
informative function of language is prominent, is more likely to be metaphors to sense than to 
be creating them:'
Simile, metonymy, synecdoche
Similes are more precise, more restricted and usually less radical, less committed the 
metaphors, since they limit the resemblance of the 'object' an its 'image' (vehicle) a single 
property (‘cool as a cucumber'). Thus they are generally easier to translate than metaphor 
(simile is a 'weaker' method of translating a metaphor), and the main problem is cultural.

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Metonymy, where the name of an object is transferred to take the place of something 
else with which it is associated, normally requires knowledge of the TL culture. Stock 
English metonymies such as ‘the kettle' for water, a ‘cave’ or 'the cellar' for wine often 
cannot be transtated word for word: institutional metonymies such as Rue de Rivoli, the 
Kremlin, the White House, Bonn mayor may not require explanatory expansion in the TL, 
depending on the knowledge of the putative typical reader; original metonymies, which are 
rare, since metonymies normally imply a recognized and known contiguity, adjacency or 
causal relationship between one object and another are translated ccmmunicative1y unless 
they are important. Thus an aphasiac who substitutes 'fork' for 'knife' (Jakobson, 1971) would 
be corrected if interpreted to a third party, but the 'similarity disorder' must be retained if 
reported to a doctor. Synecdoche (i.e. part for whole, species for genus, or vice versa) is 
treated similarly, and though, its metaphorical element is often fossilized it cannot usually be 
translated literally.
Idioms
If one defines idioms as phrases or word-groups whose meanings cannot be elicited 
from the separate meaning of each word which they are formed, then one first notes that these 
are never translated word for word; that since idioms are either colloquial or slang, it is often 
difficult to find a TL equivalent with the same degree of informality; and that idioms pass out 
of fashion rapidly, so that bilingual dictionaries are their ready, Since translators are meant to 
work into their 'language of habitual use' (Anthony Crane), they are not usually to work into 
their 'language of habitual use' (Anthony Crane), they are not usually 'caught out' by their 
1anguage of habitual use' (Anthony Crane), they are not usually 'caught out' by idioms, unless 
they are mesmerized by their dictionaries. But many expatriate translators and teachers have a 
pathetic penchant for idioms, forgetting that they are often affected, pretentious, literary, 
archaic, confined to one social class, modish, clichified or profli (e.g 'by hook or by crook', 
'on a shoe-string', 'grind one's axe', 'Simon-pure', 'in a pucker', 'between Scylla and 
Charybdis', 'between the Devil and the deep blue sea', etc.) - in fact as tiresome and 
unnecessary as most proverbs - and many people prefer to use literal language combined with 
some original metaphors. Further, last (but) not least (not an idiom) is now a German, not an 
English phrase.
We think of translation in the field of literature and not in the field of fine arts such as 
music, dance, painting or even architecture or sculpture, as these do not make use of language 
as their medium. In non – literacy translation, the medium is your language. Human being 
communicate among themselves through language. But different people speak different 
languages in different parts of the world. That is why we need translation for the purpose of 
communication among people of different races, cultures and faiths all over the world. And 
translation thus, acts as a kind of linguistic bridge – building between two languages and 
cultures. 

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