CROSS-CULTURAL TRANSFER OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHORICITY IN RIVER OF FIRE
Keywords:
Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Conceptual Metaphoricity, Cognitive Strategy, Cultural LinguisticsAbstract
Drawing upon Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and Cultural Linguistics (CL) the present study explores how metaphoricity is a fundamental feature of human cognition and cultural conceptualization. It is through metaphorical structures that people solve the issues of conceptual complexity for better understanding. The understanding of the process of metaphoricity may enlighten the communicative approach for effective transfer of those metaphors that are culturally rich and rooted in cultural cognition. The research on conceptual metaphoricity from cultural perspective is limited and needs more exploration. The major objective of this study was to find out how cultural concepts have been metaphorically structured in Urdu language and transferred in English to establish communicative negotiation. Using the Metaphor Identification Process (2007) the conceptual metaphors were identified in the novel in Urdu literature and its translation in English. The analysis revealed that conceptual mapping is not exceptional in natural language processing and the people in every culture have their specific experiences and worldviews that are reflected in metaphorical structures through mappings of the source and target domains. The transfer of metaphorical structures across cultures is smooth in case of similarity of lexical equivalence between the speech communities but cultural nuance remains under constraints. Only cognitive strategies to transfer the conceptual metaphoricity are not sufficient for meaningful cross-cultural negotiation through linguistic resources. The findings suggest that a holistic model for metaphorical transfer should be introduced to establish resonance both on linguistic and cultural grounds in translation studies.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Muhammad Fayyaz Aslam, Dr. Rashid Mahmood (Author)
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