The National-Cultural Specificity of Sea Metaphor and its Realization in the Process of Translation

Abstract

The problem outlined in the article can be viewed from different angles, i.e. by several branches of linguistics: cognitive linguistics, on the one hand, ethno linguistics and cultural linguistics, on the other hand. It is determined by the topicality of studying language in its correlation with cognition and culture. The object of the study is metaphor in its cognitive aspect, and the subject matter of analysis is the cultural specificity of metaphor and its realization in the process of translation. The material of analysis is the so-called sea metaphor, based on the concepts SEA and OCEAN and some other concepts related to them. The cognitive aspect of the analysis undertaken in the article deals with the main tendency of present day metaphor research - to shift attention from the stylistic aspect of metaphor to its role in conceptualization and the study of cognitive mechanisms underlying it. The article presents a short history of metaphor studies, reveals the dynamic online character of metaphorization, as the result of conceptual integration, and foregrounds the national-cultural specificity of metaphor. The analysis of language data shows that the specificity of the geographical position of Great Britain and its ‘isle’ mentality find their reflection in the importance of the concepts SEA and OCEAN in the language worldview of the English-speaking community. This fact determines their frequent use as a source domain of metaphor for expressing the meaning of multitude. This national-cultural specificity of metaphor finds its reflection in the process of translation. The comparative analysis of the original and translation of sea metaphors into Russian reveals that the mental images can be either transferred or replaced by other images, more characteristic of the Russian worldview.