La traducción de metáforas en un texto de divulgación médica

Abstract

This paper studies metaphor in informative medical texts for non-specialists and, more precisely, the problem of the translation of metaphor from a source language (SL) (German in this case) into a target language (TL) (English and Spanish). Metaphor is the association of two or more ideas through their common characteristics or similarities which result in a new linguistic expression. Metaphor is very common in informative medical texts, though at first sight it might seem it is not. The study of a brief text and its translation will show which devices are put into play by the translator to convey the semantic and pragmatic meanings of the source text (ST) in the target text (TT) and which mechanisms and alternatives can be used in the translation of metaphors. Our conclusion will reflect on how three different languages share the same conceptual system and hence the same conceptual metaphors in relation to the subject "health" and how it is possible to transfer these concepts from one language to another.