“Asian Literatures: Tradition and Innovation”, Section: Mongolia, session five

Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts, Asia Studies Centre

“Asian Literatures: Tradition and Innovation”

Section: MONGOLIA

Session five:

Ariel LAURENCIO (University of Sassari)

“Gold and Black in the Secret History of the Mongols: Conceptual metaphorical domains in translation”

14 December 2021, 12:00–13:00, Jaselská 201/18: J22 & online via ZOOM

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81260496402?pwd=MW81OE8wS0d1V1JpRndXRFZUV2k2QT09 or

https://is.muni.cz/go/ilcp1t, Meeting ID 812 6049 6402; Passcode 006813

Abstract: On the basis of the concept of notional domain (Culioli 1990) or semiotic complex (Delmas 1993), which sees a word or an expression as a dynamic set of semes comprising the conditions of extensions allowed in a given culture, we envisage strategies of translation, i.e., of transposition into another linguistic-cultural system, such as semantic expansion.

Under this approach it appears that certain expressions with a high cultural content are treated as stereotypes (cf. Labov 2010), so they are calqued in the target language with a consequent semantic expansion, or as markers, a variable typical in the source language but not easily identifiable as such, so there is a tendency not to maintain the metaphorical domain present therein.

We highlight here a case of failure to reproduce the metaphorical system of the source language in the Secret History of the Mongols, such as that of metaphors containing the color black, with the consequent loss of cultural references essential for understanding the work or what it intends to represent. At the other end there are metaphors whose source domain (Lakoff 1993) is the color gold, which instead are normally recorded and reproduced.

The course “Asian Literatures: Tradition and Innovation” was kindly supported by the Masaryk University within the internationalization supporting project (IRP MU).