Elamur Research⌕
☰
home / papers / 2006 / Translating metaphors into Afrikaans in a source language-oriented translation of the Hebrew Bible

Translating metaphors into Afrikaans in a source language-oriented translation of the Hebrew Bible

Summary

The paper asks how metaphors should be handled in the New Bible in Afrikaans (NBA). The NBA is a source language-oriented translation meant for reading aloud in church and also for catechism, Bible study and private reading. The authors take Gutt's idea of a "direct or stimulus-based translation" as the project's skopos, set inside Nord's functionalist model of translation briefs. Their hypothesis is that a basic grasp of how metaphors work cognitively, and how they are rooted in culture, gives a defensible basis for interpreting and rendering them. They first list six common strategies for Bible metaphors: keep, keep and explain, turn into a simile, substitute, paraphrase, or omit. They argue that only keeping the metaphor fits this kind of translation. Using the ascriptive metaphor "God is a sun" (Ps 84:11) as a test case, they draw on conceptual metaphor theory and conceptual blending. This shows why paraphrases and similes lose meaning potential and bring in modern cultural models. The result is a strategy proposal that matters for any translation trying to keep source imagery while staying intelligible.

Key points

  • Afrikaans Bible history:
    • 1933 word-for-word version, close to the Dutch Statenvertaling, revised in 1953.
    • 1983 dynamic-equivalent version.
    • In the 1990s about one third of Afrikaans Bibles distributed by the BSSA were still 1933/53 editions.
  • A BSSA conference in August 2001 led to an assignment for four types of translation (Versions 1–4). In 2003, a Version 2 and a Version 3 were produced.
  • The six catalogued strategies are illustrated with concrete verses:
    • Ps 18:3, shield (metaphor kept).
    • Ps 23:5, oil on the head (kept and explained).
    • Ps 84:11, sun (simile).
    • Luke 13:32, Herod as fox, rendered as snake in Swati (substitution).
    • Ps 7:11, shield (paraphrase).
  • A footnote compares seven modern renderings of Ps 84:11, including the 1983 Afrikaans Bible, the NET Bible and the Good News Bible. Each narrows "sun" to something like light, protector or king.
  • The theoretical tools used are:
    • Lakoff and Johnson's view that metaphors shape everyday thought.
    • Conceptual blending of at least two input domains.
    • Idealized Cognitive Models.
    • Cultural models, such as the sun as a life-giving symbol of order for the psalmist versus a ball of fire for modern readers.

Interesting ideas

  • I1. A metaphor blends at least two conceptual domains, so swapping it for a literal phrase or simile discards part of its meaning potential rather than restating it. — For Mova (frames): Figurative predications like "X is a sun" could be stored as links between two frames rather than flattened to one literal role, so later reasoning keeps the open inferences.
  • I2. The same image activates different cultural models for different readers (ancient sun as order and life versus modern sun as a light source), and translators unknowingly import their own. — For Mova (world): Knowledge-graph entries for concepts could carry context- or era-tagged cultural associations, so the world model does not silently assume a modern reading.
  • I3. Lining up several existing renderings of one verse exposes how each one narrows the source, which makes a cheap diagnostic of what information is lost. — For Mova (learn): When several witness parsers or LLM teachers disagree on a figurative sentence, comparing their outputs side by side can flag spots where each loses meaning, instead of just voting.
  • I4. The authors derive the handling of figures from an explicit brief (skopos) rather than from case-by-case taste, which makes every choice defensible. — For Mova (back): Generation and translation through the meta-world could take an explicit brief (literal-faithful vs. reader-friendly) that decides whether metaphors are kept, explained or paraphrased, logged for explainability.
  • I5. The paper asks the reader to infer the intended sense of a metaphor in context, treating its meanings as weak implicatures, rather than spelling them out. — For Mova (frames): The implicature module could treat metaphor senses as ranked weak implicatures with confidence, rather than a single forced literal paraphrase.

Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.

Fields: Linguistics & languages · Machine translation

Cite

The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work. DOI 10.5842/33-0-24

@inproceedings{j2006translating,
  title = {{Translating metaphors into Afrikaans in a source language-oriented translation of the Hebrew Bible}},
  author = {J and Hendriks, Elisabet},
  booktitle = {Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus 33},
  year = {2006},
  doi = {10.5842/33-0-24},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.5842/33-0-24}
}

References

39 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

  1. Basson, C.S. 2002. 'n Funksionalistiese benadering tot Bybelvertaling [A functionalistic approach to Bible translation]. Master's thesis, Stellenbosch University. find
  2. Beekman, J. and J. Callow 1974. Translating the Word of God, with scripture and topical indexes. Grand Rapids, Michigan.: Zondervan. find
  3. Black, M. 1962. Model and metaphors: studies in language and philosophy. New York: Cornell University Press. find
  4. Chesterman, A. 2004. Where is similarity? In S. Arduini and R. Hodgson (eds.) Similarity and difference in translation: proceedings of the international conference on similarity and translation, New York, May 31-Jun 1 2001. Rimini: Guaraldi Press. pp. 63-76. find
  5. Coulson, S. and T. Oakley. 2005. Introduction. Journal of Pragmatics 37: 1507-1509. find
  6. De Blois, K.F. 1985. Metaphor in common language translations of Joel. The Bible Translator 36(2): 208-216. find
  7. De Waard, J. 1974. Biblical metaphors and their translation. The Bible Translator 25(1): 107-116. find
  8. Dagut, M.B. 1976. Can 'metaphor' be translated? Babel 22: 21-33. find
  9. Fauconnier, G.T. and M. Turner. 2002. The way we think: conceptual blending and the mind's hidden complexities. New York: Basic Books. find
  10. Fensham, C. 1974. Afrikaans en die kerk [Afrikaans and the church]. In B. Kok, F.C. Fensham, J.H. Senekal, H. Venter, en D.J. Viljoen (eds.) Afrikaans, ons pêrel van groot waarde. Johannesburg: Perskor. pp. 54-65. find
  11. Goatly, A. 1997. The language of metaphors. London: Routledge. find
  12. Grady, J. 2005. Primary metaphors as inputs to conceptual integration. Journal of Pragmatics 37: 1595-1614. find
  13. Gutt, E-A. 2000. Translation and relevance: cognition and context. 2 nd edition. Manchester: St Jerome. find
  14. Hendriks, L. 2006. Die vertaling van metafore in 'n brontaalgerigte Bybel in Afrikaans [The translation of metaphors in a source language-oriented Bible in Afrikaans]. Master's thesis, Stellenbosch University. find
  15. Hermanson, E.A. 1999. Herod is a fox. The Bible Translator 50(2): 235-240. find
  16. Kövecses, Z. 2002. Metaphor. A practical introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. find
  17. Kroneman, D. 2004. The LORD is my shepherd. An exploration into the theory and practice of translating biblical metaphor. Ph.D. dissertation, Free University, Amsterdam. find
  18. Lakoff, G.J. and M. Johnson. 1980. Metaphors we live by. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. find
  19. Lakoff, G.J. and M. Johnson. 1987. Women, fire, and dangerous things: what can categories reveal about the mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. find
  20. Naudé, J.A. and C.H.J. van der Merwe (eds.) 2002. Contemporary translations studies and Bible translation: a South African perspective. Acta Theologica Supplementum, University of the Free State. find
  21. Newmark, P. 1980. The translation of metaphor. Babel 25: 93-100. find
  22. Newmark, P. 1982. Approaches to translation. Oxford: Pergamon. find
  23. Nord, C. 1997. Translating as a purposeful activity. Manchester: St. Jerome. find
  24. Payle, K. 2000. Ideology, politics and the Afrikaans Bible translation. Theologia Viatorum 26: 74-91. find
  25. Pohlig, J.N. 2006. A cognitive analysis of similes in the book of Hosea. Doctoral dissertation, Stellenbosch University. find
  26. Richards, I.A. 1936. The philosophy of rethoric. Oxford: Oxford University Press. find
  27. Ryken, L.W., J. Wilhoit, T. Longman, C. Duriez, D. Penney, and D.G. Reid (eds.) 1998. Dictionary of biblical imagery. Illinois: Intervarsity Press. find
  28. Schaeffner, C. 2004. Metaphor and translation: some implications of a cognitive approach. Journal of Pragmatics 36: 1253-1269. find
  29. Sperber, D. and D. Wilson. 1986. Relevance: communication and cognition. Oxford: Blackwell. find
  30. Steen, G. 1994. Understanding metaphor in literature: an empirical study. London: Longman. find
  31. Steen, G. 2004. Can discourse properties of metaphor affect metaphor recognition? Journal of Pragmatics 36: 1295-1313. find
  32. Strawn, B.A. 2005. What is stronger than a lion? Lion image and metaphor in the Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East. Fribourg: Academic Press. find
  33. Tuggy, D. 2003. The literal-idiomatic Bible translation debate from the perspective of cognitive grammar. In K. Feyaerts (eds.) The Bible through metaphor and translation. A cognitive semantic perspective. Oxford: Peter Lang. pp. 15, 239-288. find
  34. Van der Merwe, C.H.J. 2001. Is dit nou weer tyd vir 'n nuwe Bybel in Afrikaans? [Is it once again for a new Bible in Afrikaans?] Unpublished Manuscript. Stellenbosch. find
  35. Van der Merwe, C.H.J. 2006. Lexical meaning in Biblical Hebrew and cognitive semantics. find
  36. Van der Merwe, C.H.J. and C.S. Basson 2003. 'n Nuwe vertaling van die Bybel in Afrikaans. 'n Teoretiese en praktiese oriëntering [A new translation of the Bible in Afrikaans. A theoretical and practical orientation]. Nederduits Gereformeerde Teologiese Tydskrif 44(3-4): 550-567. find
  37. Van der Merwe, C.H.J. and W. Winckler. 1993. Teaching tomorrow's Bible translators in the light of today's translations. Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 19: 41-58. find
  38. Van Rensburg, A. 2005. 'n Nuwe vertaling van die Bybel in Afrikaans: 'n perspektief op die teorie en praktyk [A new translation of the Bible in Afrikaans: a perspective on the theory and practice]. Master's thesis, Stellenbosch University. find
  39. Wilt, T. 2003. Bible translation. Frames of reference. Manchester: St. Jerome. find

↑ back to top

This page in Markdown → https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/j-2006-translating-metaphors-afrikaans-source-language/