How to translate some of the metaphors in Harry potter Books (book 3 and book 7) into Vietnamese

How to translate some of the metaphors in Harry potter Books (book 3 and book 7) into Vietnamese Acknowledgements The completion of this graduation research owns the help of people who have enthusiastically contributed in different ways.

I would like to give my thanks to teachers of Foreign Language Department,Hung Vuong University, for their useful lectures providing me with basicbackground of translation studies and metaphors in linguistic terms

My gratitude also goes to students in Foreign Language Department for theirgreat encouragement and provision of valuable documents

AbStract

The title of this research is “ How to translate some of the metaphors in Harrypotter Books ( book 3 and book 7 ) into Vietnamese” This topic is chosen due tothe difficulty of translating metaphors, particularly in literary translation Thelanguage in Harry Potter’s books must be smoothly rendered so that it is both

expressive to the readership and faithful to the authors’ intention The major purpose of this research is to study the fundamentals of translation studies and different ways to translate metaphors through professional translation of

metaphors in two Harry Potter’s books, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The results of the analysis of professional translation shows that metaphors

could be translated in five different ways: reserving metaphors of the source language, translating as similes, using target language equivalent metaphors, reserving metaphors and giving explanations, and removing metaphorical imagery

Secondly, semantic and communicative translation methods are equally effective

in translating metaphors, while literal translation is likely to lead to wrong metaphoric translation Thirdly, to successfully convey the meaning of a metaphor, understanding its context and good knowledge of English grammar and semantics are of great importance Lastly, the translator should acknowledge his readership to produce the finest, as natural as possible translation

In the final part, the research suggests some techniques in translating metaphors Hopefully the research could be useful for students of translation and those who are interested in the topic of metaphor translation

Table of contents

Acknowledgement……….…… 1

Abstract……….…… 2

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION I.1 Topic: ……… ……… …5

I.2 Rationale: ……… … 5

I.3 Over view of the research: ……….……….6

I.4.The purpose: ……… ……… 6

I.5.The main points: ……… ……….7

1.6 Research duties and methods: ……… ……… 8

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW II.1Translation: ……… ……….………9

II.1.1 Definition: ……….… 9

II.1.2 Translation process and the translator: ……… 10

II.1.2.1 Modeling translation process: ……….………… 10

II.1.2.2 Translator: ……… ………… 12

II.1.2.2.1.What is a translator? ……….…… 12

II.1.2.2.2 Translator competence: ……….…… 13

II.1.3 Equivalence in translation: ………14

II.1.3.1 Definitions of equivalence in translation: ………… …… 14

II.1.3.2 Types of equivalence: ……….…….14

II.1.4 Translation methods: ……… ……… 16

II.2 Metaphor: ……… ………….18

II.2.1 Definition: ……….……… 18

II.2.2 Types of metaphors: ……….……….19

II.2.3 Recognizing a metaphor: ……… 21

II.2.3.1 Metaphor and similes: ……… 21

II.2.3.2 Metaphor and idioms: ……….…………21

II.2.3.3 Analyzing a metaphor: ……… 23

II.2.3.4 Problems in understanding and translating metaphors: ……25

II.3 Translating metaphors: ……… 27

CHAPTER III: TRANSLATION OF METAPHORS IN HARRY POTTER BOOKS (BOOK 3 AND BOOK 7) III.1.Reason for choosing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: ……… ….

… 32

III.2 Translation of dead metaphors in Harry Potter books ………33

III.3 Translation of live metaphors in Harry Potter books ……….34

III.3.1 Reserving a metaphor: ……… 39

III.3.2 Using target language equivalent metaphors and removing metaphoric imagery: ……… ……… 40

CHAPTERIV: CONCLUSION IV.1.Recapitulation: ……….…… 43

IV.2.Implications : ……….….…… 43

IV.3.Limitations : ……… … 45

IV.4.Recommendations for the further research: ……… … 45

First, books in general and translated works in particular contribute greatly to theimprovement of Vietnamese readers’ knowledge, cognition, critical thinking andemotion In the context of the national intergration into the world community,translated publications are even more necessary as by reading them, children have

an opportunity to better their understanding of different cultures, and they learn toappreciate precious humane and moral values

Second, the innocence and naivety of children make translation for challenge forthemselves but rewarding It is not easy for an adult translator to smoothly transfermessages by a foreign author into language of children On the other hand, naturaltranslation can leave children with strong and vivid impressions that may remainforever in their mind Therefore, translation quality is absolutely worth beingconsidered

Third, metaphors have long been making numerous difficulties to translators, i.e.how to recognize a metaphor, how to understand correctly its semantic implication,how to re-express it into the target language while reserving the original meaning,etc In addition, linguistic and cultural gaps frequently challenge language skills ofthe translator A research on “How to translate some of the metaphors in Harrypotter Books (book 3 and book 7) into Vietnamese” thus should be scientificallyconducted

Finally, the research is conducted with a view to examining how Vietnameseprofessional translator in Harry Potter’s books (children’s books ) have translatedmetaphors Some drawn findings and conclusions are hopefully useful for students

of Foreign Language Department and those who are interested in the topic ofresearch

I.3 Overview of the research

In the world as well as in Vietnam, there have been many linguistics, translatorsand researchers studying translation process aspect, metaphors aspect, and both ofaspects in combination, such as : Baker, Mona, Catford, Peter, Nguyen Hoa, TrungTanh, … Some of books or links mention to the importance of translation; somemention detail to types of metaphor, such as: fishing metaphor, cooking metaphors,weather metaphors,… in order to show that : metaphors are vivid, anominous.Giving these metaphors in translation is interesting but difficult There appearedsome methods, some solutions which many authors found However, they are ingeneral and scrattered

Furthermore, Harry Potter series are famous and well-known with readers,especially with children Its languages are vitally remarkable to study However,there’re few researcher find that Harry Potter’s books are the golden store ofmetaphors In comperation with professional translator, Lý Lan, those metaphorsare turned into interesting, vivid and precious picture

So, the research on “How to translate some of the metaphors in Harry Potter

Books (book 3 and book 7) into Vietnamese ” is an attemption to convey thesehidden things It is the first research in Foreign Language Department of HungVuong University

I.4.The purpose of research

With this topic, my research is conducted with the following purposes:

First, researching metaphors in semantics and translation theory terms and findingthe way to apply theory to practice

Second, discussing the way to translate some of metaphors in Harry Potter books (book 3 and book 7) to illustrate the theory

Third, finding the best way to translate some of metaphors in Harry Potter books( book 3 and book 7 ) into Vietnamese and techniques for translation

Therefore, the research questions are as followed:

 How is a metaphor recognized and its hidden meaning understood?

 In term of translation theory, what are the possible ways to translate anEnglish metaphor into Vietnamese?

 How have English metaphors actually been translated in Harry Potter books (book 3 and book 7 ) in written English ?

 What conclusions could be drawn to help students of Foreign LanguageDepartment?

I.5.The main points of the research

I.5.1 Introduction

I.5.2 Literature review

I.5.2.1 Translation

I.5.2.2 Metaphor

I.5.3 Translation of metaphors in Harry Potter books ( book 3 and book 7 )

I.5.3.1 Reason for choosing Harry Potter books ( book 3 and book 7)

I.5.3.2 Translation of metaphors

I.5.4 Conclusion

I.5.4.1 Recapitulation

I.5.4.2 Implications

I.5.4.3 Limitations

I.5.4.4 Recommendations for the further research

I.6 Research duties and methods

I.6.1 Research duties

With the drawn main points, the research must be conducted with view to

-formulating the theoretical framework of translation and metaphor of Englishand Vietnamese; suggesting the way to apply theory is to practice;

- giving illustration of translation’s professional translator of metaphor in Harrypotter books ( book 3 and book 7 )

- drawing conclusion to help students to translate metaphors in general andparticularly in Harry Potter books ( book 3 and book 7 )

I.6.2 Research methods

With the duties mentioned above, this research will be methodologically conducted

by collecting, analyzing and interpreting data on metaphoric cases in translationtextbooks and the selected literary publications

In addition, to get the good results for this research, asking specialist’ idea methodwas conducted in order that these instruments would clarify and illustrate theories

on English – Vietnamese translation of metaphors, so that readers of this researchcould have a sense of how to translate a metaphor into Vietnamese in a natural way

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

II.1 Translation

II.1.1.Definition

Translation is widely recognized as an occupation of long history, dating backthousands of years ago, and of great importance to human cross- culturalcommunication, knowledge exchange and economic development

The first trace of translation dates from 3000 B.C, during the Egyptian OldKingdom, the area of the First Cataract, Elephantine, where in descriptions in twolanguages have been found It became a significant factor in the West in 3000 BC.Luther’s Bible translation in 1552 laid the foundations of modern Ger man.However, as the last century witnessed the rapid-than-ever progress of naturalscience and technology, translation subjects were no longer bound by literary texts,but have been varied by every aspect of life, from technical issues to health,medicine, law and administration

Until the last half of the 20th century (the age of translation) did the very firsttranslation studies emerge to academically define what translation was Thoughscholars have stated various definitions with different points of view, almost all of

them regard translation as a process and product, and the nature of equivalence is

frequently mentioned.

In Translation and Translating: Theory and Practice (1991) Bell introduces

Meetham and Hudson’s general view on the notion of translation:

Translation is the replacement of a text in one language by a

representation of an equivalent text in a second language (p.713)

Munday (2001) goes further with more details:

The term translation itself has several meanings: it can refer to the

general subject field, the product (the text that has been translated) or the process ( the act of producing the translation, otherwise known as translating) The process of translation between two different languages involves the translator changing an original written text ( the source text ) in the original verbal language ( the source language) into a written text ( the target text) in a different verbal language ( the target language) (p.4- p.5)

Newmark also introduces a very clear and comprehensive concept of translation:

Translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in

the way that the author intended the text (p.5)

According to him, translation seems to be simple: as one ought to be able to say

something as well in one language as in another It is nevertheless as complicated,artificial and fraudulent, since by using another language, you are pretending to besomeone you are not

By acknowledging two sides of the translation process and implying translationevaluation (“the way the author intended the text”), the explanation by Newmark issupposed to be one of the most satisfactory definitions of translation Needless tosay, it is impossible to come to a perfect definition covering all aspects of such avast notion of translation, as Bell (1991) admits that it can be either an art or ascience

II.1.2 Translation process and the translator

II.1.2.1 Modeling translation process

According to Newmark (1995), translation process or translating involves fourlevels “more or less consciously in mind” (p.19), namely:

 The source language text level: the level of language

 The referential level : visualizing and building up objects and events, anessential part of comprehension and reproduction process

 The cohesive level : encompassing both comprehension and reproduction,presenting an overall picture

 The level of naturalness : constituting a band within which the translatorworks, concerning only reproduction

In addition, Bell (1991) and Larson (1984) illustrate translation as a process toachieve the final product in a clear way by two translation models as followed:

Figure 1: Bell’s translation model (1991, p.21)

Figure 2: Larson’s translation model (1984, p.4)

Both models emphasize two major steps of translation process:

 First, the translator analyzes the source language text to discover its meaning,

or the semantic representation and the author’s intention and implication

 Then, all these factors are synthesized and re-expressed into the targetlanguage

Obviously if the source text is wrongly analyzed, the translation will fail to renderthe author’s intention Therefore, reading comprehension of the source text isvitally important for the success of a translation, particularly in translatingmetaphoric texts, where the meaning is normally hidden

Memory

Source language text

Target language text

Semantic representation

Analysis

Synthesis

Text to be translated

Translation

MEANING

In further discussion, there’re three major stages of translation process , assyntactic, semantic and pragmatic processing Although scholars introduced someother models of translation process, still the two presented above are considered asthe core of translation process.

II.1.2.2 Translator

II.1.2.2.1 What is a translator?

It is not the truth that a person knowing at least a foreign language could be atranslator That a language learner may be proficient at that language does notalways mean he could render smoothly the meaning of a written or spoken text intohis mother tongue In addition to conveying the lexical meaning, translationrequires the translator to respect other important factors such as the author’simplication and literary style In other words, as humorously stated by Newmark (1969, p.85) “any fool can learn a language…but it takes an intelligent person tobecome a translator”

So a translator, is a billingual mediating agent between monolingual

communication participants in two different language communities (Bell, 1991).

More clearly, translator was explained that: it decoded messages transmitted in onelanguage and re-encodes them in another

II.1.2.2.2 Translator competence

So far the general concept of translation and the work of a translator have beendiscussed Accordingly what is the competence required to be a professionaltranslator?

Newmark (1995) assumes that “a translator has to have a flair and a feel for his

own language or in other words, a translator has to sixth sense , compounded of” “ ”

intelligence, sensitivity, intuition, and knowledge In his point, in translating

process, these factors directly affect translation methods and procedures applied bythe translator, and therefore, determine translation quality

Knowledge of the subject area is so vast and no translator could know all topicsfrom science, technology, socio-economic, political issues, to literary andphilosophical works However, it is admitted that a good language learner cantranslate a scientific document better than a scientist with poor languageknowledge

Consisting with his previous explanation of a translator, Bell (1991, p.37) adds tothe stated translator’s knowledge-base the decoding skills of reading and the

encoding skills of writing He comes to a condensed conclusion that a translatormust know:

 How propositions are structured ( syntactic knowledge)

 How clauses can be synthesized to carry propositional content and analyzed

to retrieve the content embedded in them ( semantic knowledge)

 How the clause can be realized as information-bearing text and the textdecomposed into the clause (pragmatic knowledge)

All these views on translator competence have had great and useful contribution totranslators of any language In addition, it is undeniable that practice andexperience in translation are also important to success of any translator, particularly

to newcomers

II.1.3 Equivalence in translation

II.1.3.1 Definitions of equivalence in translation

As mentioned above, equivalence is considered the central concept of translationstudies, yet theorists’ approaches to equivalence are so different Such scholars asCatford (1965), Nida and Taber (1969) claim that translation bases itself onequivalence relation, hence, equivalence is the necessary condition for translation: “translating consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest naturalequivalent of the source language message, first in terms of meaning and secondly

in terms of style” (Nida and Taber,1969/1982,p.12) On the contrary, Snell- Hornby(1988) and Gentzler (1993) regard equivalence as irrelevant to or damagingtranslation, even as an obstacle to translation The middle- course representative isBaker (1992) to whom equivalence is a useful category for describing translation

In spite of different approaches, almost all theorists share agreement that there is

no such thing as absolute equivalence in translation due to differences ingrammatical rules, forms, expressions, etc between two languages Therefore, thereare many ways to define what kind of equivalence should be aimed at in order toachieve the best equivalent effect

II.1.3.2 Types of equivalence

Basing on text meaning, Koller ( 1995) classifies equivalence in translation infive categories :

1 Denotative equivalence: source language and target language words refer to the

same thing in the real world

For example:

- Tomato (a soft fruit with a lot of juice and shinny red skin that iseaten as a vegetable either raw or cooked)

- Cà chua ( một loại quả mềm, nhiều nớc, vỏ bóng đỏ, có thể ănsống hoặc nấu chín)

2 Connotative equivalence: in addition to denotative value, source and target

language words should produce the same communicative values in the mind ofnative speakers of the two languages

For example:

- Your Majesty

- Muôn tâu Bệ Hạ!

3 Text- normative equivalence: source and target language words use the same or

similar text types in their respective languages

For example:

- Your faithfully,

- Kính th,

4 Pragmatic equivalence: source and target language words have the same effect

on the reader or mainly aiming at the receiver to whom the translation is directed.For example:

- She’s a cunning fox

- Mụ già quỷ quyệt

5 Formal equivalence: source and target language words have the same formal

aesthetic features, orthographic or phonological features

For example:

- To be, or not to be: that’s the question (Shakespeare, Hamlet)

- Sống hay không sống-đó là vấn đề

Nida and Taber (1982) views equivalence as merely two types:

 Formal correspondence: focuses attention on the message itself, in both formand content

 Dynamic equivalence: based on “ the principle of equivalent effect”

Meanwhile, Baker (1992) identifies equivalence in translation morecomprehensively as equivalence at and above word level; grammatical equivalence;textual equivalence; and pragmatic equivalence

Though from theorists’ point of view equivalence could be categorized indifferent ways, it is the translator to decide when priority should be given to either

form and meaning of the text to translate This matter also concerns translationmethods and procedures, which are discussed right in the next part.

II.1.4 Translation methods

Translation, as mentioned, is viewed as a process and a product Translationmethods provide translators with a theoretical background of how to translate in themost appropriate way In other words, the final products are certainly different fromeach other in form, style, meaning and value It is apparently the translator to havehis own option among these methods so as to achieve the most satisfied finaltranslation

In translation studies, the translation methods suggested by Newmark( 1985,p.45-53) are highly appreciated He introduces eight methods in the form of aflattened V diagram:

Source language emphasis Target language emphasis

Word-for–word translation Adaptation Literal translation Free translation

Faithful translation Idiomatic translation

Semantic translation Communicative translation

Newmark explains word-for -word translation is “the interlinear translation”

where “ the source language word-order is preserved and the words translated

singly by their most common meanings, out of context” ( p.45-46) As for literal translation, “the source language grammatical constructions are converted to their

nearest target language equivalents but the lexical words are again translated singly,

out of context” (p.46) Faithful translation “attempts to reproduce the precise

contextual meaning of the original within the constraints of the target languagegrammatical structures” (p.46) In other words, it transfers cultural words butpreserves lexical and grammatical abnormality

In the right wing emphasizing the target language, adaptation is “ the freest form oftranslation” (p.46), mostly used for plays, poetry and songs Free translation bynature could be regared as in trailingual translation since it is usually a paraphrasemuch longer than the original text Idiomatic translation also reproduces themessage of the original text but “tends to distorts nuances of meaning by preferringcolloquialisms and idioms where these do not exist in the original” (p.47)

Among these eight translation methods, semantic translation and communicativetranslation fulfill the two main aims of translation, which are, first, accuracy, andsecond, economy “(19995,p.47) Besides, they “treat the following items similarly :stock and dead metaphors, normal collocations, technical terms, slangs,colloquialisms, standard notices, phaticism, ordinary language”

However, there are clear differences between semantic and communicativetranslation Semantic translation emphasizes the source language whilecommunicative translation the target language Hence, semantic translation isauthor-oriented, written at the author’s linguistic level and is used for “expensive”texts In semantic translation, the translator “follows the thought process of theauthor” , i.e being faithful to the author’s style, word choice, expression, etc

Meanwhile, communicative translation is reader-oriented, written at readers’linguistic level and is used for “informative” and “vocative” texts Incommunicative translation, author’s status is not significant The importance lies ininformation conveyed and whether readers could understand it The translator,therefore, is allowed to edit or correct the source language text if necessary, so thathis translation is not only accurate but also comprehensible to general readers.Bearing in mind characteristics of each translation methods could be very helpfulfor translators, particularly I the phase of synthesizing semantic meaning and re-expressing it into the target language

According to An introduction to literary study written by Nguyen Trung Tanh , metaphor is the figure of speech expressing indirectly ( by implication not

using as or like ) a resemblance in one or more points of an object in one class to anobject of another class ( in general figurative language broadly )

In linguistics, metaphor is one of the most conventional notions frequentlymentioned with metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole, litotes and irony, metaphor istraditionally defined as the hidden comparison, the transference of meaning, “ thetransfer of a word or phrase to an anomalous context” or “ the transfer of conceptsbetween domains or semantic fields” ( Backman 1991 ).

In the light of translation studies, Larson defines metaphors as grammatical

forms which represent two propositions in the semantic structure, as any figurativeexpression: the transferred sense of physical word, the personification of anabstraction, the application of a word or collocation to what it does not literallydenote

In conclusion, metaphor is defined as the figurative language, which is an

imaginative comparison between two unlike object, in which the characteristics of quanlities of one object are applied to the other or contrast them to one another,

without using as or like

For examples

o "I am a rainbow" is an example of metaphor because it is comparing two

nouns, a person, and a rainbow, but does not use like or as

o "I am not anger" is an example of metaphor because it is contrasting two

nouns

o If you give someone a cold stare or an icy look, it mean you took on the

qualities of the winter to refer that you feel unfriendly and lack warmthtoward them

o If you say: “I’m afraid I m at sea with’ his math problem” It mean youare not good at math and completely nervous and do not know what to dowith his math problem

Therefore, metaphors are for the purpose of cognition and aesthetics and alwaysconcern illusion and imagination He comes to conclusion that a metaphor is akind of deception, often used to conceal an intention ( Newmark,1995, p.104)

II.2.2 Types of metaphor

There are a lot of ways to categorize the metaphors The more commonlyidentified types of metaphor are that : extended metaphor, dead metaphor, andsynechdochic metaphor Other types of metaphor have been identified as wellwhich not as universally accepted : active metaphor, absolute or paralogicalmetaphor, experiential or learning metaphor, complex metaphor, compound

metaphor, submerged metaphor, root metaphor, conceptual metaphor , dyingmetaphor and implied or unstated metaphor.

In linguistics theory, metaphors are divided into three categories : livingmetaphor, faded metaphor and dead metaphor While Newmark (1995,p.106-113) suggests six types of metaphors, namely : dead, cliche, stock, adapted,recent and original metaphor ; Nguyen Trung Tanh considers four types ofmetaphors : personal, extended, mixed and dead metaphor, Larson views them

as live and dead metaphor , which timely are for this research’s purpose

 Dead metaphors are quite familiar idiomatic expressions that havebeen used for a long time and readers could understand themimmediately without thinking of the comparison on which they werebased In other words, dead metaphors are idioms that could be looked

up in dictionaries

For example: The leg of the table

Run into debt

Foot of the stairs

The head of state

Foot of the class

 Live metaphors are not often easily understood at one and readersshould base themselves on the context to find out the hidden meaning

For example : From the distance the tractor appeared to be floating over the hills riding up to their crest and down to their hollows, the wheat undulated as the wind paned over it making waves.( Larson, 1984,p.250)

Larson states all italic words are live metaphors, making a sequence

of metaphors in which the harvest of wheat is compared to the ocean.Live metaphors are frequently used not only in literary words but also inother fields and subjects of writing: science, technology, economics,…The following sentences are examples:

o The relatively low contribution of technology to the economy is

likely to turn from a curse into a blessing this year.

o The 20th century began with powerful countries competing to

take advantage of Earth As an outcome of their hunger for

power, the Earth was abused, treatedly badly Now people all

over the world are living with the problems caused by this

greed.

This, in turn, leads to the following criteria for distinguishing living from deadmetaphors: Only when one can no longer see evidence of life, can a metaphor beofficially declared dead: but a metaphor- living or dead – is always new and alive

to someone hearing it for the first time Thus this distinction seems far morescholastic than practical

The boundary between live and dead metaphors is supposed to be very hazy,depending on cultural and linguistic features of each language Besides, a metaphormay be dead in a certain language but totally a live one in another The followingpart of the graduation research paper regards metaphors as live and dead metaphorsand discusses how to recognize metaphoric cases and problems evolved intranslating metaphors

II.2.3 Recognizing a metaphor

II.2.3.1 Metaphor and simile

Metaphor and simile are two of the best known tropes and are often mentionedtogether as examples of rhetorical figures

Metaphor and simile are both terms that describe a comparison

 Simile is the comparison of two unlike things, it express directly andexplicitly a resemblance in one or more points of an object of one class to

an object of another class, use “ like” or “ as”

 Metaphor, actually is a condensed simile for its omit “as” or “like” It is ashortcut meaning, it sets two unlike things side by side and makes us seethe likeness between them

For example: When Robert Burns wrote “my love is like a red, red rose “he used

a simile But when Robert Herrick wrote “You are a tulip” he used a metaphor

 The simile is always poetic, while the metaphor always has a ring oftruth Typically, needing further explanation, it’s probably a simile butmaking instant sense, it’s most likely a metaphor ( perhaps this is whymetaphors readily become accepted into language as “ deadmetaphors” while there is no such thing as a “dead metaphor”

II.2.3.2.Metaphor and idiom

The Cambridge dictionary defines

Idiom is a group of words whose meaning considered as a unit is different

from the meanings of each word considered separately

And metaphor is an expression that describes a person or object by referring

to something that is considered to possess similar characteristics

Very often, an idiom has no association to metaphor, being simply a phrasethat becomes adopted by language as if a single word These idioms are notreadily confused with metaphor, though there are times when an idiom is also

a metaphor or metaphor system A good example is the "carrot and stick" The "carrot and stick" idiom refers to the use of enticement and punishment

to motivate a horse or donkey The carrot was dangled before the animal as alure, while the stick was used to reprimand stubbornness Without knowingthe relationship between carrot and stick, the group of words seem out ofplace in a sentence, which is central to its identification as an idiom.However, in its common use, this idiom makes metaphorical equations, such

as this one:

Iran: West s carrot and stick method failed’

Here, the West is seen as making the following equations:

1 Iran is equated to a donkey, being stubborn and unwilling to change itsposition

2 Trade incentives are equated to the carrot, aimed at luring Iran from itscurrent position

3 U.N sanctions are equated to the stick, used to force a change in Iran'sposition

4 The West is equated to the farmer, and is assumed by this model to own orcontrol Iran

Extending this further, the West may accuse Iran of "digging in its heels" as a way

of protecting its position For example, since the stick equals sanctions of somekind, say, cutting grain shipments to Iran, Iran may "dig in its heels" by stockpilingcurrent grain supplies in preparation The donkey of this metaphor system has asmany parts as we choose to give it

The way to spot those times when an idiom behaves as a metaphor is to look forsigns of an equation being made, then check to see if the equation can be extended,

as you see in the above example There may even be times when you discover that

it never really was an idiom after all It's only natural - cases of mistaken identityare very common among idiom, metaphor and simile.

II.2.3.3 Analyzing a metaphor

According to Larson recommends that a metaphor : live or dead metaphors could beanalyzed into two propositions of four parts, namely : topic, image, point ofsimilarity and non figurative equivalent

 Topic is what mentioned in the first proposition, usually non figurative

 Image is the figurative topic of the second proposition, what iscompared with the topic of the first proposition

 Point of similarity is found in the common of both proposition

 Non figurative equivalent is optional as it could be identified in casethe propositions are event proposition : Larson (1984,p.194) states that

if the proposition has an event: an action, an experience, or a process )

as the central concept, it is an event proposition, for example:

The boy ran (action)

John saw the cow ( experience)

The ice melted (process)

Example 1: She is as beautiful as an angel

Two propositions: 1.She is beautiful

2 The angel is beautiful

Topic: she

Image: the angel