The Arabic/English Translation of King Abdullah II’s Speeches: A Conceptual Metaphor Approach

The present study investigates metaphor conceptualisation in political speeches delivered by Abdullah II, King of Jordan. The study will also investigate the translatability of metaphors between English and Arabic. One aim of this research is to identify conceptual metaphors, using examples from the two chosen languages. Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), developed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980a/2003), is adopted as the main theoretical framework in this study. The metaphor identification procedure (MIP), proposed by Pragglejaz Group (2007), is used to identify the metaphorical linguistic representation of these metaphors. The works of Cherteris- Black (2004) and Kövecses (2002, 2005) have been helpful for categorising metaphors in their domains. The source texts provide examples from different source domains, mapped onto the domain of politics: JOURNEY, BUILDING, PLANTS, ANIMALS, BURDEN, and so on. The study examines the challenges and strategies of translating conceptual metaphors in Arabic and English. This involves examination of whether the metaphorical expressions are maintained, paraphrased, illustrated, or omitted in the target texts, in light of Mandelblit (1995), Schaffner (2004), and Newmark (1981). The study reveals that metaphorical language is a significant feature of political texts. For metaphor translation, there is no single strategy; rather the translation is significantly conditioned by the ST and TT contexts, as well as the translators’ professional competence. Moreover, data analysis involved exploring the frequency of source domains in both the source and target texts.