TRANSLATING METAPHORS IN SCIENTIFIC WRITING (BASED ON AMERICAN MEDICAL JOURNALS)

The paper focuses on the use of metaphors in scientific discourse. Although imagery is not typical of scientific texts in general, contemporary researchers believe that metaphors can be used in different styles serving as the main means of representing the world. In scientific texts a metaphor performs its cognitive function. Moreover, in popular science metaphors can also express the author's attitude to the phenomena described. Having analyzed various classifications of metaphors, it is possible to conclude that they are based on similar principles. That also means that there are certain basic principles for treating metaphors as hidden similes. Translation analysis of metaphors taken from American medical journals reveals that in most cases it is possible to preserve the imagery in the target text. It is mostly connected with the fact that the majority of metaphors in medical texts are hackneyed and trite ones. Moreover, most images are international. The translator should take into account stylistic characteristics of the original text, as well as the peculiarities of the author's idiolect. When images differ in English and Russian cultures, metaphors can be changed or lost in translation.