Translating Image Schemas

A Case Study of Persian Subtitles of Frozen I and II

Abstract

Image schema as one of the main ideas of cognitive linguistics emphasizes the fact that mental concepts are the result of our physical interaction with the environment and assist us to understand the abstract and non-abstract concepts. As these conceptual structures do not necessarily have similar manifestations in different cultures and languages, the present study aimed at investigating the most important English schemas as well as their relevant Persian subtitled translations in two American animations, namely Frozen I (2013) and Frozen II (2019), to determine the similarities and differences between these structures in the two languages. To this aim, the Image Schema Theory and its taxonomy for different types of schemas with a focus on containment, path and force schema were presented and discussed. The schemas in the original versions of Frozen I and Frozen II were accordingly identified and taxonomized under the subcategories of containment (as full-empty, in-out and surface) and path (as front-back, near-far, up-down, spiral, circle and contact) proposed by Peña (2008) and force (as compulsion, blockage, counterforce, diversion, restraint removal and enablement) presented by Evans & Green (2006). The comparison of the original schemas with their pertinent Persian subtitled translations demonstrated the applied strategies as description, substitution, omission, loan translation and addition. The results also indicated on foreignization as the dominant approach in the Persian subtitles.