ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the notion of metaphor and the way it relates to the concept of translation within the Western tradition. The development of Western metaphor theory begins with Aristotle and classical rhetoric, passes through semiotics and semantics, and reaches hermeneutics, philosophy, scientific discourse and cognitive linguistics. The theoretical foundation of Richards's redefinition of metaphor is an anti-taxonomical redefinition of rhetoric as a discourse with a philosophical character. Max Black introduces the "interaction view of metaphor", which is a development of and terminological elaboration on Richards's definition of metaphor. In Models and Metaphors, published in 1962, Black extends metaphor theory to the theory of models exploring the epistemological dimension of scientific imagination. One can find traces of the profound connection between metaphor and translation both in Black's interaction theory and in Lakoff and Johnson's cognitive theory of metaphor. Metaphors are active on all levels of language and across all spheres of knowledge, from literary theory to philosophy and science.
