| Abstract |
Traditional rhetoric regards animal metaphors as static “cultural fossils”, assuming their meanings have solidified over time into iconic symbols of specific cultures. However, the advent of the internet has disrupted this static nature, transforming animals into “fluid signs” whose meanings are continuously reshaped and updated through online interactions. Centering on translation studies, this paper selects eight animals (dog, cat, pigeon, pig, snake, ox, horse, rabbit) frequently used in online contexts across Chinese and Western cultures as research subjects, conducting a comparative analysis of their metaphorical variations in different cultural backgrounds. Drawing on conceptual metaphor theory, skopos theory, and the cultural default compensation framework, it delves into the impact of the triple mechanism—“semantic drift, pragmatic compression, and cultural refraction”—on Chinese-English translation. The findings reveal: (1) Chinese online communities tend to employ animal metaphors with “pejoration-to-appreciation” shifts and “secondary meme creation”, whereas English communities exhibit more “neutral-to-reneutralization” phenomena; (2) The multimodal compression characteristic demands a “dual-track compensation” approach integrating text and visuals in translation; (3) The “emotional vacuum” caused by cultural refraction can be bridged through a “skopos-oriented triple compensation” strategy.
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