Revisiting grammatical metaphor in translation: New insights from the English–Chinese pair

Is grammatical metaphor – the different ways of construing experience as captured in the grammar of clauses – a challenge for translating like other metaphor types? We investigated how source texts’ degrees of metaphoricity and levels of translation expertise influence the performance of 41 informants when translating texts containing more or less metaphorical segments as stimuli. Data comprised keylogging, screen recording, written retrospective protocols and translation products. No significant differences emerged in total task time, and time allocated to source text reading, information search, and revision in processing stimuli. However, degrees of metaphoricity significantly impact (a) the aggregated time devoted to stimuli, (b) the subset thereof devoted to first-draft typing and (c) the degree of metaphoricity of stimuli renditions. Levels of translation expertise significantly influence informants’ stimuli renditions. Moreover, degrees of metaphoricity interact with translation expertise through the ratio of aggregated time devoted to stimuli to total task time. Informants with higher-level translation expertise showed increased awareness of stimuli, identified them as problems, organized problem-solving behaviors, and demonstrated higher degrees of metaphoricity in renditions. The study sheds light on the intricate relationship between grammatical metaphor, translation expertise, and translation performance, emphasizing nuanced impacts on time allocation and translation quality within a controlled experimental setting.