<i>Did he lead monologues</i> or <i>did he talk to himself?</i> How typological distance between source and target language influences the preservation of metaphorical mappings in translation

Abstract Speakers across the world describe a wide range of target domains (e.g., time, emotions) relying on similar metaphorical mappings that use motion as the source domain ( abstract concept is a moving entity: seven o’clock is approaching ; abstract concept is a location: rush into joy ). However, the extent to which these metaphorical mappings are preserved in translations remains largely unexplored. Our study examined metaphorical motion descriptions in novels written in German, Polish, and Spanish (150 descriptions per language) along with their translations into a language from either the same (intra-typological: German vs. Polish) or a different typological group (inter-typological: German vs. Spanish). We found that while translations generally retained the metaphorical mappings of the source language – regardless of transition type – some of the conceptual metaphors were lost in translation. Notably, intra-typological translations showed greater rates of preservation of the original mappings compared to inter-typological ones – suggesting an effect of language type. Our findings also highlight degree of novelty as an important factor affecting translation outcomes, with novel metaphors being more likely to be preserved than conventionalized ones.