A Cognitive Approach to the Translation of Creative Metaphor in Othello and Macbeth from English into Arabic

ABSTRACT Despite the intriguing nature of metaphor and its acknowledged importance in the discipline of Translation Studies (TS), a relatively small number of studies have explored the translation of metaphor from the perspective of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, and very few of them adopted an experiential approach to the object of analysis. This research aims at exploring the translatability of creative metaphor in six Arabic translations of Shakespeare’s Othello and Macbeth based on a combined methodology that adopts the Conceptual Theory of Metaphor and the descriptive approach to text analysis in TS. The empirical study argues that metaphor translatability is an experiential process that is highly influenced by the diversity and richness of our conceptual system and the background knowledge shared by the metaphor producer and metaphor translator. Discussing metaphor translatability from the perspective of these factors involves dealing with different levels of variation in our metaphoric thinking including the cultural, contextual and pragmatic levels. The analyses and discussions of the empirical study mark a departure from text-linguistic approaches to the topic in that they deal with the Source Text’s and Target Text’s metaphoric content as physically embedded conceptual models rather than linguistic patterns with grammatically delineated features and structures. The arguments of the study answer several questions with regard to researching the translation of metaphor from the perspective of Conceptual Theory, providing a detailed description of what exactly influences the process and product of translation, and underlining the functionality of the variation factor in appreciating the conceptual nature of metaphor. The results of the empirical research reveal that, although our metaphoric thinking has a universally shared metaphoric structure, not all our metaphors are translatable or translated in a single way, which refutes the supremacy of the notion of metaphor universality, putting emphasis on the factors of experientialism, exposure and intentionality

Evaluation of a quality improvement intervention to reduce anastomotic leak following right colectomy (EAGLE): pragmatic, batched stepped-wedge, cluster-randomized trial in 64 countries

Background Anastomotic leak affects 8 per cent of patients after right colectomy with a 10-fold increased risk of postoperative death. The EAGLE study aimed to develop and test whether an international, standardized quality improvement intervention could reduce anastomotic leaks. Methods The internationally intended protocol, iteratively co-developed by a multistage Delphi process, comprised an online educational module introducing risk stratification, an intraoperative checklist, and harmonized surgical techniques. Clusters (hospital teams) were randomized to one of three arms with varied sequences of intervention/data collection by a derived stepped-wedge batch design (at least 18 hospital teams per batch). Patients were blinded to the study allocation. Low- and middle-income country enrolment was encouraged. The primary outcome (assessed by intention to treat) was anastomotic leak rate, and subgroup analyses by module completion (at least 80 per cent of surgeons, high engagement; less than 50 per cent, low engagement) were preplanned. Results A total 355 hospital teams registered, with 332 from 64 countries (39.2 per cent low and middle income) included in the final analysis. The online modules were completed by half of the surgeons (2143 of 4411). The primary analysis included 3039 of the 3268 patients recruited (206 patients had no anastomosis and 23 were lost to follow-up), with anastomotic leaks arising before and after the intervention in 10.1 and 9.6 per cent respectively (adjusted OR 0.87, 95 per cent c.i. 0.59 to 1.30; P = 0.498). The proportion of surgeons completing the educational modules was an influence: the leak rate decreased from 12.2 per cent (61 of 500) before intervention to 5.1 per cent (24 of 473) after intervention in high-engagement centres (adjusted OR 0.36, 0.20 to 0.64; P < 0.001), but this was not observed in low-engagement hospitals (8.3 per cent (59 of 714) and 13.8 per cent (61 of 443) respectively; adjusted OR 2.09, 1.31 to 3.31). Conclusion Completion of globally available digital training by engaged teams can alter anastomotic leak rates. Registration number: NCT04270721 (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov)