Sci-Fi Neologism Translation: A Conceptual Blending Theory Perspective

Neologisms are ubiquitous in language, providing definitive evidence suggesting that humans can use language in a flexible and creative way. Science fiction (sci-fi) neologisms are the lexical manifestation of the creators’ creativity, to which Conceptual Blending Theory constructs a solid theoretical basis. This paper finds that applying Conceptual Blending Theory to translation will provide new insights into sci-fi neologism translation. When there is no corresponding frame in the input spaces of the two languages, translators can choose to project the original word directly into the blended space or construct a new frame in the target language space. When the same or similar frames exist in the two input spaces, translators can directly map the original word to the target language space or adjust the frames according to the translators’ experience, knowledge system, and target language culture to generate an optimal translation.