Mapping metaphor research in translation and interpreting studies: a bibliometric analysis from 1964 to 2023

This article presents a bibliometric analysis of metaphor research in Translation and Interpreting Studies (TIS) from 1964 to 2023. An ad-hoc database of 1,023 publications was built based on bibliographic records retrieved from Bibliography of Interpreting and Translation and Translation Studies Bibliography. Descriptive analyses of historical development, cognitive theoretical frameworks adopted, authorship patterns, and publication patterns were conducted to map the general landscape of the field. Furthermore, a four-layer coding frame was applied to conduct fine-grained analyses of empirical studies, classifying them according to their mediation of communication, research orientation, and research method. The results show that the potential overlap between metaphor research and Cognitive Translation and Interpreting Studies (CTIS), a growing sub-field of TIS, is yet to be substantial. Much remains to be done to incorporate metaphor research into CTIS. Following recent theoretical and methodological advancements in Metaphor Studies and CTIS, this article ends with suggestions of how the unfinished cognitive turn of metaphor research in TIS could be brought to completion.