Transitivity System and a Translation of Lexical Metaphors: The Case of the Emirates Airline Website

Abstract

Lexical metaphors colourise literary as well as non-literary texts. In the case of a website, it can make the text more appealing and consequently improve the sales of a company. In the highly competitive airline industry, an impressive webpage plays a significant role, especially in online reservation and purchase. This article examines the lexical metaphors used in the English and Thai websites of the Emirates Airline, adopting Transitivity of the Systemic Functional Linguistics by Eggins (2004) as the analytical framework. It also explores how the translated lexical metaphors are similar to and/or different from the original version. The study finds the lexical metaphors are realised in the transitivity systems of process, participant and circumstance. The translation is found to retain mostly the original transitivity systems. The study further finds both literal translation and adaption play parts in preserving and removing the original metaphorical form.