Semantics Metaphor, slang, and word play universal vs. culture s

Explain the ways in which metaphor, slang, and word play are universal, and the ways in which they are culture- and language specific.

I speak and translate several languages with various degrees of proficiency and, based on my limited experience with these languages, I would argue that metaphor, slang, and word play are universal from the standpoint of the experience of the recipient in the language of origin.  If the speaker’s recipient communicates in the same language, then metaphor, slang, and word play add “color” to the speaker’s “message”.  In all languages, writers and poets use metaphor to make their readers think more creatively, even philosophically.  Metaphor has similar linguistic properties and cognitive properties for all language recipients and allows the writers and poets to state their thoughts more succinctly because it paints an image schema.

Slang is used to fit into a particular group, when it is a group of professionals, it is called professional jargon.  Slang differs lexically and phraseologically from standard language and in closed groups is used to distinguish an “in” person, from one that does not belong.  Slang is also used as a protest to authority or as a rebellion of children against the parents and authority. 

Word play or paranomasia (“culled cash or cold cash, and then it turned into a gold cache” Doctorow) is much more difficult to achieve in languages that are phonetic or near phonetic, it is the least universal of the three.  Word play is also used to add color to the language and in advertisement messages.  Some near-universal metaphors are used in proverbs such as, “An apple does not fall far from the apple tree”, which is the same proverb in English and Russian.  But “The pen is mightier than the sword” has a much “rougher” parallel in Russian, “That, which has been written down with the pen, can not be chopped out with the hatchet”.  Also, the concept of an “evil stepmother” is a standard metaphorical archetype.  In slang, there is a derogatory word for a police officer or another authority figure in practically every language.  Advertisers all over the globe use word play, yet “why is it funny or amusing” is the most difficult thing to explain to a foreigner.

Actually, for the translator, metaphor, slang, and word play are a difficult task to overcome while striving for a good translation because there is not enough concept equivalency of various shades and colors of meaning in languages.  The Russian metaphor “With nails I’m beaten into the paper” is poetic and beautiful primarily to the Russians since it embodies the depth of feeling of the speaker about his craft of writing.  To the Westerner and the Easterner  it seems grotesque and difficult to comprehend.  Likewise, for a person unfamiliar with English urban legends, the simile (which is a sub-class of metaphor) of “rain falling like cats and dogs” is ludicrous and bizarre.  The French endearment “my little flea” or “my little cabbage” does not seem endearing at all in comparison to “my little bunny rabbit” (Russian). 

The English language word play advertising is not easily translatable into Russian or other phonetic languages.  The people living in a democracy find slang terms, which are derived for the leaders of a non-democratic country, difficult to comprehend and definitely non-funny. It also seems just mildly amusing, while the long script jokes with a word play punch line seem outright stupid and unfunny to the Russian.  In phonetic languages word play is often arrived at by deliberate perversion of the word to achieve humorous effect.