I find it impossible to believe that anything human beings can communicate in one language can’t be communicated in another, except when widely divergent cultures meet for the very first time (ie, two languages that overlap the same culture can describe the same things). What this study actually “proves” is that translation is imperfect and suspect – it really says nothing about metaphor.

Sign languages help us understand the nature of metaphors

But quite often, when trying to translate metaphors from a spoken language to a sign language, we find that it is impossible to use the same words.

Sign languages help us understand the nature of metaphors

Call me a fussy literalist, but I think by definition it is impossible to use “the same words” in translation. Equivalent words, maybe, although the very flaw in the concept of translation is that words aren’t really equivalent.

The single example cited in the study, that “time flies” *cannot* be translated literally into (Israeli) sign language, is maddening. Who is to say I don’t imagine wings when I hear the expression. In fact, if analog clocks have hands, the sign for flying might be a richer metaphor than the spoke word. Now, if I say I am throwing up my hands at this example, that might be tricky to translate.