Metaphrase is a term referring to

literal translation Literal translation, direct translation or word-for-word translation, is a translation of a text done by translating each word separately, without looking at how the words are used together in a phrase or sentence. In Translation studies, trans ...

, i.e., "word by word and line by line"

translation Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

. In everyday usage, metaphrase means

literalism Literalism may refer to: *Biblical literalism, a term used differently by different authors concerning biblical interpretation *Qur'anic literalism, see Bi-la kaifa *The principle of aiming at a literal translation Literal translation, direct ...

; however, metaphrase is also the translation of poetry into prose.Andrew Dousa Hepburn,
Manual of English Rhetoric
', BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008, , p.18 Unlike "

paraphrase A paraphrase () is a restatement of the meaning of a text or passage using other words. The term itself is derived via Latin ', . The act of paraphrasing is also called ''paraphrasis''. History Although paraphrases likely abounded in oral tra ...

," which has an ordinary use in literature theory, the term "metaphrase" is only used in

translation theory Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

.Baker, Malmkjær, p. 154 Metaphrase is one of the three ways of transferring, along with

and imitation,Baker, Malmkjær, p. 153 according to

John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the per ...

. Dryden considers paraphrase preferable to metaphrase (as

) and imitation. The term "metaphrase" is first used by

Philo Judaeus Philo of Alexandria (; grc, Φίλων, Phílōn; he, יְדִידְיָה, Yəḏīḏyāh (Jedediah); ), also called Philo Judaeus, was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, in the Roman province of Egypt. Philo's dep ...

(20 BCE) in ''De vita Mosis''.

Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician from Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quintilia ...

draws a distinction between metaphrase and paraphrase in the

pedagogical Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and Developmental psychology, psychological development of le ...

practice of imitation and reworking of classical texts; he points out that metaphrase changes a word, and paraphrase, a phrase: a distinction that is also followed by Renaissance scholars.

References

Sources

*{{cite book, first1=Mona , last1=Baker , author-link1=Mona Baker , first2=Kirsten , last2=Malmkjær , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T8Mt8ObEBOQC , title=Routledge encyclopedia of translation studies , publisher=Routledge , year=1998 , isbn=0-415-09380-5 Translation studies