cultural differences in english and Chinese idioms.docx

cultural differences in english and Chinese idioms.docx

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culturaldifferencesinenglishandChineseidioms

CONTENTS

CONTENTS1

Abstract3

摘要4

1.Introduction5

2.Studyofidioms6

2.1.Definitionofidiom6

2.2.Characteristicsandfunctions7

2.2.1.Characteristics7

2.2.2.Functions8

2.3.Literaturereview9

3.CulturaldifferencesbetweenChineseandEnglishidioms11

3.1.Culture11

3.1.1.Definitionofculture11

3.1.2.Characteristicsofculture12

3.1.3.Connotationofculture13

3.2.CulturaldifferencesbetweenChineseandEnglishidioms14

3.2.1.Religions14

3.2.2.Customs16

3.2.3.Livingenvironments19

3.2.4.History20

3.2.5.Literature22

3.2.6.Value23

4.Conclusion26

Acknowledgement27

Bibliography28

CulturalDifferencesinChineseandEnglishIdioms

Abstract

Astheessenceoflanguage,idiomsareuniqueandfixedexpressionswithparticularmeaning.Theyplayanimportantroleinpeople’sdailylife.Peopleareinclinedtouseidiomsbecausetheyhaveconcisemeaningsandvividimages,whichreflectthedifferentfeaturesofcultureinlivingenvironments,value,religion,literature,historyandcustoms.Thispaperdiscussesthosedifferencesfromthreeparts.Thefirstpartaimsatexistingresearchesofidiomsandfindingsthatmanyscholarshaveachievedfromvariousperspectivesofidioms.Theninthesecondpart,theauthortendstoabstracttheconnotationofculturefromitsdefinition,characteristicsandfunctions.Thenitcomesthemostimportantpartofthisarticle,thethirdpart,whichdiscussesdifferencesinEnglishandChineseidiomsfromreligions,customs,livingenvironments,history,literatureandvalue.Byusingmanyvividandinterestingexamples,thispartistohelppeoplegetbetterunderstandingoftheculturedifferences,aimingatremovingbarriersofcommunicationbetweendifferentcountries.

Keywords:

idioms,culture,differences

中英习语文化差异

摘要

作为语言的精华，习语是独特的，是具有特定含义的固定短语。

它们在人类的日常生活中扮演很重要的角色。

人们喜欢运用习语，因为它们通俗简练，生动有趣，而且在生活环境、价值观、宗教信仰、文学作品、历史以及风俗习惯上都体现了文化的不同特征。

本文从三个方面探讨了相关的文化差异。

第一部分呈现了很多学者从不同方面研究习语的现状。

作者在第二部分从定义、特点以及功能方面阐述了文化的内涵。

接下来的第三部分是本文的重点，分别从宗教、习俗、生活环境、历史、文学、价值观这些不同的方面分析了中英习语的文化差异，这一部分通过运用一些生动风趣的例子试图帮助读者更好地了解文化差异，旨在消除跨文化交际中的障碍。

关键词：

习语,文化,差异

1.Introduction

Differentcountrieshavedifferentcultureswhichresultinthedifferencesincustomsandidioms.Idiomsareshapedduringthelongperiodofliving,reflectingtheculturaldifferencesbetweendifferentnations.

Nowadays,agreatmanylinguistsconductstheresearchonthestudyofidioms.OverseasresearcherssuchasLarryA.samovarandFernando,andKramschallputtheirowntheoriesofthecharacteristicsandfunctionsofEnglishidiomsfromavarietyofaspects.SomedomesticresearcherssuchasDuNin,FanJinlin,JiaoYangbasedonthepreviousachievements,studythisfiledtodifferentdegreesaswell.

Theaboveresearchershaveprovidedtheoriesfromavarietyofperspectives,andtheyallcontributealottothestudyofidioms.However,whattheyhavediscussedanddescribedaremainlyaboutthecharacteristicsandthedifficultyinthetranslationofidioms.Mostofthemignoretheculturaldifferencesinidioms,andthisarticleistoanalyzetheculturaldifferencesinChineseandEnglishidioms,inordertohelppeopleavoidmakingmistakesandgraspthepropermeaningofothersduringtheinterculturalcommunication.

2.Studyofidioms

Idiomscanreflectthelocalcustomsandenvironmentsofdifferentcountries,andtheyarethemostvaluableheritageofanation,whichcanbepasseddownfromgenerationtogenerationforcenturies.Theyarevivid,profoundandmeaningful.Theyaredistinctfromotherlanguagesystems.Therefore,thestudyofidiomsissupposedtoproceedfromdefinition,characteristics,andfunctions.Besides,thepreviousachievementswillbementionedinthefollowingpart.

2.1Definitionofidiom

Accordingtodifferentdictionaries,thereareawiderangeofidioms’definitionversions.Someofthosedefinitionsarepickedoutasfollows:

Anidiomisanexpressionwhichfunctionsasasingleunitandwhosemeaningcannotbewordedoutfromitsseparateparts（Jack,1985）.

Anidiomisaphrase,constructionorexpressionthatisrecognizedasaunitintheusageofagivenlanguageandeitherdiffersformtheusualsyntacticpatternsorhasameaningthatdiffersfromtheliteralmeaningofitspartstakentogether（Michael,1996）.

Anidiomisanexpression,word,orphrasethathasafigurativemeaningthatiscomprehendedinregardtoacommonuseofthatexpressionthatisseparatefromtheliteralmeaningordefinitionofthewordsofwhichitismade（Tom,1992）.

Anidiomisagroupofwordswhosemeaningcannotbepredictedfromthemeaningoftheconstituentwords（HarperCollins,1998）.

Anidiomisaspeechformoranexpressionofagivenlanguagethatispeculiartoitselfgrammaticallyorcannotbeunderstoodfromtheindividualmeaningsofitselements（HoughtonMifflin,2006）.

2.2Characteristicsandfunctions

2.2.1Characteristics

IdiomsarethekeyanddifficultpointsinEnglishteaching,whichhasbeenrecognized.Inadditiontotheconnotationofidiomsinnaturallanguage,theyalsoowntheuniquecharacteristicsthatotherlanguageunitscannotcomparewith.Themainlyuniquefeatureslieinthediversityintype,function,andculture,particularityofthestructuresandsemantics,andtheuniversalityofusage（彭庆华,2005:

48-50）.

（1）Universality

Theuniversalityofidiomsreflectsthatthegraspofidiomsplaysanimportantroleincross-culturalcommunication,manycountriesallaroundtheworldhavetheirculturalidioms.Idiomsarethecommonlanguageunitoftheirculture.

（2）Diversity

Thediversityofidiomsmanifeststhatidiomsarefullofabundantanddifferenthistoricalfigures,culturaloriginsandflexiblefeaturesinapplications,andthecomplexityofidiomsreflectscognitivecharacteristicsandwaysofthinkingofdifferentcountries.

（3）Particularity

Idiomsdemonstrateinherentstructureofvocabulary,semanticcharacteristics.Theyaretheprecioustreasureofhumanbeings.Theyarejustlikeamirrorreflectingdistinguishingfeaturesofanation.Asuniquephenomenonoflanguage,idiomshavetheirownspecialtybothinformandcontent.Peopleindifferentcountriesareaccustomedtousingtheirownlanguagetodescribeasamething.Forexample,Chinesepeoplealwaysprefertouse“小菜一碟”tomean“somethingveryeasytodo”.However,inEnglish,peoplewilluse“apieceofcake”todescribethesamemeaninginsteadofusing“vegetables”（张俊哲,2011:

24）.

Inordertolearnbetteraboutidioms,inadditiontomakemoreeffortsintheusageofidioms,peopleshouldalsopayattentiontotheuniquecharacteristicsofidioms.

2.2.2Functions

Idiomsarewell-knownandplayanimportantroleinhumanlife,notonlythewritersliketousethisformoflanguage,butalsoordinarypeoplehaveapreferencetoidioms,becausetheyareconcise,vividandhumorous.Theyhavetheirownfunctions.

Fernandoclassifiesthefunctionsofidiomsintothreekinds:

ideational,interpersonal,andrelationalinhisbookIdiomsandIdiomaticity（Fernando,2000）.

（1）Ideational

Theideationalfunctionreferstoconveynewinformation,tocommunicateacontentthatisunknowntohearer.Besides,throughlearningidioms,peoplecanlearntoknowtheworldandshapetheirattitudetotheworldduringtheprocess.

（2）Interpersonal

Thisfunctiontendstoexpresspeople’ssocialemotion,anditmeansrelationshipsbetweenpeople.Peoplecanconnectandcommunicatewellwithothersbyusingidioms.

（3）Relational

Relationalidiomsrefertothoseidiomaticexpressionsthatcandefinethesemanticwordsclearlyandcorrectly.Thoseexpressionscanexpressthemeaningsofsentencesmorevividandconcise.

Havingthoseuniquefunctions,idiomsareveryeasytoaccessandtorememberandcanmakepeopleunderstandthearticlemoregraphicallyandcomprehensively.

2.3Literaturereview

Withthedevelopmentofidioms,theyhavebeenpaidattentiontobyanumberofresearchersinrealearnest.Alotofworksonidiomshaveappeared.InCommunicationBetweenCultures,LarryA.Samovar（Larry,2004）pointsoutthatthecloserelationshipbetweenlanguageandculture,andhealsoshowsclearlytheimportanceoflanguagetothestudyofinterculturalcommunication,whichisinaccordancewithKramsch’sideasinhisbookLanguageandCultural（Kramsch,2000）.Fernando（Fernando,2000）resortstoIdiomsandIdiomaticitytoexplainthefunctionsofidioms.

InChina,manyresearchersputemphasisonthedifferencesinidioms.ZhuangconductsaresearchontheoriginofEnglishidiomsinhisbooks（庄和诚,2002）,andthenFanhasanalyzedtheculturalfactorsinthetranslationofidiomsfromtheviewpointofinterculturalcommunication,discussestheinfluenceandrestraintofculturalfactorsonthetranslationofChineseandEnglishidiomsandtheresultedculturaltransplantationstrategiesandtranslationmodels（范思勇,2005:

62）.AfterFan’sanalysis,Duhasdiscussedthefunctionofidiomsincross-culturalcommunication（杜宁,2011:

123-124）.WhileJiaohassummarizedtheculturaldifferencesinChineseandEnglishidioms（焦阳,2003:

83-85）.Inaddition,Miao（缪昌义,2004:

89-91）andPeng（彭晓蓉,2004:

52-54）alsomakegreatcontributionsinthisfield.

Althoughthosescholarsdomanyendeavorsinthestudyofidioms,however,mostofthemarefocusontranslationandfunctionsandfewofthemdiscussthedifferencesinidiomsclearly.Therefore,theauthorwantstoanalyzetheculturaldifferencesfromsomedetailedfactsinthispaper.Besides,theauthorhopesthisarticlecandrawpeople’sattentiontotheculturaldifferencesinidioms.

3CulturaldifferencesbetweenChineseandEnglishidioms

Languagehassuchacommandinginflue