A brief comparative study of the cultures embodied in Chinese and English idioms.docx

1、A brief comparative study of the cultures embodied in Chinese and English idiomsA brief comparative study of the cultures embodied in Chinese and English idioms从文化角度看习语翻译【摘 要】习语是语言文化的结晶，缺少了习语，语言将会变得索然无味。习语在语言中的应用比比皆是，在写作或演说中适当地使用习语将会使篇章增色，加强语言的力量使语言更形象。奈达曾说过，习语是比任何非习语更具冲击力的表达，它带有一种语言和文化的识别特征。习语被广泛应用

2、于各类写作和演说中，如在文学作品中，在科学着作中，在政治演说中，甚至在美国,习语都成为辩论中唇枪舌战的武器。美国第16届总统亚伯拉罕林肯在他一篇着名演说中引用了圣经里的一句话：“互相分裂的房子无法站立。”来号召美国人民团结一致反对黑奴制度，停止内战。美国人对圣经的内容都很熟悉，他们为此深受感动。林肯废奴运动也取得了很好的结果。既然习语在语言运用中有如此重要地位，那么恰到好处地翻译习语将有助于跨文化交流。中英不同的文化使得英汉习语在表达上有很大差异，也使得翻译中容易产生误译,因此加强对英汉习语文化内涵差异的了解有着重要意义。本文在探讨英汉习语文化内涵差异的基础上提出了四种翻译方法:直译法、意译法

3、、意象转移法、增删法。【关键词】 习语；文化；习语翻译【Abstract】 Idioms, having universal appeal, are widely recognized as the essence or the crystallization of language. Without idioms language would become dull and dry, whereas an appropriate use of them in speech and writing will add much to variety strength and vividness

4、of the language. Idioms usually carry more impact than none-idiomatic expressions because of their close identification with a particular language and culture. Idioms are widely used in almost all kinds of speeches and writings: they can be found in literary works, in scientific and political articl

5、es; even debates in the United Nations are often interspersed with idioms which become verbal weapons that are difficult to argue against. The 16th US President Abraham Lincoln once quoted an idiom derived from the Bible: “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” in one of his famous speech, ca

6、lling on people to fight against slavery and Civil War. American people, who were familiar with the Bible, were greatly impressed and Lincolns antislavery campaign at last yielded fruitful result. Thus idioms hold an important position in language use, an adequate translation of idioms is not only h

7、elpful but also essential in intercultural communication.This paper attempts to make a brief comparative study of the cultures embodied in Chinese and English idioms and explores the role of the culture in understanding and rendering of both English and Chinese idioms.【Key Words】 Idioms; culture; th

8、e translation of idioms1. IntroductionCultural studies have currently been prevailing in the west. And talking about cultural studies has also become a fashion in the circle of present Chinese culture and academia, especially in the field of literary theory and criticism. Accordingly, in the wide sp

9、here of translation studies, there are some scholars both at home and abroad who have tried to replace translation with cultural translation studies and interpretation. Translation is considered to be a cross-cultural communication, which concerns not only the transfer between languages, but also th

10、e transfer between cultures. However, the ways of thinking, beliefs, attitudes and values of different cultures not only give rise to failures or misunderstandings in cross-cultural communication but also pose headaches to translation theorists and translators.An idiom is a beautiful gem of a langua

11、ge as well as crystallization of national culture. Yet it is also one of the most difficult things to learn and use in a foreign language. They are often rather hard to understand from the meaning of individual words. Chinese and English both abound with idioms, whose succinct forms and profound mea

12、nings make themselves more condensed and expressive. Many idioms bear figures and strong cultural flavors. If they are translated appropriately, not only can the original spirit and meanings be faithfully conveyed, clearly understood and accepted by the target language readers, but also the Chinese

13、and English vocabularies can be enriched to provide a broader cultural vision. The issues of rendering idioms of one language into another are always complicated, if the two languages involved are so unlike in backgrounds and cultures with each other. This paper expounds the close relationship betwe

14、en idioms and culture translation, and the issue of idiom translation is explored from a cultural perspective.2. Definitions and forms of idiom2.1 The definitions of idiom The word “idiom” possesses several meanings. It may be defined as “the language of a people or a country”, as in “the Chinese id

15、iom”; or “a dialect” as in “Cantonese idiom”. It may also be defined, according to Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary, as “phrase or sentence whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as a whole unit”1 p734. The second definition mo

16、st suits the purpose of this paper. The Chinese “equivalent” for“ idiom” is“习语”, it also refers to a kind of a set phrase or sentence fixed by long usage. From the above definitions we can extract two basic criteria on which to decide whether or not an expression is an idiom(or:习语):Firstly, establis

17、hed and refined by long practical use, an idiom has a relatively high degree of stability of the lexical components. An idiom allows little or no variation in form under normal circumstances. In general, any change in the components will result in absurdities or even render the idioms meaningless. A

18、 speaker or writer cannot normally do any of the following with an idiom unless he or she is consciously making a joke or attempting play on words:a. Change the order of the words in it (e.g.* “at sevens and sixes” instead of “at sixes and sevens”);b. Delete a word from it (e.g.* “a kettle of fish”

19、instead of “a nice kettle of fish”);c. Add a word to it (e.g.* “to show ones white teeth” instead of “to show ones teeth”);d. Replace a word with another (even with a synonymous word) (e.g.* “the pear of ones eye ” instead of “the apple of ones eye”)e. Change its grammatical structure (e.g.* “a king

20、 may be looked at by a cat” instead of “a cat may look at a king”). Similarly in Chinese we can only say: “七零八落” not “八零七落;”“无的放矢”not “无的放箭”, although “矢”and “箭” both mean “arrow”. However, just as what has been mentioned above, sometimes, either for the sake of sarcasm or for the sense of humor or

21、for the sake of style, we can create, as a makeshift, some irregular variants from the original idioms, but these irregular variants are transient, and may not be acknowledged by people as a whole: (1) “to read more than one can chew” is from “to bite off more than one can chew”; (2) “be dressed to

22、the teeth” is from “to be armed to the teeth ”.Similarly in Chinese: (3) “一箭三雕”（to shoot three hawks with one arrow）is an irregular variant of the set phrase “一箭双雕”（to shoot two hawks with one arrow）;(4) “权令智昏”(to be blinded by lust for power) from“利令智昏” (to be blinded by lust for gain);Sometimes fo

23、r rhetorical effect, an idiom can be made brief with only the core element remained:(5) The hotel was expensive, the food was poor and the bad weather was the last straw.In this sentence, “the last straw” is adapted from the idiom “It is the last straw that breaks the camels back.”(6) Make hay. The

24、market is good now dont miss the chance.Here, “make hay” is abbreviated from the idiom “Make hay while the sun shines”. Such adaptation usually calls for the familiarity of the idiom by the reader to recognize the real meaning.Secondly, an idiom often carries meanings, which cannot be deduced from t

25、heir individual components. More often than not, it cannot be interpreted only according to its literal meaning. Take the expression “to go Dutch (with someone)” for example: Instead of going to the Netherlands (Holland), it means to agree to share the cost of something (with someone), as in “Will y

26、ou let me take you out to dinner tonight? “As long as we go Dutch”. Take another Chinese idiom for example: “胸有成竹”(literally means to have the bamboo in ones mind, figuratively, to have ready plans or design in ones mind. cf. to have a card up ones sleeve). An idiom usually acquires an implied meani

27、ng, that is to say, most idioms are metaphorical in meaning. The meaning of an idiom is somewhat more than the sum meanings of its constituent words, in other words, idioms convey more meaning as a whole than the few words could carry separately. This can be fully illustrated by the following exampl

28、es: when taken literary, the phrase“the man in the street” is not an idiom. In a figurative sense, “the man in the street” implies the average person, who represents general opinion. When someone says, “You cannot unscramble the scrambled egg”, he is not merely referring to the egg, and he is using

29、a metaphor to tell another person not to worry about something that cannot be undone. “Cats paw” does not refer to the paw of a cat but a person who has been fooled or exploited. “Black sheep” is not a sheep which is black at all. And it means an evil member of a herd or a good-for-nothing person.2.

30、2 Forms of idiomsIn a broad sense, idiomatic phrases cover all of the following forms: set phrases, proverbs, common sayings, colloquialisms, allusions and slangs. Here four important forms of idioms are selected for explanation.2.2.1 Set phrasesOne most important group of idioms are set phrases who

31、se form is set and many of them are rather rigid and cannot show up in any other forms. There is an inexhaustible storehouse of set phrases that play an important role in English language. I shall select one of them with cultural traces. For example, the origin of “to kick the bucket” can be traced

32、back to a religious ceremony of baptism in Christianity. As far as a Christian is concerned, his/her important three stages, birth, marriage and death, are closely connected with a religious ceremony: baptism. A Christian needs to receive baptism from an administrator when he/she was born, get married in the church with blessings of a certain minister and be baptized again when he/she is going to die”. So the idiom “kick the bucket” is a euphemistic expression connoting “to die” referring to the death of a Christian in the ceremony of being baptized.2.2.2 Allusions Allusions of idioms are act