（英语语言文学专业论文）英汉习语的民族文化差异性的对比研究.pdf

ii 中 文 摘 要 习语，作为语言的精华，是经过人们长期使用、千锤百炼而成的语言形式，它 在很大程度上依赖于特定的社会文化背景。所以说，习语是语言中最富于文化内涵 的部分。习语产生于文化，反过来，习语又反映文化的各个方面。语言学家 hudson 在其著作社会语言学 （sociolinguistics）一书中明确指出： “许多语言特征也 是文化特征。 ”通过研究一个民族语言中的习语，人们可以了解到该民族文化的一些 特征。nida（1993）也曾说过： “文化对词语、习语的意义的影响是非常深远的，如 果没有认真地研究背景，就难以透彻地理解习语的深刻含义。 ”习语正像一面镜子， 我们可以透过它清晰地看到丰富多彩的民族文化。本论文通过对比研究英汉习语， 找出英汉两个民族在自然环境、历史发展、宗教信仰、传统道德价值观念、风俗习 惯等方面的差异。从而使人们更深刻地了解英汉两个民族间的文化差异，对英语教 学和对外汉语教学方面有着重要意义和价值。同时，了解和掌握英汉习语的文化内 涵，有助于更好地理解和掌握英汉习语的准确含义，从而提高跨文化交际的能力。 全文分为五个部分。第一部分为绪论，主要介绍英汉对比研究的现状，以及研 究的目的和意义。第二部分主要介绍习语的定义以及习语范围的界定。第三部分介 绍了语言与文化以及习语与文化的关系。第四部分通过对英汉习语进行对比，揭示 了英汉两个民族在自然环境、历史发展、宗教信仰、传统道德价值观念、风俗习惯 等方面的差异。第五部分总结了造成英汉两个民族差异的根本原因，以及了解这些 差异对于教学及跨文化交流的影响。 关键词关键词：英汉习语; 文化内涵; 民族文化差异性 i abstract as the essence of language, idiom is a kind of language form which has been used for a long time and steeled over and over again before it is shaped, depending on certain specific social cultural background to a great extent. in this way, it is certain to say that idiom is the part of language which contains the richest cultural connotation. idiom originates from culture and in return, reflects all aspects of culture. in his work sociolinguistics, linguist hudson demonstrates explicitly: “many characteristics of language are also the characteristics of culture.” through the research on the idioms in the language of a nation, many characteristics of the nations culture can be comprehended. nida (1993) once pointed out that culture exerts profound influence on the meaning of words and idioms; without careful study of cultural background, it is difficult to get deep understanding of the profound implications of the idioms. idiom is just like a mirror through which colorful national culture can be seen distinctively. by the comparison of english idioms and chinese idioms in this thesis, the differences between the british nation and the chinese nation will be unfolded in the following aspects as natural environment, historical development, religious belief, traditional moral values, customs, etc, through which the cultural differences between the two nations will be expounded profoundly. it is of high value for english teaching and chinese teaching for foreigners. at the same time, to understand and master the cultural connotations of english idioms and chinese idioms contributes to our better understanding and grasping the exact meanings of the english and chinese idioms, and thus improving our cross-cultural communicative abilities. the thesis consists of five chapters. in chapter one, the statue quo of the comparative research on english and chinese idioms as well as the purpose and significance of the study is introduced. part two mainly introduces the definition and range of idiom. the relationship between language and culture ii and the relationship between idiom and culture will be presented in chapter three. in chapter four, through the comparison of english idioms and chinese idioms, the differences between british nation and chinese nation in such aspects will be revealed as natural environments, historical development, religious belief, traditional moral values, customs, etc. in last chapter, the crucial reason why there exist differences between british nation and chinese nation is summarized as well as the influence upon language teaching and cross-cultural communication that understanding these differences brings forth. key words: english and chinese idioms; cultural connotation; national cultural differences 承诺书 53 承 诺 书 本人郑重声明：所呈交的学位论文，是在导师指导 下独立完成的，学位论文的知识产权属于山西大学。如 果今后以其他单位名义发表与在读期间学位论文相关的 内容，将承担法律责任。除文中已经注明引用的文献资 料外，本学位论文不包括任何其他个人或集体已经发表 或撰写过的成果。 学位论文作者（签章） ： 2010 年 月 日 chapter one introduction 1 chapter one introduction 1.1 the importance and purpose of the study in recent years, because of the reform and opening up policy, along with the increase of the international communication, cross-cultural communication becomes more and more important. such culture craze finds expression in the language study. increasing number of scholars cast their eyes upon the relationship between language and culture. some scholars concern the general relationship between language and culture, while others probe into the internal connection between language and culture as well as the influence that culture exerts upon language. idiom, as one part of language containing the richest cultural connotation, certainly has the closest relationship with culture, and thus becomes the focus of the scholars study. but most of these studies about idioms are restricted to the internal research of one certain culture: either doing research on the relationship between chinese idioms and han culture, or doing research on the relationship between english idioms and british and american cultures. although in some essays the comparison between english idioms and chinese idioms from cultural perspective is conducted, all the comparative studies are just showing the chief aspects of the topic and are somewhat too sketchy, not systematic and complete. in this thesis, a comprehensive comparison between english idioms and chinese idioms will be made, reflecting the differences between british nation and chinese nation in the following aspects: natural environments, historical development, religious belief, traditional moral values, customs, etc. for the purpose of the readers better understanding of the differences between the two nations as well as improving their cross-cultural communicative abilities, sufficient and comprehensive concrete examples are presented in this thesis, which is also of great significance and high value for english teaching and chinese teaching for foreigners. 1.2 the status quo on the contrastive study of english and chinese idioms since the end of 1970s, great progress has been made in the research on the comparison of english and chinese idioms. according to incomplete statistics, from 1979 to 2001, three monographs of the comparative study on english and chinese idioms have the national cultural differences reflected in english and chinese idioms 2 been published, more than sixty academic essays concerning this topic have been delivered, and more than fifteen kinds of dictionaries and handbooks about english and chinese idioms have been issued (gao xia, 2001). these researches on the comparison of english and chinese idioms deal with such aspects as definition and range, origin, syntactical structure, variation, and function and so on. for instance, in his book comparison and translation of english and chinese idioms, chen wenbo carried out his comparison of english and chinese idioms from ten aspects as their range, figure of speech, variation, corresponding meaning, literary allusion, and national characteristics and so on. two points are focused on in his book: the understanding of english idioms and the translation of chinese idioms into english. on the one hand, his work is beneficial for readers to understand english idioms under different language environments; on the other hand, some skills of chinese-english translation are introduced. in addition, the understanding and translation of chinese allegories (a two-part allegorical saying, of which the first part, always stated, is descriptive, while the second part, sometimes unstated, carries the message) is specially illustrated in his book. yang zijian and luan xuemei discussed the differences between english idioms and chinese idioms and explored their law of development in their collaboration research on the comparison of english and chinese idioms, published in the academic journal of qingdao oceanography university. at the end of the essay, the grammatical function of english idioms and chinese idioms was also compared, which other previous researchers never touched, making the comparative study more systematic. with the fast development in cross-cultural communication in recent decades, increasing number of linguists and scholars are showing great concern on cultural factors in different languages. in order to promote the successful cross-cultural communication, many researchers become interested in the study of different languages and their cultures. idioms bear rich cultural connotation which can reflect the cultural differences of different nations in a direct and profound way. so in recent years, it becomes an eye-catching topic to do research on idioms from cultural perspective. researchers carry out their work in finding the relationship between idioms and national psychology, cultural tradition, social development, change of the time, and geographical environment and so on, which promotes the development of idioms research. typical works about such research include chapter one introduction 3 english idioms and british and american culture (ping hong, zhang guoyang), chinese and english idioms and culture (wang dechun), chinese language and han culture (zheng zhuo), which are all confined to either doing research on the relationship among english idioms and british nation, chinese idioms and han nation, or focusing on one aspect (such as allegories) to do research on the differences of the two nations. and there are many other essays, such as the cultural differences between english and chinese idioms and their translation (zhang ning) and on national cultural differences from english and chinese idioms (zhu liling), comparing english and chinese idioms from cultural perspective. but all these monographs and essays are somewhat not systematic and complete in carrying out the comparative research on english and chinese idioms from cultural perspective, and further, the evidences of the idioms collected are not sufficient. 1.3 outline of the thesis the thesis consists of five chapters. in chapter one, the statue quo of the comparative research on english and chinese idioms as well as the purpose and significance of the study is introduced. part two mainly introduces the definition and range of idiom. the relationship between language and culture and the relationship between idiom and culture will be presented in chapter three. in chapter four, through the comparison of english idioms and chinese idioms, the differences between british nation and chinese nation in such aspects will be revealed as natural environments, historical development, religious belief, traditional moral values, customs, etc. in last chapter, the crucial reason why there exist differences between british nation and chinese nation is summarized as well as the influence upon language teaching and cross-cultural communication that understanding these differences brings forth. the national cultural differences reflected in english and chinese idioms 4 chapter two what is idiom？ idiom is a special language phenomenon as well as the essence of language. it is fixed in its structure and integral in its meaning. many idioms have been used for a long time and handed down gradually. they are concise, vivid, expressive, and full of profound moral and rich cultural connotation. then, what is the definition of idiom? 2.1 definition of idiom in dictionaries in longman dictionary of applied linguistics (1985), idiom is defined as an expression which functions as a single unit and whose meaning cannot be worked out from its separate parts. this definition emphasizes the monotony of idioms function and non-inferential in its meaning. in new oxford dictionary of english (1998), idiom is defined as a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words. this definition emphasizes that idiom is a set phrase and its meaning is not deducible. in websters new world college dictionary, 3rd edition (1996), idiom is defined as a phrase, construction, or expression that is recognized as a unit in the usage of a given language and either differs from the usual syntactic patterns or has a meaning that differs from the literal meaning of its parts taken together. in this definition, the integrity of idiom and its particularity in structure are concerned, as well as the fact that its meaning cannot be understood by connecting the literal meanings of its parts. although different characteristics of idiom are emphasized in these dictionaries, their descriptions on idioms meaning are almost unanimous, that is, idiom is a kind of fixed expression and its meaning cannot be concluded by the meanings of its constitutive parts. but they all have no explicit expression on the consisting number of the words in an idiom, and all the definitions are somewhat ambiguous. the following are the definitions of idiom made by some scholars and experts. 2.2 definition of idiom made by scholars and experts cowie in his oxford dictionary of current idiomatic english (1983) defines idiom as: an idiom is a combination of two or more words which functions as a unit of meaning. chapter two what is idiom？ 5 while ammer in his the american heritage dictionary of idioms (1997) defines idiom as a set phrase of two or more words that means something different from the literal meaning of the individual words. both experts agree that an idiom should be made up of at least two words. yet other scholars hold different opinions on the definition of idiom. for instance, schweigert at the same time, the historical developing process of a nation and a society is also recorded with language. language is the accumulation of a nations wisdom through its history as well as the crystallization of culture. language records human beings fruits of labor and life experience. through language, people not only acquire and master the achievements of civilization accumulated and inherited by our ancestors, but also review, develop and improve these achievements of civilization by using language. only in this way, can human society develop and advance continuously. but on the other hand, language cannot exist independently beyond culture, and any language cannot exist without social cultural circumstances on which language relies. so language has countless ties with such cultural factors as living environments, life styles, social customs, religious belief, historical development and so on. for instance, chinese ancient civilization originated from china central plains (comprising the middle and lower reaches of the yellow river), where is the northern temperate zone. people made a living on farming. so ox was the animal which kept closest ties with peoples life. such close relationship between human and ox is reflected in the national cultural differences reflected in english and chinese idioms 8 language and there are many phrases with “ox”, such as “牛劲”, “牛饮”, “钻牛角尖”, “老 黄牛”, “吹牛”, “牛脾气”, “牛郎织女”, “对牛弹琴” and so on. yet in western culture, westerners have closer relationship with horse than ox, which is reflected in language and many expressing ways concerning horse in life, such as “to talk horse (吹牛)”, “to work like a horse (像老黄牛一样拼命干活)”, “as strong as horse (体壮如牛)”, “a willing horse (工作认真的人)”, “a dead horse (徒劳无益的事)”, “to buy a white horse (浪费钱财)”, “to change horse in midstream (作不合时宜的重大改变)”, “to ride on the high horse (盛 气凌人)”, “to come off the high horse (放下架子)”, “to hold ones horses (沉住气)”, “a good horse should be seldom spurred (好马无须加鞭)” and so on. it is concluded that language always reflects culture, and meanwhile culture must be carried by language at any time. 3.2 the relationship between idiom and culture from the above mentioned, language is closely related to culture. so as the essence of language, idioms must have close relationship with the national culture to which the language belongs during the process of establishment of the idioms. to some extent, culture is a hotbed of the establishment of idioms. each nation has its own national culture which is its unique style and tradition established during the process of the peoples labor, including history, language, custom, life style, thinking pattern and so on. idiom is the language form which has been steeled over and over again and used by the people for long time, and to great extent it depends on specific social and cultural background. for this reason, idiom carries more cultural connotation than words. idiom comes from culture, and in return, idiom reflects different features of culture. in his book sociolinguistics, linguist hudson noted clearly: “many characteristics of language are also the characteristics of culture.” by doing research on the idioms of a nation, we can understand the cultural characteristics of the nation. nida (1993) once said that culture exerts profound influence on the meaning of words and idioms; without careful study of cultural background, it is difficult to fully understand the profound implications of idioms. idiom is just like a mirror, through which we can see the colorful culture of a nation distinctively. since idiom is a mirror reflecting the culture of a nation, we can see the cultural chapter three language and culture 9 differences between british nation and chinese nation by comparing english and chinese idioms. the national cultural differences reflected in english and chinese idioms 10 chapter four national cultural differences reflected in english and chinese idioms each nation records its culture, and reflects culture, and carries out cultural communication through its own language. as the objective world has universal laws and human beings thinking pattern has common features, different nations share many common factors in cultural concepts. but, there exists unique national culture because each nation possesses its own characteristics in history, geography, religion, customs and so on. the differences among