A brief comparative study of the cultures embodied in Chinese and English idioms从文化角度看习语翻译

1、a 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

2、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、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 widel

3、y 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 of the language. idioms usually carry more impact than none-idiomatic expression

4、s 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 articles; even debates in the united nations are often interspersed with idioms which

5、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, calling on people to fight against slavery and civil war. american people, who wer

6、e 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 helpful but also essential in intercultural communication.this paper attempts to

7、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; the translation of idioms1. introductioncultural studies have currently been preva

8、iling 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 sphere of translation studies, there are some scholars both at home and abroad who

9、 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 the transfer between cultures. however, the ways of thinking, beliefs, attitudes a

10、nd 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 language as well as crystallization of national culture. yet it is also one of the mos

11、t 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 meanings make themselves more condensed and expressive. many idioms bear figures an

12、d 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 and english vocabularies can be enriched to provide a broader cultural vision. t

13、he 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 between idioms and culture translation, and the issue of idiom translation is explore

14、d 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 idiom”; or “a dialect” as in “cantonese idiom”. it may also be defined, according

15、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 most suits the purpose of this paper. the chinese “equivalent” for“ idiom” is“习语”,

16、 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, established and refined by long practical use, an idiom has a relatively high degree of

17、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 speaker or writer cannot normally do any of the following with an idiom unless

18、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” instead of “a nice kettle of fish”);c. add a word to it (e.g.* “to show ones whi

19、te 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 may be looked at by a cat” instead of “a cat may look at a king”). similarly in

20、 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 for the sake of style, we can create, as a makeshift, some irregular variants fr

21、om 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 the teeth” is from “to be armed to the teeth ”.similarly in chinese: (3) “一箭三雕”（

22、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 for rhetorical effect, an idiom can be made brief with only the core element remai

23、ned:(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 market is good now dont miss the chance.here, “make hay” is abbreviated from the

24、 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 their individual components. more often than not, it cannot be interpreted only a

25、ccording 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 you let me take you out to dinner tonight? “as long as we go dutch”. take another

26、 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 meaning, that is to say, most idioms are metaphorical in meaning. the meaning of an i

27、diom 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 examples: when taken literary, the phrase“the man in the street” is not an idiom. in a

28、 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 a metaphor to tell another person not to worry about something that cannot be un

29、done. “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.2.2 forms of idiomsin a broad sense, idiomatic phrases cover all of the following

30、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 whose form is set and many of them are rather rigid and cannot show up in any other

31、 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 back to a religious ceremony of baptism in christianity. as far as a christian i

32、s 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

33、 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 actually origins and national characteristics of idioms. on account of the different

34、 social background, customs and religious, some idioms are sure to have allusions to myth and legend, history and classic. their meanings are much more remoted from their literal senses. without knowledge of the allusions made in idioms we can hardly read between the lines and catch what they imply.

35、 to understand the idioms of this kind, knowledge of the etymology of idioms is indispensable. only a small part of english idioms, it is said, draw on sources from the legend of greece and rome, most of them are of biblical origin p97.for example, “bone of the bone and flesh of the flesh”, a phrase

36、 of biblical origin, is now metaphorically used to refer to “blood relation” or “unity in thought”, but why and how? as to these questions, the readers have to refer to the bible, an inspired as well as an inspiring book, which provides men and women with promises and punishments from god. it is che

37、rished cultural heritage all through the history of the west but now its influence has spread to most of the civilized world, just as the spirit of confucianism has penetrated into our chinese spiritual life, the essence of bible also influences how people in the west look at life. 2.2.3 proverbs pr

38、overb is often defined as the wisdom of many and the wit of one, stating commonly experienced or for the purpose of giving wise advice to others. proverbs are the wisdom of people, so it is common people who have created a great number of proverbs that are terse, colloquial, vivid and charged with l

39、ife through their practical work. their varied proverbs are from all walks of life. here are some typical ones reflective of common peoples lives as follows p286:sailors will say:(7) “in a calm sea every man is a pilot.”(在平静的海洋上,人人都是领航员)carpenters will say:(8) “such carpenters, such chips.”(什么木匠出什么活

40、)cobblers may say:(9) “the cobblers wife is the worst shod”. (鞋匠的老婆没鞋穿)2.2.4 slangsslang expressions are dialectic, vulgar and colloquial language drawing numerous sources from the shoptalk of every profession: trade, sport, school, social group, etc. they draw on source from local peoples life expe

41、riences or their customs and are widely used in informal speech and writing such as drama, tv serials, movies, monologue in the novel but are rarely used in formal contexts.3. idioms, culture and translation3.1 idioms and cultureidioms are usually highly specialized in meaning and closely tied to di

42、stinctive cultural features and cultural attitude. it is believed that idioms are the most culturally-loaded element in any languages vocabulary. as the kernel and cream of a language, idioms are usually closely with the historical backgrounds, economic life, geographical environment, customs and me

43、ntal states of the native speakers. as a matter of fact, idioms have been accepted by people and handed down to the present day because of their universal value. as such, they can be regarded as the sinew of the language. without idioms, language would lack color and become uninteresting.lets take p

44、roverb as an example. proverbs are the daughters of daily experience. in nearly every culture, proverbs offer an important set of instructions for members to follow. and thanks to the endurance of these “words of wisdom”, each generation learns about what a culture deems significant.below are some p

45、roverbs from the united states, each of which stresses an important american value: a value held by the dominant culture. (10) strike while the iron is hot. in the united states, people who take quick action are valued.(11) god helps those who help themselves. this saying calls attention to the stro

46、ng belief in america that people should show initiative.(12) the squeaky wheel gets the grease. in the united states, people are encouraged to “speak up” and make sure their views are heard.3.2 culture and translation translation is the transfer of the meaning of a text which may be a word or a book

47、 from one language to another for a new readership. since language is part of culture, translation of language cannot simply be the transfer of linguistic symbols. over the recent 20-years, with the deepening of cultural studies, it has been commonly accepted that translation involves both language

48、and culture. translation deals not only with turning the content in one language into another, but also with turning the cultural connotation in one language into another cultural form. so, it is quite necessary for a translator to think about the cultural connotation every unit may embody when tran

49、slating p39. the film the first blood is translated into“第一滴血”.however, the translation cannot reflect the cultural connotation behind the words. in fact, “the first blood” is an idiom full of cultural implication, referring to the first success in contest. it will be more reasonable if translated i

50、nto “初战告捷” or “旗开得胜”. a translator must be a real culturist. its said that a translator must grasp two languages; indeed, he must. but without understanding the social cultural connotation in one language no one can really master the language p5. even nida e.a. once also pointed out that for a truly

51、 successful translator, it is more important for him to get familiar with two cultures than to master two languages, because a word will make sense only in the cultural background where it functions. a translator should know foreign culture as well as the culture of his own people. human beings have

52、 much in common. they live on the same globe. experiences and observations of the world are in many respects similar. cultures of various countries also have something in common. all these similarities and generalities are inevitably embodied in languages. thats why equivalents or close approximates

53、 can be found in terms of linguistic form and meaning. for example, the english idiom “castles in the air” has its absolute equivalent of chinese idiom“空中楼阁”.however, culture is important in giving a language its own characteristics, so the dissimilarities are naturally more apparent. in the process

54、 of translation, a translator is more often faced with cultural differences. every country has its own ethnic groups, geographical location, religious beliefs, values, political systems and so on. all these form the differences of national culture, which are also certainly embodied in language. the

55、influence of culture on language brings difficulties to translating. the lack of cultural awareness on the part of the translator is often the cause of errors or defects of cultural nature in translating. as language is a tool for cultural dissemination and communication, translation is, of course,

56、a bridge and an essential means of cultural understanding and exchange. without translation, there was no cultural communication. studies on the relationship of culture and translation will give an impetus to cultural communication, to the promotion of the prosperity of cultures in different countri

57、es and different nations, to the enrichment of the global culture and acceleration of the development of the world civilization. the purpose and characteristics of translation are to exchange ideas and culture. therefore, translation is referred to as a cross-linguistic, cross-cultural and cross-soc

58、ial communication event.as stated above, language is the carrier of culture and translation is a tool for cultural exchange. as an essential and more expressive component of languages and cultures concerned, a beautiful gem of a language as well as crystallization of national culture, a close study

59、of them is inevitable in translation. the possibility of translation is due to the generality of cultures in different countries, while the limit of translation is based on their cultural differences. as we know, an idiom is a form of expression peculiar to a language. every language has its own peculiarities in expression, alien from each other. the four-character structures dominate the chinese idioms, while an english idiom is a combination of two or more words. both chinese and english