从文化角度论英语习语的翻译方法.docx

从文化角度论英语习语的翻译方法.docx

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从文化角度论英语习语的翻译方法

毕业论文

题目：

OnTranslationofEnglishIdioms

fromCulturalPerspective

院系：

专业：

姓名：

指导教师：

完成日期：

Abstract

Englishisoneofthemostimportantlanguagesintheworld.Sothetranslationisalsosignificant.Atthesametime,EnglishidiomsplayakeyroleinEnglishlanguageandculture,reflectinglanguageandculture.Thesephrasesdominatedifferentculturalcharacteristicsandinformationofculture.ThepracticeoftherichidiomsofEnglishlanguageisamirrorofacolorfulWesternculture.However,thereissomethingdifferentinthereappearanceoftheoriginallanguage.Inadditiontostriveinlinewiththeoriginaltextliterally,weshouldtakeculturalcharacteristicsofthetargetlanguageintoaccount.Thenartprocessingisnecessary.Asaresultofthattherealcross-culturalcommunicationiscometrue.Thepaperisdividedintofoursections.Thefirstsectionsaysdefinitionsandformsofidiom.Thesecondsectionsaystherelationshipbetweenidioms,cultureandtranslation.Thethirdsectionsayshowtounderstandidiomsfromaculturalcontext.Thefourthsectiongetsafurtherconclusionandmakessomeconstructivesuggestionswhicharepracticalintranslatingidioms.

Keywords:

idioms；culture；thetranslationofidioms

摘要

英语是最重要的国际语言之一，因此翻译就变得很重要。

与此同时英语习语又是英语文化的重要体现，它反映了语言和文化特点。

这些习语承载了不同的民族文化特色和文化信息。

含义丰富的习语是多姿多彩的西方文化的一面镜子。

然而源于的再现是困难的。

为了再现原文的表现力，在翻译中，除了力求忠实原文，还应根据目的语的文化特点，对不同的源语言做相应的艺术加工，以真正实现跨文化交际。

本文共分为四大部分，第一部分是介绍习语的定义及形式；第二部分介绍了习语，文化和翻译之间的关系；第三部分讲的是如何在上下文中理解习语；最后一部分是作进一步总结以及一些实用的建议。

关键词:

习语；文化；习语的翻译

CONTENTS

Introduction1

ChapterOneDefinitionsandformsofidiom2

I.Thedefinitionsofidiom2

II.Formsofidioms4

1.Setphrases4

2.Allusions4

3.Proverbs5

.Slangs6

ChapterTwoIdioms,cultureandtranslation7

I.Idiomsandculture7

II.TheRelationshipbetweenIdiomsandCulture7

.Cultureandtranslation8

ChapterThreeUnderstandingidiomsfromaculturalcontext11

I.Theoriginalandnationalcoloring11

II.Theculturalloading13

ChapterFourthTranslationofIdioms15

.StrategiesforIdiomTranslation---DomesticationandForeignization15

.DialecticalRelationshipbetweenDomesticationandForeignization15

III.Translationmethodsofidioms17

1.Theliteralapproach17

2.Literaltranslationplusannotation18

3.Image-shifttranslation20

4.Theapproachofadditionandomission21

5.FreeTranslation---ReplacementwithSimilarChineseIdioms23

IV.ThePointsforAttentionintheTranslationofEnglishIdioms23

1.AvoidingWord-for-WordTranslation23

2.AvoidingSubstitutionwithaHighlyCulture-boundChineseIdiom24

Conclusion26

Bibliography27

Acknowledgements28

Introduction

Culturalstudieshaverecentlybeenpopularinthewest.AnddiscussingculturalstudieshasalsobecomeamainstreaminthecircleofpresentChinesecultureandacademia,especiallyinthefieldofliterarytheoryandcriticism.Consequently,inthewidescopeoftranslationstudies,therearesomescholarsbothathomeandabroadwhohavetriedtoproficientlyuseculturaltranslationstudiesininterpretation.Translationisconsideredtobeacross-culturalcommunication.Itinvolvesnotonlythetransferbetweenlanguages,butalsothetransferbetweencultures.However,thewaysofthinking,beliefs,attitudesandvaluesofdifferentculturesbothleadtofailuresormisunderstandingsincross-culturalcommunicationandconfusetranslationtheoristsandtranslators.

Anidiomisabeautifulgemofalanguage.Yetitisverydifficulttolearnandbeusedinaforeignlanguage.Generallyspeaking,theyareratherhardtounderstandfromthemeaningofindividualwords.ChineseandEnglishbothaboundwithidioms,whichhaverespectivecharacteristicsandfar-reachingmeaning.Especiallymanyidiomsbecharacterizedwithfiguresandstrongculturalflavors.Iftheyaretranslatedappropriately,theoriginalspiritandmeaningscanbepreciselyconveyed,simplyunderstoodandeasilyacceptedbythetargetlanguagereaders.Inaddition,theChineseandEnglishvocabulariescanprovideacompleteculturalvision.Ifthetwolanguagesaresodifferentinbackgroundsandcultureswitheachother,itisalwayscomplicatedtotranslateidiomsofonelanguageintoanother.Thispaperexplainsthecloserelationshipbetweenidiomsandculturetranslation,andtheissueofidiomtranslationisstudiedfromaculturalperspective.

ChapterOne

Definitionsandformsofidiom

Theword“idiom”hasseveraldefinitions.In“theChineseidiom”,itmaybedefinedas“thelanguageofapeopleoracountry”;or“adialect”asin“Cantoneseidiom”.Itmaypossessanothermeaning,accordingtoOxfordAdvancedLearner’sEnglish-ChineseDictionary,“phraseorsentencewhosemeaningisnotclearfromthemeaningofitsindividualwordsandwhichmustbelearntasawholeunit”.Thispaperdeeplyexplorestheseconddefinition,forthesecondmostsuitsthepurposeofthepaper.“习语”isequivalentfor“Idiom”inChinese,italsoreferstoakindofaphraseorsentenceformedbylongusage.Wecansumuptwobasiccriteriafromtheabovedefinitions.Theseareimportanttodecidewhetheranexpressionisanidiom（or:

习语）ornot.

I.Thedefinitionsofidiom

Firstly,sinceidiomsareestablishedandmadeupbylongpracticalusage,lexicacomponentsofanidiomisrelativelysteadytoahighdegree.Thereislittleornovariationinformofanidiomundernormalcircumstances.Generallyspeaking,anychangeinthecomponentswillresultinabsurditiesorevendeprivetheidiomsofitsoriginalmeaning.Thefollowingareabsolutelycannotdobyaspeakerorwriterwhousesanidiomunlessheorsheismakingajokeonpurposeorattemptingplayonwords:

a.Changetheorderofthewordsinanidiom（e.g.“atsevensandsixes”insteadof“atsixesandsevens”）;

b.Deleteawordfromanidiom（e.g.“akettleoffish”insteadof“adifferentkettleoffish”）;

c.Addawordtoanidiom（e.g.“Fewwordsarethebest”insteadof“Fewwordsarebest”）;

d.Casuallyreplaceawordwithanother（evenwithasynonymousword）（e.g.“arottenhorse”insteadof“arottenapple”）

e.Changegrammaticalstructureofanidiom（e.g.“finebirdsaremadebyfinefeathers”insteadof“finefeathersmakefinebirds”）.

AsusageofEnglishidiom,inChinesewecanonlysay:

“七上八下”not“八上七下”“无的放矢”not“无的放箭”,although“矢”and“箭”bothmean“arrow”.However,inspiteofwhathasbeenmentionedabove,sometimes,forthesakeofsarcasm,forthesenseofhumororforthesakeofstyle,wecancreatesomenewvariantsfromtheoriginalidiomsaccordingtoitsstructure.Butthesecreativevariantsaremakeshift,andmaynotbewidelyacknowledgedbypeopleasawhole:

（1）“Wisemenwillbewisemen”isfrom“foolswillbefools”

（2）“Bedressedtotheteeth”isfrom“tobearmedtotheteeth”.

SimilarlyinChinese:

（3）“一石三鸟”（toachievethreeaimsatonce）isanirregularvariantofthesetphrase“一石二鸟”（toachievetwoaimsatonce）;

Sometimesforrhetoricalpurpose,anidiomcanbemadebriefwithonlythecorewordremained:

（4）“Hisaffairwasthelaststraw.”Inthissentence,“thelaststraw”isadaptedfromtheidiom“thelaststrawthatbreaksthecamel’sback”Now“thelaststraw”isequalto“thelaststrawthatbreaksthecamel’sback”.

（5）“Opportunitiesforstartingyourownbusinesswillneverbebetter,somakehayandgoandseeyourbankmanagertoday.”Here,“makehay”isshortenfromtheidiom“Makehaywhilethesunshines”.Suchabbreviationusuallydemandthefamiliarityoftheidiombythereadertoknowtherealmeaning.

Secondly,usuallythemeaningsofidiomscannotbeextrapolatedfromtheirindividualword.Moreoftenthannot,itcannotbetranslatedjustliterally.Ifitistranslatedaccordingtoitsliteralmeaning,therewillberidiculous.Taketheidiom“inDutch”forexample:

InsteadofintheNetherlands（Holland）,itmeanstobedatedintrouble,asin“HehasbeengettinginDutchatschool.”ThenletustakeanotherChineseidiomforexample:

“放马后炮”（literallymeanstofireafirecrackerafterahorse.However,actuallyitmeanstodoanactionormakeanadviceaftersomethinghasbeendone）.Anidiomusuallyexpressesandeepmeaning,inanotherword,mostidiomsaremetaphoricalinmeaning.Themeaningofanidiomisnotthetotalmeaningsofitsconstituentwords,thatistosay,idiomsconveyrighteranddeepermeaningasawholethantheindividualwordscancarryseparately.Thistheorycanbecompletelyillustratedbythefollowingexamples:

whenwethesolophrase”themaninthemoon”isnotanidiom.Butinafigurativesense,“themaninthemoon”referstosomeoneregardedasoutoftouchwithreallife.“Thecat’swhiskers”dosenotrefertoacat’sthickhairthatgrowsnearthemouth.Itreferstoanexcellentpersonorthing.“blackart”isnotanartisblackatall.Anditmeansatechniqueorpracticeconsideredmysteriousandsinister.

II.Formsofidioms

Broadlyspeakingidiomshavefollowingforms:

setphrases,proverbs,commonsayings,colloquialisms,allusionsandslangs.Herefourmostimportantformsareselectedtoexplain.

1.Setphrases

Oneofthemostimportantgroupsofidiomsissetphraseswhoseformisfixedandmanyofthemarenotflexibleandcannotbetakenplacebyanyotherforms.ThereisaninnumerablenumberofsetphrasesthatplayanimportantpartinEnglishlanguageandculture.Iwouldchooseoneofthemwithculturaltraces.Forexample,theoriginalmeaningof“tokickthebucket”canbedatedbacktoareligiousceremonyofbaptisminChristianity.Baptismisthereligiousriteofsprinklingwaterontoaperson’sforehead.AsfarasaChristianisconcerned,heorshehasthree