毕业论文英文论中西方文化差异

毕业论文英文论中西方文化差异 Cultural Differences of English and Chinese Idioms andTheir Translation Abstract Idioms include set phrases, sayings, proverbs and allusions. They are important, peculiar and indispensable part of a language. They are special linguistic units, for they are mainly characterized by their structural stability, semantic unity and contain various kinds of rhetorical devices and thus acquire a figurative meaning. Idioms play an important role in human communication, and they are also the most part of the culture. They have strong national characteristics as well as specific linguistic features. The production, variation, and development of idioms all include much and complicated culture information. So translating English idioms into Chinese or translating Chinese idioms into English cant be the word to word translation but concerning the influence of culture factors. The accurate translation of idioms should reflect the cultural background. The thesis mainly discusses the importance of understanding the cultural differences; expresses the views on geographical environment, background of history, customs and religion and belief and then suggests the principles that may be applied in the translation of English idioms and also offers some points for attention. Key words: cultural differences; idioms; translation principles 1 英汉习语的文化差异与翻译 摘要 习语主要包括成语、谚语、歇后语、典故等，它是语言中较为重要而且不可或缺的一部分。习语是一种特殊的语言单位，因为它具有结构稳定、语意连贯的特点；而且习语善于运用多样化的修辞手法， 从而具有了隐含的比喻意义。习语是人类交际中的普遍现象，同时又是文化的重要组成部分。它具有强烈的民族特色和本土的语言特征。习语的产生、变异和发展都包含着丰富、复杂的文化信息。因此，要准确的翻译习语，就要深入了解原语和目的语的文化背景。正确把握英汉文化的差异，对于提高翻译质量大为有益。 关键词：文化差异；习语；翻译；原则 2 Cultural Differences of English and Chinese Idioms andTheir Translation Idiom is an important, peculiar and indispensable part of a language. This paper mainly discusses the importance of understanding the cultural differences between English and Chinese and suggests the principles that may be applied in the translation of English idioms and also offers some points for attention.I. IntroductionII. Cultural differences between the Eastern and Western countriesA. Geographical environmentB. Historical backgroundC. CustomD. Religion and beliefIII. The principles for the translation of English idiomsA. Keeping the cultural flavor of the original workB. The implied meaning and the literal meaningC. The translation in conformity with the contextD. Keeping the translation higher qualityIV. Some points for attention in the translation of English idiomsA. Avoiding word-for-word translationB. Avoiding blindly substituting culture-bound idiomsV. Conclusion 3Cultural Differences of English and Chinese Idioms andTheir Translation . Introduction:According to Websters New World Dictionary of the American Language (second college edition, 1972), an idiom refers to an accepted phrase, construction, or expression contrary to the usual patterns of the language or having meaning different from the literal. That is, an idiom must be well established and accepted through common practice and an idiom usually has an implied meaning. In general, no elements in the idiom can be changed without destroying the sense as a whole and also it cannot be interpreted only according to its literal meaning.In a broad sense, English idioms include set phrases, proverbs, sayings, colloquialisms, allusions and slangs. Idioms are important, peculiar and indispensable part of a language. They are special linguistic units, for they are mainly characterized by their structural stability, semantic unity and contain various kinds of rhetorical devices and thus acquire a figurative meaning. Furthermore, being heavily loaded with cultural elements, they best reflect the culture of a nation. Consequently, they have been described as the essence of language and the concentrated culture. An appropriate use of them will add to the strength and vividness of our language. Men of letters, in modern or ancient times, in China or England, all excel in using idioms. English and Chinese, as languages, both have a long history. They contain a large number of idioms with different flavors, which offer human a kind of beautiful enjoyment, that is, deserved but humorous, strict but elegant, brief and to the point, vivid and full of beauty and significance. English and Chinese idioms connect closely with cultural tradition and carry different national cultural features and different cultural information, because of different geographical environments, historical backgrounds, customs and religion believes and so on.As American philosophy professor H.P. Grice said in his Meaning that the meaning of langue can be divided into natural meaning and non-natural meaning, and 4the latter means the meaning human intend to express, that is, the implied meaning the communicator intend to express in particular occasions. This is the base of Grices conversational implication. As a result of the differences of the cultural backgrounds of English and Chinese, the discourse and article may have completely different implied meaning, which are usually the right meanings the speaker or author wants to express. . Cultural differences between the Eastern and western countriesA. Geographical environmentPeople living in different geographical environments have different geographical cultures. People who live in a certain environment for a long history will have their own cultural tradition related to their unique living condition. Thus varied idioms are generated. Different places of the same country even have different, misunderstanding idioms because of different geographical environments. Therefore, the idioms collected from the eastern and western countries are certainly having different cultural implied meanings. In China, the direction south is often put in front of north when in Chinese set phrases, such as 从南到北，南来北往，南辕北辙 and so on. However, in English, “from north to south” is used to express the set phrase “从南到北”. Besides, England is an island rounded by water and its navigation once led the world, while the Chinese people live in the Asian Continent. Therefore, there must be a large number of English idioms about water and ship but Chinese idioms about land. For example, while representing someone wasting of money, we say “spend money like water” in English, but in Chinese we say “挥金如土”. Other examples, “as weak as water(弱不禁风)”, “to miss the boat(错失良机)”, “to rest on ones oars(暂时歇一歇)”, “to keep ones head above water(奋力图存)”, “all at sea(不知所措)”, etc.In the Chinese cultural atmosphere, “east wind” means “the wind of spring”, which is usually used to symbolize the warm of spring. Therefore, Chinese people seem to have a preference for east wind. A poem of Lan Mao in Ming Dynasty said: “东风破早梅，向暖一支开”. However, England lies in the western Hemisphere, being oceanic climate and the west wind is always the reporter of spring. Ode to the West Wind, a poem of British poet Shelley, is the right example of praising the spring. 5Another British poet Alfred Tennyson had a poem about west wind, that is:Sweet and low, sweet and low./Wind of the west sea, /Low, low, breathe and blow,/Wind of the western sea!Summer in China is often linked with heat and hot, but in Britain, this season is quite comfortable and is often related to words like cute, soft and wonderful. In one of Shakespeares sonnet he compared his beloved to summer: “Shall I compare thee to a summers day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate.”B. Historical backgroundThere are a large number of English and Chinese idioms formed from historical allusions. They have simple structures but profound meanings, thus its impossible to understand or translate them just from their literal meanings. In Chinese there are many idioms formed in this way, such as, “东施效颦”, “名落孙山叶公好龙”, “守株待兔”，“三十六计走为上”, etc. Here we take“东施效颦”for example, its easy for Chinese people to understand its cultural connotation, while as for a foreigner knowing little about Chinese historical culture would be puzzled on seeing the literal translation “Tung Shih imitates Hsi Shih”, because the connotation of the original allusion has been lost. Therefore, in order to make this Chinese allusion understood by the foreigner, it can be translated by adding a note: “Hsi Shih was a famous beauty in the ancient kingdom of Yueh. Tung Shih was an ugly girl who tried to imitate her way.”In English there are also some idioms with historical cultural background, for example, “Homer sometimes nods”, which is usually translated into Chinese as “智者千虑，必有一失”,instead of “荷马有时也打瞌睡”. If not, many people may be puzzled because they can not image the reason why Homer, the ancient Greek poet, a wisdom man is linked with sleepy nods. Similar examples, “ Pandoras Box灾难的根 6源”, “Achilles heels某人唯一的致命弱点”, “Hamlet优柔寡断的代名词”, “paint the lily画蛇添足，多此一举”, “meet ones Waterloo一败涂地”, “Penelopes web永远完不成的工作”.C. CustomsLanguage comes from life. Therefore, to a large extent, customs restrict the expression system of language. As for the attitude towards some animals, the cultural connotations of Chinese and British people are absolutely different. Here take dog for example, in Chinese dogs are generally associated with unpleasantness and dogs are kept because they are useful, not because they make good companions. Generally, they are considered a necessary evil, to be tolerated but not loved. So the Chinese idioms about dogs are almost derogatory, such as, 狗腿子，狼心狗肺，狗急跳墙，狗仗人势，狐朋狗友, etc. However, dogs are considered as mens best friends in western countries. Most English idioms about dogs are commendatory and they are usually used to represent peoples behavior, for example, “You are a lucky dog. (你是一个幸运儿) ”，“Every dog has his day. (凡人皆有得意日) ”， “Old dog will not learn new tricks(老人学不了新东西) ”，“Love me, love my dog(爱屋及乌)”， “a clever dog(聪明的小孩)”, “top dog(最重要的人物)”.Take the numeral “eight” for another example, its well-known that “eight” is the favorite numeral in China because of its pronunciation which is quite similar with the Chinese character “发”, catering to peoples desire for wealth and money. However, in English “eight” is just the numeral eight, without any implied meaning.D. Religion and beliefReligion and belief play an important part and affect a lot in peoples everyday life, from which lots of unique idioms are formed. As for the eastern and western countries, they have different religion and believes and, therefore, the translation of those unique idioms would certainly be affected. In Britain and other western countries religionary culture mainly comes from the Christian, considering that “Beyond all is the power of God”. Therefore, there are a great many of English idioms linked with Christian, for instance, “God helps those who help themselves(天佑自救 7者)”, “God bless my soul(阿弥陀佛)”, “Man proposes, God disposes(谋事在人，成事在天)”, etc.However, in China, Buddhism dominates the traditional religionary culture. There are a quantity of Chinese idioms formed from this, such as, “五体投地”, “借花献佛”, “现身说法”, “不看僧面看佛面”, “跑了和尚跑不了庙”, etc.III. The principles for the translation of English idiomsA. Keeping the cultural flavor of the original workThe cultural flavor should be kept as much as possible when the cultural element is used as much as possible when the cultural element is used as the language feature of the original work; and it can only be done without going beyond the norm of the target language and the acceptability of the target reader. Lu Xun once said,“凡是翻译，必须兼顾着两面：一当然力求易解，一则保存着原作的丰姿。” （Each and every translation must have two concerns: First, it should be intelligible; and second, it has to keep the refined quality of the original work）（Chen Fukang, 2000: 299）. By intelligible, he means that the translation should be in conformity with the norm of the target language and the acceptability of the target reader. By keeping the refined quality of the original work, he means that the cultural flavor should be well conveyed in the translation. As we kwon, idioms best reflect the special features of a nation or a culture. Thus it is quite necessary for the translator to keep the original flavor as much as possible to help the target reader understand more foreign culture.For example, the idiom “to kill two birds with one stone” can be translated into“一箭双雕”，“一举两得”，“一石二鸟”. All of them accurately convey the meaning of the original idiom. However, for the sake of keeping the full flavor of the original,“一石二鸟”best fulfill this aim and is also acceptable to the target reader. Whereas,“一箭双雕”and“一举两得”fail to transfer the images of “石”and“鸟”.Nevertheless, idioms are fixed and mainly characterized by their semantic unity. Therefore, some idioms may not be translated literally to keep the full flavor or the translation can be violating the norm of the Chinese language and going beyond the acceptability of the Chinese. They must be translated as a whole. For instance, we 8cannot put the idiom “to rain cats and dogs” into“下狗下猫”, which is extremely nonsense to the Chinese reader who can never imagine cats and dogs are falling down from the sky when it rains. Because of its semantic unity, the idiom should be understood as a whole and translated into“大雨倾盆”.B. The implied meaning and the literal meaningThe implied meaning should have priority over the literal meaning if theyare contradicted. Idioms usually possess implied meaning that can not be guessed from their component parts; therefore, the contradiction between the implied meaning and literal meaning is also what the translator has to deal with. In idiom translation, it is the content of the source message that is of prime importance to be carried over first from the source language to the target language. To reach the highest level of similarity to the source idiom, the translator should make clear in the translation the vague meaning in the original idiom that is absolutely essential for comprehension by the target reader. Take two sentences for example:First, the sentence “She is a fox” may be put into“她是个狐狸”. This translation undoubtedly transfers both the implied and the literal meaning of the original. Fox or “狐狸”is a symbol of one who is cunning and greedy both in English and Chinese culture. It can be sure that this translation is a perfect translation. However, take the sentence “She is a cat” for example, it cannot be translated into“她是只猫”, which would be nonsense to the Chinese reader, for the Chinese culture does not have the image“猫”with any associated meaning and the sign “cat” is simply an animal. But the English culture prescribes that the sign can be associated with a person, especially a woman having evil intentions. The translation“她是只猫”would prove to be a failure though it has kept the cultural flavor of the original. Being a culture-immigrated word in the English language, the word “cat” in the sentence has to be put into“阴险” to convey the implied meaning of the sentence as represented in the western culture. Possibly, the translation can be added a note as “cat is regarded as a person, especially a woman, having evil 9intentions in the western culture”. In this way, though the note may spoil the readability, the original flavor is translated and the receptors of the translation are informed that there is such an image in English culture, which may someday be accepted as one component of the Chinese language.C. The translation in conformity with the contextThe translation should be in conformity with the context of the original text. So far as the translation of the English idioms is concerned, some people may consider that a good dictionary of English idioms with Chinese translation will be enough for a translator to produce adequate translation. But the actual translating process is not so simple as they considered. The Chinese translation offered by a dictionary is often out of context. But when we translate an English idiom, we translate it in certain context, as is stated by Peter Newmark(2001:73), “We do not translate isolate words, we translate words all more or less ( and sometimes less rather than more, but never not at all) bound by their syntactic, collocational, situational, cultural and individual idiolectal context.” A mechanical replacement of the original idiom with the Chinese translation offered by the dictionary often results in an inadequate translation, which does not fit in with the context of the original text. Therefore, instead of merely relying on the dictionary, translators must first take into consideration the context in which the original idioms occurred. And this is often decisive for translators to produce adequate translation.For example, the translator must pay attention to distinguishing the commendatory from the derogatory in the context. This can be explained by the idiom such as “to be hand in glove with”, which can be used both in a commendatory and derogatory sense. And we should only make a choice according to the context and translate it accordingly. Lets compare the following:The two girls were once hand in glove with each other. The traitor and the enemy were working hand in glove with each 10other.卖国贼和敌人狼狈为奸。D. Keeping the translation higher qualityThe translation should be concise, vivid and pleasant to the ear. Idioms are usually vivid and forceful. They read more smoothly and sound more pleasant to the ear, because they contain euphony in their word combination and strongly accented rhythms in their sentences (Yu and Guo, 1999:176). That is why it becomes so easy for the common people to imitate and memorize them, and spread them far and wide. In idiom translation, the translator should try to reproduce the style of the original idioms. For example, the English proverb “Men may meet but mountains never” can be translated into“山和山无法碰头，人和人总会相遇”(Bao Huinan, 2001:168), which is concise, vivid and pleasant to the ear. However, if it is translated into“人也许会相见，可是山头却不会”, the effect is obvious worse than the former. In addition, since most Chinese idioms are set phrases of four characters, quite a few English idioms may be translated into the Chinese set phrases of four characters to give the best sound effects. To mention just a few:again and again 屡次三番to call a spade a spade 直言不讳Time and tide wait for no man 时不待人all at sea 不知所措to have an axe to grind 别有用心to talk through ones hat 胡言乱语after ones own heart 正中下怀six of one and half of a dozen of the other 半斤八两. Some points for attention in the translation of English idiomsIdiom translation is rather complicated. In spite of the principles listed above, there still exist two points which should merit our attention in translation practice.A. Avoiding word-for-word translationAs we know, idioms have the feature of semantic unity and we cannot guess the 11meaning from the component part of an idiom, thus a word-for-word translation may lead to the distortion of the original message. For example, a word-for-word translation for “free living” may be“自由生活”, but it actually means“奢侈的生活”； “He has the leg of me.” cannot be translated into“他有我的腿”，but “他比我跑得快”；“Last night I heard him driving his pigs to market” does not mean“昨晚我听见他把猪赶进市场”，but“昨晚我听见他鼾声如雷”.Furthermore, some idioms are similar to each other in image, and people are easily tricked into translation traps in dealing with this kind of idioms. For instance, “childs play” may be regarded as“儿戏” wrongly at the first sight. However, these seemingly correspondent idioms are not correspondent at all. “Childs play” means something very easy to do or something not very important; the Chinese “儿戏”means trifling matter or not paying attention to an important job; Similarly, the seemingly correspondent idiom for “to pul