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tomsss
UndergraduateThesis
OnCulturalSimilaritiesandDifferencesEmbodiedinIdiom
WuFang
Supervisor:
Miss.ZhouXiaoRong
Major:
English
StudentNumber:
20074292
SchoolofForeignLanguagesandCultures
SouthwestUniversityofScienceandTechnology
April,2011
本科生毕业论文
论文化相似性与差异性在习语的体现
巫芳
指导教师:
周晓蓉
专业名称:
英语语言文学
学号:
20074292
西南科技大学外国语学院
2011年4月
Acknowledgements
IamgratefultomysupervisorMrTuforhisencouragement,guidanceandadvicetomethroughoutthewritingofthisthesis.IalsowishtoexpressmythankstoProfessorsZhouXiaorongwho,atvarioustimes,notonlygavemevaluableadvice,butalsoprovidedmewithadditionalsourcesofreferencematerials.
MygratitudeextendstoMissGaoforherinsightfuladviceonmychoiceoftopic,aswellastoProfessorLiao,wholentmereferencebookswhichwereinvaluabletomeinthecourseofmywriting.
Iamalsoindebtedtomyotherinstructorsandtomyclassmatesfortheirconstantencouragementtomeinthecourseofmystudies.
Abstract
Withtherapiddevelopmentoftechnologyandeconomy,communicationandcontactsbetweenChinaandwesterncountrieshavebecomeincreasinglyfrequent.Thesepromotetheculturalexchangeandinfiltrationbetweennations,andacceleratetheblendingandconvergenceofdifferentcultureinthesenations.Asthecarrierofcultureandtoolofcommunication,languagecannotexistwithoutculture.Andidioms,whicharethecreamoflanguage,areheavilyculturallyloadedphrasesandsentences.Theyaresensitivetothedevelopingandchangingofculture,andsocialandculturallifeineveryaspectarereflectedinidioms.BothChineseandwesternpeoplegetusedtouseidiomsintheirdailylife,becausetheyareconcise,vividandhumorous.Idiomsarecontainedwithplentyofculturalinformationwhichreflectintheculturalsimilaritiesandthedifferenceinlivingenvironments,socialcustomsandhabits,religions,believes,thinkingmodeandhistoricallusion.
Idiomisawindowthatreflectsthesimilaritiesanddifferencesineverynationalculture,andcanbeconcludedthattheydonothaveregularsentencestructure,butrelativelyhaveafixedformofexpression.Thosecharacteristicsmakethetranslationmoredifficult.Inordertoenablereadersunderstandandusetheidiomaccurately,translatorshouldrealizethatunderstandingtwodifferentcultureismoreimportantthanknowingwelltwodifferentlanguages.Soduringtheprocessoftranslating,translatormustconsidertheunderlyingculturalfactorswhichdeterminetheaccuracyoftranslation.
Throughexpoundingthedefinitionofidiom,culturalsimilaritiesanddifferencesbetweenChineseandWestern,translationsofChineseandEnglishidioms,thethesisaimstohelpreadershaveabetterunderstandingofChineseandWesternculturesanddeveloptheirabilitiesofChineseandEnglishidiomtranslationbylistingmanylivelyexamples.
KeyWords:
Chineseidiom,Englishidiom,culture,similarities,differences,translationprinciples,method
摘要
随着科技和经济的快速发展,中国与西方国家的交流和接触日益频繁,推动着民族文化的互相渗透和交流,加速了各国不同文化的融合与趋同。
作为文化的载体和交流的工具,语言不能离开文化而独立存在。
而习语作为语言的精华,是文化信息特别集中地词组或句子。
它们对文化的发展和变化很敏感,社会文化生活中的每一个侧面都反映在习语中。
无论是中国人还是西方国家的人们都习惯在日常生活中使用习语,因为它们简明,生动和幽默。
习语包含了很多文化信息,而这些又主要反映在文化的相似性,以及生存环境,社会风俗习惯,宗教信仰,思维方式和历史典故上的不同。
习语是一扇反映每个民族文化异同的窗,它们没有规则的句子结构,却有相对固定的表达形式。
这些特性都使得翻译变得困难。
为了让读者正确地了解和使用习语,译者应该知道熟悉两种不同的文化甚至比掌握两种语言更重要,因此,在翻译的过程中,译者必须考虑到其背后的决定翻译准确性的文化因素。
本文通过阐述习语的定义,中国和西方文化的相似性和差异性,中西习语翻译,结合大量生动的例子,旨在帮助读者更好的了解中西文化以及提高中西习语翻译的能力。
关键词:
中国习语;英语习语;文化;相似性;差异性;翻译原则;方法
TableofContents
Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………….i
Abstract…...…………………………………………….………………….…………..………ii
.Introduction..........……….…………………………………….………………1
.TheDefinitionandCharacteristicofIdiom...........................................................2
2.1TheDefinitionofIdiom...................................................................................2
2.1TheCharacteristicofIdiom.............................................................................3
.CulturalSimilaritiesBetweenChineseandWestern.........................................4
3.1TheDefinitionofCulture.................................................................................4
3.2CulturalSimilarities.........................................................................................5
.CulturalDifferencesBetweenChineseandWestern.........................................5
4.1DifferentLivingEnvironments........................................................................5
4.2DifferentSocialCustomsandHabits...............................................................7
4.3DifferentReligionsandBeliefs........................................................................9
4.4DifferentLiteraryWorks................................................................................15
.Conclusion...........................................................................................................19
.Bibliography.....................................................................................................20
.Introduction
Alllanguageshavephrasesorsentencesthatcannotbeunderstoodliterally.Evenifyouknowthemeaningofallthewordsinaphraseandunderstandallthegrammarofthephrasecompletely,themeaningofthephrasemaystillbeconfusing.Manyproverbs,informalphrases,andcommonsayingsofferthiskindofproblem.Aphraseorsentenceofthistypeissaidtobeidiomatic.Afterbeingusedforalongperiod,idiomisregardedasthecrystallizationsofpeople'swisdom.Owingtoitsuniqueandspecialexpressionandfixedphrases,idiomiswidelyusedineverylanguage.Peopleofeveryageandfromeverycountryfrequentlyuseidiomsintheirlife.Idiomiscloselyrelatedwithonenation'sgeographicenvironment,historicalbackground,economiclife,customsandhabits,religionandbelieves,etc.Idiomisthemirrorwhichreflecteverycharacteristicofnation'sculture.Inordertounderstandingandcommunicatingwithforeignerscompletely,culturalstudieshavebeenprevailingbothinthewesterncountryandChina,especiallyinthedomainofcross-culturalcommunication,translationandinterpretation.Nowadays,translationisconsiderednotonlythetransferbetweentwolanguages,butalsothetransferbetweentwodifferentcultures.TheEnglishandChineseidiomscarrydifferentculturalinformation.Theyworkcloselywiththeculturaltraditions,whichareinextricablylinked.AsthefamousAmericansinologistJohn.J.Dinipointedout:
'Everylanguageobtainedfromthecultureoflifeandnutrition,sowecannotonlypayattentiontohowthecontentsofalanguageistranslatedintoanotherlanguage,butalsomuststrivetoexpresstwokindsofcultureinthewayofthinkingandexpressionofemotionalhabits.'
Themeaningidiomsconveyisnon-compositional.Itimpliesthatnoonecanunderstandthemeaningofthewholephraseputtingthemeaningsofeachwordtogether.Ifhe/shelooksattheindividualwords,itmaynotevenmakesensegrammatically.Idiomhasthemeaningonlyasaunit.ChineseandEnglishbothaboundwithidioms,whosesuccinctformsandprofoundmeaningsmakethemselvesmorecondensedandexpressive.Manyidiomshaverichculturalheritage.Iftheyaretranslatedappropriately,theoriginalspiritandmeaningcanbefaithfullyexpressed,andalsothetargetlanguagereaderswillunderstandandacceptitclearly.AsALKroebersaid,'Eachculturewillacceptnewthings,whetherforeignordomesticproduced,mustinaccordancewiththeirculturalpatterns,thesenewthingstobere-shaped.'Theprocessoftranslatingidiomsofsourcelanguageintotargetlanguageisalwayscomplicated,ifthetwolanguagesareinvolvedinsodifferentbackgroundsandcultureswitheachother.
ThispaperisdesignedtomakeabroaddiscussiononthesimilaritiesanddifferencesbetweenChineseandEnglishidiomaticphrases,whichincludeidioms,proverbs,sayings,slangsandliteraryquotations,etc..Andthenumerouswell-chosenexampleswhichwillbetakenfrombooks,newspapers,Internet.Furthermore,thereareimpropertranslationexamplesthatwillbepresented,andthecorrecttranslationwillbeplaced.
.TheDefinitionandCharacteristicofIdiom
2.1TheDefinitionofIdiom
Itisdifficulttogiveaspecificdefinitionofidiom.Thiswordpossessesseveralmeanings.Ithasthemeaningofasetexpressionoftwoormorewordsthatmeanssomethingotherthantheliteralmeaningsofitsindividualwords.Anditmaybedefinedas"thelanguageofapeopleoracountry",asin"theChineseidiom";or"adialect"asin"Cantoneseidiom".Itmayalsobedefined,accordingtoColinsCOBUILDAdvancedLearner'sEnglishDictionary,as"anidiomisagroupofwordswhichhavedifferentmeaningwhenusedtogetherfromtheonetheywouldhaveifyoutookthemeaningofeachwordseparately"(p718).
Inthispaper,thedefinitionofidiomisdefinedasaspecializedlanguageoradistinctivepatternintheusageofalanguage.Assuch,itcanrefertothewayalanguageisusedinagivenregion;insuchusage,anidiomusuallyisn'tseenasdistinctlydifferentasadialectis,althoughsometimes"idiom"and"dialect"areusedinterchangeably.Anidiomcansimilarlyrefertothelanguagepatternsusedwithinacertainprofessionorothersubgroup.Idiomsincludeproverbs,sayings,slangs,motto,jargons,colloquialisms,etc.Themajorityofidiomswerecreatedbyindustriousworkers,farmers,sailors,writers,andsoon.Idiomswererooteddeeplyinpeople’sdailylifeanddailywork.Fortheidiomsusers,itislightlyandhandytoexpresstheirthoughtsbyidiomsthattheycreated.Mostoftheidiomsareoriginatedinthelite