tomsss.docx

tomsss.docx

《tomsss.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《tomsss.docx（18页珍藏版）》请在冰点文库上搜索。

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