Analysis of English and Chinese Idioms.doc

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1、Analysis of English and Chinese IdiomsAbstract: Idiom is an important part of every language and culture. To learners ofEnglish as a foreign language they are often hard to use correctly becausethey dont understand it very well. So it is very useful for us to learn some idioms. To some extent, idiom

2、s could reflect certain culture backgrounds and beliefs of the society. It is a phenomenon of linguistic. This paper analyzes Chinese and English idioms, which based on culture, essential feature and translation methods and skills. Meanwhile, it gives us many good examples of English and Chinese Idi

3、oms. And this paper aims to emphasize the relationship between English and Chinese. So we must understand the idioms. If we can make good use of the idioms, we can communicate with others well. Key words: Idioms, analyses, communication iIntroductionWith Chinas entry into the WTO, it provides more o

4、pportunities for western companies. We all know that China is playing an important role in the world, so we will meet more opportunities and challenges in the competitive world. In order to speak English fluently, we should also pay much attention to the idioms. But sometimeswe couldnt use it correc

5、tly; we use it just by our imagination. The main reason is that Chinese people dont understand the idioms very well and confuse the English and Chinese idioms. This thesis not only analyzes the differences of culture in English and Chinese idioms, but also discusses the essential features of idioms

6、and translation methods and skills of idioms. Therefore, we can know moreabout the phenomenon of idioms and get on well with foreigners, and can make a relaxed atmosphere between the foreigners.1. Essential Features of IdiomsThere are many essential features in language. Idioms are an important aspe

7、ct of language, there is also many essential features in idioms. After summarizing, I think, there are three essential features in English-Chinese idioms.1.1 Semantic Unity of Idioms Idioms are made up of two of more parts but its meaning is not most simple combination of every part .It is a insepar

8、able unity, which cant be divided and translated word for word, For example: “a chicken and egg situation”1, it may be literally interrelated as situation of chicken egg which is puzzling. And it is a spoken idiom in fact. Its a concept from chicken and egg, is it chickens that come from the egg? Or

9、 the egg that comes from the chicken? The priority of the two is very difficult to make. So this idiom should be translated into “difficult divide priority” or “difficult to divide causality”; So we must consider the meaning of idioms while translating idioms, which should be regarded as a whole. Wo

10、rd for word translating will produce some misunderstanding and obstacles in language comprehension.1.2 The Stability of Idioms Stability means that each part which makes up the idiom is regular, cant be divided and change the position at will. Because the idioms is refined the long-term use and the

11、structure is regular, isnt any changes can make it different from original meaning. If Chinese “he isnt of fuel-efficient light (他不是盏省油的灯)”can change into “ he is of fee light of oil ”; “ 15 well-bucket fetch water is agitated (十五个吊桶水，七上八下)2，cant change into “seven at the eight”, “cant make to provi

12、de timely help into at sevens and eights(in a mess)”in the same English cant be changed for at sevens and eights” ; “fish in the air (catches the moon from the bottom of the sea) “cant change into” fish moon in the water”; “neither fish, flesh nor fowl (neither ass nor horse)” cant change into “neit

13、her donkey nor horse” either “have an axe to grind” means “having ulterior motives” cant change into “have a chopper to grind”, otherwise meaning will be turned into “rubbing the axe”. Stability means that each part which makes up the idiom is regular, cant be and change the position at will. Becaus

14、e the idioms are refined through the long-term use and the structure is regular, any changes can make it different from the original meaning. And for example: “My old man has kicked the bucket, ” means my father has died. If replace “bucket” in “kicked the bucket” synonym “pail”, this sentence of “M

15、y old man kicked the pail” can only be literal meaning: My father has played a barrel. As we all know, idioms refined from peoples long-term language practice and creation of their wisdom. So the structure of idioms is stable and cant be changed freely, some even break the rules of grammar. Such as

16、“nothing venture, nothing have(不入虎穴，焉得虎子)”,“by two and threes(三三两两)”etc. Certainly, a lot of idioms are not absolutely stable with structure. Two languages have each own varieties, but there are few idioms similar to the variety, so we still should pay attention to the stability of idiom collocation

17、 during the process of translating. Otherwise it not only will produce misunderstanding but also make a stupid mistake sometimes.1.3 Harmony of Sound Idiom often makes use of harmonious sound to make them easy to understand and memorize, pleasant to ears as well as vivid. In Chinese, “the wisdom of

18、the masses exceeds that of the wisest individual”, “work only, play, the clever child becomes silly too” it is suitable for reading and sounds harmonious and melodious too. In this aspect, English is incomparable, because it uses (alliteration) and (rhyme) to strengthen pronunciation aesthetic feeli

19、ng and rhetoric effect .It is such as being of using alliterations “as busy as a bee (busy with like honeybee)”, as dead as a doornail (true extremely undoubtedly)”, “Money makes the mare go (money makes the mare go)”. It is like “as snug as a bug in a rug (comfortable)” to use the idiom of the end

20、musical sound (rhyme), “fair and square (honest and openhearted)”, “Might makes right (power is a generally acknowledged truth)”, “A friend in need is a friend indeed”, etc In Chinese, there are many idioms sounds harmonious and melodious too. “一寸光阴一寸金，寸金难买寸光阴”、 “良药苦口利于病，忠言逆耳利于行”、 “玉不琢， 不成器；人不学， 不知理

21、”etc .2 The Differences of Culture in English-Chinese IdiomsClassical definition of culture (Edward Tyler) was put forward in “primitive culture ” by British anthropologist Taylor in 1871: “Culture is compounding unit, including knowledge, faith, art, law, morals, custom and any other ability and ha

22、bit which people obtain as social members.” Therefore, culture is a huge and complicated system. Language as one component of culture will reflect one nationalitys abundant cultural phenomenon. In other words, idioms are a mirror, which reflects a nationality. After summary, I think, the English-Chi

23、nese cultural differences reflected by idioms are shown in the following several aspects mainly.2.1 Differences of Geographical Environment Britain is an island, which leading navigation industry in the word. Therefore, large amount of English idioms are related to maritime undertaking. And China li

24、ves continent of Asia. Semi-closed geographical environment makes China one ancient civilized country based on agriculture, and majority of Chinese idioms come from peasants. If British say “while fine weather, mend your sail”(修帆趁天晴). Chinese say “未雨绸缪”3, it means before raining, look through the fi

25、eld land of the mulberry completely, build up the doors and windows, It implies to make preparations ordinary times. In Two kinds of statements, the rhetorical meanings are the same, while expression ways are different.Another idiom is “to raise the wind”(找风)related to navigation which certainly has

26、 dealings with wind .For example in English, especially at boat age, sail is impossible without wind. This idiom refers to “raise money”. Nothing can be done without money, like going to sea without wind. And though our country is vast in territory, and there are longer coastlines, the birthplace of

27、 Chinese nation is in the Yellow River Basin, which is relatively far from the sea. So “sea ”in Chinese is mostly mysterious , remote and unbelievable , such as “the ends of the earth (天涯海角)” , “mirage(海市蜃楼)”.China is the country relying mainly on agriculture since ancient times; so, there are a lot

28、 of idioms related to river, land, and agriculture in Chinese. For instance “in suspicious circumstances (瓜田李下)”, “plant melons and you get melons, sow beans and you get beans (种瓜得瓜,种豆得豆)” , etc2.2 Differences of Culture Background of English-Chinese Two kinds of culture have long history and tradit

29、ion, reflected by language; they produced a lot of idioms coming from ancient mythical legend, fable, historical incident and literature allusion. But due to different cultural origins and paths of development, these idioms demonstrate the distinctive national characteristics, and contain special cu

30、lture background knowledge; its metaphorical meaning may mot be understood literally.For example, Chinese usually use “acting as though you were it is (夜郎自大)” to describe people that “swell with preposterous self-importance( 妄自尊大)”, Other idioms come from the historical allusion such as“Dongshi, an

31、ugly woman knitting her brows in imitation of the famous beauty Xishi (东施效颦)”， “taking measures regardless of changes in circumstances (刻舟求剑)”,etc. Its metaphorical meaning cant be understood by people with different cultural background. A lot of idioms also come from Greek mythology, “the Holy Bibl

32、e” story,“Homers epic” and “Aesops Fables”, such as “Sphinxs riddle (likens the difficult problem)” in the Greek mythology; “to turn the other cheek (explains open-heartedly)”, etc. of “a Judass kiss (explains shameful betrayal)”.For another example, “dragon” is a lucky, joyous, noble, majestic symb

33、ol in China, such as “prosperity brought by the dragon and the phoenix (龙凤呈祥)”, But meaning of “dragon”, however, is “fierce” in western culture， and it is the symbols of evil and paganism. If “long to see the son succeed in life 4” translates into dragon, do not mean “hope that the son becomes fier

34、ce”? The importance of the historical background knowledge of culture in the course of translating therefore is obvious.2.3 Differences in Folkways and Customs Difference natural conditions and social variety of terms of folkways and customs cause national difference of folkways and customs. The sam

35、e thing will arouse the definitely different feelings and associations in the minds of people with deterrent cultural background. The people of China and Britain are all used to raising dogs but the people of two countries have different traditional views on them. Englishmen like dog which are consi

36、dered to be “faithful reliable friend”, so there are such statements as a lucky dog (luck fellow), and every dog has its day (ordinary person is when being all proud), etc. In China, the situation is far different from that. Chinese look at dogs as evil and dogs are often derogatory in folk spoken l

37、anguage, proverbs and idioms, for instance, “dog lackeys (狗奴才)” “pack of rogues (狐群狗党)”5,etc. If above-mentioned statements are translated literally into English, they cannot only convey the derogatory sense of Chinese, but also British people puzzled. Likewise , if a dog in“ Im too old a dog to lea

38、rn new tricks (Im too old to learn new things)”is translated into “老狗”,its to humiliating to oneself.2.4 Differences in Religious Belief English and Chinese nationalities have each own religious beliefs. So different religious culture is incorporated into English Chinese, and then there are idioms w

39、hich reflect religious culture. Chinese people believe that everything is controlled by Buddhist patriarch in this word. So, there are a lot of idioms that have connections with “Buddha”, “temple”, “Buddhist monk” in Chinese. Such as “放下屠刀，立地成佛”、“不朽今世修来世”、“善有善报，恶有恶报”、“种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆（plant melons and you

40、get melons, sow beans and you get beans）”、“有仇不报真君子，有恩不报是小人”etc.3. Translation Methods and Skills of IdiomsIn view of the cultural difference of the English-Chinese idiom and essential feature of the idiom, there should be precise understanding while translating idioms, we should neither adhere rigid

41、ly to the written language, nor interpret words too literally. There are a lot of methods in translation of idioms, but 4 kinds are mostly used: Literal translation, the synonym, paraphrase and transliteration. Now combine introducing for example.3.1 Literal Translations Literal translation means ke

42、eping metaphor image, nationality and local color of idioms in translation. This method not only can keep metaphor, image or characteristic and distinctive national, regional and historical color, but also help introducing some fresh, vivid words, sentence structure and expression methods from forei

43、gn countries constantly and make the language more abundant, perfect and precise .For example, Hitler was armed to teeth when he launched the Second World War, but in a few years, he was completely defeated. (The world is that the arms reach the tooth during the World War that Hitler is mobilizing f

44、or the second time, but a few years ,defeated utterly.)Here idiom “armed to teeth” is vivid and translated into “武装到牙齿”. In free translation, for its “全副武装”, the tone becomes weak instead .And for example: Cough! In this case, bamboo basket empty to fight ink. (Ah! We were drawing water in a bamboo

45、basket.) Two-part allegorical saying the previous a part on “bamboo basket all in vain to fetch water (竹篮子打水一场空)” “bamboo basket fetch water” take literal to translate all, and then a part” all in vain “to is it translate to omit, implied meaning very clear, reader can produce to understanding of se

46、ntence this ambiguously either . 3.2 Lend-using Synonym Idioms In two languages, idioms are all very close in contents, forms and colors, so we can borrow the synonyms of idioms in translation. Although the things with metaphorical meaning are different, meaning is unanimous basically, can be used t

47、oo.For example: Only follow them and try ones utmost cutting off all means of retreat boldly, that day when perhaps still stood up (All you can do is to burn your boats and fight them in the hope that one day you will come out on top). Chinese idiom “cut off all means of retreat” use English idiom “

48、to burn ones boats” (cook ship of somebody) express, two expressions are similar such aspects as content, form, color. There is “I think, and I certainly hope, those stories are terribly exaggerated. Our intelligence says they are. Still, where theres smoke(I think, certainly I hope too, these repor

49、ts have been overstated. Our intelligence agent says that it would be like this. However, make no trouble out of nothing). Here original text “where theres smoke, theres fire” (have cigarette must have fire; It have fire it get up cigarette of) the simple. If adhere rigidly to simplifying the form and translating into “only having cigarettes” or “place with the cigarette” of the original text, readers will scarcely know what one has said. More des