Cultural Differences between English and Chinese Idioms.doc

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1、习语中的英美文化差异Cultural Differences between English and Chinese IdiomsAbstract： As an important part of language, idioms are fixed phrases with particular meanings. They are well-known and they play an increasingly important role in peoples daily life. Both oriental and Western people are accustomed to u

2、se idioms because they are concise, vivid and humorous. Idioms contain a lot of cultural information; reflect the differences in history, geography, religion, custom and thinking mode of different ethnic groups. Idioms are important means of rhetoric. Because of euphony, they are usually accessible

3、and remembered easily. They do not have regular sentence structure, but a relatively fixed form of expression. Those characteristics of idioms make the translation more difficult. In order to enable readers to understand and use idioms better, translator must consider the underlying cultural factors

4、 in the process of translation. The same idiom in different context may have completely different translation; it reflects peoples different views on custom, thinking mode, character and color. Through the translation of idioms, this study will lay out some of the Chinese and western cultures to rea

5、ders, so that people can have a better understanding with each other.Key Words：Idioms; translation; culture; differences摘 要：作为语言的一个重要部分，习语是一种广为流传的具有特定含义的固定的短语，在人们的日常生活中起着越来越重要的作用。由于习语的文字通俗简练，风趣幽默，中西方人们都习惯于使用习语。它有着丰富的文化内涵，体现了不同民族在历史，地理，宗教信仰，风俗习惯和思维方式等方面的差异。习语是语言中重要的修辞手段，经常用音的和谐来达到易懂易记，生动有趣的目的。它没有规则的句

6、子结构，却有着相对固定的自身表达形式。习语的这些特点为它的翻译增加了难度。为了使读者更好的理解并运用习语，在翻译中译者必须考虑其背后的文化因素。同样的习语在不同的语境中将会有完全不同的翻译，它反映了中西方人们在生活习俗，思维习惯，性格以及对待色彩等方面的不同看法。本论文将通过习语的翻译向读者介绍一些中西方的文化差异，以便人们能更好的交流。关键词：习语；翻译；文化；差异 ContentsI. Introduction.1II. The Differences in the Concept of “Idiom” between English and Chinese.1III. The Diffi

7、culties in Rendering Idioms into the Target Language.2IV. Cutural Similarities and Differences between Chinese and English Idioms.4 A. Similarities.4B. Difference between Chineseand Western Culture .41. Religions and Believes.5 2.Social Customs.63. Fables and mythologies.74. Living conditions.8VI. C

8、onclusion.9Work Cited11IIntroductionWhats culture? Edward Tylor, who provided the first profound scientific understanding of the term, defined the concept of culture in print in 1871. According to him, culture is “that complex whole which includes knowledge, art, morals, law, custom, and any other c

9、apabilities and habits acquired by man as members of society” . In different counties people have different culture. This results in different life style and idioms. Compared to the gems of languages English idioms and Chinese idioms have their own linguistic features and reflecting rich cultural el

10、ements. With the development of cultural communication, more and more idioms will widely show up in English movies, books, newspapers，and real life communication. Learners will undoubtedly encounter more and more idioms in their learning not only in written from such as novels and magazines but also

11、 in spoken form like movies and plays. Take a close view of English learning in China, it is easy to find that learners are not fully aware of the importance of English idioms study. Furthermore, it should also be noted that English idioms are different from Chinese idioms, especially the four-chara

12、cter idioms are in most cases a cultural implications in Chinese and English. Different cultural implications in Chinese and English idioms can be said to be the contributor to the difference in their pragmatic use. In rendering idioms, there are two strategies for translating to choose. One is fore

13、ignization or domestication as the basic strategy for translating idioms in a source text, translators should not be biased to fighter of the two strategies but should take those determining factors into full consideration.II The Differences in the Concept of “Idiom” between English and ChineseBoth

14、the English and Chinese languages abound with idioms and idiomatic expressions. What is the equivalent of idiom in Chinese? One would naturally associate “idiom” with“Chinese idiom”. In fact, they are not the exact equivalent of each other. Lets see dictionary definitions of the two terms at first.

15、Third New International Dictionary defines “idiom” as: Idiom is an expression established in the usage of a language that is peculiar to itself either in grammatical construction or in having a meaning that cannot be derived as a whole from the conjoined meanings of its elements. From this definitio

16、n we know that some of the English idioms are composed of several words and some are made of even a complete sentence. in a broad sense, idioms include verbal phrases, sayings, proverbs, colloquialisms, allusions and slang.(Jin Di,Eugene A.Nada 77) In a narrow sense, idioms can be regarded as those

17、fixed phrases over long time of using, having unitary meaning and syntactic frozenness, such as “to play ones cards well” and “between the devil and the deep blues sea”. Compared with the definition of idiom, Most of Chinese idioms are made of four such as arid“张冠李戴”and some of them are composed of

18、three, five，six or Even more characters, such as“马前卒”and“醉翁之意不在酒”. The English “idiom”that Im going to discuss in this paper refers to the one in a narrow sense. It refers to the fixed phrases or short sentences which have unitary meaning and syntactic frozenness. The “idiom” does not equal the Chin

19、ese “idiom” exactly, because Chinese “idiom” are mostly made of four characters, while “idiom” are which not;Chinese “idiom” are mainly used in written Chinese, though they can be used in spoken Chinese, and “idiom” are mainly used in spoken English, though they can be used in written English. But C

20、hinese “idiom” is the most popular term to translate the English “idiom”.(Claire kramsch 43) III. The Difficulties in Rendering Idioms into the Target Language The above-mentioned analysis shows the similarities and differences between English and Chinese idioms. It is not quite easy for us to under

21、stand the meanings of both English and Chinese idioms and it is even more difficult to find satisfactory equivalents in a target language. There are several reasons.Firstly, both English and Chinese idioms are habitually and frequently used for a long time. That is to say, idioms are fixed phrases e

22、xtracted from language over long time of using. Although idioms are combinations of words, the meaning of which cannot be determined from the meanings of the individual words alone. This is the main difficulty for us to understand the actual meaning of each idiom completely. Lets see the following e

23、xamples. Someone thinks that the English idiom to catch a crab simply means “抓住一只螃蟹”.But the true meaning of this idiom is the failure of the act of paddling. Another idiom like a house on fire can not be interpreted as “房子着了火” literally and its real meaning is to describe a certain action“Vigorousl

24、y”, “fast”or “excellently”. Similarly, it is not quite easy for foreigners to understand some Chinese idioms. Take“骑马找马”for example, a foreigner maybe thinks that it refers to capturing elephants with an elephant, a thief to catch a thief or adaptation of means to end, but the real meaning of this i

25、diom is to look for a horse while sitting on one or to hold on to one job while seeking a better one. (Peter Newmark 76) Therefore, neither English nor Chinese idioms can be derived from a knowledge of their component parts. Idioms can not be interpreted without real understanding. Secondly, most of

26、 the idioms are metaphorical or figurative idioms. A metaphorical idiom refers to the idiomatic phrase or idiomatic expression in which a metaphor is used to convey a figurative meaning. Metaphors, easily found in both English and Chinese idioms, make images vivid and bring so much life to language.

27、 The metaphorical idiom is a complex item which has a meaning that cannot be determined from the meanings of its component parts. In order to grasp this kind of idioms we should first know the features of phenomena of nature which are used as comparisons. For instance, ball games are used for compar

28、ison in the two English idioms “to start the ball rolling”, which means to start a conversation or an activity and “to keep the ball rolling”, which means to continue a conversation or an activity. Similarly, the Chinese idiom“目不见睫”literally means the eye cannot see its lashes but it has a figurativ

29、e meaning一to lack self-knowledge. (Peter Newmark 29)In addition, idioms are mostly full of literary allusions, national features and so on, which makes us not always easy to understand the meanings of idioms. The problems of rendering idioms of one language into another are always complex, much more

30、 so if the two languages involved are of backgrounds and cultures so unlike each other. Just as Nida once said: Idioms are somewhat more open to intrusions and modifications than are words, and they are usually rather culture-specific, that is, they depend very much upon a specific social or ecologi

31、cal setting. Because of their close identification with a particular language and culture, idioms usually carry more impact than non-idiomatic expressions. Finding satisfactory equivalents for idioms is one of the mast difficult aspects of translating. (Peter Newmark 98) In many instances idioms can

32、 only be satisfactorily rendered by non-idioms in a target language, although in the process much of the psychological impact is lost. Thus the meanings of idioms involve the understanding of a culture in which the language is rooted. But understanding the meanings of idioms is more complicated sinc

33、e for the most part the meanings are very specific and culturally conditioned.IVCutural Similarities and Differences between Chinese and English Idioms English and Chinese cultures are totally different. Their origins and development are not the same. Chinese has a close relation with the Chinese cu

34、lture. Many Chinese idioms can be translated when the Chinese culture expressed by them are uncovered. However, English idioms are bound up with British and American cultures. Culture similarities and differences between Chinese and English idioms are discussed in the following aspects.A. Similariti

35、esBoth China and Britain have a long-time history, ancient civilization and glorious culture. Both the two countries have the similar experience and thought. During the Communication of the two countries, cultures are interacting. This made some idioms have the same or similar culture characteristic

36、. Therefore, the idioms are corresponding no matter in meaning, image cultural flavor. In such condition, we could use the source language to translate the target language directly. For example, 失败乃成功之母（Failure is the mother of success）. In this idiom, we see that it is translated into English direc

37、tly. 失败 is translated into“failure”, while成is “success” and母is “mather”.From this idiom, we notice there are some similarities between Chinese and English which made us translate the source language into the target language directly. Look at another example,祸不单行(misfortunes never come singly). In th

38、is phrase,祸is misfortune,单is translated into singly. Then the whole phrase is translated misfortunes never come singly. There are some other examples like these. 丢脸(lose face), 来得容易，去得快(easy come, easy go), 以牙还牙(a tooth for a tooth), 披着羊皮的狼（a wolf in sheeps clothing）牛市(bull market), 熊市(bear, market)

39、, 破釜沉舟(to turn ones boat, 火上浇油(pour oil on fire),水滴石穿(constant dropping wears the stone). (喻家楼 163) All these show the similarities between the two cultures. B. Difference between Chinese and Western CultureChinese and English cultures are totally different. These differences are embodied in the fol

40、lowing aspects.1. Religions and BelievesAs a cultural phenomenon, religion, which is the manifestation of different cultures, is the vital part of human thought. It penetrates into every possible aspect of peoples life, which consequently causes great cultural difference between people with differen

41、t religious beliefs. China is a multi-religious country, yet comparatively speaking, Buddhism has a greater influence in Chinese culture. It was first introduced into China in the first century AD, and has shaped the Chinese language, diet, arts, etc. and greatly stimulated the development of Chines

42、e literature. The large number of words and idioms derived from Buddhism is one of the manifestations of its influence, such as现身说法(to make a personal example as an effective means of convincing others),半路出家(switch to a new trade without solid foundation)，放下屠刀，立地成佛(A butcher becomes a Buddha the mom

43、ent he drops his cleaver-a wrongdoer achieves salvation as soon as he gives up evil)，救人一命胜造七级浮屠(to save a human life is better than building a seven-storeyed pagoda)，一尘不染(remained spotless)，做一天和尚，撞一天钟(take a passive attitude toward ones work), 借花献佛(to present Buddha with borrowed flowers-to borrow s

44、omething to make a gift of it)，五体投地(to throw oneself down at somebodys feet in admiration)，平时不烧香，临时抱佛脚(Neglect to burn ones joss stick before an idol in times of peace, then embrace the Buddhas feet in a crisis). Here the words with emphasized symbols such as “身”, “法”, “出家”, “成佛”etc. are words deriv

45、ed from the activities of Buddhism in China. (彭晓蓉 52)Besides, to the ordinary Chinese, Heaven is the supreme ruler of the world. All happenings on the earth are believed to be controlled and arranged by Heaven, hence it gives rise to the following idioms:谋事在人，成事在天(Man proposes, Heaven disposes)，生死由命

46、，富贵在天(Life and death are decreed by fate, rank and riches determined by Heaven)，民以食为天(Food is the necessity of the people)，天理不容(Heaven will not tolerate injustice)，天生我才必有用(There must be some use for the talent Heaven granted me)，一人得道，鸡犬升天(When one becomes a high official, even his fowls and dogs will get promoted). In contrast to the Chinese, most of the westerners are Christians, who believe that the world was created by God, and that everything in the world is arranged and disposed of according to Gods will. Th