揭开文化因子的面纱——浅谈习语的翻译__英语专业本科论文.doc

分类号 编号毕 业 论 文Unveil the Cultural ElementsOn the Translation of Idioms揭开文化因子的面纱浅谈习语的翻译申请学位： 文学学士 系 别： 外国语言文学系 专 业： 英语 班 级： 姓 名： 学 号： 指导老师： 2012年 06月 01日Unveil the Cultural ElementsOn the Translation of IdiomsWritten byandSupervised by & Submitted to the DepartmentOf Foreign Languages of In Partial Fulfillment of the RequirementsFor the Degree of Bachelor of ArtsJune 1, 2012独 创 声 明本人郑重声明：所呈交的毕业论文，是本人在指导老师的指导下，独立进行研究工作所取得的成果，成果不存在知识产权争议。尽我所知，除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本论文不含任何其他个人或集体已经发表或撰写过的作品成果。对本文的研究做出重要贡献的个人和集体均已在文中以明确方式标明。本声明的法律后果由本人承担。作者签名: 二一二年 六 月 一 日毕业论文使用授权声明本人完全了解烟台大学文经学院关于收集、保存、使用毕业论文的规定。本人愿意按照学校要求提交学位论文的印刷本和电子版，同意学校保存学位论文的印刷本和电子版，或采用影印、数字化或其它复制手段保存论文；同意学校在不以营利为目的的前提下，建立目录检索与阅览服务系统，公布论文的部分或全部内容，允许他人依法合理使用。（保密论文在解密后遵守此规定） 论文作者（签名）： 二一二年 六 月 一 日AcknowledgementsThere is one person above all others who deserve my deepest thanks and respect for her continued support and precious suggestions during the writing of this dissertation: my supervisor. I could not have done it without her.There are many other people who contributed to this dissertation in many respects. First, I would like to thank WuWenjuan, instructor in the Department of Foreign Languages of Wenjing College of Yantai University, for her great favor I have finished my graduation paper.I would like to thank my friends for their assistance in the thesis of the materials and examples.Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their support and care over the years.毕业论文任务书院（系）：外国语言文学系姓名学号毕业届别专业毕业论文题目揭开文化因子的面纱浅谈习语的翻译指导教师学历研究生职称讲师所学专业外国语言学及应用语言学具体要求：主要内容：本文将首先从习语的定义、形式以及特点入手，再探讨习语与文化以及文化与翻译的深层关系，通过逐步探讨英汉习语的文化差异，加深对英语习语翻译的理解；最后提出习语翻译的基本策略。习语翻译不但要跨越语言的障碍，还要逾越文化的鸿沟。归根结底， 习语的翻译就是文化的翻译。进度安排：2012年2月1日至3月1日开题报告； 2012年3月10日至3月31日提交论文初稿；2012年4月10日至5月10提交二稿；2012年5月20日至5月31日提交定稿；2012年6月1日至6月10日答辩主要参考资料：戴运红.从文化差异角度看英汉习语翻译J.大众科技，2009(8):25-26.陈颖.从文化角度看习语翻译J.中国科技周刊，2008(3):12-13.卢进菊.论英汉习语的文化内涵及其翻译J.河南社会科学，2004:21-23.指导教师（签字）： 院（系）意见： 教学院长（主任）（签字）： 年 月 日备注： Abstract: Language is the carrier of culture. Idioms are also regarded as the essence of language, and thus they can reflect cultural characteristics of language. Compared with other language constituents, idioms are more typical. Idioms play an important role in our daily life. In the countries with long history, such as Britain and China, there are a large number of idioms with vivid national and local feature. Because of the differences in geographical environment, historical background, religious beliefs, customs and values, there are many differences lying in the idioms of different countries. This paper attempts to make a brief comparative study of the cultures embodied in Chinese and English idioms and put forward six main translation methods. Key words: cultural differences; translation; idioms 摘 要：语言是文化的载体，习语又堪称是语言的精华，因而习语在体现语言的文化特征方面，比之其他语言成分，就更具有典型性。习语在人们日常生活中起着非常重要的作用，在诸如英国和中国等历史悠久的国家中，更是有着大量的具有鲜明民族、地域特色的习语。由于两国的历史发展、地理位置、习俗习惯以及价值观念等的不同，两国的习语也存在着不同；但同时由于习语大都来自劳动人民的智慧，所以两国的习语也存在一些相同之处。本文主要提出六种翻译方法：直译，直译加注，意译，套译，转换形象法以及增译和节译。 关键词：文化差异；翻译；习语Contents1.0 Introduction.1 2.0 Translation and Idioms.1 2.1 Translation.1 2.2 Idioms.1 2.3 Culture and Translation23.0 Understanding Idioms from a Cultural Context.3 3.1 Geographical Environment.3 3.2 Historical Background.4 3.3 Religious Beliefs.5 3.4 Customs and Habits.5 3.5 Value .64.0 Translation Principles and Methods Based on Cultural Perspective .7 4.1 The Literal Approach.7 4.2 Literal Translation Plus Annotation.8 4.3 Free Translation.9 4.4 Sets Translation.9 4.5 Image-shift Translation.10 4.6 The Approach of Addition and Omission105.0 Conclusion.10References12烟台大学文经学院毕业论文1.0 IntroductionIdioms are widely regarded as the core and essence of language. Languages lacking idioms will become insipid. The use of idioms in language can be found everywhere. Adding appropriate idioms in the writing or speak will glorify the content and add vividness to the language. Nida once said that idioms usually have more impact than non-idiomatic expressions because of their close identification with a particular language and culture (Chen Shouzhen, 2004). Idioms are widely applied in various styles of writing, such as literary works，slogan，advertisement and political speeches. Since idioms play such an important role in language use, proper communication of idioms is helpful to intercultural translation .The differences between English and Chinese culture lead to the big difference in idiom expression and also easily produce mistranslation. Therefore, to strengthen understanding of differences between English and Chinese cultural connotations of idioms has great significance. This thesis mainly focus on what translation of idioms should pay attention to and how the methods taken by. The relation between the translation of idioms and further expound the differences between Chinese and western in various environmental factors, such as: geographical environment, historical allusions, religious beliefs, customs and values etc. Meanwhile putting forward the accurate expression of original implication in translation of idioms is important. This article also presents specific translating principles and methods depending on the context.2.0 Translation and Idioms 2.1 Translation Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text (Namit Bhatia, 1992). Translation is a tool of one culture into another culture. Promoting the great unity of the world culture and making the integration and heritage of human civilization get better. The bond and bridge for interpersonal communication among people using different languages and also the process to convey the information expressed by one language “source language” into another “target language”. Especially, is the faithful representation, in one language, of what is written or said in another language (Dai Yunhong, 2009). The translation should be converted not only from one language into another language, but also from a cultural form into another form of culture. Translation is a kind of activities to promote culture and communication by the use of transformation of speech.2.2 IdiomIdioms are defined in a similar way as a sub-type of phraseme whose meaning is not the regular sum of the meanings of its components. It may also be defined as “phrase or sentence 1whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as a whole unit” (Chen Ying, 2008) according to Oxford advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary. Idioms are fixed phrase or phrases extracted after long time use. The idioms discussed in this article, broadly speaking, cover all of the following forms: fixed phrases, proverbs, sayings, allusions, colloquialisms and slang. Idioms are subtle, humorous, serious or elegant. Its not only concise but also interesting. Most of them have a distinct image used appropriately as a metaphor to mean things; therefore, they often carry with a strong ethic color and local color. If language is a mirror of culture, then idiom is the crystallization of culture as the core and essence of language. 2.3 Culture and Translation The national culture between English and Chinese has both similarity and specialty. The commonness is based on the fact that human beings shares the same outside world and has the same brain activity; While specialty comes from different cultural backgrounds pf various ethic groups. The image or meaning of some English-Chinese idioms is identical or not, this can reflect the similarity of the two cultures. Thats why equivalents or close approximates can be found in terms of linguistic form and meanings. Such as the English idiom “pour oil on the fire” has its absolute equivalent of Chinese idiom “水滴石穿”. However, these only occupy a very small number, so the dissimilarities are naturally more obvious. Most of the idioms reflect the personality or characteristic of culture. Mr. Wang Zuoliang once said “The differences of culture bring greatest difficulties to translating”. A translator is confronted with the difficulty to deal with the contradictions between languages and culture, when he is translating idioms full of a strong cultural identity. Whether a translator can deal with the cultural differences or not is the key to the success of idioms translation.Translation departures from the language and often involves many aspects of culture. The culture here contains a variety of contents. It consists of economy, society, politics, law, history, ethics, education, psychology, literature, art, customs etc. For doing the translation work more gracefully and more accurately a translator needs not only to skillfully handle the original language and the target language, the semantic content of the speech, but to get a good command of all the relevant non-linguistic factors, namely, a certain level of cultural factors. It is clear that the complete success of translating includes both overcoming language barriers and bridging the gap between cultures. Language is the carrier of culture and the reality of culture as well. Translation is a tool for cultural exchange which is faced with different styles of two language systems.As stated above, the possibility of translation roots in the generality of cultures in different countries. However, the limits of the translation are based on their cultural differences. Whether the translated idioms are outstanding or not will affect the overall quality of translation 23.0 Understanding Idioms from a Cultural ContextThe cultural differences between English and Chinese idioms can be divided into two categories: image meanings and implied meanings (includes commendatory or derogatory sense). However, both of them are outside the literal meaning and concretely reflect of cultural diversities. The cultural diversities reflected by English-Chinese idioms exist in any state of human civilization. The culture of every nation or country has their own independence, of course including China. Mr. Zhu Guangqian in his About Translation said “The hardest thing in foreign literature to understand and translate is the associative meaning which carries with special emotional atmosphere. It is profound and subtle, which in no way to find out in the dictionary, but it is important to literature. If we are not familiar with a countrys human customs and cultural background, we will be at sea when it comes to the meaning of culture, especially in translation, this meaning is the most difficult to cope with.” Boris, the American anthropologist points out that each community has its own unique culture. But precisely because of this, they have customs, habits, beliefs and social mechanism different from other communities. The cultural differences reflected by English-Chinese idioms are mainly presented in the following areas.3.1 Geographical Environment.The production of idioms is closely related to the geographical environment Han multiplied and lived on the Asian continent and peoples lives can not be separated from the land. Britain is an island country and the maritime industry once leads the world in history. Suffice it to give a few examples below:(1)Getting up early for three mornings is equal to a work.(2)Getting up early in spring, eating ones fill after autumn.The simple nature of these idioms and simple words in daily life shows that China is a large agricultural country and dozens of idioms are full of local flavor.(3)Any port is a storm. (4)A small leak will sink a great ship. (5)Being in sea, sail; being on land, settle.These words “port”, “ship”, “sea” and “sail” make it clear that Britain is an island country surrounded by the sea. Therefore, it has a large number of idioms related to navigation. Besides the examples listed above, there is another obvious one to illustrate the features. When we describe a person who spends money too recklessly, it can be said “spend money like water” in English, but “挥金如土”in Chinese. Here, “土” is the soil， “water” and “土” reflect the feature of their different geographical environment.In addition to the above cases, differences in the geographical conditions lead to 3completely different understanding of “east wind” and “west wind”. Therefore, the wind has been endued with different symbolic meaning.(6)The flowers fly everywhere in Spring City, the east wind inclines the willow on Cold Food Festival.(An ancient Chinese poem written by Han Yu) In Chinese, “east wind” means “soft wind”, a symbol of “spring” and “warmth”, greening the land and waking the beings.(7)How many winter days have I seen him, standing blue nosed in the snow and east wind. (Charles Dickens,1987)In English, the symbolic meaning of “east wind” and “west wind” are just the opposite in Chinese. The west wind from the Atlantic blows green in the British Isles. However, the east wind comes from European continent, just like the west wind of China.3.2 Historical BackgroundAlthough there are similar proverbs in English and Chinese, they cant be directly put in number. For this reason, a good knowledge of historical background is very important to grasp the meaning of the proverb precisely.(8)Love is blind. This idiom comes from the ancient Roman God of love, Cupid or the Greece Eros (known as the blind God), which corresponds to the Chinese Idiom “ 情人眼里出西施（Beauty is in the eye of the beholder）”.(9)The bread never falls but on its buttered side. This is similar to Chinese proverb “人倒霉，吃豆腐也塞牙”.(10)Dont carry coals to New castle. This is similar to Chinese proverb “倒贩槟榔到广东” . In the last case, although both have expressed the meaning of “superfluous”, their backgrounds are different. New castle is a coal port to produce coal in the United Kingdom, while Guangdong is Chinese province in the southern tropical zone rich in betel nut.(11)Men leap over where the hedge is lowest. This is similar to Chinese proverb “雷公打豆腐，专拣软的欺”. The former comes from life, while the latter is derived from myth. (12)Two heads are better than one. This is similar to Chinese idiom “三个臭皮匠顶个诸葛亮”. The former starts from the real life, while the latter comes from historical legend.Both English and Chinese have a long history and also contain a huge number of historical allusion idioms. The historical allusion is the treasure in a country history and culture. It has strong ethic color, distinctive cultural character and rich historical and cultural information, which can best embody the characteristics of the different history and culture. From historical allusions there are a lot of idioms in English and Chinese formed. These idioms with simple structure and propound meaning can not be understood and translated thoroughly from the literal meaning, such as “blind imitation with ludicrous affection(东施效颦)”,“fail in a competitive examination(名落孙山)”, “Lord Yes Love of dragons(叶公好龙)” and so on, a series of four-words phrase. There are also some common sayings, such as “He 4who has never been to the Great Wall is not a true man”, in the proverb “Tow heads are better than one” Zhu Geliang is a prominent figure in Chinese history and has been widely known in China. He is a symbol of wisdom in the mind of Chinese readers. However, Britain and American readers may not know who he is and the relationship to “cobblers”. It is difficult to convey the historical and cultural information it implies by the means of literal translation. Only by this method of combination of literal translation and addition can fully reproduce the cultural information of the primitive language. So this sentence can be translated into: Three cobbler with their wits combined equal Zhu Geliang, the master mind.The English allusion often comes from the Bible and Greek and Roman mythology. Such as “Achilles heel (the only deadly weakness)”, “meet waterloo (suffer defeat .The defeat of Napoleon in Waterloo is similar to Guan Yus retreat from Maicheng in the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history)” (Gao Xiaona, 2002).Penelopes web (the work unable to finish), a Pandoras box (Pandora Box, also namely the root causes of disaster, trouble and scourge) and so on.3.3 Religious Beliefs.Idioms relates to religious beliefs appear in English and Chinese widely. China is a country with a main belief in Buddhism. The introduction of Buddhism in China has a history of more than one thousand years. There are many relevant idioms, such as:(13)借香献佛：borrowing joss-sticks from a neighbor and burning them before Buddha for your own sake.(14)缘木求鱼：climb up a tree to look for fish.(15)平时不烧香，临时抱佛脚：usually not burn incense, to make a last-ditch effort.(16)无事不登三宝殿：One never goes to the temple for no reason. From th