Exploration Of Translation Strategies On Chinese Four-word Metaphorical Idioms

Idiom in Chinese, constant phrase used and polished through a long time, usuallyconsists of three words, four words, even more words with its form and content full ofessence. Four-word metaphorical idiom2is a most important part in Chinese idiomsas a whole, for the majority of which have metaphorical meanings. Nowadays,researches both on English translation of Chinese idioms and on C-E translation haveindeed made a great success. However, the researches on four-word idiom arerelatively wide and general and particularly it has few researches on Englishtranslation of four-word metaphorical idiom let alone special forms of four-wordmetaphorical idiom. On the basis of this, the present thesis argues that it is necessaryto have an in-depth study on the subject of four-word metaphorical idiom and itsspecial forms as well.Both Chinese and English enjoy very long histories and profound culture deeplyprinted into language. Idiom, as a special language form, occupies a vital status inC-E language. There exist numerous varieties between C-E owing to the distinctivegeography, historical and cultural background, religious belief, value and so on. Foridiom is mainly reflected in the source number, source domain meaning and targetdomain meaning. However, as China and Britain belong to the same globe, theyinevitably hold similar cognition means to some objects. These similarities in idiomsinclude the fixed structure, comprehensive semantic meaning, metaphorical featureand the same source domain and target domain. Based on differences and similaritiesbetween C-E, there are some translation strategies such as set of translation, literal translation, clip translation, complementary translation and creative translation.However, idiom is extremely complicated for its abundant categories and numbers.Thus, without a logical and detailed classification of idioms, no one of the translationstrategies mentioned above can solve the issue of idiom translation especially someidioms with special structures.With the help of rhetorical devices and semantic relations of internal structures,the four-word metaphorical idioms are distinguished from the entire idioms in thethesis. Then three translation strategies towards four-word metaphorical idioms areproposed under the theory of cognitive construal, mainly from two aspects of theperspective view and prominence view. Meanwhile, a general translation formula,Source Domain A+Target Domain B=Blending Space C, on four-word metaphoricalidioms is being put forward on the basis of perspective view which combinesperspective views of speech act theory and conceptual blending theory. According totheir similarities, four-word metaphorical idioms are divided into three kinds andthere are one source domain, one (more) target domain(s) and more (two or four)source domains, one (more) target domain(s); two source domains (repetition), one(more) target domain(s); two source domains (prominence), one (more) targetdomain(s). Three branched translation formulas are put forward to apply to thosethree kinds of four-word metaphorical idioms under the general translation formula,which is hoped to direct all the four-word metaphorical idioms to be translatedappropriately.