The C-E Lexicographical Translation Of Chinese Four-Character Idioms(CFCIs) With Body Words From The User’s Perspective

Owing to Chinese people’s aesthetic preference for “even as the best,four words as the right” and thinking choice for “four-character stability and square-based fastness”,Chinese idioms are mostly composed of four characters,and are called “four-character idioms” accordingly.As culture-specific words,the Chinese four-character idioms(CFCIs)with body words are frequently applied in literary works,news reports,daily social contacts,and formal speeches.How to correctly translate such idioms is an unavoidable challenge in interpretation and translation.The primary mission of the Chinese-English(C-E)dictionaries is improving users’ speech production ability in translation,interpretation,writing,etc.The lexicographical translation is the most crucial part in the C-E dictionaries,and it also has a vital impact on whether users can use the target language correctly.Therefore,based on the user’s perspective,this thesis will study the translation of CFCIs with body words in the C-E dictionaries from the Multidimensional Translation Theory(MDTT)and the Interpretive Theory(IT)to optimize the translation representation system of these particular idioms.Based on the scientific and validity of sampling,and the hierarchical characteristics of CFCIs with body words(i.e.,the idioms with five-sense organs as the core),we choose CFCIs with body words’ subcategory,namely CFCIs with five-sense organs,to conduct this study.This paper selects CFCIs with “眼 eye”,“耳 ear”,“口mouth”,“ 鼻 nose” and “ 喉 throat” as research objects.Fifty-two idioms are chosen through stratified sampling and interval sampling.Combining with the compositionality degree of such kinds of idioms,quantitative and qualitative analyses are conducted on the lexicographical translation of these idioms in three mainstream native-oriented Chinese-English dictionaries.They are the New Century Chinese-English Dictionary(2nd Edition),the New Age Chinese-English Dictionary(2nd Edition),and A Chinese-English Dictionary(3rd Edition).According to the research results,in the C-E dictionaries,the lexicographicaltranslation of the CFCIs with five-sense organs contains the following problems.English equivalents are failing to meet with the actual demands of speech production.There is a loss of senses,lack of distinctive features among senses.The relationship between examples and equivalents provided is fragile.And there is a lack of examples in most entries.In the limited examples,pragmatic information can’t be represented.Meanwhile,the result also shows that the compositionality of CFCIs with five-sense organs has a significant impact on translation methods in the C-E dictionaries.To optimize the translation and improve the compilation quality of Chinese-English dictionaries,we combine the IT in interpretation and the MDTT in lexicography based on the user’s perspective.And we take the compositionality of CFCIs with five-sense organs as the breakthrough point.The outcomes of this study can provide feasible examples for future in-depth researches on the lexicographical translation of CFCIs with body words,can expand the subcategory of idioms in lexicographic studies,and can provide references for monographic linguistic research on Chinese idioms in the other horizontal categories.