A Comparative Study Of English And Chinese Idioms And Their Translation

A comparative study of the definitions and sementic range of the terms included in idioms of both languages shows that the English "idiom" and Chinese"chengyu" are no equivalents. Yet they both do share certain common charateristicfeatures such as lexical integrity, conventionality, compositeness and semantic unity.We can even find similar features in terms of their idiosycrasies. Say, sometimesthey are both grammatical or logical rule-breakers. Being gems of a language, idiomshave such close relationship with the culture they represent that they truly reflect thecolourful life of the people in that culture throughout history. Through a comparativestudy of English and Chinese idioms, one will not only find ideas that are differentin both cultures, but one can discover many areas where people in both cultures havehad similar experiences and hold similar perspectives. Sometimes, these ideas thatare held in common are expressed in different ways that reflect the particular geniusof each culture. In the translation of idioms, usually the translator has to make threetypes of adjustments, that is: (a) from idioms to nonidioms, (b) from nonidioms toidioms, (c) from idioms to idioms. And an idiom may sometimes be omittedaltogether in the target text. As for the treatment of those culturally-specific idioms,there are cases where the semantic translation is required to show the "thought-processes" of the utterance, and where the communicative translation may bepreferable to make the utterance on first reading more comprehensible and attractive.There are also cases where the combination of semantic and communicativetranslation may seem to be the ideal or better solution to adopt.