A Pragmatic Insight Into The Translation Of Idioms

Idioms are the crystal of the wit of a people or a nation. They embody the linguisticand cultural characteristics of the people. Hence, idiom translating is a difficulty intranslating literary works.Culture consists of all the shared products of human society. Language is a waypeople use to communicate with each other. It is a part of the culture. Culture shapedlanguage, meanwhile it is carrieddown by language.Translation is intended for bridging gaps between the target language receptor andthe original work and gaps between the target language culture and the source languageculture. However, the bridge of translation is not a highway between languages orbetween cultures. Instead, it is dotted with pits and traps. There are even insurmountablebarriers, and you have to take a detour to go to the other end of the bridge. Thesephenomena are called to be"untranslatablilities" Untranslatability falls into two aspects:linguistic and cultural. As idioms are the special character of languages, the realizationof idiom translation is limited within a certain scope. Absolute equivalence never exists.The author attempts to do a research on the pragmatic equivalent effect in translation tofind out a solution for the translating of idioms.In the practice of translation, the notion of pragmatic implicature is more importantthan that of pure linguistic meaning. A translator must deal with not only "what is said"but more important "what is implied in saying what is said" In order to retain thepragmatic force or illocutionary force of the source message, the translator shouldchoose appropriate linguistic form in the target language, abandoning the propositionalcontents of the source message if necessary. The illocutionary force equivalent principleis of great significance in achieving pragmatic equivalent effect in translation.The corresponding relations between English idioms and Chinese idioms arecategorized according to the identification of propositional contents and illocutionaryforces of the idioms. Different translating methods are discussed in consideration ofdifferent relations. Generally speaking, the method of literally translating replenishedwith a brief interpretation or a modifier is an effective way to convey both theillocutionary force and the cultural flavor in the propositional content of an idiom.A piece of translation works cannot be perfect, because translation is unceasing.The conventional translation of the idioms must also be examincd carefully in a certaincontext.This dissertation consists of five chapters.Chapter One is the discussion of relationship between language and culture, and thetranslatability and untranslatability are discussed, too.Chapter Two elaborates on the pragmatic equivalent effect in translation.Chapter Three is concerned with the categorization and cultural meaning of idiomsin English and Chinese.Chapter Four is a research on the translating methods of idioms.Chapter Five concluded the whole dissertation. The author hopes this dissertationwill bring along more translators to the study of translation of idioms from thepragmatic point of view.