Contrastive Studies Of English-Chinese Idioms With Respect To Parts Of Human Body

An idiom means "strings of more than one word whose syntactic, lexical and phonological form is to a greater or lesser degree fixed and whose semantic and pragmatic functions are opaque and specialized" (McCarthy, 1998: 130). As a result, we cannot make out the meaning of the idiom like idioms with respect to parts of human body (PHB idioms for short) based on our understanding of the individual words that make up of them. This accounts for our difficulty in understanding and using them correctly. However, idioms or set phrases are important products of language and culture of a society. Proper use of them would add color to one's speech and writing. The study of them has been conducting since the 1970s in China. For example, Chen Wenbo, Yang Zijian, Yu Fumin and others are the forerunners in this field. Dictionaries, such as A Chinese-English Dictionary of Idioms (1982), An English-Chinese Dictionary of Idioms (1993) and A Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English (1999) are also available. Yet the contrastive study of English and Chinese idioms with respect to parts of human body is something quite unexplored. However, it is of great significance in EFL teaching and learning, translation and daily conversation, especially in conveying emotions of human beings. Therefore, this thesis throws much weight upon the origins, characteristics of such PHBidioms and their applications.Zhao Shikai (1980) claimed that the structures and essence of two languages can be understood more clearly if they are contrasted with each other. And Yang Zijian and Luan Xuemei (1989) believed that the theory of linguistics, in fact, is to contrast languages and then to reach a scientific conclusion. Therefore, this thesis adopts the contrastive approach to the study of English and Chinese PHB idioms. It is hoped that through contrastive study this thesis can give EFL learners a hint to use and understand PHB idioms properly in different contexts and can improve their intercultural communicative competence.The thesis comprises five chapters:Chapter One serves as an introduction. It briefly introduces the general motivation and purpose of the present research, the research approach and the outline of the thesis.Chapter Two probes into the definitions of idioms and origins of English and Chinese PHB idioms, and how they are related to history, the colloquial speech of common people, myths, legends or fables, the literature of religion, and classical works, etc.Chapter Three illustrates the characteristics of English and Chinese PHB idioms, and the emotions conveyed by them i.e. happiness, unhappiness, fear, anger, worry and arrogance, along with a brief analysis of the differences between English and Chinese PHB idioms.Chapter Four deals with the applications of PHB idioms to teaching, translation and cross-cultural communication.Chapter Five summarizes the whole thesis by reinforcing the significance of the study of PHB idioms and gives some tentative suggestions to EFL learners in learning PHB idioms.