Translation Of Culture-bound Words In Idioms

The question of the relationship between language and culture, together with that of cultural barriers in translation has drawn an increasing attention of translation researchers. An idiom is a comparatively fixed language form in matters of meaning and structure, embedded with rich cultural connotations, which, however, in certain cases act as cultural barriers preventing smooth translation of an idiom. Each of them, formed in a particular historical period and passed on from generation to generation, reflects ^unique cultural elements. Being the crystallization of human wisdom and the essence of languages, idioms are widely used in both speech and writing. To correctly understand and properly use them in translation calls for a wide range of background knowledge concerning the culture in both source language and target language. Because of the differences between English and Chinese in terms of geography, history, religion and custom, the idioms of the two languages feature different cultural elements, which triggers the difficulty in translation. Many mistakes in translation result from inappropriate tackling of those cultural elements involved, especially the culture-bound words ?words rich in cultural connotations or national tints.The thesis tries to approach the problem of how to deal with the culture-bound words in idioms. First, the thesis introduces what culture-bound word is and lists some aspects in which culture-bound words in idioms are mainly reflected: customs and habits, religious beliefs and allusions. And then the thesis classifies culture-bound words from the angle of semantics: (l)words with the same conceptual meaning and even the same associative meaning; (2) words with the same conceptual meaning but different or opposite associativemeanings; (3) words with the same conceptual meaning and the associative meaning which is rich in one language but vacant in the other; (4) words with the same conceptual meaning and partially the same associative meaning; (5) words unique to one language. With that, the thesis offers some practical ways of translating them. According to the different groups, literal translation, liberal translation and transliteration are adopted respectively. In addition, the thesis points out two ways that should be avoided in translating culture-bound words in idioms: (1) translating idioms in source language with idioms in target language mechanically; (2) using culture-bound words with some different associative meanings in target language to translate culture-bound words in source language.