Cultural Differences And Idiom Translation

Idioms are an important part of the language and culture of a society. Idioms are often hard to understand and even harder to use correctly. The proper use of idioms in a language is often a mark of a person's command of the language. English and Chinese idioms carved with cultural characteristics account for a great part in translation. The main purpose of the thesis is to discuss the influence of cultural differences existing in idiom translation and the approaches to dealing with cultural differences in idiom translation.Besides introduction and conclusion, this thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter examines the close relationship between language and culture, and analyses language translation between different cultures. Language and culture have a dialectical relationship. On the one hand, language is a major part of culture and it plays an important role in it. On the other hand, language is greatly influenced and shaped by culture. The close relationship between language and culture not only brings difficulties to foreign language learners, but also to translators. What is most troublesome in translation? It is cultural differences. Something, which is self-evident in one culture, needs to be explained by great efforts in the other culture.The second chapter points out the four kinds of cultural differences affecting idiom translation: regional cultural differences, conventional cultural differences, religious cultural differences and historical culturaldifferences. Some examples are provided for the illustration of the cultural differences.Chapter three, the main body of the thesis, suggests three translation methods to deal with the cultural differences in idiom translation. They are literal translation, liberal translation and combination of the both with detailed examples. Literal translation and liberal translation are relative concepts. Either literal translation or liberal translation has its limit. There is no absolute "literal", nor entirely "liberal" version in the practice of translation, and any overemphasizing either of them would result in ridiculous consequences. So, the translator should use the methods flexibly according to different conditions.This paper contributes to an inquiry into the generality in idiom translation rather than speciality. There are still some more features not being covered in the study.