A Reader Reference Insight Into Idioms Translation From Chinese To English

Nida's Reader-response theory is considered to shift the focus from the comparison of a pair of texts, the source-language texts and the target-language texts, to a comparison of receptors' perception of the message carried by the text. It emphasizes a naturalness of translation, and judges a translation by whether it makes a similar response between source readers and target readers. This advocating draws heavy criticism and even denunciation. Then, why and how does this factor impact the selection of translating strategy?As to receptor, this paper affirms its subjective role in reception. In translation, the reception factor should be viewed from two aspects: the subjective but active readership and the objective receiving culture. A translator has to consider the reader whom he or she is translating for, so the factor of target readership and receiving culture does as not only reference but constraint for translator's selection of strategy. It is viewed as reader reference, or consideration for readers. In some sense, taking strategy, either domestication or foreignization, is the reveal of a certain translator's consideration for his intended readers and his attitude towards culture. For further argument, the paper analyzes the strategies employed in idiom translation, including literal translation, substitution, and free translation, from reader reference insights, and concludes that foreignization and literal translation are often feasible.The theory of Reception Aesthetics expounds that the reader plays an active role in the interpretation of a text. Jauss says that readers from any historical period establish different horizons of expectation. And Iser differentiates them to the actual reader and the impliedreader. For a certain translator, he should bear in mind his actual reader's horizon of expectation and reception, since he serves those who pick up his works to read. Translation activity experiences two processes of reception, first between the translator and the source text, then between the translator and the final target reader. Accordingly, the translation criterion of equivalence is just appropriately achieved. The operation of translating can not be escaped from the influence of receiving culture, which has features of infiltration, compatibility, nationality and interference. To fuse the text with target reader's horizon of expectation, the translator has to take readers into consideration, such as their acceptability, aesthetic interest and cultural context. Hence, translating strategies often have to be altered.A survey shows that consideration for the receptors in translating operations is a phenomenon common to all historical periods in China. There were debates over literal and free translation in Buddhist scripture translation, domestication strategy that Yan Fu and Lin Shu inclined to adapt, and Lu Xun's advocating of foreignization and his division of intended readers. Consideration for readers shows dual characteristics of taking translation strategies, namely, compromise and aggression. On one hand, compromising to the influence of target culture for making the target text easily accepted by the readers, the translator usually inclines to make the target text language perform conventionally in the target language system and pays attention to the comprehensibility and acceptability of the translated text. On the other hand, aggressing to influence the target culture by introducing the foreignness into target text for bringing foreign elements to target language and culture in spite of non-fluent and new expressions. Hence, it results in dichotomy of domestication and foreignization, and that of literal and free translation. Never-stopped disputes over them give strong criticism to Nida's strategy of naturalization, which is considered as a representative of domestication. This paper analyzes that Nida's receptor-oriented translation strategy neglects receptor's cultural expectation though laying stress on the operation on linguistic structure. Taking receptor's into c...