On The Translation Of Idioms In A Dream Of Red Mansions From The Perspective Of Equivalence Theory

Idioms are the essence of language and the crystallization of culture. Most idioms own very concise forms, but they often contain rich meanings. They brighten so much everyday talk that you are as likely to hear from professors as from peasants, from beggars as from refined scholars. They possess so unique features that make them much different from other common expressions. A Dream of Red Mansions is one of China's greatest classical novels, unfolding a vast and moving panorama of social history. One of the distinctive features of this novel is the exquisite language, which contains the extensive use of idioms. From the 19th century until now, it has been translated into English by several translators, among whom Yang Xianyi and his wife Gladys Yang offered the version most complete and faithful to the original.Idioms, as a special text type, have some distinctive features. Now idiom translation still remains a hard nut to crack. How to translate idioms to make them easy to understand? How to translate idioms to set up a similar or even same image in the minds of target readers? How to achieve equivalent effect in the rendering? These are all very important problems for us to solve. Based on Nida's Equivalence Theory and the translating strategies adopted by the Yangs, this thesis studies idiom translation from different aspects in order to find answers to the above questions.Besides Introduction and Conclusion, the thesis is composed of five chapters.Chapter One is literature review, in which the development of Equivalence Theory at home and abroad is introduced. The second section of this chapter introduces Nida's Equivalence Theory, pointing out its theoretical background as well as its characteristics.Chapter Two is the introduction of idioms. In this chapter the definitionand features of idioms are illustrated in detail.Chapter Three is the focus of the thesis, which probes into the eight strategies of translating idioms adopted by the Yangs in the translation of A Dream of Red Mansions. The eight strategies are the principle of the organic combination of seeking faithfulness and functional equivalence. They are literal translation, literal translation plus annotation, literal-cum-liberal translation, borrowing, liberal translation, amplification, omission and the avoidance of vulgar expressions.Chapter Four makes a systematic analysis of the approaches to image rendering in translating idioms in the light of Equivalence Theory.Chapter Five points out the possible ways to achieve functional equivalence in idiom translation. First, the translator should take serious consideration of the relationship between the image, the association and the meaning. Secondly, the translator should possess strong cross-cultural awareness.This thesis lists a number of examples from A Dream of Red Mansions to prove that functional equivalence based on equivalent effect is the fundamental criterion for idiom translation.In Conclusion, we restate the significance of the Equivalence Theory in idiom translation and points out that functional equivalence based on the equivalent effect plays a very crucial role in idiom translation.