A Study On English-Chinese Translation Of Idioms From The Cultural-translation Perspective

Idioms, as a linguistic phenomenon, can be regarded as the most special part of language, and they are heavily culture-loaded. Because of those cultural differences, idioms become one of the greatest barriers for cross-cultural communication. This thesis is to discuss the mutual translation between English and Chinese idioms from the cultural translation perspective. The whole thesis is divided into five chapters.The first chapter is the introduction, in which the current status and existed problems are introduced, and then the purpose of the thesis is raised. The second chapter discusses the feasibility of mutual translation between English and Chinese idioms. Besides the discussion on the definition and features of idioms, the similarities and differences between English and Chinese idioms are discussed. The basic idea of the thesis is formed: there are cultural differences between the English and Chinese idioms, which create many barriers for their mutual translation; however, there are also commonness between these two languages and similarities between these two cultures, and these similarities determine that it is possible to make mutual translation between English and Chinese idioms.Then the third chapter is the literature review of cultural translation. The concept and relevant cultural translation theories are introduced, including the hermeneutic theories, sociocultural theories. These two theories have their own ways to deal with the cultural factors in the originals: one is to destroy the cultural images, and its only purpose is to make a fluent and acceptable text for the expected or target readers; and another is to preserve the cultural specialties as much as possible. They are in accordance with Venuti's domestication and foreignization theory, which is also discussed in this chapter. Therefore a sound theoretical basis of the thesis is founded, on which the contents of next chapter rely.The fourth chapter is about the strategies for translating English-Chinese idioms. In this thesis, the strategies are divided into two categories: foreignization-oriented and domestication-oriented strategies. And this categorization is made according to the ways they deal with the cultural images in translating process. Some detailed methods are illustrated with profound examples, such as literal translation, annotation, literal plus free translation and contextual amplification as foreignization-oriented strategies; and the borrowing of corresponding idioms, free translation, contextual omission and restituting as domestication-oriented strategies. Then many other problems are discussed in this chapter, like the understanding of the originals, handling of cultural images, rhetorical vehicles and emotional meanings etc. The discussion of these extra problems makes the strategies a whole.The last chapter is the conclusion. It is pointed that translation of idioms is a complex and hard task, and the translators should choose proper methods according to different contexts to avoid the errors occurring in process of understanding or translating idioms.