Foreignization As The Primary Strategy For C-E/E-C Idiom Translation

This thesis discusses foreignization as the primary strategy forC-E/E-C idiom translation. Idiom is a speech form or an expression of agiven language that is peculiar to itself grammatically or cannot beunderstood from the individual meanings of its elements. We also knowthat idioms are culture-loaded linguistic signs. Thus, the E-C/C-E idiomtranslation involves not only the transfer of language but also thetransmission of culture. Translation is, in its essence, interculturalexchange. How to realize the transfer of the source language culture tothe target language has become one of the important criteria to judgewhether the translation is successful or not. And the translator's choice ofthe cultural strategies for translation, to a large extent, influences theeffects of expression of the cultural connotations. From the perspective ofculture, the present thesis aims at finding a better solution to the problemof cultural transplantation in idiom translation. Domestication andforeignization have been two important concepts and strategies intranslation. To express the whole connotation of idioms, the best way oftranslation is to employ foreignization, and foreignization, being theprimary strategy in the E-C/C-E idiom translation, becomes the theme ofthe present thesis. And the whole thesis is divided into three chapters,apart from introduction and conclusion.The first section of this thesis is to give a brief introduction of themain contents and make clear the purpose and the significance of thepresent thesis. Chapterâ… illustrates the concepts of foreignization and domesticationand the conflicts between the foreignization and domestication at homeand abroad. The discussion is focused on the theoretic basis of the twotheories and the controversy between them. Both theories admit thereexist cultural differences, but they differ from one another in theirattitudes towards these differences. Domestication tends to avoid thecultural conflicts in the pursuit of fluent communication, whileforeignization is in favor of admitting and accepting the culturaldisparities with the hope of retaining the exotic cultural flavor of the SL.The author holds the view that foreignization should be the primarystrategy with domestication as an important complementary strategy in anera of cultural globalization. Idioms are the figurative language and theirimages are usually vivid and culture-specific. And translation of idioms,therefore, is not only interlingual communication but also moreintercultural communication. The treatment of cultural factors embeddedin C-E/E-C idioms really brings about difficulties to a translator and agood translation of idiom is supposed to take the foreignization as theprimary strategy as a cross-culture communication and for the enrichmentof target language and culture.Chapterâ…¡states some different definitions of idiom and makes adetailed comparison between the cultural similarities and differencescontained in Chinese and English idioms. The cultural differences ofidioms lie in many aspects such as different living environments, customsand different religious beliefs, different aesthetic perspectives. It isstressed that the cultural disparities endow the two languages with theirrespective peculiar cultural flavors but at the same time bring about special difficulties in idiom translation.Chapterâ…¢discusses about the application of the cultural strategiesin C-E/E-C idiom translation. The author analyses the necessity offoreignization, specific application of foreignization in idiom translationand also points out that foreignization should be mainly applied so as toachieve better conveyance of the cultural peculiarities of either English orChinese idioms. Domestication can be the secondary strategy in idiomtranslation. And all translators should keep in mind that combination ofthe two strategies in idiom translation is not to be ignored.The last section of the thesis is to draw a conclusion that the C-E/E-C idiom translation should serve the cross-cultural exchanges betweenthe two different nations. It is not only necessary but also possible topresent the cultural connotations reflected in English and Chinese idioms.Whenever possible, foreignization should be used so as to retain theexotic cultural color of the source text, but foreignization should notaffect the expressiveness of the version. Wherever necessarydomestication should be employed in order to facilitate natural and fluentexpression, but domestication should not distort the cultural flavor of theoriginal. Because the two strategies of translation are dialectically relatedto each other, no one can ignore this relationship in the actual translationand practice, especially in the translation of idioms with the characteristicof bilingual particular national cultural differences. That's to say, in orderto convey the particular exotic flavor of idioms, i.e. to be faithful intranslation, foreignization is the better and primary strategy for thetransmission of idioms' cultural connotations. As we all know thattranslation is, in its essence, intercultural exchange.