Image-rendering In Idiom Translation: From The Perspective Of "Functional Equivalence"

Translation is by no means an easy job and the translation of idioms is even more difficult.It is well known that idioms are the essence of language and the crystallization of national culture.Most of them,though composed of few words,contain rich meaning.Both the English and the Chinese languages possess a great number of idioms,most of which are rich in vivid images and cultural connotation.How to translate idioms in a way that can not only fully convey their meaning,but also render the images contained poses a challenge to the translators.That is what we set out to explore in this thesis.Nida's "Functional Equivalence" theory has exerted great influence in the translation circle in China and the west since its birth.To put it in a simple way,this theory emphasizes achieving the closest natural equivalent to the source text,first in meaning,secondly in style.However, his theory does not reject the significance of form.As Nida put it,"if a more or less literal correspondence is functionally equivalent in both designative and associative meaning,then obviously no adjustments in form are necessary"(2001:92).As for the translation of idioms,Nida's "Functional Equivalence" is also applicable.Images are typical of idioms. In the process of idiom translation the treatment of cultural difference,in many cases,is to deal with images contained in idioms.Idiom translation must first realize semantic transfer of cultural message,and at the same time,attention should be paid to the functional equivalence of images.Based on the theoretical viewpoints,this thesis attempts to study the translation of idioms with images from the perspective of "Functional Equivalence".It classifies English and Chinese idioms into three categories in terms of correspondence in images:fully correspondent, partially correspondent and non-correspondent ones.And it proposes translation methods and image-rendering approaches for them respectively,including image-preserving,image-substituting and image-abandoning approaches.What approach to adopt is also affected by other factors like context,the purpose of translation,etc.In conclusion, it is pointed out that idiom translation aims at both cultural transference and image preservation;or,in other words,idiom translation strives to reproduce in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent to the original idiom of the source language,first in meaning,secondly in style.