On Idioms Translation Between English And Chinese From The Perspective Of Functioanl Equivalence

With the development of society, the progress of science and technology, the international contacts between different nations in economic exchange, political affairs and cultural communication are increasing, and the trend of cultural integration is fast growing. The cultural diversity is brought by globalization and diversification in economics. Language is the carrier of culture, and culture has influence on the development of language, so language and culture are inseparable. There exist a great deal of idioms in English and Chinese, they mirror the national culture and characteristics of languages. Idioms are the cream of culture and language in human history, and they abound with rich cultural elements about history and geography, religious beliefs and national customs, national mentality and thinking models in different peoples.However, due to the different culture and language systems between east and west, English and Chinese idioms have not only similarities, but also obvious differences in meaning and expression. How to reflect these features of language and culture of the source languages in the target language is the hardest nut to crack in idioms translation. Therefore, based on functional equivalence, the thesis will make a systematic and comprehensive study on translating idioms between English and Chinese by analyzing their definitions, characteristics, classifications and their cultural features. At the same time, some effective translation methods for English and Chinese idioms will be explored, aiming at enabling readers to understand, translate idioms better and promoting the exchanges of language, culture between the west and the east to some extent.The thesis constitutes seven chapters.Chapter one is the introduction. It mainly introduces the background and significance of the research, research questions and research method. Chapter two covers literature review. In this part, it mainly deals with the present study of idioms translation at home aiming at finding the problems or difficulties in idioms translation. Chapter three compares English and Chinese idioms from different aspects. It includes the definition, features classification of English and Chinese idioms and it offers the basic knowledge about idioms for readers. Chapter four is the analysis of cultural features in idioms. It brings out the similarities and differences of cultural features by analyzing the relationship between language and culture, culture and translation. Tress types of relationship of cultural feature in idioms are generalized. Chapter five is the key part of the thesis. It mainly deals with the application of functional equivalence in idioms translation and the specific translation methods, it includes literal translation, free translation, combination of literal and free translation, borrowing. Chapter six gives some suggestions for idioms translation. The national flavor of idioms in source text should be preserved in target text, and the translation should be concise, fluent, and understandable, and the emotive function in the translated idioms has to be the same as in the source idioms. Chapter seven is the conclusion. It answers the questions raised in the beginnings. There exist similarities and differences in languages and culture between English and Chinese idioms; it is these differences that bring many difficulties to their translation; functional equivalence is significant in directing idioms translation, and literal translation, free translation, the combination of literal and free translation, and borrowing are the commonly-used strategies in English and Chinese idioms translation.