A Study Of The Translation Of Numerals In Chinese Idioms From The Perspective Of Domestication And Foreignization

Numerals are ubiquitous in our daily life. They are not only used for expressing amount, but also used for recording human civilization. Numerals are very important for human beings to know the world. Every society has its own language system for the different historical and cultural conditions, which makes numerals more complex. Except for the function of expressing amount, numerals also possess distinct national culture marks. Therefore, it is useful to spread our national culture to have an appropriate translation of numerals.Idioms are the essence of a language. Chinese idioms play a significant role in Chinese culture. Based on some statistics, there are about ten thousand Chinese idioms, and more than18,000idioms are compiled in the Big Thesaurus of Chinese Idioms. Among them, there exists a great deal of idioms containing numerals. These numerals contain both the meaning of amount and abstract meanings, which make them much more difficult to translate.Due to the high frequency of numerals in Chinese language, and different semantic, cultural connotations as well as syntactic usage between English and Chinese numerals, it is essential to make a research on the translation of numerals. Moreover, there are plenty of researches on numerals as well as the C-E/E-C translation of numerals; studies on idioms with numerals also have a large amount. However, the former totally focuses on numerals, while the latter puts emphasis on idioms. Studies that focused on numerals in idioms are not so many. Such kind of study pays attention not to the numerals nor the idioms but the two of them. This thesis intends to make a research on translation of numerals in Chinese idioms. It tries to explore some differences between English and Chinese numerals, and then attempts to suggest appropriate methods which can be applied in the translation of numerals in Chinese idioms from the perspective of domestication and foreignization. This thesis aims at increasing the translator’s awareness of intercultural communication and improving the quality of translation. Firstly, the author provides an overview of the two translation strategies: foreignization and domestication, including the origin of them and the debates on them; and also gives an overview of previous studies:studies on numerals, on numerical idioms, and on numerals in idioms. Then, differences between Chinese and English numerals are illustrated, mainly including differences of implicit meanings, differences of favor and taboos between the two languages. After the analysis of numerals used in Chinese idioms, the thesis puts forward several principles and difficulties in translating numerals in Chinese idioms. The author concludes certain principles for translation of numerals in Chinese idioms, namely, principles of maintaining the characteristics of the original numerals, principles of popularity of the translation and principles of keeping vividness of the original numerals. And difficulties in translation numerals in Chinese idioms include three aspects:difficulties in understanding quantitative.meaning of numerals, difficulties in finding equivalents in English, and difficulties in using substitutions in English.The focus of this thesis puts on the application of domestication and foreignization in translation. In that section, several methods which can be used in translating of numerals in Chinese idioms are illustrated, including literal translation, literal translation with notes on the basis of foreignization and to change the original numerals, to omit the numerals on the basis of domestication. It also makes an analysis of the two translation strategies when they are used in translating numerals in Chinese idioms, including the advantages and disadvantages of them and the development trend of the two in future translation. At last, the thesis comes to a conclusion that both domestication and foreignization can be used in the translation of numerals in Chinese idioms, and in the later translation of numerals in Chinese idioms, translators should give a priority to foreignization and domestication as the supplementary strategy.