On Lexicographical Translation Strategies Of Idiom Entries In Chinese-Engiish Dictionaries For Chinese EFL Learners

Chinese students often encounter great difficulties in using Chinese idioms in English encoding activities (i.e. writing and translating), especially in finding the correct English counterparts of the Chinese idioms. Even after they have found the correct ones they may not know how to use them correctly. Chinese-English dictionaries for Chinese EFL learners, aiming at serving users’English encoding activities, should pay special attention to the treatment of Chinese idioms. But the truth is that the treatment of Chinese idioms in C-E dictionaries can hardly meet EFL learners’encoding needs. Users are saturated with a cluster of English equivalents, which are listed one by one with no or scanty information to distinguish them from each other. As a result, the above treatments often leave users, especially elementary and intermediate EFL learners at a loss as to how to choose the one they need among these equivalents. This is especially the case in the generative activities involving idioms, like English writing and C-E translation. Even advanced learners may feel challenged in the above situation. In view of the above situation, the present thesis intends to investigate the major difficulties the advanced Chinese EFL learners encounter in consulting idiom entries in C-E dictionaries and their reference expectations for the treatment of idiom entries in C-E dictionaries. Besides, the thesis aims at identifying the major problems with the treatment of idiom entries in current C-E dictionaries for advanced Chinese EFL learners and proposing possible solutions for future improvement. This thesis mainly focuses on animal-related idioms.Two surveys, a translation test and a questionnaire survey, are conducted to answer questions concerning idiom choice.40subjects with advanced level of English proficiency were chosen in this study. The subjects were required to do the translation test twice. During the first test, they were allowed to do the test with reference to data extracted from the three existing C-E dictionaries. During the second test, they can consult a mini-dictionary, which is compiled by the researcher based on the data from the three parallel corpora. The test result revealed that the major difficulty EFL learners encounter when consulting C-E dictionaries is that the information provided in C-E dictionaries cannot help them select the appropriate equivalent. According to the result of the questionnaire survey, the subjects’expectations can be summarized as follows:1) Authentic English equivalents that can be directly inserted into translation should be presented in dictionaries.2) Illustrative examples, usage notes, grammatical notes and pragmatic labels are of great help for them to select the appropriate English equivalent. All these elements should be included.3) Some English equivalents that can deliver cultural meanings should be provided.Then, three major C-E dictionaries were examined to find out the main problems with the treatment of animal-related idiom entries in C-E dictionaries. According to the data obtained from the dictionary survey, four problems are found:over-literal translation, over-free translation, under addressing and over addressing. Specifically, the first two problems cause no direct inserted equivalent for translation, and the last two problems make users confused because no adequate information concerning equivalents is provided to help them select an appropriate equivalent in their encoding activities.Finally, the researcher puts forward some theoretical and practical suggestions to build a system of lexicographical translation for an animal-related idiom entry, in an effort to improve the treatment of animal-related idiom entries in C-E dictionaries. Combined with the data collected from the three C-E parallel corpora, the Schema Theory can provide some guidance for bilingual lexicographers to exemplify animal-related idiom entries.1) According to content schemata, bilingual lexicographers should provide animal-related idiom with English equivalents and add some usage notes to discriminate each English equivalent.2) According to grammar schemata, bilingual lexicographers are supposed to provide grammatical notes in C-E dictionaries.3) According to cultural schemata, bilingual lexicographers are advised to provide some English equivalents with cultural significance on the basis of conveying the meaning of animal-related idiom entries accurately.4) According to context schemata, bilingual lexicographers are expected to provide some illustrative examples and pragmatic labels related to animal-related idiom entries for users in C-E dictionaries.This study has both theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, the Schema Theory is applied to the treatment of animal-related idiom entries in C-E dictionaries, which provides a useful criterion for what kind of information of an animal-related idiom entry should be presented in C-E dictionaries. Practically, the present study offers bilingual lexicographers helpful suggestions on how to efficiently exemplify animal-related idiom entries in the context of modern corpora, in order to meet the generative needs of the advanced Chinese EFL learners in consulting animal-related idiom entries in C-E dictionaries for Chinese EFL learners.