Idiom Translation From The Perspective Of Memetics

The title of the thesis is Idiom Translation from the Perspective of Memetics, which studiesthe process of Chinese-English idiom translation from the perspective of memetics. The authorproposes two research questions:1, How should the translator decode idiom memes in the Chineselanguage and encode the idiom meme in the English language to construct a new completed idiom?2, What are the principles and methods in the construction of translated idioms?The author of the thesis takes the data from A Dream of Red Mansions and its Englishtranslations, analyses the application of memetics in the idiom translation process and explains theChinese-English idiom translation. Idioms have dictionary meanings and pragmatic meanings. Thedictionary meaning is the meaning of standby state (static meaning), which has a strongconventionality and coagulability while its pragmatic meaning is a kind of temporary meaning,which is formed in the usage through the reference of context on the basis of conceptual meaningunder the domination of certain pragmatic purpose. The dictionary meaning of a idiom is itsmeaning without context, and it might carry more than one meaning in it; while the idiom has onlyone meaning in a certain discourse. Therefore, the author of the thesis analyses the idiomtranslation process from the perspective of memetics in the cross-culture and cross-linguisticcircumstances.The author constructs a memetic mechanism of idiom translation and summarizes four waysof idiom processing by analyzing the Chinese-English idiom translation in A Dream of RedMansions and many translation examples. The author takes each idiom as a meme and idiomtranslation as intercultural and inter-linguistic transmission of an idiom meme. Based on theprevious research, the author sets up a mechanism of the idiom translation clarified with a diagram,which is linguistically depicted as follows: An idiom meme can be separated into an idiom memeshell and an idiom meme kernel; the former, as the exterior form of the idiom meme, has to bereshaped so as to fit in with the target language culture and facilitate the meme’s decoding by targetlanguage readers, while the latter, as the essential information that the idiom functions to transmit,should be replicated without change; then the reshaped meme shell joins with the replicated memekernel to form a new idiom meme, which is the end result of translation. Based on this memetic mechanism of idiom translation and analysis of translation samples, the author arrives at thefollowing four ways of idiom processing from the perspective of memetics: equivalence,substitution, explanation and omission.