A Research On The C-E Translation Of Chinese Four-Character Idioms From The Perspective Of Functional Equivalence

As one of the most ancient languages in the world, the Chinese language contains large number of lexicons and idiomatic expressions which are efffectively expressive for various purposes. As the classic linguistic form of the language, idioms, four-character idiomatic expressions in particular, represent the essence of the Chinese traditional culture. Characterized by economy and expressiveness, four-character idiomatic expressions are popularly appreciated by foreign learners and scholars; the C-E translation of four-character idiomatic expressions has attracted much attention in the community of translation studies.Taking the English version of Fortress Besieged as research scope and C-E translation of Chinese four-character idiomatic expressions as research subject, the thesis defines, describes, classifies, and characterizes four-character idiomatic expressions in Chinese context. Based on functional equivalence theory, the thesis intends to make detailed analysis on how the idiomatic expressions as extracted from Fortress Besieged are translated from Chinese into English, and which strategies or techniques are employed for their translation; the thesis also intends to examine the significance of cultural context to the C-E translation of four-character idiomatic expressions. After a comparison of cultural differences between English idioms and Chinese idiomatic expressions, the thesis presents the difficulties that translators encounter in the C-E translation of Chinese four-character idioms and tries to seek for strategies or approaches for their translation. The research indicates that such approaches like literal translation, free translation, annotation; amplification translation and etc. could be proposed for the C-E translation of Chinese four-character idiomatic expressions.