A Comparative Research On The Characteristics Of Idioms In Zhanguoce And The Translation Strategies

Idioms,concise and vivid,are not confined to literary works but also active in daily life.Endowed with stable structure and abundant national culture,idioms have always been a big difficulty in translation.As the cultural soft power becomes increasingly important,the translation of Chinese idioms will largely affect the promotion of the Chinese language and the spread of Chinese traditional culture around the world.Researches on the English translation of idioms started late and have gradually attracted the attention of scholars in the last two decades.For a long time,there are two dimensions in past researches.One is to discuss idioms in general,and the second is to discuss the translation of idioms in a specific text.Ancient classics,the accumulations of the Chinese splendid culture,are one of the main origins of Chinese idioms.Zhanguoce,a masterpiece of Pre-Qin history,is full of impressive dialogues from which many idioms originate.However,as its ideological implication conflicts with Confucianism,Zhanguoce has not received much attention.Researches on its English translation have also remained on a macro level and few focus on the systematic analysis of its literary characteristics.In the 1980 s,the “cultural turn” in translation studies brings a new perspective: translation is not only the transformation of the source language and the target language on the surface,but also the profound dialogue between two cultures.This thesis,selecting the idioms in Zhanguoce as research data,analyzes their characteristics from the perspective of cultural context.By comparing the two English versions translated by James I.Crump and Zhai Jiangyue,the translation strategies of Chinese idioms are investigated deeply.This thesis first reviews the domestic and foreign researches on translation strategy,Chinese idioms and the English translation of Zhanguoce.Next,it outlines the basic concepts of cultural context theory and its application in translation,and then analyzes 129 idioms in Zhanguoce from two aspects of the cultural connotation and image.On the above basis,this thesis combines qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis to explore the strategies of translating idioms,compare the similarities and differences between the two versions and explain the factors that influence the choice of strategies.Through data statistics and exemplification,the following findings are realized:(1)The idioms in Zhanguoce reflect unique national characteristics in the cultural connotation,mainly represented in the ecological environment,social customs,historical inheritance,religious beliefs and value systems.Among them,the idioms related to history account for the most at the ratio of 36.4%.(2)As for images in the idioms,they are categorized into idioms without images(37.9%),idioms with identical images(29.5%),idioms with different images(19.4%),and idioms with void images(13.2%).(3)Literal translation and free translation are the two main strategies in both Crump's version and Zhai's version.The other five are supporting strategies.The usage frequencies of all the seven strategies reflect a general tendency of domestication and foreignization.Crump's version,with 70.5% of foreignizing strategies,is more highly foreignized and the tendency is more obvious.Zhai's version,with 37.9% of foreignizing strategies,is primarily domesticated with inconspicuous tendency.(4)In terms of the translation of images,both versions adopt five strategies,but retaining and abandoning account for the majority,at the ratio of 49.5% and 50.4% respectively.(5)The choice of translation strategies of the two translators are affected by subjective and objective factors,specifically the contextual factors,patronage,target readers and translator's cultural attitude.