从中西方文化差异看英语习语翻译(一)

Under the new times and globalization, the trend of city internationalization is very necessary. With the acceleration of the process of globalization, in our living city, Hangzhou has participated in many important international activities these years. We now have more and more opportunities to communicate with the foreigners, English is a universal language in the world which plays an important role in the international communication. It’s important for us to learn English well, which we can acquire knowledge from other people’s technologies and cultures.

The founder of modern linguistics, the Swiss linguist Saussure said: "the national customs will be reflected in his language, on the other hand, to a great extent, is also a national language." As an important part of language, idioms are a popular fixed phrases with particular meaning, plays an increasingly important role in people’s daily life. Since idiom is simple and concise, sometime it is very humorous, both Chinese and western people are accustomed to using idioms. Idioms are the essence of languages as well as literary works, they bear the cultural characteristics and cultural information of a nation. By idioms, people can understand the different living environment, social customs, it widely and vividly reflects the national cultural features, like a mirror can reflect the culture and culture also has great influence on idioms. During the idioms communication of Chinese and western, how can we do the good job of translation? Translation is a complex activity, which is not only simply from one language to another language. Lefebvre believes that translation is not produced in a vacuum. In a certain period of time and a certain culture environment, idioms translation is bound to a close relationship with the environment. Chinese and western have significant difference in historical and development background, also have very different traditional customs and thinking methods, the usage of idioms are not the same, we can’t do translation well without understanding their cultural difference. The cultural factors in idioms bring difficulties to translation. Idioms are from life and pop topics, which people have used for a long time, they are the collective wisdom abstracted from the people’s long life. Some idioms can be translated literally, some idioms are subtle, and some contain a variety of meanings, depending on the specific context to determine the specific meaning. There are many concise and comprehensive idiom in both Chinese and English language, but because of differences in geography, history, religious beliefs and customs and other aspects of life, English and Chinese idioms have their own national characteristics, the different culture characteristics of idioms has become a difficulty. In order to enable people understand and use idioms better, translators must consider the underlying culture factors in the process of translation.

This article will analysis different cultural features and translation strategies of English and Chinese idioms from the cultural perspective and cross-cultural preparation, through the explanation of specific examples, to lay out how to properly deal with the two kinds of cultural differences between English and Chinese idioms in translation process. Also showing some proper translation techniques and methods can the translation both remain the characteristics of the original and express them clearly.

Keywords

The idiomatic phrases

Social customs and habits

Culture background 

Comprehension and expression

1. Introduction

1.1 Definition and features of idioms

1.2 Research background

1.3 the significance of research

2. Different Performance 

2.1 Difference of geographical environment

        .

2.2 Historical difference of China and the West

           

2.3 Different religious beliefs in China and the West

2.4 Different folk culture

3.Principles to deal with culture difference in idiom translaion

4.  Three common methods of translation of English Idioms

4.1 Literal translation

        

    4.2 Semantic translation

    4.3 naturalization transition

5.  Conclusion

Work cited

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