A Comparative Study Of Chinese And Spanish Proverbs

Proverbs are the generalization and summary of social phenomena and life experiences in the masses' long-term social practice, which is an embodiment of their wisdom. The study on proverbs is beneficial to the proper use and mastery of them as a reference for linguistics, lexicology, history of English development and second language acquisition.Language and culture are inextricably linked. Language is part of culture. Culture is a mirror of a nation's language. This happens to Spanish because it reflects this nation's numerous and colorful cultural patterns. Where the world has a long history of the language of comparison, it includes a large number of proverbs. After many idioms are discovered with the use of proverbs, the language in its core and essence is found.Therefore, the exchange of proverbs among cultures is brilliant but also difficult to understand, distinct and generally demanding. Therefore, for readers of Spanish and Chinese, it is relatively difficult to accurately and completely understand the deep cultural connotation contained in the foreign proverbs. This paper further discusses the specific principles and methods of the Spanish proverbs translation through its thought and cultural background. Finally, a brief explanation is given on the questions that should be paid attention to when we translate the Spanish proverbs. The literal translation method will bring readers ambiguity, so free translation is followed in most cases. Some Spanish and Chinese proverbs have the same or similar image or style in the translation. It is common to employ literal Chinese proverbs when rendering Spanish proverbs into that language. A major concern on this regard is to appreciate and study both, the paraphrastic and the mechanic translations. This is a generalized problem in the translation of proverbs that needs to be solved urgently.Spanish and Chinese proverbs are one of the important vehicles transmitting cultural message. There are some similarities and differences in the structures of the proverbs in these two languages, which is the concern of such fields as linguistics, history and culture.There are many thought-provoking, brief, humorous and flavored Spanish proverbs in the masterpiece Don Quijote, which show the figures' personalities and educational backgrounds.Don Quijote has been translated into Chinese in many versions, which can be used for comparison.This essay mainly uses the versions from Yang Jiang, Zhang Guangsen and Cui Yajun. There are over 20 Chinese Versions of Don Quichotte, among which the best seller is Yang Jiang's version with up to 700,000 releases, being seen as an outstanding version by the translation community. In addition, Zhang Guangsen's and Cui Yajun's versions are adopted in this essay.This essay focuses on the similarities and differences of Chinese and Spanish proverbs from such angles as structure, pronunciation and grammar to give some suggestions on proverbs translation from Spanish to Chinese.This essay includes the following chapters: Chapter 1 Introduction1.1 Don Quijote and the Author.1.2 Proverbs in Don Quijote.1.3 Principles and Methods.1.4 Essentials and Difficulties.Chapter 2 History and Present Situation of the Comparative Study.2.1 Early Research Findings.2.2 Unsettled Issues.Chapter 3 Proverbs of Original Don Quijote.3.1 Chinese Version of Don Quijote3.2 Types and Features of Proverbs3.3 Statistical Analysis.Chapter 4 Comparative Study of Chinese and Spanish Proverbs.4.1 Comparison of Expression forms.4.2 Comparison of Expression Techniques4.3 Comparative Study of the Pragmatic Function of Proverbs 4.4Cause Analysis.Chapter 5 Translation of Proverbs5.1 Inequivalence of Chinese and Spanish Proverbs5.2 Principles of Translation5.3 The Translation of Specific Countermeasures...