A Comparative Study And Translation Strategies Of Chinese And English Idioms

Culture is in all aspects of our life, and there is a close relationship between language andculture. Each kind of language is a reflection of its culture, and any form of language bears itscultural connotation. Language is the carrier of culture. Different culture has a great influenceon different vocabulary connotation. The idiom is the essence of language, which is theembodiment of our national culture. In this thesis, the author carries on the comparativeanalysis study on English and Chinese idioms based on the comparative analysis of linguistictheory from the perspective of culture. The purpose of the study are as follows: first of all, thethesis provides an overview of the comparison of English and Chinese idioms; at second place,the author conduct a exploration of English and Chinese idioms in a more comprehensive view;in addition, a contrastive study of English and Chinese idioms provides translation theoreticalguidance for the idioms.Through the comparative study between Chinese and English Idioms, it can be seen thereare both similarities and differences in Chinese and English idioms, which exist in the aspectsof the sources of idioms and the culture connotation. This thesis not only studies the culturalconnotation of idioms, but also conducts a comparison of the sources of idioms in detail.Although there are differences in all aspects of different nations, people from differentcountries can communicate with each other, which suggests that there are interoperability,interchangeability and translatability among different languages. Therefore, a contrastive studyof English and Chinese idioms can facilitate the development of comparative analysis oflinguistics and translation of idioms. Paying great attention to the translation strategies is thevery thing that matters in mastering idioms. Translation is a mean of communicating andtransmitting two kinds of cultural information. Idioms contain a great deal of culturalinformation, a large number of cultural features and cultural backgrounds are included inidioms. Besides, the idioms bear various images and rich association, which lead to the factthat it is hard to master and even harder to translate idioms, therefore, the thesis provides fiverelatively practical translation strategies that could be used in idiom translation, which aims athaving an excellent knowledge of idioms.The main research methods are applied in this thesis, namely, analysis of induction,comparison method. As the main method of comparative linguistics theory, exploration ofsimilarities and dissimilarities method is applied to the whole thesis, embodied in the sourcesof English and Chinese idioms and cultural comparison study. The general organization of this thesis will be developed along the following line. The firstchapter is introduction. The second chapter introduces the previous studies of idioms at homeand abroad, the definition of idioms, previous studies on the comparative study of Chinese andEnglish idioms. The third chapter made a comparative analysis of English and Chinese idioms,owing to its geographical location, social customs, cultural connotation, values differences, thesources of English and Chinese idioms are not the same. The fourth chapter introduces thestrategies of idiom translation, through the comparative study between Chinese and Englishidioms, we can see that there are both similarities and differences in Chinese and Englishidioms, so in the process of translation, it is essential to use the appropriate translationstrategies. The fifth chapter is a conclusion.