The Study On Idiom Translation Strategies From English To Chinese Under The Guidance Of Conceptual Blending Theory

As an indispensable part of language and the crystallization of human wisdom,idioms carry much historical and cultural connotation compared with other language forms. There are abundant idioms in Chinese, which are usually short and concise in forms and readable in pronunciation. Idioms are powerful expressive instruments in Chinese literature, such as modern Chinese essays. It is the rich historical and cultural connotations that make idioms are difficult to be translated. In this paper, research is conducted on the idiom translation strategies from Chinese to English in the four Selected Modern Chinese Essays, which are translated and annotated by Zhang Peiji.The former researches on idiom translation strategy are mainly from perspectives of culture, semantic and pragmatic, which classify and analyze idiom translation strategies based on the social and historical environment, vocabulary and grammar,and the linguistic contexts. In recent years, due to the development of cognitive linguistics, more and more linguistic researches turn to this new perspective and its research methods. Originated from the Mental Space Theory and Conceptual Metaphor Theory, the Conceptual Blending Theory has been applied in the study on the exploration of the cognitive process under the surface of linguistic forms. According to basic ideas of Conceptual Blending Theory and the example of Chinese idiom translation strategies employed in the four Selected Modern Chinese Essays, the author views Chinese idiom translation strategy as a process of four mental spaces which maps to each other. This process is further illustrated by certain conceptual blending networks, including frame networks, one-slide networks and two-slide networks.There are six Chinese idiom translation strategies are categorized and each of them corresponds to one of the three mentioned networks. Because the conceptual blending process is restricted by the translator’s cognitive level, the context of source text, and the comprehension ability of the target language readers, the employment of strategies are subject to the translator’s subjectivity.Based on the Chinese idiom from Selected Modern Chinese Essays and the analysis of their corresponding translation strategies, this paper draws the conclusionthat free translation is the main strategy employed in these essays together with other less used strategies. All of these strategies can be explained and analyzed by the Conceptual Blending Theory. To analyze idiom translation strategy in Selected Modern Chinese Essays under the Conceptual Blending Theory offers a new perspective for idiom translation strategy study.