从文化差异视角谈动物习语的翻译.doc

6 Chapter I Introduction Language is a system of vocabulary and grammar that combines pronunciation and meaning,which is created by the people of the language community through ages of development.In embodying the cultural characteristics of language,idiom is more typical than any other language units.Idiom is the essence of language and high concentration of culture.In a macro perspective,the conception of“idiom”includes the proverb,the aphorism,the common saying,Chinese enigmatic folk simile,the slang and the allusion. Both English and Chinese are famous for its rich idioms.Among them,animal idioms are highly frequently used.As animals are people’s friends for centuries of years,the long-term close relationship has made people learn of the characteristics of various animals. People associate their feelings and social phenomena with different species of animals, therefore animal idioms are rich in their own cultural meanings,whether in English or in Chinese.However,owing to the different cultural background between English and Chinese,different cultural meaning of animal idioms are derived,whether to those animals having certain associated characteristics in one culture but not in the other,or to those animals with certain associated qualities in both cultures but with different meanings. These cultural discrepancies indicate the different national characteristics such as economic development,geographical conditions,fable and mythology,literature,folk customs and social practice,religion,etc between the eastern and western countries. The translation of idioms can be based on the level of the combination of words,or of the sentence only if the idiom itself is a sentence.For some phrasal idioms,we may translate them on the level of either the words or the combination of words,the determination of which is subject to such premises as the context,the readership,and the purpose of translation.For instance,the ostrich policy can be translated as either“鸵鸟政 策”or“自欺欺人”.The