从动物习语看中西文化差异 [3]
论文作者:洪天龙论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2009-04-03编辑:黄丽樱点击率:44422
论文字数:7479论文编号:org200904031727356014语种:中文 Chinese地区:中国价格:免费论文
关键词:animal idiomscultural differencecauses for differencestranslation methods动物习语文化差异差异成因翻译方法
g(or sense); 2. connotative meaning; 3. social meaning; 4. affective meaning; 5. reflected meaning; 6. collocative meaning; and 7. thematic meaning.”[4] Among them, “connotative meaning, social meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning, and collocative meaning can be brought together under the heading associative meaning.”[5]
(i) Same vehicle with different connotative meanings
“Connotative meaning is the communicative value an expression has in addition to the purely conceptual meaning.”[6] “Connotations of words vary from culture to culture. If they are ignored, serious misunderstandings can occur in cross-cultural communication. The connotations of a great many English words are different from those of their translation equivalents in Chinese.”[7] Some of these English animal words will be discussed in the following paragraphs.
Dog is a distinctive example in the two cultures. “狗” is very pejorative in meaning in Chinese. This can be readily illustrated by the Chinese words and idiomatic expressions in which it is an element: “走狗”, “丧家狗”, “狗头军师”, “狗急跳墙”, “狗腿子”. Many others can be added to this list, but they are enough to exemplify the negative attitudes of the Chinese people towards these creatures. In English culture, however, a dog is a pet, which can even be considered a family member. For example, “there are three faithful friends: an old wife, an old dog and ready money. (人有三个忠实的朋友:老妻、老狗和现金。)”. [8] It is hard for English speakers to understand why “走狗” is a pejorative term in Chinese. To them a dog is lovely and a “running dog” is doubly lovely. “ ‘Dog’ and ‘狗’ convey the same conceptual meaning, but their connotations are quite different in English and Chinese cultures.”[9]
In English culture, owl is symbolized of wisdom. “As wise as an owl” indicates that the native English people associate wisdom with this bird. In children’s books and cartoons, the owl implies calmness and solemn. For example, “He peers owlishly at us through his glasses(他透过他的眼镜严肃而机智地打量着我们); A tenant offering five bales of cotton was told, after some owl-eyed figuring, that this cotton exactly balanced his debt. (一个佃农交了5包棉花,老板精明地一盘算,告诉他说这些棉花刚好抵上他所欠的债务。)”.[10] However, there is a superstitious belief that owl is an unlucky bird and is the symbol of the disaster and death among the Chinese people’s minds, as the Chinese saying goes, “猫头鹰进宅,好事不来(an owl visiting a home pretends misfortune in that house)”.
(ii) Same vehicle with different affective meanings
“Affective meaning is communicated when the feeling or attitudes are expressed in language. In other cases, affective meaning is conveyed through the mediation of conceptual, connotative, or stylistic meaning.” [11]
Let’s take the dragon for example. In Chinese, especially in ancient time, people thought dragon is a mythical animal with great power. To Chinese, a dragon is something sacred and has been referred to the ancestor of the Chinese nation—that ‘s why the Chinese all call themselves descendents of the dragon and Chinese feudal emperors were often referred to sons of dragons, wearing clothes with designs of dragons. Chinese idioms that involve the word “龙”with good connotations are as follows: “龙腾虎跃”, “龙生龙,风生风”, “龙风呈祥”, “生龙活虎”.Many Chinese would say “望子成龙”,but its literal correspondence of form: “To expect one’s son to become a dragon” would sound puzzled and ridiculous to the native English people. In western people’s minds, the dragon is a large imaginary animal that has wings and a lo
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