英语论文网

"to hit two places with one stone", in English "to kill two birds with one stone", and in Russian it becomes "to kill two rabbits with one bullet", while in Germany, it refers to "to kill two flies with an beat". And among various languages, cultural differences are reflected by people's recognition of the objective world. The objective thing contains different values in different languages, which arouse different associations and contain different connotations. Animal words are a case in point. As we know, many languages contain quite a number of idioms with animal words. Some animals stand for similar images in both languages, such as the fox. Both cultures think the fox stands for cunning and slyness. Some animals stand for very different images such as the dog and the dragon. In English, the dog stands for friendship while in Chinese it stands for faithfulness [10] p146. To Chinese, the dragon is something sacred and showing majesty, and has been referred to as the ancestor of the Chinese nation--- that's why the Chinese call themselves龙的传人(descendants of the dragon) and Chinese feudal emperors were often referred to as真龙天子.Thus appear idioms such as望子成龙(hope one's son will turn out a dragon---expect one's son to be talent or become somebody), 龙凤呈祥(the dragon and the phoenix bringing prosperity--- excellent good fortune)，生龙活虎 (doughty as a dragon and lively as a tiger---be full of vim and vigor).However, in the mind of the English-speaking people, the dragon is some evil monster that can spit fire, and sometimes possesses three to nine hands.[11] p 99 Some are of very subtle difference, such as the pig, e.g. "as fat as a pig" and“胖得象头猪”. Certain characters are represented by different animals in two languages. For example, the horse in English often plays the role of the ox in Chinese such as "as strong as a horse" and壮“得像头牛”，and the lion in English often assumes the image of the tiger in Chinese such as "lion in the way " and“拦路虎”.So it is necessary to make appropriate transference. In fact, this is one way of "cultural transference". Here are some examples of translation containing different images of animals in Chinese and English idioms: (43) 狐假虎威donkey in a lion's hide (44) 牛饮: to drink like a fish (45) 蠢得像头猪: as stupid as a goose (46) 老虎屁股摸不得.One should not twist the lion’s tail. 5.4 The approach of addition and omission Complex idioms should be treated in flexible ways. Since the range of inferences one can make from any phenomenon is huge and open-ended, there needs to be some constraint that helps the audience to identify those assumptions which the communicator intended to communicate. Because of the different natures of the Chinese and the English languages, that is, the former is implicate and the latter explicate, different approaches of translation should be used. Owing to the implicated nature of the Chinese language, and in order to keep its national flavoring, words or phrases should sometimes be added. That's why the approach of addition exists. It is not a matter of "something out of nothing". Instead, it helps the foreign readers to have a better comprehension of the original work. For example: (47) 借香献佛borrowing joss-sticks from a neighbor and burning them before Buddha for your own sake. This translation has added the phrases "from a neighbor" and "for your own sake" to give the readers a complete idea of the speaker. Because of the terse nature of Chinese idioms, they often contain some deep