A Tentative Analysis of the Influence of the Culture Sense on English Idiom Translation [2]
论文作者:佚名论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2009-04-20编辑:黄丽樱点击率:9919
论文字数:4645论文编号:org200904202347514740语种:英语 English地区:中国价格:免费论文
关键词:idiomsculture senseword-for-word translationfree translation习语\文化意蕴意象直译意译
defined as the meaning(or meanings) that has (or have) been settled down according to the shared culture background of a nationality i.e. Nature, environment, modes of production, custom and tradition, thoughts and ideas, literature, art, and historical events, etc. (彭长江, 英汉-汉英翻译教程[M]. 长沙: 湖南师范大学出版社,2002,p245) From this definition, we can know that culture sense belongs to a specific nation and is very complicated and comprehensive.
1.2 Features of culture sense
According to the definition given by Peng Changjiang, there are three features summarized as follows:
1.2.1 The national feature
The national feature is the most distinctive feature. Every nation in the world creates the culture with its own characteristics. It is no doubt that the culture sense bears a marked brand of their own thoughts, religion, customs, living condition, political and economic environment and so on. Since culture sense is an expression of semantic nationality and reflects the history and culture and custom of a country using its own language, it is full of the features of a nation’s culture.(王德春,语言学概论[M]. 上海: 上海外语教育出版社,1999,p189,132)For example, as the climate in England is so changeable that it is custom to talk about the weather when people meet each other anywhere. And there are many idioms related to the weather:
1) for a rainy day
2) It is raining cats and dogs.
As we all know, England is an island country surrounded by the sea. Because of the differences of geographical environment, the people living near the seaside created idioms related to sailing and fishing.In fact, England has a long history of sea faring and fishing, which contributed a lot to the country’s development. On the contrary, the inland people created those idioms related to hunting. Look at the examples below:
1)A1 (A-1 or A-one) e.g. I’m feeling A1 today.
2) sail under false colors; show one’s true colors(often derog.)
e.g. The man walked into the bank and immediately showed his true colors by drawing a gun.
3) in the bag e.g. We’ve got the war in the bag.
From the examples ab
ove, we are aware of the culture senses implied in these idioms are unique to English people.
1.2.2 The transferable feature
The transferable feature means that the culture sense of a nation or country can be adopted or absorbed by another one. It can be described like this:
Culture A Culture B
This feature is well reflected in English idioms. On the one hand, Chinese culture sense can transfer into the English one. Take the word “tea” for example, about in 17th century, the Chinese tea culture was introduced to Europe by the Dutchman, and became very popular among English people. Since then, many idioms appeared:
1) cup of tea e.g. Reading novels is my aunt’s cup of tea.
Most English people like drinking tea, so “cup of tea” is a substitute for “one’s favorite thing”
2) not for all the tea in China e.g.
I would not be the rich man’s slave for all the tea in China.
Although English people had the habit of drinking tea, only the upper class can afford to drink. So “tea” stands for “precious thing”
On the other hand, the transferable feature can also be reflected by the assimilation of language. “…with the development of language, both English and Chinese are bound to assimilate many good idioms from each other. Idioms assimilated from other languages are like new blood and will greatly enrich the vocabulary of a language.” (郁福敏,郭珊琏 英汉习语对比[M]. 上海: 上海交通大学出版社,
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