1、We can only translate “旗袍” into “cheongsam ” (a close-fitting woman's dress with high neck and slit skirt), and “中山装” into “Chinese tunic suit” or “Mao’s suit”, because these words don’t exist in English. That is lexical gap. There are many words like them, such as “胡同” (hu tong), “四合院” (quadrangle
2、courtyard), “八仙桌” (old-fashioned square table for eight people).
So we can only paraphrase them into “go for wool and come home shorn” and “ What’s done cannot be undone”.
(New Year cake)
(deep-fried dough sticks)
(fermented bean curd with strong smell)
, so we can only paraphrase it into “stor
3、y of cowherd and weaving maiden (a metaphor for a couple living separately)”
Instead of translating into “God”, it’s more proper to translate it into “the Supreme Deity of Daoism” which keeps the traditional and cultural meaning in a better way.
Taking of the friendship between the other and one
4、self, we can find Chinese expressions about self-depreciation and respect to others, which is called a pragmatic principle of denigrate self and respect other. People usually calls his wife as “糟糠”, “贱内”, calls their son as “犬子” when talking about them in front of others. There are also no equivalen
5、ces in English. Kin terms are used to refer to family members and relatives. However, the kinship terminology is more complex in Chinese culture than in English culture. Taking “uncle” and “aunt” for example, they can cover all the members of the father’s side or mother’s side in English culture, wh
6、ereas for the same purpose, there are at least a dozen different terms to distinguish the different positions depending on younger or elder and whether on father’s side or mother’s side in Chinese culture. In addition, the cousinship is distinguished clearly in China. “表兄” and “表弟”, “表姐” and “表妹”, “堂兄”, and “堂弟” , “堂姐” and “堂妹” have strict boundaries. There are even seven generations of grandson in Chinese. No wonder foreigners are helpless to such lexical gaps.
There are many idioms related to the historical allusion, such as “破釜沉舟”, “背水一战”, “暗渡陈仓” and so on and
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