英语从文化差异角度谈动物习语的翻译.doc

A Study of Animal Idiom Translation from the Perspective of Cultural Difference
Abstract: There are a large number of idioms which contain animal images both in English and Chinese, they are emphasis and difficulty in translation. From cultural perspective, this paper firstly analyses the characteristics, similarities and differences and causes of the animal idioms in a cross-culture background, and explores the similarities and differences of its cultural connotation. Then systematically discusses the animal idioms translation skills, including literal translation, liberal translation, and substitution. The translators should adopt different translation methods in light of different circum stances in order not only to convey the original ideas accurately but also to make the translation in line with the Chinese thinking and the Chinese expression habit, make intercultural communication go smoothly.
Key Words: cultural difference; animal idiom; translation skill

从文化差异角度谈动物习语的翻译
摘要：英语和汉语中包含很多含有动物形象的习语,它们是翻译中的难点和重点。拟从文化角度，首先把中英动物习语放在跨文化背景下分析各自的特点、异同及其成因，就其文化内涵的异同做出探讨。接着系统地探讨动物习语的翻译技巧，包括直译法、意译法、替换法三种方法。在翻译中译者要根据具体的情况进行处理，使译文既能准确地传达原文思想，又符合中国人的思维和表达习惯，使跨文化交流顺利进行。
关键词：文化差异；动物习语；翻译技巧

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Contents
Abstract in English I
Abstract in Chinese II
1. Introduction 1
2. A Brief Introduction to Translation, Culture, and Idioms 2
2.1 Definition of Culture 2
2.2 Definition of Translation 2
2.3 Definition of Idioms 3
2.4 Classification of Idioms 3
2.5 Sources of Idioms 3
2.6 Relationship between Culture, Idioms and Translation 4
3. Study on the Cultural Aspects of English and Chinese Animal Idioms 5
3.1 Analysis of Culture Similarities and Differences between Chinese and English Animal Idioms 5
3.1.1Complete Overlap in Culture Meaning of Same Animal in Chinese and English Animal Idioms 5
3.1.2 Complete Differences in Culture Meaning of Same Animal in Chinese and English Animal Idioms 5
3.1.3 The Same Culture Meaning of Different Animal in Chinese and English Animal dioms 7
3.2 Analysis of the Reason for the Differences between Chinese and English Animal Idioms 9
3.2.1 The Influence of Geographical Environment 9
3.2.2 The Influence of Religious Belief 10
3.2.3The Influence of Customs and Habits 10
3.2.4 The Influence of Literature 11
4. Suggested Different Methods on How to Translate Animal Idioms 11
4.1 Literal Translation 12
4.2 Free Translation 12
4.3 Substitution 13
4.4 Literal Translation plus Liberal Translation 13
5. Conclusion 14
Bibliography 16
Acknowledgement 17

1. Introduction
Idiom is a wonderful flower in the people’s language garden, is the treasure of national language and the crystal of culture. It is bearing the excellent cultural history. With the rapid development of economic globalization, cross-cultural communication is becoming more and more frequent. The status and role of idiom translation has been more and more prominent. As is known to all, English and Chinese languages have a lot of idioms about animals. As with other idioms, animal idioms not only reflect the different social and cultural characteristics, but also reflect the different social similarities between ethnic groups.
Translation of animal idioms is not only the literal translation, but also the translation of culture. But sometimes it is hard to find a completely equivalent English expression when the translator in the translation of animal idioms. It brings a lot of obstacle to C-E translation and cross-cultural communication. So, probes into the cultural contrast and translation method of animal idioms have important practical significance. Through the comparison between Chinese and English animal culture, this is benefit to our translation and utilize of animal idioms, to avoid ambiguity and misunderstanding in communication.
As a result, the thesis aims at making research at the characteristics, differences and similarities, and causes of Chinese and English animal idioms in a cross-culture background. And from cultural perspective explores the similarities and differences of its cultural connotation.
The thesis is constructed in the following structure. Chapter one introduces the structure of this thesis, research objectives and significance. Chapter two is a brief introduction of culture, idioms and translation. Chapter three introduces the animal in the Chinese and English idioms have the same and different connotation, and analyses the culture cause of this difference. There are many animals in English and Chinese languages play an important role in their respective culture. Different animals have a very close relationship with theology and religion. Chapter four forces on the different methods on translate animal idioms. When translate an idiom, the translator have to translate the meaning of the original text and face the problem that how to handle the cultural elements contained in the idioms. Chapter five is summarize to the full thesis.
2. A Brief Introduction to Translation, Culture, and Idioms
2.1 Definition of Culture
Culture is a very broad concept, and it has both the broad sense and narrow sense. The culture of broad sense including material culture, institutional culture and mental culture. Generally speaking, it refers to religion, beliefs, and customs and so on. The culture of narrow sense just is the universal social habits of human life, such as daily life, lifestyle, and behavior norms, etc.
2.2 Definition of Translation
Translation just is change the language to another language that people can easily understand, both in the West and China it is influenced by some cultural factors, such as geographical, customs, and historical, etc. But, we can not translate the language according to dictionaries or grammars; we should translate with the development of social and cultural communication.
Translation is a carrier, from the different language to convey the different cultures to different contrives. It is necessary to progress the culture known and develop of different contrives.
2.3 Definition of Idioms
Idioms are very simple, but they are rich in content and have profound meaning. The fixedness of their forms and the globality of their meanings show that their structures can’t be changed at will or words in each of the idioms can’t willfully separated from each other.
Idioms have stood a long time of test, which are fruit of folk wisdom. As it is mentioned above, there exist various idioms, including animal idioms, which differ in thousands of ways and have their own characteristics in different nations. As far as translation is concerned, these differences are also rather obvious. They share both similarities and differences.
2.4 Classification of Idioms
A phrase which has a meaning that is commonly understood by speakers of the language, but whose meaning is often different from the normal meaning of the words is called an idiom. The classification of idioms can be divided from different criterion. There are a variety of criteria for classifying English idioms. However, the criterion I want to point out in this article is mainly in terms of the cultural style. By this criterion, English idioms include set phrases, proverbs, sayings, colloquialisms, allusions, and slang, which are an important part of the English language and English culture.
2.5 Sources of Idioms
The sources of idioms are following six ways: marine life, religion, ancient Greek and Roman Mythology, literary works, military activities, and animals and plants. From these six ways, we can easily understand the meaning of idiom. British people live in sea, so there are so many activities at sea. There are many idioms come from marine life. And the Bible also produced many idioms. The most British people believe the God, have their own religion. They learn the Shakespeare’s literary works, so there are a lot of idioms come from literary works. And also, there are a great number of idioms from the military practices. The animals are much in idioms, such as the dog, in the mind of the British people, is a very lovely animal.
2.6 Relationship between Culture, Idioms and Translation
English and Chinese cultures are different from each other, and the culture backgrounds also are different. The translation of idioms relay for the culture of country. So it is important to known the culture of the country when translate the idiom. With time goes on, the culture must be spread, exchanged, continued and developed, and then the translation should change another way. Without culture background there would be no translation. Different cultures will reflect the way of translation. English and Chinese cultures are different from each other, and the culture backgrounds also are different. The translation of idioms relay for the culture of country. So it is important to known the culture of the country when translate the idiom. With time goes on, the culture must be spread, exchanged, continued and developed, and then the translation should change another way. Without culture background there would be no translation. Different cultures will reflect the way of translation. English and Chinese cultures are different from each other, and the culture backgrounds also are different. The translation of idioms relay for the culture of country. So it is important to known the culture of the country when translate the idiom. With time goes on, the culture must be spread, exchanged, continued and developed, and then the translation should change another way. Without culture background there would be no translation Different cultures will reflect the way of translation.

3. Study on the Cultural Aspects of English and Chinese Animal Idioms
3.1 Analysis of Culture Similarities and Differences between Chinese and English Animal Idioms
3.1.1Complete Overlap in Culture Meaning of Same Animal in Chinese and English Animal Idioms
In ancient time, Human beings around the world share the same experiences in the long river of history. People lived on farming and acquired goods from the daily life, to some extent, animals are closely related with human beings, so people keep a common understanding towards certain animals. For instance, “Fox” shares the same image of being sly and cunning meaning in both English and Chinese. In English, “as cunning as a fox” means a person is as sly as the fox. On the other hand, in Chinese, “he is very sly” in which this idiom shares the same image of sly meaning. “Pigs”, for example, are associated with dirty, greedy, foolish and lazy. So we have “lazy pig” and “stupid pig”, etc in Chinese to describe the person who is lazy and stupid. In this way, the word “pig” in English is given the same meaning of laziness, stupidity and greed. Such as, “make a pig of oneself” in which the pig has the same image of being lazy and is used to describe the person who eats heavily. There are also some other animal idioms keeping the same connotation meaning both in English and Chinese. Donkey is stupid; wolf is always greedy and cruel; bee is hard-working; etc. Because Chinese and English have the same understanding to the associative meaning of these animals, so these animals can be translated correctly when translating.
3.1.2 Complete Differences in Culture Meaning of Same Animal in Chinese and English Animal Idioms
Samovar once said that “It is more accurate to say people possess meaning and that words elicit these meanings. We can have different meanings for the same word”. English and Chinese animal idioms make the same animals as metaphors may create different connotations. Maybe the most typical example is how people in these cultures regard “dog”. Both Chinese and English people keep dogs as pets, but they have different attitude towards this kind of animal. Most Chinese people keep dogs to protect their house and treasures, so dogs are regarded as guards or slaves. Dogs are inferior. And many idioms related to dogs are derogatory, such as “丧家犬”、“狗急跳墙”、“狗仗人势”、“狼心狗肺”、“狐朋狗友”、“偷鸡摸狗” and so on. However, dogs have high status in western culture. English-speaking people regard dogs as a member of families and dogs are their best friends. So, English idioms about dogs have no derogatory meaning. For example, “lucky dog” means a person who has good luck; “every dog has its day” means every person will have success or good fortune sometime, etc.
Dragon, for example, which in Chinese culture has an important status, represents god, powerfulness, auspiciousness and wealth. So most of the Chinese idioms relate to dragon create commendatory senses, for instance “龙腾虎跃”, “龙子龙孙”, “龙马精神”, etc. All Chinese parents “望子成龙”，that means to expect one’s child to become a successful and famous person when he grow up. Chinese call themselves “龙的传人”(the descendants of dragon). However, in English cultures dragon is evil’s guard who keep evil’s treasure safe. Dragon was rumored to have three heads and a mouth that can give out fire. Therefore English idioms relate to dragon always have derogatory senses, such as the old dragon (evil).
There are other examples, such as magpie in Chinese creates commendatory connotation, so there are idioms like “喜鹊叫，喜事到”、“喜鹊叫，贵宾到”; While in English magpie is to some extent nagging. There are a lot of examples of this kind. For instance, the bat, which in Chinese represents lucky and happiness, associates with ill characteristics in English idioms, such as “as blind as a bat”, “crazy as a bat”, “have bats in the belfry”, etc. In English, owl is the symbol of wise, so idioms relates to owl always has the association meaning of wise, such as “as wise as an owl”. In contrast, owl is regarded as an ominous animal in Chinese culture, because it always acts during night and its ugly outlook. Owl’s cry makes people feel nervous because they assume that it foretells the death of someone. Of course this is superstition. There is another example. “春蚕到死丝方尽”. Silkworm is only a common insect without any special association sense in English culture, while in Chinese culture it is eulogized for its selfless sacrifice.
So, the difference in custom, cultural tradition, mode of thought, values, geography environment and regional situation will not only cause the bias to different animals while expressing or communicating a certain massage, but also lead the same animal image to opposite connotative meaning. The same animal image’s pragmatic meanings differ greatly while used in different languages, this is a phenomenon called “language culture conflict”.
3.1.3 The Same Culture Meaning of Different Animal in Chinese and English Animal Idioms
Cultural personality is a common existence; it wide spreads throughout each nation’s culture. As cultural personalities are different from each other, so to express the same kinds of figurative meaning, you may have to choose different Vehicles.
The English idiom “slippery as an eel” is a metaphor of the eel, to illustrate the performance of a p