语言学论文 语用学.docx

Comparison between Chinese and English Idioms

Abstract: Idioms exist in both Chinese and English, and they have been used frequently for a long time. Furthermore, idioms are fixed phrases extracted from language over long time of usage. Although they are formed in short phrases, for example idioms known as “成语” in Chinese, which has only four or eight letters, their meanings are exuberant and connotative. Therefore, the analysis of the idiom’s usage and the cultural differences it reflects is significant to every language learner and translator.
Key words: idiom; culture; comparison; differences

1 Theoretical Foundation of the Idiom
1.1 Definitions of Chinese Idioms
According to “Modern Chinese Dictionary”, “Cheng yu” is fixed phrases or short sentences which are concise, having been accepted by common people through years of usage.
According to “Cihai”, “Shuyu” (Idiom) is fixed phrases or sentences of a language, which cannot be modified arbitrarily. It must be interpreted as a semantic unit. It includes set phrases, proverbs, maxims, locutions and two-part allegorical sayings, etc.
1.2 Definitions of English Idioms
“Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture” has two definitions of idiom: (1) a phrase which means something different from the meaning of the separate words from which it is formed; (2) the way of expression typical of a person or a group in their use of language (Summers P., 1998: 657).
“The New Oxford English Dictionary” defines that idiom is:(1) a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words; (2) a form of expression natural to a language, person, or a group of people (Pearsall J, 2001:908).
1.3 The Rhetoric of Idioms
Idiom is the distillate of the nation language abstracted by people during a long practice. There are three main features of idiom rhetoric: abundant comparisons, vivid words and lively contrasts.
First, simile is a direct comparison, in which subject, reference and indicator of resemblance are all present. Such as the Chinese idiom “轻如鸿毛” and the English idiom “as light as a feather”.
Second, metaphor—use of a word or phrase to indicate something different from the literal meaning. For example, the Chinese idiom “口若悬河”，it doesn’t mean the river hang on the mouth, but means someone who speaks eloquently and volubly.
Third, metonymy—means correspondence or partial similarity between two things that are compared. For instance, “犬马之劳” means to sever somebody faithfully like the dog or the horse. “be in the pipeline” means that if a plan is in the pipeline, it is being developed and will happen in the future.
Fourth, analogy is to compare two things or people so that differences are made clear. “口蜜腹剑” literally means someone is honey-mouthed but dagger-hearted. That is to say the person is treacherous and hypocritical. “To bite the hand that feeds one” also uses the contrast. It means to treat someone badly who has helped you in some way.
Fifth, exaggeration such as “垂涎三尺” exaggerated means a drool with great envy. “A stream of tears” means someone is really heart-broken.
1.4 Comprehension of Idioms
1.4.1 The Comprehensive Difficulties to the Language Learners
Idioms have the strong idiomaticity, that is to say, the idiom is a phrase or sentence whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and must be learnt as a whole unit. (Nida Eugene, 2000:105)Therefore, sometimes idiom is hard to understand by language learners, especially for those second language learners. It’s not very difficult for language learners to understand the idiom which is composed by simile. Such as the Chinese idiom “轻如鸿毛” and the English idiom “as light as a feather”, they are composed by simile. It’s easy for us to associate the feather with the light thing. But if the idiom is composed by metaphor or other kinds of rhetoric, there will be some difficulties for us to learn. Such as the Chinese idiom“青梅竹马”, the literal meaning is green plums and bamboo horse, and it seems that they have none relations. Actually, this idiom is used to describe the most matching couple. The green plums stand for the period when boys and girls play together and the bamboo horse stands for the childhood games they played. So as the second language learners, if they don’t know the deep meaning of this idiom, they must be hard to image what the idiom stands for.
As an English poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson said, “Words, like nature, half reveal and half conceal the soul within.” (Alfred Lord Tennyson, 2001:569)The “half concealed” is just the connotative meaning of words may be more important than what is revealed, like the denotative meaning of words, especially for those culturally-loaded words like idioms. Idioms have a close relationship with the culture to which it is attached that they truly reflect the values and philosophy of life of the people in that culture and are rich in cultural connotations.
1.4.2 The Comprehension of the Exotic Idioms
There are some exotic idioms in the Chinese idioms. Such as “以眼还眼” comes from the English idiom “an eye for an eye”. This idiom which comes from the Bible means that if someone does something wrong, they should be punished by having the same thing done to them. And another Chinese idiom “诺亚方舟”, “Noah’s ark” also comes from the Bible.
The English idiom “An Achilles’ heel” means a small fault in a person or system which might cause them to fail. This idiom is from Greek mythology. Achilles was a man who was killed when he was injured on his heel, because this was the only part of his body where he could be harmed.
Therefore, idioms can be an effective tool of learning culture. And learning culture items like idioms can be one of the good examples to learn both language and culture simultaneously. Learning idioms can also make us learn more about the knowledge of cultural background.

2 Compare Chinese Idioms with English Idioms
2.1 Similarities between Chinese and English Idioms
As human civilization has developed in a similar way, both English and Chinese idioms are similar in basic moral concepts and value viewpoint, which has formed a common base for both cultures. Their similarities are as follows: First, in both English and Chinese we have alike idioms to express the hard-working, brave and indomitable human nature and the good will and forgiveness. Also there are many idioms in both languages to praise the pioneering spirit. For example, “既往不咎, Let bygones be bygones”, “心安理得, Have peace of mind”, “有志者 ，事竟成, Where there is a will, there is a way”, “有始有终, From beginning to end”, etc. Second, those idioms in both English and Chinese to express verities are same. Such as “眼见为实, Seeing is Believing”, etc. Third, the same imagination in both English and Chinese has the same comparison in the idiom. For instance, “ 轻如鸿毛, As light as a feather”, “冰清玉洁, Be as clear as crystal”, etc.
The above similarities are essential to the intercultural communication. Different cultures may conflict in many aspects, but must agree on basic morals and value points. Only by agreeing on basic morals and value points, can cultural conflicts be limited in a tolerable level and intercultural communication carried out.
2.2 Differences between Chinese and English Idioms
2.2.1 Differences in Animal-related Idioms
Animals are friends of human. They have so many links with human beings and human languages. Before the arrival of modern civilization, sometimes even today, the basic necessities in human life such as food, clothing and transportation and so on are obtained directly or indirectly from various animals. Among all kinds of animals, dogs are particularly valuable in protecting property, finding things and hunting quarries. Pigeons have long been used to deliver messages. Of course, some animals can also do harmful things to human beings, such as wolf, mice, etc., but no matter what they do, whether good or bad, animals are closely related with the daily life of human beings including everyday speech and animal-related idioms are come into being.
Dog in most of the English idiom symbolizes the lay folk as “guy”. There is no derogatory sense in it, such as “a lucky dog 幸运儿”, “love me, love my dog 爱屋及乌”, “help a lame dog over a stile 助 人 渡 过 难 关”, etc. Of course, there is a little derogatory sense of dog used in idioms to describe the useless, woeful thing. For example, “ a dog in the manager 占着位子不做实事”, “ lead a dog’s life 过着可悲的生活”, etc. On the contrary, in Chinese idiom dog is used to describe beggarliness.
Therefore, most of the dog related Chinese idiom is derogatory, like “狗急跳墙 —a cornered beast will do something desperate”, “狗尾续貂 —a wretched sequel to a fine work, incongruous”, “蝇营狗苟—shamelessly seek personal gain”, and others like “狗血喷头，狗仗人势，狗咬狗” etc.
2.2.2 Differences in Color-related Idioms
There are many idioms related to color both in Chinese and English, such as black (黑) and white (白); Black actually is the complete absorption of all light, while white is opposite to black. Therefore, in idioms Black and White also stand on two extreme points. As the original meaning of the black and white, they have the same expression in both Chinese and English idioms, such as “black and white 黑白分明”, “in black and white 白纸黑字”, “turn black into white 颠倒黑白”, etc. But there are some differences in their transferred meaning.
In English idiom, black is used to describe atrocity, death and ominous thing, like “black sheep 害群之马”, “a black day 不吉利的日子”, etc. But sometime black also has a commendatory usage, such as “a business in the black 盈利的事业”. White in English idiom means chastity, integrity and elegance, for instance “a white lie 善意的谎言”, “the white day 良辰吉日”, and they have the “ white wedding”.
In Chinese idiom, black is only used to describe incorrect, bad and criminal thing for example, “心黑手狠 —heartless and cruel”, etc. White in Chinese idiom is unlike its using in English idiom. It represents dreariness, poor and bereavement, for example, “白手起家 —start something from scratch”, “一穷二白 —poor and blank”, “红白喜事—wedding and bereavement”, etc.(潘红, 2005:209)
2.2.3 Differences in Numeral-related Idioms
Number, as an important part of language, is embodied with different cultural background. Idioms with numbers are the central core and cream of languages, reflecting the wisdom of human kind. They have strong ethnical, historical and regional colors, reflecting the culture difference of different nationalities.
To analysis numbers in both Chinese and English idioms, I find that the substantive meaning of number in both Chinese and English idioms is same. For example, “一心一意 —whole-heartedly”, “one thing leads to another—一环扣一环”. Furthermore, in English idioms most of the numbers, except the number three and seven, are used as a substantive. It’s the biggest difference between Chinese and English numeral-related idiom. Because expect the substantive meaning of numbers in Chinese idiom, there are many abstractive meaning of numbers used in Chinese. First, the abstractive meaning of number in Chinese always expresses “more” or “less”. For example, one, half and “寸” are used to express “less”, like “一无所长—have no special skill”, “手 无 寸 铁—unarmed”, etc. While three, five, six and nine are used to express “more”, nothing to say hundred and thousand, such as “三头六臂 ， 三令五申 ， 成百上千”, etc. Second, the number ten and one sometimes means “whole or all”, such as “十全十美—be perfect in every way”, “一如既往—just as in the past”. Third, two numbers in the same idiom usually express a transformation or a proportion, such as “三长两短 —unforeseen accidents”, “十拿九稳—be very sure of success”, “百无一是—have no merits at all”. Fourth, some idioms are customarily be used, such as “一退六二五—deny all responsibility” and “不管三七 二十 一—regardless of the consequences”.(吕叔湘, 2002: 198) They are come from the custom of the counting frame which we used in ancient for counting numbers.
In summary, from what is discussed above, we know that numbers play important roles in human cultures. They have strong connotations in both English and Chinese cultures.
2.2.4 Differences in Mythology-related Idioms
There are numerous idioms related to myths in English and Chinese. In English idioms idioms of mythical origins are mainly from Greek and Roman mythology, which originating from their worship of the nature by Greek and Roman ancestors. Similarly, in Chinese idioms, mythology is generally of Chinese origin. These idioms reflect the formation of Chinese Culture in the primitive stage. They show a full scope of primitive recognition of the world.
Take “dragon 龙” for example, dragon is a frequenter in both Chinese and English Myths, so there are many mythical idioms related to dragon. However, the associated meaning of dragon and 龙 are opposite. In English, dragon connotes a terrible fire-breathing monster” or “a giant that eats man”. According the famous legend “Beowulf”, a dragon that had three heads and could breathe fire guarded treasure for the “devils”. So dragon is always associated with devil. In the medieval times, “dragon” was associated with “sin” and it was the symbol of “heresy”. Nowadays, there is the idiom “chase the dragon—means take drugs”, so we can see how evil the dragon is in the westerners’ view.
The opposite associated meaning of dragon in Chinese is always a commendatory. First, we see dragon is the totem of the Chinese people. We call ourselves the descendants of dragon proudly, such as “龙的传人” and “龙子龙孙”. Second, dragon in Chinese is associated with “emperor”, because emperors always name themselves as “真 龙 天 子 —the god’s son not the devil’s”. Third, dragon is associate with “talent”, such as the idiom “龙生龙子， 虎生豹儿 —means talented person’s descendants must be prominent”. Fourth, dragon is also associated with "good luck and success", such as “龙 凤 呈 祥—means good luck”, and “望子成龙 —means people hope their children can get success”, etc.

3: Conclusion
Through the comparison between Chinese and English Idioms, their differences and similarities are obvious. This is meaningful and helpful for every language learners and users.

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