the-translation-of-chinese-and-english-idioms-containing-figures--英语专业学士学位论文.doc

The Translation of Chinese and English Idioms Containing Figures
1. Introduction
It is well recognized that language and culture are inseparable. On the one hand, language plays a very important role in reflecting and expressing culture. A language is an essential part of the culture of a people and through it the other parts of culture are expressed. So to speak, without language there would be no culture descending from ancient times. On the other hand, since culture is defined succinctly as “the totality of beliefs and practices of a society” Eugene A. Nida, Language and Culture-Contexts in Translating (Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2001), 78.
, language is strongly influenced and shaped by culture. Changes in culture often give rise to new characteristics of language.
Both English and Chinese are the languages in the world enjoying the longest history. During the long-term development, they have accumulated a large number of idioms, including the idioms containing figures, which refer to the idioms containing cardinal numbers and ordinal numbers. As an indispensable part of idioms, Chinese and English idioms containing figures are closely related to their own cultures, conveying different cultural features and messages of their own nations. Usually, idioms containing figures reflect their cultural background knowledge with figure connotations. As we all know, figures are typical of the culturally loaded words. Not only do they belong to the digital realm, they are also used in idioms and phrases with cultural connotations. The Chinese and English peoples may have the same or similar concepts for figures, but because of their cultural diversities, they use figures in different ways with connotative meanings.
In the 21st century, with the rapid development of economic globalization, cultural communication and cooperation between nations become more frequent, the research field of Chinese and English idioms correspondingly presents a new tendency. The idioms containing figures, as a crucial part of idioms, have become the main object for Chinese and other nations’ scholars to study earnestly. However, since the idioms containing figures are characterized by their concise expressions, rich and vivid meanings, and are often culturally loaded, translators find it a great challenge to translate them between Chinese and English for every figure has its specific connotations in different cultural backgrounds.
This thesis attempts to solve the problem of how to translate Chinese and English idioms containing figures appropriately. It consists of 6 chapters. Apart from Introduction and Conclusion, it contains an overview of idioms, the definition of idioms containing figures, comparison and analysis of Chinese and English idioms containing figures, and translation strategies of Chinese and English idioms containing figures. Through an overview of idioms, the author makes clear some basic concepts of idioms and also attaches importance to this subject research. Then in the part of explaining the definition of idioms containing figures, the author introduces the relationship between figures and idioms containing figures and also gives a definition of idioms containing figures by researching and discussing the definitions that other scholars have put forward. The following part is the comparison and analysis of Chinese and English idioms containing figures. The author mainly analyses the figures’ connotative meaning both in Chinese and Western cultures, which aims to find out the cultural differences and make a comparison between Chinese and English idioms containing figures.
The analysis and comparison will be helpful to explore the translation strategies of Chinese and English idioms containing figures. Fortunately, the author figures out some strategies as the theoretical basis of problem solving. The author lists some strategies and applies them to the concrete terms according to their features. Finally, by comparing the different translation strategies, the author presents his own view on the translation of Chinese and English idioms containing figures and offers some advice to the language learners. With the guidance of the principle of “functional equivalence, textual correspondence”, and the author-and-reader-oriented principle, the translation of Chinese and English idioms containing figures will take on a new appearance.

2. An Overview of Idiom
“Idiom is a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words”, according to the New Oxford Dictionary of English. As part of culture, idioms play an important role in the development of language. They carry cultural feature and information of different nations. Being characterized by their concise expressions and significant meanings, all idioms derive from their historical origins with distinct national features and are closely related to geographical environment, historical background, religious beliefs, social customs and living conventions. So translators should take their cultural connotations and national characteristics into consideration when translating idioms.
2.1. The Historical Study of Idiom
Generally speaking, the study of idiom can be divided into three stages. As early as in 1925, L. P. Smith published the book named Words and Idioms, which is regarded as the beginning of idioms research. In this book, Smith discussed the sources and structures of idioms, and pointed out the basic characteristics of idioms: an idiom can be defined as a group of words with a meaning of its own that is different from the meanings of each separate words put together. He wrote, “The meaning of an idiom is non-literal; many English idioms are used as ‘expressions of determination, of exasperation, and vituperation’, which contributes to vocabulary studies as being a description of how the peculiar genius of English shows itself in its idioms” Chitra Fernando, Idioms and Idiomaticity (Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2000), 20-22.
. Besides, a good part of Smith’s account of idioms is devoted to their classification on the basis of their imagery. From the 1930s to 1950s, on the basis of Structuralism Theory, C. F. Hockett emphasized the importance of context understanding in the idioms’ identification and interpretation, and explained the underlying structure and semantic features of idioms, which began to standardize the definition of idioms 骆世平，《英语习语研究》前言，骆世平 著（上海：上海外语教育出版社，2005），Ⅰ-Ⅱ。
. In 1960s, influenced by the Generative Grammar Theory of Chomsky, the study of idioms reached an impasse, but never stopped. Not until B. Fraser, a representative linguists, put forward the Frozenness Hierarchy Theory, in which he admitted that idioms are in fixed expression did this tendency find its outlet, but B. Fraser thought there still exists transformational potential 骆世平，Ⅰ-Ⅱ。
. Thus, the study of idioms came into public notice again. Since the 1980s, the study of idioms has entered a new stage. Linguists begin to open up the functional approach of idioms in relations environment, exploring the role that idioms play in communication activities, which makes the study of idioms more practical. Among all the achievements, the most prominent one belongs to C. Fernando’s, an Australian linguist, who wrote the book named Idioms and Idiomaticity. In recent years, a growing number of scholars have begun to study the formation of idioms from the perspective of cultural backgrounds. Nida（1993）ever wrote, “Culture knowledge has a far-reaching impact on the study of idioms and their meanings. We will fail to understand the profound meaning of idioms if we don’t take the cultural backgrounds seriously” 骆世平，25。
. Therefore, we must focus on its cultural connotations while learning a language.
2.2. The Structure and Features of Idiom
Idioms are of special language forms. They have a single semantic unit, structural institutionalization and irreplaceability. More specifically elaborated by McMordie, “Generally, the idiom cannot be changed at will; any word in the idiom can not be replaced by its synonyms, and little does the word order can be changed; any change in the wording and collocation will destroy the idiom, or may make it no sense” McMordie W., English Idioms and How to Use Them (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1954), 6.
. From McMordie’s point of view, we can see that an idiom has its own structural and semantic features.
Idioms are characterized by their structural stability. An idiom, composed of a group of words, is a set phrase. The structure of an idiom is always fixed, and the words in it can not be departed or separated at will. Because of its structural invariability, an idiom allows no variation in form under normal circumstances. A speaker or writer cannot normally do any of the following with an idiom: 1. change the order of the words in it, (e.g. * ‘the short and the long of it’); 2. delete a word from it (e.g. * ‘spill beans’); 3. add a word to it (e.g. * ‘the very long and short of it’; * ‘face the classical music’); 4. replace a word with another (e.g. * ‘the tall and the short of it’; * ‘bury a hatchet’); 5. change its grammatical structure (e.g. * ‘the music was faced’) Mona Baker, In Other Words: A Course Book on Translation (Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2000), 63.
. All idioms are not grammatically regular Chitra Fernando, 30.
. Therefore, the idiom “face the music” cannot be changed into “the music was faced”, which has changed its grammatical structure.
Semantic unity is another feature of idioms. The meaning of an idiom is a complete and inseparable unit, which should be learned as a whole. That is to say, an idiom can be defined as a group of words with a meaning of its own that is different from the meanings of each separate words put together. The semantic unity of an idiom derives from the transferred meaning, which refers to the figurative meaning and associative meaning. Now that most figurative meaning and associative meaning of an idiom are not transparent, and some even lose the initial meaning of the words, a speaker or writer cannot get the meaning of an idiom just from the meaning of each word in it 彭庆华，《英语习语研究：语用学视角》（北京：社会科学文献出版社，2007），32-33。
.
The structural stability and semantic unity are the most important features of idioms, both of which can be taken as idiomaticity. This is the basic difference between idioms and other words and phrases.
2.3. The Classification of Idioms
In a broad sense, idioms include colloquialisms, proverbs, allusions and slang expressions, etc. According to different group standards, idioms can be divided into many classifications. And each classification has its own merits and demerits, showing some of its characteristics in specific aspects. Generally, the methods of idioms classification can be divided into three kinds: classification by origins, classification by structure and classification by function 骆世平，23-24。
. Idioms containing figures are just one kind of idioms, which are classified according to their structures.

3. The Study of Idioms Containing Figures
Idioms containing figures refer to those idioms have cardinal numbers and ordinal numbers in them. As a crucial part of idioms, they have become the main object for Chinese and overseas scholars to study earnestly. In recent decades, an increasing number of scholars have begun to study the translation of idioms containing figures, which presents a bright prospect for development of this field. Yet, in order to learn idioms containing figures well, we should firstly focus on the figures and explore what role they play in idioms.
3.1. Relationship between Figures and Idioms Containing Figures
Figures are often used as calculate symbols in the world. Every country has the need for figures in its counting system. Figures are often used to represent the quantity of things, express the sequence of actions and the scope of size. Rigorous, precise and accurate, figures are widely used in the world of science. However, figures not only belong to the digital realm, they are also used in idioms and phrases with cultural connotations. Influenced by the factors of different nationalities, religions, history and social customs, figures have special associative meaning 刘明阁，《跨文化交际中汉英语言文化比较研究》（开封：河南大学出版社，2009），245-246。
. Apart from the fact that figures are regarded as basic tools used in math and scientific experiments, scholars also take them as a kind of culture in the social society, human communication, literary works, customs and conventions. For example, a Chinese copybook for children in old days read: “一二三四五，金木水火土。天地分上下，日月同今古。” Although this old saying was composed of four short verses, amounting to twenty words only, it typically reflected the important role that quantity and figures had played in the social life rather than in the mathematical field 吴慧颖，《中国数文化》代序，吴慧颖 著（长沙：岳麓书社，1995），2。
. So to speak, with the development of human society, figures are no longer just applied in the scientific and mathematical field; they correspondingly well develop themselves too in languages.
Figures, as an important part of language and culture, are embodied with different connotations under different cultural backgrounds. Idioms containing figures are the essence of language, and they reflect the rich cultural deposits and human intelligence. As the combination of idioms and figures, idioms containing figures have their own features. Their cultural connotations are mostly influenced by the implications of figures. People from different cultures may have the same or similar concepts for figures, but because of their cultural diversities, different peoples may attach different connotative meanings to the same figure. Thus, different nations may have a different understanding of the idioms containing the same figure. In some sense, figures play a role of cornerstone in idioms containing figures, so only by having a good knowledge of figure connotations can we know them well.
3.2. The Definition of Idioms Containing Figures
As an indispensable part of idioms, idioms containing figures have been used frequently both in the Chinese and English languages. People may run into them when reading articles, listening to speeches, writing an essay or translating passages. As idioms containing figures are so important, it’s necessary for us to have an idea of what idioms containing figures are.
First of all, let’s review the definitions that have been put forward by previous scholars. According to the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), a number of theses on both English and Chinese numerical idioms have been published. There are many definitions of idioms containing figures: Numerical idioms are idioms formed with cardinal numbers, ordinal numbers and other words which have the meaning of number. There are set p