题目
作者姓名 李 琎
指导教师 高娜娟
二级学院 国际语言文化学院
专 业 英 语
学 号 100202

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
Idioms occupy an essential position in both Chinese and English languages, short and meaningful. Chinese and English idioms contain a lot of cultural features, and their resources are varied. In addition, English and Chinese Idioms can be classified. In the course of English reading and translation, it is inevitable for us to face some phrases or sentences that are difficult to be understood directly. Both Chinese and English are one of the richest and the most developed language in the world. Idioms are the crystallization of language, which contain rich phrases and short sentences, including: common sayings, four-part words, mottoes, slangs, etc. And, the translation and understanding of those cultural words are the difficult point in the course of activities reading and translation. The paper aims at revealing the features of English and Chinese idioms in view of culture, and tries to use direct translation, amplification and free translation to translate idioms. In addition, I will make a comparison among those three translation methods to find the better way when we translate different English and Chinese idioms.
Key words: English and Chinese idioms; features; comparison
I

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
摘 要
习语在语言中占有重要的一席之地，他们简短而又富有深意，比
起平常的语句更能传达深层的信息。中英文中的习语都具有大量的文
化特征 , 并且它们的来源多种多样。论文考查了中英文习语的文化特
征，将中英文习语分类，描述出其基本形态，对于翻译习语给出了自
己的看法和观点以及方法。习语是语言的结晶 , 承载着最为丰富的词
组或短语 , 包括俗语、成语、格言、谚语、俚语、歇后语等等。而这
种文化词语的翻译和理解也正是我们进行各种跨文化阅读理解和翻
译活动的难点所在。文章旨在从文化角度揭示习语的特征以及英汉习
语之间的差异 , 并试图用直译法、增译法和意译法对习语翻译进行阐
释 , 并对三种翻译方法进行比较，试图找出习语翻译的最佳对策。
关键词： 中英文习语；特征；比较
II

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
Abstract ...................................................................................................... I
摘 要 ...................................................................................................... II
Contents ................................................................................................... III
Introduction ............................................................................................... 1
Chapter One
Literature Review ..................................................................................... 3
Chapter Two
Features of Idioms ..................................................................................... 6
2.1 Resources of Chinese and English idioms .................................... 6
2.1.1 Daily expression ........................................................................ 6
2.1.2 Mythologies, legends and fables ............................................... 7
2.1.3 Religions .................................................................................... 7
2.1.4 Classical literary works .............................................................. 8
2.2 Features of English Idioms ........................................................... 8
2.2.1 Various lengths ........................................................................... 9
2.2.2 Different structures .................................................................... 9
2.2.3 Meanings beyond literal .......................................................... 10
2.2.4 Words of high frequency .......................................................... 10
2.3 Features of Chinese idioms ................................................. 10
2.3.1 Regular structure .............................................................. 11
III

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
2.3.2 Close relationship with the nation’s history .................... 11
Chapter Three
Classification of English and Chinese Idioms ...................................... 12
3.1 Idioms on geographical conditions ..................................... 12
3.1.1 The Chinese geography idioms ....................................... 13
3.1.2 The English geography idioms ........................................ 13
3.1.3 The differences: due to natural environments ................. 14
3.1.4 The similarities ................................................................ 14
3.2 Idioms on lifestyle .............................................................. 15
3.3 Idioms on religious beliefs ................................................. 16
3.3.1 General remarks ............................................................... 16
3.3.2 Examples .......................................................................... 17
3.4 Idioms on historic events .................................................... 17
Chapter Four
Translation Methods of Idioms .............................................................. 18
4.1 Methods of translation ........................................................ 18
4.1.1 Direct translation ............................................................. 18
4.1.2 Amplified translation ....................................................... 20
4.1.3 Free Translation ............................................................... 20
4.2 Comparison: direct, amplified and free translation ............ 21
Conclusion ............................................................................................... 23
Bibliography ............................................................................................ 24
IV

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
Acknowledgments ................................................................................... 25
V

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
Language and culture have been linked to each other in study for a long history. It is a fresh topic and a rich field that discussing translation by proceeding from the relationship between language and culture. The crystallization of language as idioms are, they are also regarded a hot topic for people to discuss.
It has been noticed that, until now, much of the previous work has been concerned with definitions, classifications, features, origins, and basic translation methods, etc. These aspects have been made incisive studies by researchers; however, as the gem of a nation’s culture, idioms should have more connection with culture. It is the colorful cultural information, national flavor and the charm of alien culture that should be deeply studied and carried forward relying on the strength of translation.
As Juri Lotman maintains, “no single language is not rooted in a specific culture; neither does a culture is not centered by the structure of some certain natural language.” (Lotman, 1987) Therefore, one can get a more satisfying result by considering cultural factors in the same time as studying the source language and rendering it to the targeted language.
From this perspective, translators should not only translate the image and rhetoric devices of SL but also its national and local flavor and pay much attention to its cultural divergences.
1

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
In view of the inadequacy and incomprehensive research done in the idiom translation field and the great significance of the influence of cultural factors on idiom translation, the present paper will make a detailed study on both Chinese and English idioms in view of culture.
In the present paper, the author will elaborate the relationship between language, culture and idiom translation, followed by a comprehensive analysis of influence of diversified cultural factors on idiom translation. By combining with a literature review of some translation theories and Grice’s non-natural meaning theory, the author summarizes a few idiom translation methods and applies them in specific example idioms.
It is hoped that discussions presented in this paper may serve usefully for idiom translation from the cultural perspective. And the study would provide some useful insights into some truth on idiom translation.
2

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
English and Chinese idioms are interesting and full of various features.
This paper will study on features and translation of idioms in view of culture. To translate idioms very well, we should have a good command of both English and our motherland’s culture. We should have a clear mind about these intellectual features. My paper’s topic is Study on
Features and Translation of English and Chinese idioms in view of culture. So having a detailed information collecting is necessary.
Li Funing said that idioms are the elements of a language which possess a unique way of expression according to its time-honored use.
That is to say idioms are fixed groups of words or single words, or even sentences, with a special meaning that cannot be guessed from its structure. So we can know that the meaning of an idiom should be leant completely. A simple definition of the idiom would be the use of common words in a special sense. Take the idiom “To spill the beans” as an example, which is totally not connected with “beans”, its meaning is “to tell something secret”.
J. Seidle et al point out that those idioms “are not a separate part of the language which one can choose either to use or omit, but they form an essential part of the general vocabulary of the language.”(Seidle et al,
3

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
1978.13) That is to say, English idioms contain rich background knowledge, many culture elements. When we choose way to translate them, we should find proper meaning to replace or express its original meaning by using our own words.
Chinese idioms are freshly defined as “a Chinese idiom, constituted by words, relatively fixed in structure, is a narrative language unit which can perform a multiple of functions.”(Wen, 2005, 5) According to what presented above, I know that when I am doing translation work on
English idioms, I should notice the selection of a Chinese idiom to replace the same meaning of an English idiom.
“Come out with flying colors” or “come off with flying colors”—very successful in something difficult. (Li Wei, 2008) It is really a good example for me to understand Chinese idioms.
In “A book of English Idioms”, V. H. Collins holds the opinion: “In standard spoken and written English today idiom is an established, universal and essential element that, use with care, ornaments and enriches the language.” (Collins, 1956, 28) That is to say, English idioms are used frequently in our daily life, which are very diversified.
Study on English idioms is as old as the hills, but the main contents are about study on sources of idioms, vocabulary structure, semantic features and cultural connotation. According to the latest research finds and theories of pragmatics, this book gives detailed discussion and
4

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture discourse from 9 aspects, such as features of English idioms, pragmatic context, verbal behavior and conversational implication. Study on English idioms from the perspective of pragmatics is an important complementary to the study. (Feng Qinghua, 2007) After reading this book, I gained a lot.
Many perspectives from this book are very novel, which contains plenty of creative contents. Many corpuses in the book are from recently published magazines, newspapers or works of famous writers. A study of
English idioms from the pragmatic perspective owns a feature, it combines theoretical research and practice application, which can provide a theory guide and use value for English learners and English language researchers
The above references present an elementary understanding of English idioms, and give a general standard about translation. There are many differences between English and Chinese idioms. Thus, before paper writing, a lot of collecting works should be done to support enough information and knowledge about the topic. Thanks to these three masters who give a lot of valuable information. Hope in the paper, they can be used as references.
5

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
On talking about resources of Chinese and English idioms, it is very complex and polybasic. They come from many fields, and they play a very important role in people’s daily life.
First of all, most of idioms come from people’s daily expression.
During the course of working and life, people have created plenty of useful expressions. For example, sailors create a lot of phrases, which are related to sea and oceans. For another example, athletes, who get used to use many expressions that are related to sports. These daily expressions come from our daily life, which have a close relationship with our daily works or recreations. Thus, they were frequently used in daily life immediately. Among them, the most vivid and useful expressions changed from common dialogues to idioms, and were used widely. For example, “share happiness and woe” drives at “share happiness and sadness together”; “strike while iron is hot” drives at “take first action by the useful conditions”; “become reconciled （言归于好） ” drives at
“convert enemies into friends”. This kind of idioms stemming and using
6

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture frequently in our daily life, occupy an essential role.
Second, idioms come from ancient mythologies, legends and fables.
To find the resources of English idioms, ancient Greeks civilization can be regarded as one of the most significant ones. For examples, “the apple of discord” drives at “conflict, disaster”; “Pandora’s box” drives at
“something may bring disasters to human beings or carry evil”. For another example, “sour grapes ( 吃不到葡萄说葡萄酸） ”, which comes from “Aesop’s Fables”. A hungry fox wanted to eat grapes on the grape trellis, but it could not get them. In the end, it could just say:“ These grapes are sour, which might not be well mellow.”
Furthermore, religions are the essential resources of idioms. In feudal society, people deeply are affected by religions. Even today, there are still many idioms that can show religious beliefs at that time. There are many idioms come from the Holy Bible, in fact, many Bible phrases are still used in daily communication, but it is hard to find their origin. For
“peace”. Its real meaning is “become reconciled”. In the Genesis, “ The
God made flood to destroy the world, but by depending on ark, Noah’s family were safe and sound. When the flood ebbed, Noah flied a pigeon
7

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture to judge the flow of water. When the pigeon flied back with an olive branch in its mouth, Noah knew that the flow had ebbed according to that.” After that, people regard olive branch as the symbol of peace and safety. Now, the idiom” tenders the olive branch” has been widely used by Chinese readers. Besides, “All reality is a phantom, and all phantoms are real.” comes from Chinese Buddhism.
At last, classical literary work, which is one of the major resources that create many idioms. Shakespeare’s dramas become the richest resources of English idioms after the Bible, which are used widely. Here are some examples: “Achilles’ heel ( 阿咯硫斯的脚踵 )” comes from
Greek civilization; “Talk of the devil and he comes”, whose Chinese meaning is “ 说曹操，曹操就到 ”, comes from “The Romance of the Three
Kingdoms”.
In a word, idioms are not only related to a nation’s religions and culture, but closely related to history, cultural heritages, life experience, etc. These are the major factors which decide idioms’ national features.
Thus, idioms can be viewed as a mirror that reflects a nation or cultural characteristics.
As a kind of special speech form, English idioms are different in
8

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture meaning, usage as well as grammatical structure. They have many fundamental features.
For example: “influenza” —illness from wealth and rank;
“bluebeard:— criminal for serial of wife-killer; “boycott”— to refuse to buy or take part in as a way of expressing strong disapproval;
“catch-22”—a difficult situation in which one can neither advance nor retreat.
On the other hand, some idioms are much longer, consisting of entire sentences sometimes. For example: “more than one way to skin a cat”— there are many methods to solve the problem; “ pot calling the kettle black” —make fun of people who have the shortcoming as oneself.
In general, there are three kinds of structures of English idioms. The first kind has an irregular and illogical structure. For example: the idiom
“Diamond cut diamond”, the verb “cut” is an irregular and illogical form in terms of modern English grammar. And so is the idiom “The devil take the hindmost.”
Another kind has a regular structure, while the meaning is unknown.
Take the idiom “to have a bee in one’s bonnet” as an example, which owns a regular structure, the meaning is not clear, however. Its meaning is
9

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
“to have a strange fixed idea about something.” It can not explain the idiom from the original meaning of the single words. Most English idioms belong to this type.
The third kind is a unique group, whose structure and meaning are irregular, for example, “through thick and thin”. Not only the structure is hard for people to understand , but the meaning of the idiom is impossible to be guessed. Its meaning is “ in spite of all the difficulties”.
The idiom “To rain cats and dogs” can’t be determined from its component parts. To get mastery of idioms, we can only study hard and practice more. The idiom’s meaning is “to rain very hard”.
English idioms are vivid, usage and profound. For example, “once in a blue moon” means “once in a very long time, very rarely, almost never” ; “to cry for the moon” drives at “to desire strongly something that cannot be gained”; “to fly high” means “to be ambitious”; “to put the cart before the horse” drives at “to do things in the wrong order”; “to turn up one’s nose at” drives at “to show disdain for”.
Chinese idioms are related to many aspects, in the paper, the author
10

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture analyzed their features as follows:
Chinese idioms are more regular than English idioms in terms of structure .Chinese idioms’ set phrases often consist of a fixed number of
Chinese characters, which makes their pronunciations rhymed.
Chinese idioms are different from English idioms, which can be easily interpreted literally in most of the cases. For example, the Chinese idioms “ An Jian Nan Fang( 暗箭难防 ) ” can be understood as “ the arrow shot from a concealed place that is hard to escape from” . However, it should be mentioned that not all the Chinese idioms’ essence can be get only from its surface meaning. Chinese culture is rich and nutrient, which is shown deeply and profoundly by Chinese idioms. One should dig deeper for the connotation after catching the literal meaning.
It can be seen that nation’s history is closely related to Chinese idioms.
Take the idiom “ Wo Xin Chang Dan( 卧薪尝胆 ) ” as an example, whose meaning is “to sleep on brush-wood and taster gall to undergo self-imposed hardship and strengthen one ’ s resolution to wipe out a national humiliation”. There has a reference about historical event in ancient China. Apart from semantics, there are still historical connections, such as wording, grammar or sound. For example, “He Zui Zhi You( 何罪
11

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
之有 ) ” .
Culture is influenced a lot by the environment. Human beings and the
12

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture nature are closely related to each other. First, human depends on the nature, and is bound by the nature. And then, human beings always try their best to have a great command of the nature and reshape it, like land, climate, river, which affect people’s daily life closely. In Chinese and
English idioms, they can be showed frequently.
As for Chinese people, lands are very significant. So is the agriculture in people’s daily life. Many idioms use the geographical words to explain something. Here are some examples: “Yi Bai Tu Di( 一败涂地）” drives at “completely failed, be routed” ; “ Mian Ru Tu Se( 面如土色 ) ” drives at “look ashen; look pale”; “ shan wu leng, tian di he( 山无棱，天地合 ) means “ wait firmly until something is impossible”. These examples show us that lands are very significant to Chinese people. So we can see many idioms about the land in the Chinese idioms. It can be concluded that the Chinese culture can be called the agriculture civilization.
People ’ s life is closely connectedly to the ocean in European countries. For example, English is an island country. There are few fields in England, which are used for stock breeding. For that reason, people in
England always enjoy their life on the sea. Thus, plenty of idioms about sea and navigation. Here are some examples: “ at sea ” “ on a ship
13

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture or on the sea ” “ Not know what to do ; “ miss the boat ” means “ an opportunity has been missed ” “ be too late to take part in something ;
“ a different kettle of fish ” means “ a completely different person or thing from the one previously mentioned ” that sea, fish and boat are strongly essential to the people’s daily life. In one word, the English culture can be called sea civilization.
As is known to all, there are big different nature environments between the Chinese and the English culture. There is a big plain for farmland. But, in the western countries, there are less lands for tillage, because the lands are for the stock breeding. For example, in the Greece, the Greek has less lands to develop their agriculture; they lie near the sea, thus ， they can sail in the sea for commerce. The English culture origins from the Greece mostly. Thus, the English culture can be called sea civilization. However, the Chinese culture is the agriculture civilization.
So, here is an obvious difference between Chinese and English culture and their idioms.
Admittedly, there are many differences between the Chinese and the
English culture in natural environment and there are still many similarities between English and Chinese idioms. Ancient Chinese and
14

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
English people may own the same experience, so they use the same phrases to describe the same cases, which is easy to be found in Chinese and English idioms. Here are some examples, the English idiom “ fish in trouble waters ” has the same meaning as the Chinese idiom “ hun shui mo yu( 浑 水 摸鱼 ）” , they both mean “ to profit in a confused environment ” ; “ make waves ” and “ xing feng zuo lang （兴风作浪）” they both mean “ to make trouble ” ; “ go with the stream ” and “ sui bo zhu liu they both mean “ do as others do . From these examples, we can know that with the same experiences and minds, there are many idioms own the same meaning in English and Chinese idioms.
Culture is connected, which is a real “ bridge ” for China and western countries to communicate and cooperate.
Daily life can be shown by idioms. People can use the things that around them to express their feelings. For example, the fisherman use terms of fishing in his daily communication, and the hunter has the habit to talk of his hunting or puppies. In addition, the sportsman makes use of idioms of sports in his communication. There are some idioms from cooking and food, in English idioms, idioms such as “a piece of cake”;“ from soup to nuts”; “hungry dogs will eat dirty puddings”. In
Chinese idioms, examples, such as: “Jia Chang Bian Fan( 家常便饭） ”
15

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture drives at “daily routine or event ”； Cu Cha Dan Fan( drives at
“plain tea and simple foods” ；“ Tian You Jia Cu( 添油加醋 )” drives at “to exaggerate or give embellishment to”; “Hua Bing Chong Ji( 画饼充饥） ” owns the meaning “to draw a pancake to relieve hunger”.
As is known to all, religious beliefs have a great impact on Chinese and English idioms. Chinese and English idioms are greatly based on religious culture. Religious culture, which can be also called spiritual culture, presented by beliefs and literatures, has great impacts on idioms.
For example, Bible, which contains great amount of English idioms, can be regarded as the represent of the western religious culture. The
Buddhist Scriptures, which enjoy the same function to Bible in western countries, contain a lot of idioms, which are now still very popular.
Primitive society can be found the trail of the religion. Ancient people regarded it as a super-nature power and trust it. With the time flying, a lot of religions came into being, such as Buddhism, Taoism Islam and
Christianity. Generally speaking, a religion together with its doctrine can be on behalf of a culture. Most Chinese people trust Buddha, however.
Plenty of Western people believe in God. Bible has a great impact on
Britain while many scriptures of Buddhist and Taoist religion in ancient
16

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
China.
Since Chinese and English people believe in different religions, they use different people or things in their own idioms along with religious allusions or fables. But, they contain the same meaning at most time.
Here are some examples:
1.as poor as a church mouse; one is so poor that has no penny一贫如
洗
2. to ride hell for leather; as quickly as possible归心似箭
3. a tooth for a tooth; a punishment as severe as the injury that was suffered以牙还牙
4. the sea of bitterness has no bounds; repent and the shore is at hand-
苦海无边，回头是岸
Compared with other parts in culture, historic event is one of the most important parts. Both Chinese and English idioms can be found that historical figures and events are frequently used as idioms. For example, there are some Chinese idioms, “si mian chu ge( 四面楚歌 )-to be exposed to attack from all sides ” . This idioms origins from the historical work
Historical Records written by Si Maqian; “po fu chen zhou （破釜沉舟）
-to cut off all means of retreat”; “an du chen cang( 暗度陈仓 )-to steal a
17

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture march on”. All the above idioms are related to the essential historical events in the history of China. Certainly, in English idioms, there are also so many idioms are from history, such as “a cat may look at a king”. Its meaning is “an ordinary person can fight for his own rights in front of a superior power”. These idioms are related to the historical events in western country. Rich and varied materials from historical events provide huge amount resources for Chinese and English idioms, which is really one of the most important parts in culture.
Generally, there are three relationships in the aspect of cultural characteristics of idioms: complete corresponding relationship, part corresponding relationship and non-corresponding relationship (cultural vacancy). According to these different relationships, and on account of different cultural features, I suggest three kinds of methods of translation for reference.
Complete corresponding relationship means that English idioms which are complete corresponding in both Chinese and English. We can
18

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture use the same meaning’s Chinese idioms to translate them. Despite
Chinese nation and the British nation belong to different cultural system:
Chinese nation belongs to agriculture culture, while the British nation belongs to ocean culture; we respect Confucius, but they believe God.
However, after all, we live in the same planet, the basic conditions that people depend on for living, such as air, water, forest and land, have lots of things in common, which make it possible that Chinese idioms and
English idioms can have something in common. And it is the truth indeed.
Some parts of both English and Chinese idioms really have the complete same meanings. Their metaphors and meanings are the same. So in this way, we can use direct translation. Domestication and foreignization are very easy to reach concordance at this time, because there is no distinction between domestication and foreignization. We can directly use target language to translate primitive idioms. Such as strike while the iron is hot, which can be directly translated into “ 趁热打铁 ”, because their metaphor and meaning are the same. Another some examples: as white as snow ( 洁白如雪 ) , Walls have ears( 隔墙有耳 ), add fuel to flames( 火上
浇油 ) , as quick as lightening( 快如闪电 ), etc. Thus, direct translation can be used in translating the idioms which contain the same cultural background.
19

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
Due to the differences in geographic environment, religious belief, cultural customs, historical development and habits of mind of two nationalities, they formed different characteristic idioms. It means many parts of English idioms can only find part corresponding idioms in
Chinese. Thus, we can use domestication. First, we translate them directly.
And then, we use amplification. This method has an advantage that we can fertilize our own national language. Majority of the people will accept this saying as the years pass, and we can delete this amplification at that time. For examples, crocodile’s tears can be translated into “ 鳄鱼
的眼泪”， which means “假慈悲” ; “ All roads lead to Rome— 条条大
路通罗马 — “ like a cat on hot bricks— 像热砖上的猫 — 如坐
针毡” “ let sleeping dogs lie— 让睡觉的狗躺着 — 别招惹是非” ,etc. In the above examples, “crocodile’s tears” and “All rods lead to Rome” have been used for a long time, which seems not from English, their amplifications can be omitted. It fully proves the importance of amplification. Idioms like the above, which contain dual meanings, so when we translate this kind of idioms, we should choose amplification.
There are huge amounts of different means of expression between
Chinese and English. The idioms which are semantic vacancy in Chinese
20

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture enjoy the biggest controversy to translators. Most people think it should use foreignization, but, in my opinion, we should be deliberate. We should use domestication as much as possible. If it is useless, we choose foreignization It is just opposite to the above part. Such as “paint the lily”, if we use foreignization, it will be translated into “ 给百合花涂色” which will make Chinese people feel confused. While using domestication, it can be translated into “画蛇添足” . Or we should use some annotations to make Chinese readers understand. Other examples: put the cart before the horse( 本末倒置 ), to have January chicks ( 老来得子 ), as thick as thieves( 亲密无间 ) , as drunk as a fiddler( 酩酊大醉 ), unexpected misfortunes( 三长两短 ), win hands down ( 轻松获胜 ), get somebody’s monkey up ( 激怒某人 ), before you could say Jack Robinson ( 立刻、瞬
间 ),etc.
Different idioms own different meaning usually, so when we translate them, we should choose suitable ways of translation. From the above information, those examples show us when to use direct translation, amplification and free translation. Through comparison, different idioms need different way of translation. Direct translation may be mostly used in the idioms which have the same culture or customs between Chinese and English people. In addition, when the idioms’ meaning expressed
21

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture through figures or some animals, whose meaning can be directly understood, we can use direct translation to translate them.
Amplification is mostly used to translate the idioms that have dual meanings. Apart from the words of idioms, they contain deeper meaning.
At this time, we should use amplification to express the meaning completely. People use this kind of idioms usually to convey the deeper meaning, so we should use amplification to translate.
Free translation, in my opinion, it is the most to be used to translate idioms. Because there are lots of cultural difference s between us and
English people. Idioms which origin from historical events or religious beliefs often needs to be free translated. Their figures or allusions can not be found matched ones in the target language. In addition, even sometimes people can understand the idioms through surface’s meaning, but to express their ideas clearly, they still use free translation to convey the minds they own. Thus, most time, free translation will be used to translate both Chinese and English idioms.
22

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
Idiom is an important part in both Chinese and English languages. In this paper, I tried my best to discuss something about the features and translation of English and Chinese idioms in view of culture. In the chapter two, I discussed the resources of English and Chinese idioms. We now know where the idioms mainly come from. In addition, I also discussed about the features of English and Chinese idioms, mainly from daily expressions, religions and literary works. In the chapter three, I mainly focus my attention on four parts: geographical conditions, lifestyle, religious beliefs and historical events. However, there are still many fields I have not discussed. In the chapter four, I mainly focus my attention on three ways of translation, but there are many other ways used to translate English and Chinese idioms. Actually, there are many aspects
I have not concerned in the paper. Idiom, which is complex and
23

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture polybasic, can be analyzed in many points, such as food, color, etc. I hope, in the future, when I have the chance to do further study, I will widen the topics of English and Chinese idioms.
1 ． Jennifer Seidle, W. McMordie. English Idioms and How to Use Them
[M]. Oxford University Press, 1992
2. V. H. Collins. A Book of English Idioms [M]. Longmans, Green and
C°, 1958
3. Juri Lotman.
Culture and Explosion [M]. Marina Grishakova, 1987
4. John Ayto. Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms [M]. Oxford
University Press, 2010
5.Jürg Strässler. Idioms in English [M]. Gunter Narr Verlag, 1982
6. Timothy Rasinski, Kathleen Knoblock, and Kathleen N. Kopp. Idioms and Other English Expressions [M]. Shell Education, 2007
7. Peter Snyder & 李文奉 . English and Chinese Idioms
Off The Cuff
[J]. 玉溪师范学院学报 , 1992,(4)
8. 北京外国语学院英语系组. 汉英成语词典[M].北京：商务图书馆,
24

西安培华学院本科毕业论文（设计） 论文题目 On English and Chinese Idioms and Their Translation in
View of Culture
1982
9. 陈欣望.汉英成语谚语常用词语汇编[M]. 北京：知识出版社,
1984
10.冯庆华.实用翻译教程[M].上海：上海外语教育出版社, 2005
First of all, I want to show my gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs. Gao.
Without her help, my paper can not be finished so favorably. During the course of paper writing, she gave me a lot of suggestions and corrected lots of my mistakes, which were really important to me.
And then, I want to show my gratitude to my teacher, Professor Gan, who gave me a lot of precious suggestions and writing ideas on this paper.
Without his help, I think I may be bothered by the paper writing now.
Last but not least, I should say thank you to my parents, who always take good care of me. During the course of paper writing, they cooked good meal and made a nice environment that was wonderful for me to write my paper.
25