英漢習(xí)語中隱喻的民族性及其翻譯策略【畢業(yè)論文】

1、（20_ 屆）本科畢業(yè)設(shè)計(jì)英語英漢習(xí)語中隱喻的民族性及其翻譯策略the national characteristics of english and chinesemetaphorical idioms and their translation strategy摘要隱喻是一種思維方式，也是一種認(rèn)知過程。隱喻的表達(dá)及接受必然受制于一定的歷 史、文化、風(fēng)俗和價(jià)值標(biāo)準(zhǔn)。習(xí)語承載著不同民族的文化特色和文化信息。同時(shí)，大部 分習(xí)語都具有隱喻性。由于不同文化的復(fù)雜性，所以在翻譯英漢習(xí)語屮的隱喻時(shí)還存在 不少困難。本文旨在討論隱喻翻譯中的民族性及其翻譯策略，以此促進(jìn)不同文化間的交 流。關(guān)鍵詞：隱喻；習(xí)語

2、；認(rèn)知；民族性；翻譯abstractmetaphor is a mode of thinking and cognitive process. the expression and acceptance of metaphor are bound to be influenced by history, culture, customs and values. idioms carry national cultural characteristics and cultural information. most of the idioms are metaphorical. because

3、of the complexity of different culture, there are some difficulties in translating metaphor mirrored in english and chinese idioms. this article discusses from the national characteristics of metaphor translation in order to promote the cultural exchanges between different cultures.key words: metaph

4、or; idioms; cognition; national characteristics; translationcontentsabstractiil introduction12. metaphor and idioms23. the national characteristic of metaphorical idioms33.1 the geographical features33.2 national mode of thinking43.3 national cultural background4331 national customs53.3.2 cultural t

5、radition53.4 historical and literary books and records64. translation strategy74. 1 literal translation83.3 substitution84.4 liberal translation95.5 the problems worth attention in translation 105. conclusion10bibliography11acknowledgements111. introductionat all times and in all countries, the stud

6、ies of metaphor have a long history. in the west, the earliest systematic research on metaphor can be traced back to aristotle. his research theory on metaphor was known as "comparison theory'9. aristotle believed that the main function of metaphor is the modification. in the 1930s, richard

7、 issued a book the philosophy of rhetoric in which first proposed metaphor interaction theory（陳家旭，2007: 2）. that realized the transition of metaphor research from the rhetoric view to cognitive mode view. later, blake developed and improved the interaction theory on his basis. richards and blake reg

8、arded metaphor as a semantic phenomenon and inspected it in the sentences, which broke down the traditional rhetoric idea that they inspected metaphor only in the vocabulary level.in 1980, the publication of the book metaphor we live by coauthored by lakeoff and johnson marked the realization of res

9、earch on metaphor from rhetoric and semantics view to cognitive view. it is widely recognized that metaphor is not just a linguistic phenomenon. it is also a cognitive phenomenon.from the early 90s on, some chinese scholars who study metaphor gradually concerned about the trends of the development o

10、f metaphor from the cognitive view of foreign language academic field. and some scholars began to introduce the foreign metaphor cognitive theory into china. for example, in his book studies on metaphor: state of arts, focuses, and trend. lin shuwu reviewed the basic status, focus and trends of meta

11、phor research. another book studies in metaphor wrote by shu dingfang proposed the idea of establishing a modern metaphor learning and comprehensive discussing and analyzing the cause of metaphor, its working mechanism, essential characteristic and its function on the base of absorbing and arranging

12、 the western metaphor theory. it is the first monograph researching metaphor from cognitive perspective in china.at present, many scholars began to study cognitive metaphor from comparison between english and chinese idioms. but there are not many researches on the national characteristics of metaph

13、or mirrored in english and chinese idioms now. this article prepares to research the national characteristics of metaphor and its translation strategy by comparing english and chinese idioms from the cognitive view.2. metaphor and idiomsresearch on metaphor can be traced back to aristotle's on r

14、hetoric two thousand years ago. from then on, metaphor has always been one of the main contents of rhetoric research. today, research on metaphor has been beyond the scope of the language itself. people begin to study the nature of metaphor from the cognitive view. in metaphor we live by. lakeoff an

15、d johnson proposed a new metaphor concept: “the general concept system we think and determine action for, in essence, is based on metaphors. metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language both in thought and action： (lakoff &johnson, 1980: 8) it is a cognitive way of human to perce

16、ive the objective world.our so-called cog ration actually consists of two processes: one is the mental process that people get to know the world dynamically; the other is the result of cognition or the accumulation of knowledge and culture.(胡壯麟，2004: 24) people's knowledge is continuously deepen

17、ed and languages are continuously evolved. language has close contact with cognition. the role of metaphor is that people can find similarities from previously unrelated different things, concepts and language expression and then establish links with extremely rich imagination when they think and fe

18、el the material world and the spiritual world with language.“the essence of metaphor is under-standing and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another.,5(lakoff &johnson, 1980: 9) specifically it is a process to make a cognitive domain map to another cognitive domain by analogy similar as

19、sociations and creation similarity associations to help people more familiar with the concept to describe and understand unfamiliar things, to understand the human themselves and their world around them.(陳家旭,2007: 67) this mapping is not arbitrary. it is rooted in people's daily experience and e

20、xisting knowledge. the creator and the recipient of metaphor are certain cultural carriers which belong to a particular speech community and are restricted to the corresponding history, culture, customs and values.“an idiom is a special kind of phrase. it is a group of words which have a different m

21、eaning when used together from the one it would have if the meaning of each word were taken individually. idioms are typically metaphorical (collins cobuild dictionary of idioms, 2000) most of the idioms are given a certain metaphorical images in the formation process. the idioms discussed in this p

22、aper are generalized. they include set phrases, proverbs, sayings, colloquialisms, allusions and slangs. english and chinese have long history and contain a large number of idioms. they are implicit or humorous, serious or elegant. they are concise as well as vivid and witty between the differences

23、of geography, history, religion, customs and some other aspects, english and chinese idioms contain different national cultural characteristics and cultural information. they are closely linked with the cultural tradition.the expression and acceptance of metaphor are subject to certain culture and h

24、istory, and idioms in a language happen to be the best reflection of the language culture. for example, in chinese, the associative meaning of mandarin duck refers to a loving couple. so the chinese idiom "只 羨鴛鴦不羨仙” means only envying long and sweet love like mandarin duck. but in the west, the

25、y think that swan is the representative of loyal love. so they use swan love to express loyal and lasting love. therefore, the selection and use of idioms inevitably reflect certain cultural characteristics and the national characteristics of metapho匚3 the national characteristic of metaphorical idi

26、omsevery nation has heritage and deep structure of national psychology. every person's spirit and temperament, mode of thinking and even behavior trend are determined by the mental heredity of home country, nation and region. so metaphors have national characteristics and differences. the nation

27、al characteristics of metaphor in english and chinese idioms are embodied in the geographical features, mode of thinking, customs, cultural tradition and historical and literary books and records and so on.4 the geographical featuresdifferent languages contain different cultural characteristics and

28、information. idioms which best reflect the values of different culture are the crystallization of wisdom of life experience and cultural history from each nation. due to the impact of regional culture such as climatic, geographical environment and natural properties, there are many different express

29、ions of metaphor in english and chinese language.the production of idioms is closely related to people's work and life. britain is an insularity surrounded by sea. the british like sailing, so many idioms are related to some natural environment such as boats, fish, water and sea. for example, al

30、l at sea（不矢口所措），to keep one1 s head above water （奮力圖存）,when my ship comes （當(dāng)我有錢的時(shí)候）,never offer to teach fish to swim （班門弄斧）.china is a large mainland-based agricultural country. in chinese languages, many idiomsare linked with agriculture. for example,留得青山在，不怕沒柴燒(where is life, there is hope.),種瓜得瓜

31、，種豆得豆(as a man sows, so he shall reap).5 national mode of thinkingmetaphor is a phenomenon of thinking it is influenced by mode of thinking during the process of cognizing the world. with regard to thinking activities, common thinking of different nationalities is primary. the law of thinking is the

32、 same, but a nation's way of thinking and habits of thought accumulate the most central and stable factors in its national culture and reflect the basic psychological characteristic, which necessarily leaves distinct deep traces in the metaphor.in terms of mainstream culture, han nationality put

33、s emphasis on holistic and intuitive understanding methods. concrete thinking is a distinctive feature of chinese people's way of thinking. chinese idioms often use the image analogy, rather than direct resort to concepts. most of them have a vivid image. for example, the image in the idiom &quo

34、t;井底之蛙hs that the frog at the bottom of the well can only see a little part of the sky above the mouth of the well. the metaphorical meaning refers to those who lack knowledge and have narrow mind. due to the double meaning characteristic, idioms also have the metaphorical characteristic.in western

35、mainstream culture, westerners pay more attention to the direct understanding of the objective world for them, the world is constituted by the facts. they emphasize rational and logical analysis thinking and the use of language is characterized by rigorous logicality. they generally use concepts to

36、judge and reason. this way of thinking needs to follow the law of logic. therefore, the western people are good at using abstract concepts to express specific things. they place more emphasis on the use of abstract thinking ability. they often rationally understand the things through perceptual anal

37、ysis of things. they find the nature of things through abstract. so their expression of language is more abstract.for example, english idiom "as lovely as a fiddle'5 is to describe a very lovely person. just from the appearance of the violin, we can" think of lovely image, but the musi

38、c played by the violin is enjoyable. so they symbolize of violin lively is quite meaningful.6 national cultural backgroundas a part of the culture, national language is the direct reflection of the culture, which displays the gorgeous scene of this nation s cultural patterns. because culture has a d

39、istinctive national characteristic, different cultures will naturally be very different through national cultural heritage and confirmation.national customsnational custom is an integral part of the culture. while metaphors in idioms reflect different speech communities, cultural mentality and diffe

40、rent aesthetic concepts and value orientation arising from those, they also reflect differences in national customs. people and animals live together in daily life. so the uses of animal words often reflect the aesthetic taste of different nationalities. chinese people have always been accustomed to

41、 farming by cattle, so cattle naturally become the most familiar animals in china; however, the british more often use horses to farm. it is why that many expressions formed by the word “buir in chinese is changed to "horse” in english. for example:吹牛（talk horse）,孺子牛（a willing horse）. there are

42、 many other english expressions related with horse such as a dark horse （黑馬）and horse sense （基本常識(shí)）.as dogs are popular pets and loyal friends in the west, and then some commendatory phrases appeared such as a lucky dog （幸運(yùn)兒），love me, love my dogs （愛屋及烏）.but in china, people always think that dogs ar

43、e very dirty, so they often use these phrases such as “狼心狗肺" to curse others. dragon in china is the embodiment of auspiciousness and nobility. 64龍騰虎躍”，“龍顏大怒” are well-known idioms in china. but in english, they stand for evil. in the middle ages, dragon in the west is a giant fire-breathing wi

44、nged monster standing at the gate of hell, which symbolized the devil and evil. for example, "the old dragon refers to satan. although the chinese “龍” and the english "dragon refer to the same meaning, their national cultural information is opposite. appraise of the same animal word in dif

45、ferent languages can reflect the different national customs and concept of values.cultural traditionmetaphor also has distinctive characteristics of traditional culture.food metaphors can be found everywhere in chinese. eating is a major feature of chinese culture, and this feature is bound to be re

46、flected in their language. chinese people like to think of life as eating, while americans like to think of life as a competitive game and business. american people like sports. so they often use sports metaphor. in american english, the sports metaphors are too many to recount and penetrated into e

47、very aspect of american life.for example, “to have two strikes against one which derives from baseball is to describe the unfavorable situation figuratively. american way of life is famous for equality, hard work, fair competition and becoming rich through the struggle. and competition is the core i

48、n american way of life. most americans believe that competition is the reason why the united states is extraordinary. but they not only believe the competition itself, but also they believe that free competition can promote economic and social development and progress, and each citizen is responsibl

49、e for it. this equal and open competition just coincides with the spirit of american modern sports. so it is not difficult to understand why the sports metaphors are widely used in the united states.sino-british history has had varying degrees of discrimination against women. the chinese idiom “長(zhǎng)舌婦”

50、 is equal to the english idiom “women have long tongues. in china's feudal society, if the man is originally the center of the family, the role of the wife outweighs her husband. under that situation, chinese people often use the idiom “陰盛卩日衰二 the english idiom "the gray mare is the better

51、horse expresses similar content in a metaphorical way.there are a large number of religious-related idioms in english and chinese. buddhism has been introduced into china for more than one thousand yea匚 people in china believe that "the lord buddha” controls everything in the world. there are m

52、any idioms about that. for example, “借花獻(xiàn)佛(present buddha with borrowed flowers offer a present provided by sb. else to a guest), “閑時(shí)不燒香，臨時(shí)抱佛腳” (last-minute efforts are useless if no preparatory work has been done beforehand.). in many western countries, people believe in christianity. also there are

53、 many idioms about that such as "god helps those who help themselves and "go to hell".7 historical and literary books and recordshistorical allusions are the essence of traditional culture. and they embody the dazzling brilliance of art. in order to express the same meaning, chinese a

54、nd the western people will associate different allusions. english allusion refers to “an implied of indirect reference, esp. when used in literature (webster's new collegiate dictionary). in general, the definition of chinese allusions and english allusions is the same. but english allusion focu

55、ses on implicit and euphemistic; however, chinese allusion stresses the historical facts and origins. the origins of chinese allusions and english allusions are similar, which are mainly from historical events or historical stories, region, myths and legends, fables, folk customs andliterary works a

56、nd so on.english and chinese allusions show rich national culture characteristic. so more attention should be paid to the cultural differences during the translation.when talking about "the tragic failure”，chinese people will use the phrase "關(guān)公走麥 城"in the book the romance of three kin

57、gdoms, but the western people will associate it with napoleon "meet a waterloo; when talking about a very carefree place to live and work, chinese people will think of the paradise described by tao yuanming( a famous idylist in jin dynasty ), but the western people will be longing for "gar

58、den of edert in the bible.there are a large number of idioms formed by historical allusions in english and chinese. the formations of these idioms are simple and their meanings are profound. we can not often simply understand and translate them from the literal meaning. for example, “東施效 顰"(bli

59、nd imitation with ludicrous affection),"葉公好龍(pretend to like something which one really fears). english allusion idioms are mainly from the “bible" and the greek and roman mythology such as achilles, heel (阿基里斯的腳踵)，the trojan horse(特洛伊木馬).4 translation strategyenglish and chinese languages are produced in different environment. as the essence of language, idiom contains strong local culture and national characteristics. because human thought is metaphorical, so there are lots of metaphors in both english and chinese, especially in the idioms. a v