TranslaionofEnglishIdioms_开题报告

 Previous Researches into Translation of English Idioms

 Researches Abroad

For a long time, translation of English idioms has always been a hot topic among foreign scholars. Their theoretical accomplishment mainly involves the researches from semantic, functional and cognitive perspective.

In L.P.Smith’s book Words and Idioms (1925), Smith pays more attention to structural peculiarities than to the semantics of idioms. To him, idioms are essential expression and peculiar to a language, whether they are literal or not.

C. Fernando’s Idioms and Idiomatic (2000) classifies the English idioms into three kinds: ideational idiomatic expressions, interpersonal idiom and relational idiom. The most distinctive feature of Fernando’s book is that she point out the study of idiom and take the phrase and the sentence into consideration in contexts of communication (R.Carter 1996). Fernando accounts for the ubiquity of idioms by analyzing what they do in different discourses.

2.  Researches in China

In our country, it is a little late for Chinese scholars starting to study the English idioms in domestic research.

In Liang Shiqiu’s book, Far East Chinese-English Dictionary, later, he pointed out that idiom translation rather to be smooth than faithful. Nevertheless his idea encounter people’s objection and be considered to be one-side and unscientific.

Since then, many scholars devoted themselves to the study of idioms. But the studies just limit in analyzing the basic characteristics of idioms and their translation skills discussion.

In 1998, SheXianjun published an article titled The Understanding of the Idioms: Structure or Extraction in Psychological science, which marked the domestic study of idioms was transiting from the traditional experience period to multiple theory phases. He declaimed that the meaning of idioms is affected by the familiarity, predictive, deposition, transparency and other factors.

Recently, domestic researches into idioms gradually extended to the semantic and syntactic analysis of idioms based on the traditional research methods. The defects and countermeasures of idioms research reach a multiple theorization period, and a lot of achievements have been made in this regard. Though from the research achievements and the situation of now, the current domestic research is not yet mature, and there still exist many problems and defects.

Therefore, some specific translation methods have been put forward in this paper is to solve the problems in current translation of idioms. 

Thesis proposal

1. Introduction1

1.1 Purpose and Significance of the Research1

1.2 Research Methods1

2. English Idioms2

2.1 Characteristics of English Idioms2

2.1.1 Nationality of Idioms2

2.1.2 Figurativeness3

3. Translating English Idiom6

3.1 Current Problems in Translating English Idioms6

3.1.1 A Word-for-Word or Rigid Translation6

3.1.2 Chinglish7

3.1.3 Farfetchedness8

3.2 Principles of English Idioms8

3.2.1 Structural Stability9

3.2.2 Conventionality9

3.3 English Idioms and their Translation Strategies10

3.3.1 Literal Translation11

3.3.2 Free Translation11

3.3.3 Excelsior12

4.Conclusion13

Reference

[1] Fernando.Chitra. Idioms and Idomaticity. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. 2000.

[2] L.P.Smith. Words and Idioms London: Constable & Company Ltd. 1925.

[3] Nida E.A. Language Culture and Translating. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. 1993.

[4] Richard A. Spears. Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. New York: U.S.A: McGraw-Hill Contemporary. 2006.

[5] Sykes J.B. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English. New York: U.S.A: Oxford University Press. 1982. 

[6]Eugene A. Nida. Language， Culture and Translating [M]. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press， 1992. 

[7]FengQinghua. A Practical Eouksebook on Translation（ShangHai Foreign Language Education Press） 

[8]Chen, Yanli. 2004. Foreignization in English Idiom Translation. Journal of Xinzhou Teachers University 04:97-101.

[9] Hornby, A. S. 1974. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[10] 陈文伯. 英语成语与汉语成语. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社.1982.

[11] 冯少华. 英汉翻译基础教程. 上海：上海外语教育出版社.2008.

[12] 胡文仲. 文化与翻译. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社.1994.

[13] 梁实秋. 远东英汉字典. 台湾：远东图书公司.1991.

[14] 李国南. 英、汉习用性比喻中的喻体比较与翻译. 上海：上海外语教育出版社.1992.