EnglishProverbsandWesernCulural_开题报告

  “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”; “A friend in need is a friend indeed”; “All roads lead to Rome”… Every English speaker knows such kind of proverb, they are simple but meaningful. By learning these proverbs, we will know not only English language itself, but also the rich thoughts, moral concept and the life attitude. The deeper influence behind these proverbs is the western cultural.

  There are many researches during recent years about the relations of proverbs and western cultural.

H Xie，HF Mao (2004) describe that English proverbs are the essence of national language culture, which reflects the social value. His paper probes into the relationship between English proverbs and the Western individualism value from the perspective of culture. From the perspective of the western individualism value, we can know the western spiritual culture、mode of thinking, behavior and life.

Q Wang (2007) thanks that English proverbs are an important part of the English language and culture, which are closely related to human activities and thoughts. They provide interesting glimpses or clues to a people's geography, history, social life, social views and attitudes. He thinks human emotion, morality, religion and the people's livelihood which are contained in English proverbs.

JS Anand，MS Anand，K Preet (2013)said, according to N.S. Tasneem, former Fellow, Indian Inst. of Adv. Studies, Shimla, “Proverb is an essence of witticism, as it inverts, and not subverts, the truth of a saying. With the passage of time, the human mind is reluctant to register the impact of a proverb even if it has stood the test of time. Something that has become stereotyped is seldom taken seriously for long. But a sly remark or an ironic comment on the age-old wisdom enshrined in a saying or a proverb, may unleash a positive response from the tight-lipped reader. J.S. Anand, who is the author of ‘Bliss: The Ultimate Magic’ besides several other publications, M.S. Anand and Kiran Preet have taken pains to refresh our memory in regard to the proverbs which have been ignored in the age of tension and anxiety. 

HM Zhu(2010) states that proverbs, as a form of language, have a close relationship with culture. By comparison, notable differences between Chinese and English cultures can be found. Translators of the proverbs should be faithful to the original by using different translation methods in order to keep the vivid rhetoric effect, national characteristics, fluency of languages and the taste of the proverbs.

HU Zhen-Dong (2005) points out, as one of the main parts of the language, proverbs are rich in cultural contents and mirror the different religious thoughts and concepts. In his paper, he tried to let us to understand and learn the background knowledge and the difference between Chinese and Western cultures.

According to HY Han’s paper (2009), as an important source of western culture, Christianity is quite influential. English proverbs are rich in Christian culture. According to the principle of Kluckhohn's model of cultural analysis, the influence of Christianity on English proverbs is reflected in the five ways: orientation of relationship between humankind and nature, time orientation, activity orientation, human nature orientation and social relation orientation. Therefore, exploring the cultural factors of Christianity in English proverbs can help us to have a good understanding of western culture.

 My subject is, “English Proverbs and Western Cultural”. By this paper, I will try to explain the cultural back ground behind of proverbs, it will makes it interesting both in learning English itself and western cultural.

II. Outline

1. Introduction  

1.1. Explanation of definition of English proverbs

1.2. Research Object, analysis the western cultural back ground behind the English proverbs

2. Literature Review

2.1. There have been a lot of studies on the proverbs and cultural subject.

2.2. The Previous Studies related to English proverbs and western cultural.

3. Analysis the cultural back ground of different kind of English proverbs

3.1. Proverbs and religious thoughts

3.2. Proverbs and morality

3.3. Proverbs and human activities

3.4. Proverbs and natural environment 

4. Through sample proverbs, find the interesting and intersected way to learn English proverbs and western cultural 

4.1 sample 1, about religious thoughts

4.2 sample 2, about morality

4.3 sample 3 about human activities

4.4 sample 4 about natural environment

5. Conclusion

三、参考文献

[1] Longman. Dictionary of Contemporary English. Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. 1995.

[2] Michael Swan. Practical English Usage. Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. 2000(2).

[3] Yu Zhiyuan. English-Speaking Countries: A Survey.  Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. 2000(2).

[4]Charles Dickens. David Copperfield. Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. 1994(10).

[5] H Xie，HF Mao. On English proverbs and western individualism from the perspective of culture. 《Journal of Nanchang Institute of Aeronautical Technology》, 2004

[6] Q Wang. An Analysis of the Western Humanism in English Proverbs. 《Journal of Shenyang Agricultural University》, 2007

[7] JS Anand，MS Anand，K Preet. LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, 2013

[8] HM Zhu. Cultural Differences and Translation between Chinese and English Proverbs.《Journal of Xinjiang Education Institute》, 2010

[9] HU Zhen-Dong. Different Religious Thoughts and Concepts are Implied in the Chinese and English Proverbs. 《Journal of Shaoyang University》, 2005

[10] HY Han. The Influence of Christian Culture on English Reflected from English proverbs. 《Journal of Xuzhou Normal University》, 2009

[11] 林戊荪，孙萌. 学点英文谚语 了解西方文化. 《英语学习》, 2004(8)-2005(5)

[12] 彭光谦. 彭光谦.英语谚语 [M].北京: 对外贸易出版社,1981

[13] 梁茂成. 英语谚语的理解与翻译.《中国翻译》, 1995(5):38-41