Cultural differences between English and Chinese from the view of Idioms---开题报告

一、文献综述（Literature Reviews）

Language is the most precious wealth of mankind, in daily life, is indispensable, is used to express ideas, to convey the feelings of communication tools. Behind the phenomenon of language has a profound philosophy, it reflects the different regions, different countries, the social and cultural customs, historical and geographical environment, religious beliefs and values. Therefore, from a person's language can be seen in his own social group.

Idioms are the essence of language, which reflects the characteristics of language. In Anglo American countries, English idioms are widely used, and the frequency is very high. Chinese and English people have a long history and splendid culture, and they are very rich. English idioms are concise, refined, short, humorous, witty and full of philosophy, from all aspects of the culture of the west.

Objective: language belongs to the target culture and reflects it. English idioms is core and essence of the language of English speaking countries, it is not formed overnight, but with the changes in Britain and the United States social and human development gradually accumulated. It reflects the social aspects. In social unrest, the changes of the idioms are fast, and the changes in social stability and the development of the idioms are relatively slow. Therefore, it is necessary to study English idioms, and it is also necessary to study English.

Meaning: British and American countries use English idioms frequently, because English idioms are the accumulation of history, and the characteristics of idioms have laid a convenient, vivid, vivid, and can accurately reflect the meaning of the users want to express. Therefore, English idioms are very difficult to understand, and the use of a large number of English language learning Life has a lot of obstacle

2. Cultural differences of English and Chinese idioms

2.1 Different living environment

Geographical environment plays an important role in shaping one country’s culture and human beings have no choices and capacities to change the geography. As a result, idioms based on geographical features appear different.

      Britain is an island country, which does not share land border with any other countries except the Republic of Ireland. In history, its navigation industry has ever been the first one for a long time. So, British people have a special passion for water. However, the most part of China belongs to inland place where people cannot live without earth. This very geographical difference results in different idioms in the two languages. For example, to show somebody being extravagant, there is a Chinese idiom ‘挥金如土’, but in English the idiom is ‘spend money like water’. Take the other instance, in southern China with mild and moisture weather, bamboo is a familiar plant for people there, so they use the idiom ‘雨后春笋’ to describe the new things cropping up in great numbers. Correspondingly, English have the idiom ‘spring up like mushrooms’ to tell the same meaning, since in England mushroom in spring can be seen everywhere. Besides the different idioms expressing the same notion in the two languages, there are a lot of idioms related to water in English and earth in Chinese which have no corresponding counterpart in the other language, like the English idioms ‘to rest on one’s oars’, ‘to keep one’s head above water’, ‘all at sea’ and etc.

2.2 Different traditional customs

The differences of traditional customs of the two nations exist in different living customs, productive pattern, and i.e. These two peoples are used to raising dogs. Most of idioms about dog in Chinese contain derogatory sense. For example: ‘狼心狗肺’ ‘狗急跳墙’ ‘狐朋狗友’ ‘狗腿子’and so on.

Although in these recent years the number of population who take dogs as pets is largely increasing and the dog’s status seems to change, the derogatory meaning of dog has been deeply rooted in the culture of Chinese language.

However, to the western, dog could be taken as doorkeeper or used to hunt as well as human pet, friend or partner. In English language, most of idioms about dog contain dual sense. For instance: You are a lucky dog. [你是一个幸运儿。]　Every dog has his day. [人人都有得意日。]  Old dog will not learn new tricks. [老人学不了新东西]; to be a top dog[居于要位]，and so on. ‘Dog tired’ means ‘very tired’. Its literal meaning is ‘tired like a dog’. Because English people usually see their dogs coming back, and then the dogs will lie on the ground as dead if they are very tired. Therefore, the idiom has been used 

to describe human tiredness. On the other hand, dog in English culture also means hostility and sneer. Like the following:

You are going to the dogs.你就要像狗一样完蛋了。［It means somebody will degenerate or go to the bad.］

This is a dog’s life.这简直不是人过的日子。[It means the very poor life.][1]

From above off, the meaning of dog differentiates greatly between Chinese and English, which make some trouble in the inter-translation of the idioms.

2.3 Different material cultures

With the economic globalization and the increase of international communication, western cultures about diet, residence, and closing, i.e., have increasingly influenced on every aspect of Chinese traditional culture. For example: ’‘coffee’, ‘sofa’, ‘chocolate’ have been translated as ‘咖啡’‘沙发’‘巧克力’.These words have been usually used in our daily life. Meanwhile, Chinese has the similar influence on western language. For example:‘豆腐’‘麻将’have been translated into ‘tofu’ ‘mahjong’.

Therefore, with the development of translation, people no long consider merely as a switching of language symbols, but as a cross-cultural communication. That is to say, the switching of language symbols is the surface level of translation, whereas cultural transmission is the essence of translation. That is a saying in China: ‘巧妇难为无米之炊’.Somebody translated it into“ Even a clever housewife can not cook a meal with no rice.” The version and the original are equivalent in form. It caters for the Chinese readers who understand Chinese diet habit, but the English and American, for those readers who do not know much about this habit. Because “rice” is not the staple food of English and American. They would probably make this response: Why not cook a meal with flour? For flour is more popular than rice in their diet habit.

2.4  The author, reflecting on her Hindu socialization in India and her work in graduate training in diversity issues in the United States (U.S.), discusses reasons why therapists should develop an understanding of Islam. U.S. therapists' potential biases against Muslims may parallel the sociopolitical relations between the U.S. and the Middle East, as well as their religious and cultural differences; critical factors in these biases are discussed. Relevant recommendations are accompanied by training vignettes to provide suggestions for working with Muslim immigrants in the U.S. The author also discusses political events related to Muslim populations, such as the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S.; the U.S. War Against Terrorism; and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This discussion is placed within the framework of intractable conflict. Suggestions are given for therapists' resolutions to disaster events, these being framed within existential psychotherapy and an analysis of societal contexts. This information is useful to therapists in any nation that is struggling with increasingly diverse populations and the effects of international relations.

2.5 Different countries possess different history culture,which mainly comprises allusion, myths, poems, ancient books and records, etc.

2.5.1 Many Chinese idioms are from historical events which are well-knownby Chinese people. For instance,  风声鹤唳， 草木皆兵（be in an extremely nervous state in which one is frightened by the slightest sound ）is from the defeat of FuJian's (苻坚) army at Feishui River during  the East Jin Dynasty; 卧薪尝胆（to sleep on brushwood and tase gall ---to undergo sekf-imposed hardships so as to strengthen one’ resolve to wipe out a national humiliation） comes from The Historical Records Yue’s Sate Emperor Gou Jian’s Noble Family(《史记.越王勾践世家》).

English language has mush less idioms from historical events than the Chinese language, but there are still some, for example, “to meet one’s Waterloo”(一败涂地) is from the defeat of Napoleon at waterloo in 1815, which means to be completely defeated; the idiom “Dumkirk evacuation”(敦刻尔克撤退) comes from the Second World War and originally meant the retreat of the English-French troops forced by the German.

2.5.2 Most English allusions come from the Bible and the Greek Roman Myth. Let’s take a glance at the following idioms:”A Pandora’s box”(潘多拉之盒) which means the origin of all evils is also from Greek mythology and “Penelope’s web”(泊涅罗泊的织物，指永远做不完的工作)，Greek mythology, refers to work never ends.

Most of the following Chinese idioms are from chinese historial works and ancient fables and fairy and fairy tales. They are vivid with profound meanings. For example:拔苗助长：try to help seeding grow by pulling them ---spoil things by undue haste;囫囵吞枣：swallow a date wholly without real comprehension fo what one reads or stdies.

3. A lot of common people in the Chinese and British people are very helpful to the translation. To master some basic strategies such as literal translation, free translation and the method of translation of animal idioms can be better translated.

3.1 The common ground between the two peoples is the basis of translation. When the two parties use the same animal to express the same or similar images, the use of literal translation, for example, are used to indicate the "fat", with "sheep" to express "mild". Literal translation method has many advantages, it keeps the original form, in the sense of confusion and misunderstanding, such as "fat as pig as"". "Gentle as a lamb as" is as gentle as a lamb ". The literal translation method can accurately and effectively express the cultural connotation of the original text, and reduce the gap between the two languages. The reader can easily understand these rich cultural connotations and metaphors. And it kept

The grace, strength and vividness of. Take "proud as apeacock as" as an example, imagine the peacock's appearance: beautiful, elegant. If someone is as peacock "proud as a", we can imagine how proud he is in the end. Another literal translation method can give a new vocabulary of chinese. For example: refers to the "dark horse" is unexpectedly an unknown candidate wins, in Chinese we call the "dark horse". Literal translation method also has its defects, if the use of the wrong words will lead to misunderstanding caused confusion. In "white elephant" as an example, cannot be simply translated into a "white elephant", because of the white elephant

The Chinese have no meaning, without any cultural connotation, we should consider another translation strategy。

3.2 Under different cultural backgrounds, people may use different animal images to express the same or similar figurative meaning. For example, "cow" to

Chinese people are a strong and common animal, but also a good helper for the work of farmers in the field. In the UK, "Ma" plays the same or similar role. Another example is the "Lion", in the UK, the lion is considered to be the animal's head, representing the power, dignity and dignity. And in China, the tiger is the king of animals. There are more examples in the following chart: but the use of the method of interpretation is very limited. Only when we have a very understanding of the idioms of both countries, we can use it freely.

4. English idioms are a very special and essential part of the English language. In order to help more Chinese people to know more about the English culture, an increase of their knowledge, the translator should practice, according to the specific situation of the flexible proper selection of different translation strategies and efforts to translate a faithful and fluent and elegant translation.

二、^范文提纲(outline)

1.Introduction

1.1 background and significanc

2. Cultural differences between English and Chinese idioms     

2.1 Different living environment

2.2 Different traditional customs

2.3 Different material cultures

2.4 Religious differences

2.5 Different historical allusions

2.5.1 Historical events

2.5.2 Fables and mythologies

3. The Strategies of English Idioms Translation

3.1 Literal translation method

3.2 magic method-structure-borrowing

4. Conclusions

三、参考文献（Reference）

[1]Richard A. Spears. Phrases and Idioms. Hefei: University of Science and  Technology of China Press, 2004  

[2]Harry Collis. 101 American English Proverbs. Beijing: Foreign Language  Teaching and Research Press, 2003  

[3] Amichai, Y. (1992). Jerusalem. In N. S. Nye (Ed.), This same sky (p. 172). New York, NY: Four Winds Press/Macmillan.

[4] Smith, Logn P.Words and Idioms[m]. London: Constable and Company Ltd.,1943 

[5] Jiang Rui. The differences of English and Chinese Idioms from the perspective of culture [J]. Journal of Shanxi Education Institute, 2000,

[6] Zhu Liling. From the view of English idioms and Chinese idioms, the national culture difference [J]. Yiyang Teachers College Journal, 2000,

[7] Peng Xiaorong. From the study of Chinese and English idioms to understand the differences between Chinese and Western culture [J]. popular science and technology, 2004 

[8] Berlin, Brent and Paul Kay．Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

[9] H.M., Zeng from the perspective of cultural differences in English and Chinese idioms translation similarities and differences.2004

[10] Li, S. analysis of animal idioms translation. Journal of Henan University of Finance and Economics, 2007