1、 I （ 20_ _届） 本科毕业 设计 英语 英汉习语中隐喻的民族性及其翻译策略 The National Characteristics of English and Chinese Metaphorical Idioms and Their Translation Strategy I 摘要 隐喻是一种思维方式，也是一种认知过程。隐喻的表达及接受必然受制于一定的历史、文化、风俗和价值标准。习语承载着不同民族的文化特色和文化信息。同时，大部分习语都具有隐喻性。由于不同文化的复杂性，所以在翻译英 汉习语中的隐喻时还存在不少困难。本文旨在讨论隐喻翻译中的民族性及其翻译策略，以此促进不同文化间的
2、交流。 关键词： 隐喻；习语；认知；民族性；翻译 II Abstract Metaphor 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 met
3、aphorical. Because 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 culture
4、s. Key words: metaphor; idioms; cognition; national characteristics; translation III Contents Abstract . II 1. Introduction . 1 2. Metaphor and Idioms . 2 3. The National Characteristic of Metaphorical Idioms . 3 3.1 The Geographical Features . 3 3.2 National Mode of Thinking . 4 3.3 National Cultur
5、al Background . 4 3.3.1 National Customs . 5 3.3.2 Cultural Tradition . 5 3.4 Historical and Literary Books and Records . 6 4. Translation Strategy . 7 4. 1 Literal Translation . 8 4.2 Substitution . 8 4.3 Liberal Translation . 9 4.4 The Problems Worth Attention in Translation . 10 5 Conclusion . 10
6、 Bibliography . 11 Acknowledgements . 11 1 1. Introduction At all times and in all countries, the studies 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”. Aris
7、totle believed that the main function of metaphor is the modification. In the 1930s, Richard issued a book The Philosophy of Rhetoric in which first proposed metaphor interaction theory(陈家旭 , 2007: 2). That realized the transition of metaphor research from the rhetoric view to cognitive mode view. L
8、ater, Blake developed and improved the interaction theory on his basis. Richards and Blake regarded 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
9、of the book Metaphor We Live by coauthored by Lakeoff and Johnson marked the realization of research 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, so
10、me Chinese scholars who study metaphor gradually concerned about the trends of the development of 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:
11、State of Arts, Focuses, and Trend, Lin Shuwu reviewed the basic status, focus and trends of metaphor 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 wor
12、king mechanism, essential characteristic and its function on the base of absorbing and arranging 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 Englis
13、h and Chinese idioms. But there are not many researches on the national characteristics of metaphor 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 cog
14、nitive view. 2 2. Metaphor and Idioms Research on metaphor can be traced back to Aristotles On Rhetoric 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 b
15、egin to study the nature of metaphor from the cognitive view. In Metaphor We Live By, Lakeoff and 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 bo
16、th in thought and action.” (Lakoff the other is the result of cognition or the accumulation of knowledge and culture. (胡壮麟， 2004: 24) Peoples knowledge is continuously deepened and languages are continuously evolved. Language has close contact with cognition. The role of metaphor is that people can
17、find similarities from previously unrelated different things, concepts and language expression and then establish links with extremely rich imagination when they think and feel the material world and the spiritual world with language. “The essence of metaphor is under-standing and experiencing one k
18、ind of thing in terms of another.”(Lakoff however, the British more often use horses to farm. It is why that many expressions formed by the word “bull” in Chinese is changed to “horse” in English. For example: 吹牛 (talk horse), 孺子牛 (a willing horse). There are many other English expressions related w
19、ith horse such as a dark horse（黑马） and horse sense（基本常识 ). As dogs are popular pets and loyal friends in the west, and then some commendatory phrases appeared such as a lucky dog (幸运儿 ), love me, love my dogs (爱屋及乌 ). But in China, people always think that dogs are very dirty, so they often use thes
20、e phrases such as “狼心狗肺 ” to curse others. Dragon in China is the embodiment of auspiciousness and nobility. “龙腾虎跃 ”, “龙颜大怒 ” 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 winged monster standing at the gate of h
21、ell, which symbolized the devil and evil. For example, “the old dragon” refers to Satan. Although the Chinese “龙 ” and the English “dragon” refer to the same meaning, their national cultural information is opposite. Appraise of the same animal word in different languages can reflect the different na
22、tional customs and concept of values. 3.3.2 Cultural Tradition Metaphor 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 reflected in their language. Chinese p
23、eople 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 every aspect of American life. 6 For
24、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 in American way of life. Most Ame
25、ricans 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 responsible for it. This equal and open co
26、mpetition 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 “长舌妇 ” is equal to the English idiom
27、 “women have long tongues”. In Chinas 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 “阴盛阳衰 ”. The English idiom “The gray mare is the better horse” expresses similar content in a
28、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 year. People in China believe that “the Lord Buddha” controls everything in the world. There are many idioms about that. For example, “借花献
29、佛 ” (present Buddha with borrowed flowers - offer a present provided by sb. else to a guest), “闲时不烧香，临时抱佛脚 ” (Last-minute efforts are useless if no preparatory work has been done beforehand.). In many Western countries, people believe in Christianity. Also there are many idioms about that such as “G
30、od helps those who help themselves” and “Go to hell”. 3.4 Historical and Literary Books and Records Historical allusions are the essence of traditional culture. And they embody the dazzling brilliance of art. In order to express the same meaning, Chinese and the western people will associate differe
31、nt allusions. English allusion refers to “an implied of indirect reference, esp. when used in literature” (Websters New Collegiate Dictionary). In general, the definition of Chinese allusions and English allusions is the same. But English allusion focuses 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 and
