-
Culture Difference between Chinese and
English
时间
:
2008-01-04
18:52
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:
作者
:
潘志涛
点击
:
3499
次
Culture Difference between Chinese and
English
A comparative Study of English
and Chinese idioms
from
their different derivation
1. Introduction
As is known to all, idioms are the
important part of language. And it serves as a
bridge between different people and
cultures. It is applied at high frequency, it
transforms plenty of cultural
information such as history, geography, religion,
and
military, custom, nationality,
psychology, thought pattern and etc. also it
contains a
large number of culture
features and culture backgrounds. So different
cultures bring
out the similar and
different idioms between Chinese and English. We
should know
much about culture through
studying idioms and in turn get better
understanding of
idioms by learning the
cultural background behind them. Francis Bacon
said,
―Generous wit and spirit of a
nation are discovered by their idioms‖. Comparing
English and Chinese idioms will help us
have a better understanding of differences
and similarities of the two languages
in the process of learning English. In addition,
it
helps us in translation.
2. The definition and classification of
idioms
2.1 Definition
What are idioms? Different
scholars have different opinions and definition.
Some are considering it as the cream of
language; some thinks it is the treasury of
language; some thinks it to be the
important part of language. To sum up definition
of
idioms in some authoritative
dictionaries: Longman Active Study English-Chinese
Dictionary: a phrase which means
something different from the meanings of the
separate words; The Concise Oxford
Dictionaries: a group of words established by
usage and having a meaning not
deducible from those of the individual words;
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
English: a phrase words from which is formed;
Webster‘s New World Dictionary of the
American Language: an accepted phrase,
construction, or expression contrary to
the patterns of the language, or having a
meaning different from the language or
having a meaning different from the literal.
To be brief, idiom is a special kind of
language form that phrase, structure or
expression established by usage. Total
understanding of it relies on its ways of
usage.#
2.2Classification
Language can not exist without culture
as its component. As part of language,
idioms including set phrases, common
sayings, proverbs, idiomatic phrases, slang, a
two-part allegorical saying and
allusion etc. English idioms mostly consist of set
phrases and idiomatic phrases,
proverbs, common sayings, allusion and slang (
张安
德，杨元刚，
2003
：
21). Chinese idioms mostly include
set phrases; and Chinese set
phrases
chiefly have four words. Also include proverbs,
common sayings, allusion
and a two-part
allegorical saying.
rich and varied derivations of idioms
in English and Chinese
Every nation has its own language, and
idioms are the core and the quintessence
of language. They have a strong
expression, deep allusion, succinct to the point;
most
of them have distinctive image
that suitable to metaphor thing. Like its
classification,
its derivation is also
very wide, and its content is rich and varied.
They are people‘s
cognition for the
objective world, and for human themselves,
reflection on
philosophical problem,
summary of life experience etc.
3.1Common language among people
These kinds of idioms have close
relation with people‘s everyday life. They are
active, vivid, expressive and graphic.
There are great amount of those idioms in
English and Chinese. They are one of
the most important components for idioms.
3.1.1 Deriving from farming
China is a typical agricultural nation
with a large population of farmers, who live
on the land; farming is the root of our
nation. Every dynasty in ancient #China took it
seriously. As a result, many idioms are
related to farming. Their desire for good
weather for crops, praying for good
harvest and looking forward to happiness and
health are all reflections through
language. For example:
留得青山再，
不怕没柴烧
A man who fights and runs away will
come and fight another day.
斩草不除根，逢春发又生
Cut
weeds and dig up the
roots-stamp out
the source of the trouble or they will grow again.
种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆
Plant melons and you will get melons.
Sow beans and you will get beans.
(
张安德
，杨元刚，
2003
：
17)
These idioms are closely bound up to
farmers‘ everyday life. But because of lack
of education, the amount of four-words
idioms spoken by farmers are limited in
Chinese while proverbs used by farmers
are enormous. These proverbs are fruits of
their labour and intelligence
experience. No other country can have such variety
of
proverbs deriving from farming as
China.
3.1.2 Deriving from
sailing
#
Though China is also
located to the sea, and it has long coastline,
sailing had
seen remaining at an
undeveloped stage, idioms deriving from sailing
are few.
China has adopted
close-
door policy for long, and put
―sea ban‖ into practice, so
idioms
deriving from sailing in Chinese are less than
those of English, while the Great
Britain is an island nation with
advanced fisheries. As a result, there are many
English
idioms about navigation, such
as:
To
keep one‘s head above
water
奋力图存，使免于负债
To know the ropes
内行，懂得秘诀
To be over head and ears in debt
深陷债务中
All at sea
不知所措
A cold fish
冷漠的人
In
low water
不如意
3.2 Deriving from military
affairs
#
Some idioms
deriving from military affairs are difficult to
understand and
translate; it would be
helpful to know about the origin of them. China is
one of the
countries which have large
scale of civil strife in history. We can say
Chinese history
is about its history of
war. A large number of wars were recorded in the
famous
history book, such as
Shih Chi/Historical
Records
，
Annals of
Zuo
，
Three kingdoms
.
Lots of idioms were
derived from them. It‘s the source of idioms about
wars.
“天下
大势，分久必合，合久必分”
Chaos of war dispute live through the
ages, for this
reason idioms deriving
from military affairs was widely used. Here are
such idioms:
To turn hostility into
friendship/bury the hatchet
化干戈为玉帛
To know the enemy and know yourself and
you can fight a
hundred battles with no
danger of defeat
知己知彼，百战不殆
All is fair in war
兵不厌诈
Speed is what
counts in war
兵贵神速
Resort to arms
兵戎相见
#
Chaos of war broke out in English
history, so there are many idioms related
to military affairs in
English:
Mark time
踌躇
/
犹豫不决
Mask one‘s batte
ries
掩盖敌意
Stick to one‘s
guns
坚持立场
Have been in the wars
在生活中吃过苦头
A
horse for a kingdom
一匹马换一个国王
3.3 Deriving
from allusion
3.3.1
Deriving from historical events
History culture is formed by a specific
history development and historical
legacy. Because they have different
history backgrounds, Chinese culture and English
culture are totally different. History
culture is composed of tradition, decrees,
regulation, poems, ancient books and
records etc. Here are some examples:#
破釜沉舟
To burn
one‘s boats/To cross the Rubicon
明修栈道，
暗渡陈仓
To pretend to advance along one path
while
secretly going along another/to
do one thing under cover of
another
一败涂地
To meet
one‘s waterloo
3.3.2 Deriving from myth
English idioms mostly stem from
Bible
、
Aesop‘s
Fables
、
Greek and Roman
myths. Here are some allusions which
western readers can know well, but it is
difficult for Chinese reader to
understand.
Gordian knot
棘手问题
The touch of Midas
点石成金
Trojan horse
内部颠
覆者
（即起内部破坏作用的因素）
欺骗性程
序
#
Achilles‘ heel
唯一致命弱点
Penelope‘s web
永远完不成的巨作
A Pandora‘s Box
潘多拉之盒？灾难
Cat‘s paw
猫抓风（被人利用的人）
（谢道
华，
1999
：
59
< br>）
Many Chinese idioms are the
crystallization of tremendous amount of Chinese
fables and tales. For example:
孙悟空七十二变
Seventy-
two transformations of the Monkey
King
精卫填海
The mythical
bird JingWei trying to fill up the sea with
twigs and pebbles-
dogged
determination to achieve one‘s purpose
#
“世上无难事，只怕有心人”，“劳民伤财”，“猪八戒上阵倒打
一
耙”
All these famous idioms
come from Journey to the West.
“画龙点睛”
，
“夸
父追日”，“嫦娥奔月”
are from traditional Chinese legend. All these have a rich
cultural background
and historical origins.
3.3.3 Deriving from allegory
The knowledge of the
origins of English idioms about animals may help
us
understand what they mean better.
Many idiomatic expressions come from everyday
life of English people. Some idioms
originate from allegories. An allegory is a style
of
a story in which the characters and
events are used as symbols of truth. For example,
―bell the cat‖ refers to a person who
takes a risk or does something that is dangerous,
especially for the good of others. The
idiom is originated from a story of some mice
that agreed to put a bell round a cat‘s
neck so that they would know when the cat was
near. But none of the mice had the
courage to do it
（陈文波，
1982
：
59
）
.
The other
examples are: cry wolf, sour
grapes, the lion‘s sha
re, sweet lemon,
and so on. Some
Chinese idioms also
come from allegory, the story
about
东郭先生
is the
typical.
That is Master DongGuo
–
the soft hearted scholar
who narrowly escaped being eaten
by a
wolf which he had helped to hide from a hunter: a
native person who gets into
trouble
through being soft hearted to evil people.
3.4 Alluding to well-known
literary words
Some idioms have their
origin in well known literary works. It is very
difficult
for us to understand, and the
amount of such idioms is small in English
language. As
we all know, we must know
them very well if we want to be good learners in
English.
Here are such idioms:
Paint the lily
锦上添花，画蛇添足
#
By the skin of one‘s teeth
死里逃生
A
deed duck
将失败的计划
It is no use crying over spilt milk
生米煮成熟饭
The early bird catches the worm
捷足先登
We
can clearly see most idioms have their
metaphorical images, which are
cultivated by realistic environment and
social status.
3.5
Influenced by religions and beliefs
There are large amount of idioms
related to religion beliefs existing in English
and Chinese language. They are
different in beliefs, politics and human history.
Buddhism and Daoism are the important
part of Han nationality culture. Its stories
and allusions bring out innumerable
idioms for Han culture and language. There are
many religions existing in China,
comparatively speaking, Buddhist has more
influence on Chinese culture, thus,
many idioms come from Buddhist, such as:
借花献佛
临时抱佛脚
#
跑得了和尚跑不了庙
做一天和尚，撞一天钟
放下屠刀，立地成佛
Also, Daoism, which originates from
China, has a great influence on Chinese
and some Chinese idioms directly or
indirectly come from Daoism, like
灵丹妙药
阎王要你三更死，哪能留你到五更
狗咬吕洞宾，不识好人心
道高一尺，魔高一丈
八仙过海，各显神通
Many Americans and British believe in
Christianity. They read ―Bible‖; they
regard many idioms deriving from Bible
as their guide and rules of behavior. For
example, Do as you would be done by;
Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall
die; A soft answer turneth away wrath
etc. Bible has affected profoundly in west.
They uphold Christian culture. Here are
some idioms related to their religion beliefs:#
To
bow down in the house of Rimmon
向异教徒屈膝投降
A covenant of
salt
不可背弃的盟约
Give up one‘s
lions
准备行动
As poor as a
church mouse
家徒四壁
Bear one‘s cross
背负十字架
No coming to
heaven with dry eyes
眼无泪水难进天国
We should take these idioms seriously
when we study English, otherwise, we
will be confused. Such as
“谋事在人，
成事在天”
is
―Man proposes, God disposes‖
the
translation seems to be the best way, however, the
two background of beliefs and
cultures
are different, if it is translat
ed into
―Man proposes, God disposes‖ Chinese
would have believe Christianity instead
of Buddhism. Thus, we should take ―Heaven‖
instead of ―God‖, when we translate it
into Chinese.
Only when these
idioms are more meaningful in broad sense beyond
the realm of
religion, can they become
membership of the Chinese idioms. Therefore, such
Chinese idioms stemmed from religion
are no more than those English idioms
stemmed from Bible. Apart from this,
the forms of these two categories are apparently
different; English idioms exist in form
of sentence, while Chinese in phrases.
#
3.6 Deriving from loanword
Many stories coming from myth turn into
idioms at last. Those words are
acceptable in native culture; they are
used frequently and also turn out to be native
people‘s own property. For
example:
A flash in the
pan
昙花一现
(
比喻某事物一出现
就很快消
逝了
)something appears for
a very short time.
其中的昙花
come
from the vocabulary of Sanskrit, and it
transliteration.
A white
elephant
白象
(
比喻沉重的
负担，无用而累赘的东
西
)something
useless and burdensome
English Puritan immigrate to America at
early days , they create many new
styles of expression by language
culture of local Indian.
Indian file
鱼贯而行
Indian Summer
小阳春
#
Indian club
瓶状物（花样体操比赛时用）
Indian hemp
大麻
Besides, some Chinese idioms stem from
foreign language. For example: Be
a cat‘s paw; Gean de la Fontanie:
Monkey and Cat; Ivory tower; One
-sided
wish .etc.
All these idioms
come from foreign language, but the structures of
them have the
characters of
Chinese language, as time goes by.
4.
The features of idioms between English and Chinese
Idioms between English and
Chinese all contain fixed phrases and sentences.
Each part among them is fixed. That can
not be separated or replaced as one pleases.
Idioms are a complete unity. We can not
understand them according to each
consisting word‘s meaning. Idioms all
have history cultural sources. Idioms
u
se many
different figures
of speech, that exist many different image
symbols. There are some
concrete parts
of following to illustrate some features of
idioms.
4.1 Different figures of speech
Both English and Chinese languages have
features of rich derivation, vivid
language and those words in idioms have
implied profound meaning. They are
relevant to the English and Chinese
features of language words, system, also relative
to the human‘s ways of thought and
aesthetics mentality. Chinese is
reduplica
tion or
reversal,
contrast or juxtapose antithesis or parallelism.
But in English, to avoid
reduplication,
synonym is always used to express one thing or one
concept, this style
of writing is
obvious. Chinese and English languages mostly use
figures of speech.
They usually put a
lot of efforts in form, sound, and meaning. They
use metaphor, pun
or paronomasia,
repetition etc. It makes idioms full of wit. #
There is a great deal of
rhetoric in English and Chinese idioms.
These are:
Simile: like a cat on hot bricks
象热锅上的蚂蚁
Metaphor:
沉鱼落雁之容，闭月羞花之貌（
have features
that
can make fish sink and alight, and
looks that can outshine the
moon and
put the flowers to shame.
）
Metonymy:
老骥伏枥，志在千里
(An old steed in
the stable
still aspires to gallop
thousand li-an old hero still cherishes high
aspiration.)
Personification: Failure is mother of
success.
（失败乃成功之
母
)
Euphemism: die
in bed of old age
寿终正寝
Inversion: A
thousand sails pass by sunken ship, ten thousand
saplings shoot up beyond the withered t
ree
（沉舟侧畔千帆过，
病树前头万树春）
< br>
Aphorism: Where there is a will, there
is a way.
有志者事竟
成。
Antithesis:
Love me, love my dog.
爱屋及乌
#
Irony or Sarcasm:
五十步笑白步
(One who
retreats fifty
paces mocks one who
retreats hundred
–
the pot
calls the kettle
black)
Contrast: To
say every fine word and do every foul
deed
（好话
说尽，坏事做绝）
Pun or
paronomasia:
东边日出西边鱼，道是无晴却有晴
(In
east the sun is shining,
in the west rain falling.)
Hyperbole: Complete sincerity can
affect even metal and
stone-faith will
move mountain.
（精诚所致，金石为开）
Repetition:
Good will be reward with good, and evil with evil;
if the reward is not forthcoming it is
because the time has not
yet come; When
the tim
e comes, one will get one‘s due
reward.
（善有善报，恶有恶报，不是不报，时候未到；时候一到，
一切都报）
Rhetorical question: Who knows that
every grain in the bowl is
the fruit of
so much pain and toil.
（谁知盘中餐，
粒粒皆辛苦）
?
Anadiplosis:
知无不言，言无不尽
#
(Say
all you know and say
it without
reserve.)
Chiasmus:
人不犯我，我必犯人
(We will not attack
unless we
are attacked; if we are
attacked, we will certainly counter
arrack.)
（张安德，杨元刚，
2003
：
26
）
.
4.2 The fixed
feature of idioms
Owing to
i
dioms‘ deriving from history events
，
allusions
，
myth and tale etc.
English and
Chinese idioms have its habitual and usage
feature. Even though some of
them do
not conform to grammar and logic, they can not be
altered. For instance:
仰
望、
展望、
鸟瞰、
盯住、
浏览、
凝视、
巡视、
观察
.These words all have the meaning
of ―look‖, but they can not use ―look‖
instead. For the structure of language, some
idioms of English and Chinese are
illogic and grammatically incorrect. For example:
Diamond cut diamond. ―cut‖ is a verb
not singular norns ,
and not accord
with
English grammar. But it should not
write like this: Diamond cuts Diamond. Equally to
Chinese idioms, for example:
非驴非马
should not
write like
不驴不马。
4.3 The image symbol in Chinese and
English
#
By the
comparative study of English and Chinese idioms,
we can not only
understand the
nationality feature, but also we can gain fun from
different analogous
images. We do not
suffer from this kind of study, moreover we can
understand idioms
well, use it
appropriately, and even it helps for English and
Chinese translation. Here
are the
comparative of symbol of English and Chinese
idioms. They can be helpful for
English
learners.
4.3.1
Similarities in meaning and symbol
English and Chinese are different in
contexts and cultures, but people also use
similar symbol to describe the same
thing or view. These kinds of idioms can translate
literally when we directly to
understand.
Strike while the iron is hot
趁热打铁
Follow in somebody‘s
footsteps
步入后尘
Beauty is in
the eye of the beholder
情人眼里出西施
A yes man
跟屁虫
（
Harry Collis,20
04
：
200
）
Because these kinds of
idioms are similar in meaning and symbol, it‘s
easy to
learn. We should pay attention
to compare them when we are learning language. #
4.3.2 Similarities in
meaning, differences in symbol
Although lion and tiger are two
different animals, the meanings they signify are
same in the two different cultures.
Both two sometimes stand for threaten and
obstacle. It is unsuitable to strive
for the forms match while we try to understand or
translate these kinds of idioms. If not
it will be difficult to express the original
meaning clearly.(
金惠康，
2004
：
375) Such idioms
can be illustrated by these
examples:
When a man is going down hill, everyone
will give him a
push.
墙倒众人推
Hold a wolf by
the ears
骑虎难下
Like a rat in
the hole
翁中捉鳖
All is fish
that comes to one‘s net
抓到篮里便是菜
A lion in the
way
拦路虎
Have a card up
one‘s sleeve
胸有成竹
#
Sit on the
fence
脚踩两只船（随风倒）
The
above idioms are very interesting. Meanwhile, we
are attracted deeply by the
nationality
feature of different language in different
cultures.
4.3.3
Similarities in symbol, but not with the literal
meaning
When we read some English famous books
we always come across many
idioms,
which are variant based on fixed idioms, we can
not understand easily by the
literal
meaning. We translate it according to its
metaphoric meaning. Here are some
idioms of this kind:
In the same boat
指处于困境而不是同舟共济的意思
Once bitten,
twice shy
一回上当两回乖，
而不是一朝被蛇咬
十年怕井绳
Child‘s play
简单容易而不是视同儿戏的意思
To be touch and
go
指危险处境而不是一触即发的意思
4.3.4# Similarities in
symbol, opposite in meaning
The numbers of the
se kinds
of idioms are few, but we can use the ―reverse
thought‖ to understand them.
Like a fish out of water
与如鱼得水意义相反
Many a good cow
hath a bad calf
与虎父无犬子意义相反
Cry
stinking fish
与王婆卖瓜意义相反
Hard words break no bones
与恶语伤人六月寒意义相反
4.4 The variability of idioms
On one hand, English and Chinese idioms
have its fixed feature, and on the other
hand, they also have features of
variability. Go along with the past time, people
will
change words, increase words or
decrease words to attar original idioms. Here are
some examples:
Give somebody
an inch and he will take an
ell
改为
Give him
an inch and he will take a mile
得寸进尺
Neither fish nor fowl
改为
# Neither fish, flesh nor
fowl
非驴
非马
People also use ways of increase or
decrease to charge idioms
for terse
“山重水复疑无路，柳暗花明又一村”改为“山
重水复”
“鞠躬尽瘁，死而后已”改为“死而后已”
5. Conclusion
To
sum up, the study of idioms in both English and
Chinese can help bridge the
cultural
gaps and enhance the effectiveness of cross-
cultural communication. Also it
can
help English learners to have a better
understanding of idioms and arouse their
interest in the study of idioms and
that of the language as a whole.
#
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[M].
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1956.
Harry
Collis.
101 American English
Idioms
. Beijing: Foreign Language
Teaching and
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#
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。
任学良等
.
《中外语言文化比较研究》
.
延吉：
延边大学出版社，
1994
。
谢道华
.
《常用有趣习语》
.
北京：中国对外翻译出版公司
,
1999
。
张安德
,
杨元刚
.
《英汉词语文化对比》
.
武汉：湖北
教育出版社，
2003
。
The History of
Linguistics
时间
:
2008-01-08
15:30
来源
:
作者
:
点击
:
74
次
by
Frederick J. Newmeyer of the University of
Washington
Historical
Linguistics
The modern
field of linguistics dates from the beginning of
the 19th
century. While ancient India
and Greece had a remarkable grammatical
tradition, throughout most of history
linguistics had been the province
of
philosophy, rhetoric, and literary analysis to try
to figure out how
human language works.
But in 1786, an amazing discovery was made: There
are regular sound correspondences among
many of the languages spoken in
Europe,
India, and Persia. For example, the English 'f'
sound often
corresponds to a 'p' sound
in, among others, Latin and Sanskrit, an
important ancient language of India:
ENGLISH LATIN SANSKRIT
father pater pitar
full plenus purnas
for per pari
Scholars
realized that these correspondences--found in
thousands of
words-- could not be due
to chance or to mutual influence. The only
reliable conclusion was that these
languages are related to one another
because
they
come
from
a
common
ancestor.
Much
of
19th
century
linguistics
was
devoted
to
working
out
the
nature
of
this
parent
language,
spoken
about
6,000 years ago, as well as the changes
by which 'Proto-Indo-European',
as we
now call
it, developed
into
English, Russian, Hindi,
and
its other
modern descendants.
This program of historical linguistics
continues today. Linguists have
succeeded
in
grouping
the
5,000
or
so
languages
of
the
world
into
a
number
of language families
sharing a common ancestor.
The Study
of Language Structure
At
the
beginning
of
the
20th
century,
attention
shifted
to
the
fact
that
not only language
change, but language structure as well, is
systematic
and
governed
by
regular
rules
and
principles.
The
attention
of
the
world's
linguists
turned
more
and
more
to
the
study
of
grammar
--in
the
technical
sense of the term the organization of
the sound system of a language and
the
internal structure of its words and sentences. By
the 1920s, the
program
of
'structural
linguistics',
inspired
in
large
part
by
the
ideas
of
the
Swiss
linguist
Ferdinand
de
Saussure,
was
developing
sophisticated
methods of grammatical analysis. This
period also saw an intensified
scholarly study
of
languages that
had
never been written
down. It
had by
then become commonplace, for
example, for an American linguist to spend
several years working out the
intricacies of the grammars of Chippewa,
Ojibwa, Apache, Mohawk, or some other
indigenous language of North
America.
The last half-century has seen a
deepening of understanding of these
rules and principles and the growth of
a widespread conviction that
despite
their seeming diversity, all the languages of the
world are
basically cut from the same
cloth. As grammatical analysis has become
deeper,
we
have
found
more
fundamental
commonalities
among
the
languages
of the world. The
program
initiated by the
linguist Noam Chomsky in 1957
sees this fact as a consequence of the
human brain being 'prewired' for
particular
properties
of
grammar,
thereby
drastically
limiting
the
number
of possible human
languages. The claims of this program have been
A
Comparative
Study
of
English
and
Chinese
Idiom
时间
:
2008-01-05
07:36
来源
:
作者
:
彭安算
点击
:
550
次
A Comparative Study of English and
Chinese Idiom
Idioms are the important part of a
language. As a language form, idioms has its own
characteristic and patterns and are
used in high frequency whether in written language
or
oral language because idioms can
convey a host of language and cultural information
when
people chat to each other.
What
do
idioms
mean?
Different
experts
have
different
opinions
and
definitions
to
idioms. Some people consider idioms as
quintessence of a language. Others regard them as
treasury of a language. These
statements in certain degree reflect the idioms'
characteristics,
but can't be regarded
as idioms' definition.
It
is difficult to give a clear definition to idioms.
First, people are often confused with
their scope, content and form. Second,
experts have different opinions about how to
divide
idioms
from
narrow
sense
and
general
sense.
What
kind
of
language
expression
really
belongs
to
idioms .All
of
these
causes
bring
difficulty
to
define
a
idiom .Maybe
owing
to
those
causes,
the
word
“
idiom”
even
hasn't
been
collected
in
such
authoritive
reference
books
as
Modern
Chinese
Dictionary
and
Cihai(
辞海
).However,
some
English
Dictionaries
give
“
idiom
”
a
varity
of
definitions.
For
example,
Longman
Active
English-Chinese
Dictionary (1990) defines an idiom as
“a phrase which means something different from the
meanings
of
the
separate
words”.
The
concise
Oxf
ord
Dictionary
(2000)
gives
such
a
definition as
“a
group
of words
established
by
usage
and
having
a
meaning
not
deducible
from those of the
individual words ”. Longman Dictionary of
contemporary English (1998)
gives the
definitive “ a phrase which means
s
omething different from them meanings
of the
separate
words
from
which
it
is
formed
”.
And
Webster's
New
World
Dictionary
of
the
American
language
(2nd
college
edition,
1972)
gives
this
definition
“an
accepted
phrase,
construction,
or
expression
contrary
to
the
patterns
of
the
language
having
a
meaning
different from the language or having a
different from the literal”.
According to all the above
mentioned “idiom” is a phrase or a group of words
approved
by people and has unique form.
Its meaning is different from the literal. In
general sense, the
scope
of
English
and
Chinese
idioms
includes,
set
phrase
common
sayings,
proverbs,
idiomatic phrases, slang, a two-part
allegorical and allusion, and so on.
As
to
English
and
Chinese
idioms,
English
idioms
mainly
include:(1)
set
phrase,
idiomatic
phrases
such
as
“to
have
one's
head
in
in
clouds”,
“the
man
in
the
streets”;
(2)
proverbs such as “many
men, many minds”, “No man is born wise or
learned”;(3) common
sayings “to charge
someone an arm and a leg”, “going
banana”; (4) allusion such as “much
cry
and
little
word
”,
“skeleton
in
the
cupboard”;(5)
slang
“slang
off”.
Chinese
idioms
generally include:(1) set phrase
especially the four-
word set phrases “<
/p>
气贯长虹
”
，
“
国泰民
安
”;
(2)
proverbs
“
好事不出门
,
坏事传千里
”;
(3)
common
saying
“
天下无难事
,
只怕有心
人
”;( 4)
allusion “
青女素娥
”; (5) a
two
-
part allegorical saying
“
肉包子打狗
-
有去无回
”, and
so on.
Each nation has its own
language
，
among
which idiom is the essence and
treasure, and has strong
c
ultural characteristics. Because of
idiom’s advantages,
having a long
history, and a profound moral and strong
expression. Idioms often
have strong
national color and local color. Generally, idioms
could be divided
into four aspects: set
phrases, proverbs, common sayings and a two-part
allegorical saying. Just as its scope,
English and Chinese idioms come from
different fields, including people's
thoughts about objective world, human being
themselves, philosophy and the life
experience, and so on, about people's
thoughts about objective world and
social law. There are such idioms as: “As
brooks make rivers, rivers run to sea.
/ All rivers run into sea.”
(
犹如小溪汇成江
河
,
江河奔向大海。
/
大江总东去
,
时代总向前
). And from the
following idioms,
you can know (1)
people's judgment on on
e's manner and
action: “The greatest
talkers are the
least doers. / Great braggarts are little doers.”(
最伟大的空谈家是
最渺小的实干家
.
/
语言的巨人
,
行动的矮子
.)
“ First think, then speak. / Look
before you leap.”
(
先思而后言
. /
深思熟虑而后行
.) People's
experience about
society and life:”
L
ife is a comedy to him who thinks and
a tragedy to him who
feels. /Living
without an aim is like sailing without a compass.”
(
对于明哲善思的
人来说
,
人生是个喜剧；对于多愁善感的人来说
,
人生是个悲剧
. /
生活无目的
,
犹如航海无罗盘
.) (2) citizen's
altitude towards national
affairs
“
Every
man has
a share of responsibility for
the fate of his country.
”
(
国家兴亡
,
匹夫有责
.) In
short,
idiom is the sediments of culture and the vital
component part of a culture
and a
language, which is deeply influenced and limited
by a culture. Idiom, the
essence of a
language, is the carrier of a culture.
The mass of people is the creator of a
language. Starlin had said that if one wants to
study
a
language,
one
should
establish
a
link
between
this
language,
and
the
people
who
create
and use this language and their cultural history.
Most of English and Chinese idioms
are
created by the masses. Folk common saying is the
main source of idioms, such as
“
百闻
不如一见
” ( It is
better to see once than hear a hundred times.),
“
人不知
,
鬼不觉
” (not know
by
man or perceived by ghosts),
“
成人之美
” (help one
accomplish something good). Many
English
and
Chinese
idioms
created
by
people
during
their
working
and
farming,
are
the
true-to-life
portraryal
of
common
people's
life. Peasants
produce
idioms
about
farm work
while sailors create idioms about
sailing and life on sea. Idioms towards sports and
hunting
are created by athletes and
hunters, and so on.
The British live on sailing and
fishing, thus there are numerous idioms related to
sea
fishing,
such
as
“to
beep
ones
head
above
water
(
奋力图存
,
使免于负责
)”
“to
know
the
ropes;
(
懂得秘决
,
内行
) “ to be over head and
ears in debt)
深陷于债务中
) in
china ,people
often praise a man for
his good ability in a small village as
“
小庙里的大菩萨
”, but English
people praise that man as a big fish in
a small pond. The Chinese
set phrase
“
疾风知劲草
”
(sturdy
grass withstands
high winds)
means
that
strength
of
character
is
tested
in
a
crisis
and adversity is the measure of a man.
There have more similar idiom like this, good
pilot is
not
known when
the
sea
is
calm
and
the
water
is fair.
(
天
气晴朗和大海平静时看不出好水
手
). The
Chinese idiom “
未雨绸缪
” (to
plough mulberry field and repair the house before
it
rains) implies that people should
make enough preparation before something changes
bad.
The similar English idioms is “
while it is fine weather, mend your
sail”
（修帆趁天晴）
. As
England
is
an
island
country,
English
people
are
fond
sea.
They
established
a
dose
connection
between their life struggle and sea. So you could
get many idioms related to sea
from
their talking.
A
Language
is
not
only
the
means
by
which
people
exchange
their
views
each
other,
but
also
the
medium
which
human
beings
reflect
the
subjective
thoughts
towards the objective world. Different
nations have different living-surroundings and
customs, For example, the Chinese
translate the id
iom
―
一箭双雕
‖ as ― to shoot two
hawks
with
one
arrow‖,
but
the
English
say
―to
kill
two
birds
with
one
stone‖.
Viewing
from
a
different
angle,
such
different
expression
toward
one
same
idiom
reflects
the
habit
difference
of
each
nation.
The
westerners
are
deeply
interested
in
watching
horse
racing.
Therefore,
many
set
phrases
derive
from
this
sport.
For
example,
people
use
―a
dark
horse‖
to
metaphor
the
unexpected
winner
and
use
―beton
the wrong horse‖ or ―back the wrong horse‖ to
describe the man who made a
false
judgemen or got a wrong choice consequently.
Different
history produces different allusions. However,
different aullsions all over the
world
are amazingly similar. The Chinese allusion
“
破釜沉舟
”
（
to break the cauldrons and
sink the boats after crossing, to burn
ones boats
）
originate from
Historical Records, which
means to cat
off all means of retreat and to defeat the enemy
till one gains the success. The
idiom
“burn
ones
boats”,
however,
der
ives
from
a
western
allusion.
In
49
BC,
Kaisa,
the
General of old ancient Roman, commanded
the country’s armed forces to attack the Roman
city,
crossing
Kubicon
implied
that
Kaisa
declared
war
to
Roman
Senior
Congress
and
Pongpei,
the
most
powerful
man
at
that
time.
After
they
crossed
the
Rubicon,
Kaisa
had
proclaimed “We have
crossed the Rubicon. We must go forward but never
fall back.” Using
the idiom to metaphor
破釜沉舟
, expressed the meaning
that once a man made a decision or
an
action,
he
cannot
change
later.
The
idiom
“to
meet
one’s
Waterloo”
derives
from
a
western
allusion.
In
1815,
Napoleon
had
all
but
suffered
a
devastating
defeat
in
waterloo.
With
this
idiom,
people
describe
a
man
who
suffered
a
complete
defeat
or
an
attack.
Astonishing
parallels
can
often
be
found
in
history.
The
Chinese
allusion
“
败走麦城
”
deriving
from
The
Romance
of
Three
Kingdoms
by
Luo
Guanzhong
of
the
early
Ming
Dynasty, is the same meaning
as “to meet one’s Waterloo”.
There
are
many
characteristics
in
English
and
Chinese
idioms.
The
first
one
is
colorful and vivid in
meaning, which is rich and varied. English and
Chinese idioms have
various
rhetoric
meaning, such
as
明喻
(simile)
,
“like
a
cat
on
hot
bricks”
(
像热锅上的蚂
蚁
)
；
暗喻
（
metaphor
）
“沉鱼落雁之容，
闭月羞花之貌”
(have
features that can make fish sink
and
birds alight , and looks that can outshine the
moon and put the flowers to shame);
借代<
/p>
（
metonym
）
:
老骥伏枥；志在千里
(An
old
steed
in
the
stable
still
aspires
to
gallop
a
thousand Li);
回文
(chiasmus)
：
人不犯我，<
/p>
我不犯人；
人若犯我，
我必犯人。
(We will not attack
unless
we
are
attacked
;if
we
are
attacked
,
we
will
certainly
co
unterattack);
倒
装
（<
/p>
inversion
）
: “A
thousand sails pass by sunken ship, ten thousand
saplings shoot up beyond
the
withered
tree
”(<
/p>
沉舟侧畔千帆过，病树前头万木春
)
。<
/p>
There
are
any
other
rhetorical
means we can’t list one by one here
.The second one is similarity in metaphorical
meaning.
Because
people’s
experience
and
thoughts
about
the
world
in
many
quarters
are
similar,
although English
culture differs from Chinese culture, there are
similarities, even the same
between
these two cultures. For example, both in the east
and the western country, workers
have
the experience “strike while the iron is
hot”(
趁热打铁
), and nearly all
peasants say “As
a man sows,
so he shall
reap”(
种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆
). Through
the struggle with nature both
the
easterners
and
westerners
have
come
to
know
that
unity
is
strength.
The
following
idioms
“a
bolt from
the
blue”
and
“
晴天霹雳
”,
“burn
one’s
boats”
and
“
破釜沉舟
”,
“add
fuel to the fire” and
“
火上加油
”, and so on, as well
versed in connotations well as figures.
Unless
such
circumstances,
English
and
Chinese
idioms
in
usage
are
interlinked,
which
is
conformed
to
the
structure
and
form
of
idiom
and
faithful
to
the
original
figure
and
characteristic.
Just as one word has many synonym
words, both English and Chinese idioms have
the character of similarity in
metaphorical meaning. For example, the English
idiom “in for
a penny, in for a pound”
shows that “
一不做，二不休；一旦开始就干到底
”
；
and “to go the
whole hog” shows that “
全力以赴<
/p>
”
；
“one
may as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb”(
犯
重罪和犯轻罪都受一样的处罚，
不如索性一不做
二不休
). These idioms are extremely
similar
in metaphorical meaning. Chines
idioms also have this character, such as
“
一不做，二不休
”,
“
全力以赴
”,
“
一往无前
” and so on. The third
one is p
olysemy. English and Chinese
idioms
have the characteristics of
polysemy. The same word or phrase of idioms often
has various
interpretations. For
example, the phrase “looking at” in the sentence
“He is looking at the
manuscript”
has
two
meaning
“to
see
and
red”
and
“to
examine
and
think
over”.
So
th
esentence can be translated into two
different sentences: the one is
他在检查手稿，
another is
他在看手稿
.
Another
example,
the
famous
sentence
“To
be
or
not
to
be”,
deriving
from
Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, also has two
translation forms:
“
生存还是毁灭
”or
“
存在还是消
失
”. That’s
because the word “be” usually has two meanings:
“
存在
” and
“
生存
”. However,
readers
can
get
the
concise
meaning
from
the
context.
There
is
a
close
relation
between
origination of
idioms and people’s
living
-surroundings.
Idioms, the carrier of culture and
information, are the important part of a language.
Generality
and
particularity
coexist
in
different
cultures.
Cultural
generality
reflects
cultural
similarity
and
cultural
particularity
reflects
cultural
varity.
It
is
the
cultural
particularity
tat
causes
English
and
Chinese
idioms
having
strong
national
and
cultural
characteristics.
Some
idioms
are
apparently
in
harmony
but
actually
at
variance.
Idioms,
deriving from different living-
surroundings, have striking national and cultural
color. Since
ancient times, Chinese
have lived off the land. The agricultural
population in China holds
the most part
of whole population. Peasants accumulate a wealth
of experience from farm
work which far
too many idioms full of agricultural culture rise
therefrom, such as
瓜田李
下
(in a melon
path or under a plum tree);
瓜熟蒂落
(when a
melon is ripe, it
falls off its
stem-things
are
settled
once
conditions
are
ripe),
and
so
on.
While
England
is
a
island
country which fishery and navigation
historically has a booming development. As a
result,
many idioms derive from sailing
and fishing, such as “struggle not against the
stream”; “pull
not against the wind”;
“a cold fish”, and so on.
Different idioms originate from
different customs and reflect them. Folk custom,
long-established by human being, is a
general term of habits, etique, convention and
belief and a fixed cultural pattern
approved by people. There are numerous English
and
Chinese
idioms
about
customs.
However,
owing
to
the
custom
difference,
although the
British and
Chinese describe the same thing, there is
quite a complete
difference.
For example , the Chinese often say ―
红白
喜事
‖
（
red and white
affairs
）
.
They
hold that weddings are red (happy) affairs while
funerals are white (sad) events.
―Red‖
derived
from
Han
people‘s
traditio
nal
marriage
customs.
When
holding
weeding ceremony, the bride wears in
red and is carried in a red sedan, lighting red
candles in every houseroom, pasting up
red paintings, eating red eggs. ―Red‖ is the
symbol of happiness and jubilation.
―White‖ originat
ed from the tradition
custom that
in
funeral
ceremony,
the
relatives
are
dressed
in
white
and
with
burlap
over
their
shoulders
in
mourning
for
deceased
people.
However,
the
marriage
and
funeral
custom
in
western
countries
is
totally
different
from
that
of
the
Han
people.
In
England
and
American,
the
bride
wear
white
garment
when
holding
wedding
ceremony, because they think that white
stands for pure and honest. So
―
正式婚礼
‖
in
English
is
―white
wedding‖
,
among
which
white
is
entirely
contrary
to
red
in
Chinese. As to funeral
ceremony, the westerners consider life superior to
other. The
death of individual life is
extremely sad. Where can people find happiness? In
order to
avoid touching on the
sensitive issue, they express ―died ‖in a
roundabout way. For
exam
ple
they usually say ― passing away‖ or ― kick the
bucket‖ or other euphemisms
to stand
for ― died ‖.
The religion
of the Chinese is quite different from that of
English. The British
and American
believe in Christianity, which is a vital part of
their national culture and
extremely
exert an influence even dominates people‘s life
and daily activity, therefore
many
idioms related to Christianity rise therefrom. For
example , the sentence ― Man
shall not
live by bread alone , but by every word that
proceeded out of the mouth of
God ‖
(
人不能靠面包过活，还要靠发自上帝的每个旨意生活
) ,
quoted from Bible.
Matthew, implies
that human need not only material life but also
spirit life. There are
many other
idioms such as ― God forbid ‖, ― He that serves
God for money will serve
the
devil
for
better
wages.‖
and
so
on
.
However,
in
China
people
are
deeply
influenced
by
Buddhism.
The
set
phrases
deriving
from
Buddhism
hold
more
than
ninety per cent among foreign words.
Take the following digital idioms for example :
一
尘
不
染
,
二
佛
升
天
,
三
世
轮
回
,
四
大
皆
空
,
五
体
投
地
,
六
根
不
净
,
七
手
八
脚
,
八
共
得
水
,
九
泉
之
下
.
Thus
from
those,
we
can
know,
different
idioms reflect
different religions.
In
any
country,
the
national
characteristics
are
reflected
not
only
in
the
native
language, but also in
the connotation of the national culture. Idiom, as
a particular language
form,
has
different
symbolic
meaning.
The
same
object
has
different,
even
completely
contrary
meaning
between
English
culture
and
Chinese
culture.
For
example,
dragon
in
Chinese
culture is the symbol of authority, regarded
as a mascot. The word “dragon” is a
commendatory term. From the following
idioms, you can understand fully “
望子成龙<
/p>
”
（
long
to see one’s son become dragon
-
long to see one’s son
succeed in life
）
“
龙驹凤雏
”
（
dragon
colt or young phoenix - a brilliant
young man
）
. On the contrary,
dragon in English culture is
the symbol
of evil, often regarded as a fierce and brutal
beast.
The slang “chase the dragon”
refers to the drug addicts. Another
example, dog is usually the symbol of base and
sordid
men in Chinese culture. Thus
“dog” is a derogatory term in Chinese mind. People
often say
狗仗人势（
like a dog
threatening people on the strength of its master
power
）
,
狗嘴里吐不
出象牙
（
no ivory issues
from the mouth of a dog
）
.
However, in English culture, the dog is the
guard of a house and the helpful friend
of men. In the western countries of mediaeval age,
dog was
often
the
symbol of
loyalty
to feudal
lord and faith
to
marriage. Thus
“dog”
is
a
commendatory
term
in
English
people’s
mind.
Usually,
people
draw
an
anology
between
human and dog, such
as “every dog has his day”, “a luck dog” and “to
teach an old dog new
tricks”. The word
“dog” is often used
as a term of abuse
in Chinese culture while in English
culture it is used as a term of
praise.
Owing
to
the
cultural
difference,
the
use
of
idioms
is
not
encouraged
or
the
learners
who have little
knowledge about the circumstances under which they
are to be applied, nor
should
one
attempt
it
at
the
expense
of
intelligibility,
which
will
ultimately
do
harm
to
successful communication
.
Idioms, the carrier of
rich cultural information, are a vital part of
language.
Because of the cultural
difference, English and Chinese idioms have their
own
characteristics with strong
national color. Although generality, to a certain
extent, exist in between English and
Chinese idioms, there has particularity in
language expression, cultural intension
as well as in origin and usage
Cultural
differences between China and the West
时间
:
2008-01-05
06:12
来源
:
作者
:
王颖
点击
:
885
次
Cultural differences between China and
the West
Thesis
statement:
As English students, we are
necessary to know something about
the
cultural differences between China and western
countries.
I. Cultural
differences in communication
A.
The limitation to the contents of conversation in
different cultures
B. The direct or indirect expression in
different cultures
C. The cultural
differences can affect and limit the quantity of
talk
II. The differences existing in
area culture
A.
Differences in location or direction
B. Differences in metaphor
and aesthetic judgement to animals
a. Cat and Dog
b. Cow and Horse
ences in
rites
A. Greetings
B. Names
IV. Differences in
custom culture
A.
Colors
B.
Numbers
V. Conclusions
Abstract:
The cultural
difference is a kind of obstacle and difficult
thing in the course
of
translation. In our English study, it
is unavoidable to make translations between
Chinese
and
English, which demand that we should not only
master the two
languages but also be
acquainted the knowledges about two
cultures and
understand the differences
as well . Both China and western coutries have
their own
history development since
they belong to different geographical
circumstances and
living background,
local conditions and social customs, ethic
regulations and life
styles, process of
development and other factors. Therefore, if we
couldn't handle it
well, the cultural
differences will bring us a lot of troubles in the
course of our
language studying and the
trans-cultural communication.
Key words:
cultural difference, historical background, local
condition, customs
al differences in
communication
When people in different cultures
communicate with others, they have to follow
some norms limited and regulated by
different cultures concretely. It is necessary to
know such rules as when to make
conversation and when not to make conversation,
what to say and what not to say, and
what kind of situations suitable, and how to say.
The cultures are different, the norms
of them are therefore different. There will three
parts to illustrate different
manifestation of conversation in different
cultures.
A. The limitation
to the contents of conversation in different
cultures
Generally speaking, there are some
themes to be talked freely in both culture. For
example, in western
culture, people are usually allowed to talk about
weather. job.
amateur.
hobby or some national events. But some other
topic are limited such as
ages,
in come, religious belief
or marriage etc, whereas such topic can be allowed
to
talk
about
freely in China. In western culture, it is natural
for men to compliment
lady's
appearance, stature or
wearing. But in Chinese tradition, such things
belong
to taboos to
some extents. Although there are some
changes in China nowadays,
there still
exist
limitation. So if an
American boy compliments a Chinese girl to be
sexy. It is unacceptable, but this
seems natural and common to Americans are on the
contrary. Even a mother could
compliment her daughter in such words in American.
B. The direct or indirect
expression in different cultures
About how to express hopes, denands and
opinions in conversation, there exist
some differences. Different cultures
always have different customs. Chinese are prone
to some indirect way, always exchanging
greetings before get to the point. In their
conversations, greetings seems like a
prelude, which may have little and even nothing
connected with the subject. And the
people's attitudes are so humble that there seldom
appears any offensive words while the
western people tend to direct their expression
which come straightly to the point and
spoken frankly. In addition, they often show
their stands when explaining the reason
during their talks. Chinese often take different
way by
complying
with the conversation order, explain reasons
first, then show
stands. Even if the
modernized methods of communication are used,
there still exist
cultural differences
in social intercourses. Take a phone call for
example, a German
who is wanted on the
phone will certainly tell
his name first without hesitation, but
a Chinese would like to wait for the
other's name before he tell his, unless he gets
the
others‘ name, or he will not be
willing to show who he is.
C. The cultural differences can affect
and limit the quantity of talk
Such illustration will make this clear.
In Chinese tradition, people could seldom
say ―thank you‖ all the time. However
once there's a need to express thanks, the
words ―thank you‖ or ―thanks a lot‖
would be not enough. There would come more
words to express their thankful feeling
and they will even thank many times,whereas
the people in the English countries
have the different reaction. Although they express
―thank you‖ all day and there's hardly
any place not to use such words, they seldom
express twice or
more times to the same people and the
same thing.
II. The
differences existing in area culture
A.
Differences in location or direction
The area culture refers to the kind of
culture founed by the people's
location,natural condition and
geographical environment, such culture show the
phenomeno that different nations use
different language forms to express the same
things, the difference of area culture
between China and England is a good example.
In China, there's a tradition that one
must be the domineer, if he's always seated facing
the South, but one must be the subject
if he's always seated facing North. In such a
tradition, south stands for nobility
while North is the humble direction, people often
say from South to North ―come and go
between South and North‖, the location of the
word ―South‖ is always put forword.
However there's c
onversal situation in
the
English culture but for Englishmen
and Americans. Things are different because of
their geographical culture. So ―From
South To North‖. ―
北屋
‖ in
Chinese means a
room located in North,
facing the South. There are more exampls such
a
s ―
西北
‖
，
‖
东北
‖,
―
东南
‖ in Chinese which have
the converse expressions in English. That is to
say, the words for direction in Chinese
and English are just in converse order
―
西北
‖
is
Northwest, ―
西南
‖ is
Southwest.
Take a word ―
东风
‖
and ―west wind‖ for example, a
lthough
there can be found
the
corresponding words in Chinese or English, the
connotations of this two words are
different. In the Chinese people's mind
―east wind‖ stands for spring and it is the
warm
wind which
turns green from cold winter and receives all
lives. Thus, the
Chinese
like east wind very much. However the
east wind in English means the
wind
blowing from the North of European continent,
which symbolizes ―cold,
unpleasant‖. So
English people are not so interested in it as the
Chinese people
they
prefer
west wind better, because of the famous poem ―Ode
to the west wind‖ from
Shelley who
express the beautiful wishes to the future and the
firm belief ―O, wind, if
winter comes,
can Spring be far behind?‖ This is just the stem
from which
Englishmen prefer west wind
to east wind.
B.
Differences in metaphor and aesthetic judgement to
animals
The different
nations also have the different region cultural
differeces in
metaphor and aesthetic
judgement. Some things are beautiful in our views
but ugly
top other nation or on the
contrary, there are some things which are ugly in
our
opinion but beautiful to others, we
could see such differeces from the aspect of
animals.
a. Cat and Dog
Cat in Chinese is often shown to be
lovely and clever but in the legnd of western
countries, cat is the
embodiment of devil and the guard of the witch, so
if we consider
― she is a cat‖ only
from its literal meaning. We will make a mistake.
In fact, the
connotation of
the sentence means ―she is a woman of
harbouring
evil intentions‖.
Take
another
animal ―Dog‖ for example, there also exist
different concepts of
values in
different culture. The westerners love dogs as
sons and often treat dogs as
people.
Dog is
considered something
valuable and people's faithful friend. So there
are many words in
English to appreciate dogs, such as
―top dog‖ which refers to the
most
important people,
―lucky
dog‖ which means something unpleasant and dirty in
most situation. In Chinese culture,
there are almost derogating meanings in the words
with ―dog‖ such as
―
狗胆包天
‖,
―
狗急跳墙
‖ etc.
b. Cow and Horse
Some things in one culture which have
the colorful and abundant denotations,
and connotations will be insipid and
not easy to arouse associations in another
culture.
This is the
personal
ity and difference of cultures.
Let‘s take animals for example.
Cow is
the symbol of different in Chinese tradition.
Those who work earnestly, and
dilightly, regardless of unfair
criticism or complaints are conidered as the men
with
the spirits of cow. So during the
long time there forms praise and appreciation for
cow. Different from China, English
depended maily on horse to plough in ancient
times and seldom used cow, so only
horse stands for diligence and works hard. Thus
such idea embodies in English as
―work like a horse or as strong as a
horse‖ etc. But
the western's
understanding, another example will be ―as happy
as a cow‖ here ―a
cow‖ replace ―a
bird‖, which just means happiness in Chinese
culture.
III.
Differences in rites
If
we notice some details in rites, we will readily
find that there also exists
differences
between China and the western countries. The
following two parts will
help us to see
clearly.
A. Greetings
The Chineses people and
the westerners have different rites in greetings.
For
example, in China, one often meets
with such greetings ―where are you going?‖
―What are you going to do?‖ and soon,
which have no much, deep connotation.
Greeting like, ―Have you had supper?‖
and are only some common greetings when
people meet together. However,
westernerswill be sensitive and serious about
these
questions, which seems to be the
private things in their views and should not be
inquired about freely, except between
or among intimates, Greeting like ―Have you
had supper?‖ will make them
so
amazing, and be a loss that they
wonder whether you
want to invite then
for supper, so, these greetings should be
transferred into English
culture like
―Hello‖, ―Good morning‖, and so on. Take the phone
call for example, in
our Chinese
custom, we often sa
y ―Who are you?‖, ―I
am so and so‖, which have
different
expressions in English, as ―Who is this speaking?‖
and ―This is so
-and-so
speaking.‖
B. Names
The
scope of usage to a conception will be different
in different cultures. Take
names for example, sister and brother
are simple words in English which include all
ages
in this
scope, regardless of concrete senior or junior
age, which in Chinese,
names are
much more detailed and
complicated. Ther are elder sister and younger
sister, elder
brother and younger brother etc. The
similar example is also embodied
in the
name of
―cousin‖ which is
just the general name in English. But in Chinese
we put cousin in very
detailed way according to the blood-
relationship with one's
parents
embodying not only
concrete
age, but also different sexes, such as cousin.
IV. Differences in custom
culture
A. Colors
Chinese have
saying of ―
红白喜事
‖, it is not
difficult to understand ―
红喜
‖
once
connected red with having a baby,
marriage or birthday congratulations etc which
westerners call ―the
red
-
letter day‖. But they
couldn't understand why Chinese think it
to be ―a happy thing‖ when someone
passed away. In fact, in western culture, the
connotation of ―Red and
White‖ is contrary with that of Chinese custom,
westerners
often
associate Red with blood and death
sometimes with radical action or rebellion,
which
carries a
certain political color. Also, red can bring their
minds to debts or
deficits. There
are some example:
―He is in the red‖ means ―He is in
debt‖
―A red mother‖ refers
to ―the mother with deficits‖
―A red battle‖ means ―a bloody battle‖
and ―red ringence‖ means
―bloody
ringence‖
―A red revolution‖
refers to ― the proletarian
revolution‖.
There is another fact to
show this difference In 1905, a place in ―Sichuan‖
call
―the globe‖ was a famous brand and
was tasty. But it had not a good market in
western
countries. The reason is that there're
red flag on the globe, in the brand,
such brand was
considered to be dangerous and
rebellions, so the people in western
countries were unwilling to buy it.
After learning this different custom the Chinese
omitting the red flag. Of course, the
situation turn good as well
.
The
understandering of
sincerity in western
culture, bride often wears wedding dress in white.
In additition,
white is also marked by
good luck and happiness. On the contrary, white in
Chinese
express purification in today's
China. However, in most situation, it has the
unlucky
meaning including the
connotation of revolt. When somebody passed away,
the
family will b all in white, wearing
white dress, white flowers and putting up white
paper such action is so deviation from
the understanding of the western customs, the
followings are concrete examples to
illustrate this differece in order to make it
clearer,
here some other examples of
other colors are included.
―One of the
white day of somebody's life‖ here ―whiter day‖
means ―lucky day‖,
―happy
day‖.
―Please give me
a black coffee‖ here ―black‖ doesn't refer to
―heavy, thick‖ but
― light‖
―A black lie‖ means ― a lie
unforgivable‖, but ― a white lir‖ means ― a lie
with
good
will‖
―In
the black‖ means ―to make a profit‖
adolscence‖.
―I
am green with envy when I go to peking and see
them facilities‖ here ―be
green
with envy‖ meanns ―envy
very much‖
From these
example, we can see differences in customs and
background of two
cultures
in understanding of colors. Only we get to know
the differences, we can
avoid
series of difficulties and
leave gaps bridge in trans-cultural
communications.
B. Numbers
In recent
year, some Chinese people are sensitive and
particular about something
connected with number. Such as choosing
the number of lucky day, telephone number
or
Bp call
number, license number for eight, six or nine
which are considered lucky
numbers, the order of numbers had
better be ―888‖ , ―666‖or ―999‖ expressing a kind
of ― luky and good wishes.‖ In Chinese
culture ―8‖ is the homophonic with
―
发
‖,
which means
success while ―6‖ corresponds to the homophonic of
―
六六大顺
‖ which
has
the meaning of satisfactory and gratification. ―9‖
means permanence and eternity
because
of its homophonic sound in Chieses such meanings
and connotation express
the idea of
happiness, luck and success. These numbers
therefore become the lucky
numbers. But
―4‖is the homophonic of ― death‖ in Chinese. So
people try to avoid this
number.
Let's see how the
westerners act when they meet with some of these
number.
Because it is impossible to
appear homophonic between the number and the
meaning
in English, their reflection
would not be probablely similar with that of
Chinese.
However, there still exists
some cultural cu
stoms in number. They
avoid ―13‖ in
particular, the number
viewed as taboo and has the saying of ―black
Friday‖ etc. In
1972, American Present
Nicson once visited China, but when Premier
Zhouenlai went
to call on the
delegation in Shanghai. He found that they were
arranged to settle down
on floor
thirteen, he was so surprised and serious to say ―
Why were they arranged to
this floor?‖
They take ― thirteen as taboo most!‖ When Premier
Zhouenlai went into
their room, they
all stood up, but smiled uneasily, Premier Zhou
explained in a suit
chance ―we're very
sorry to ignore your custom of avoiding
―thirteen‖, but you know,
there is a
fable in China. Once there was a man, the more he
thought of the ghost, the
more to look
for ghost, the ghost also disappeared
un
expectedlly…… So the number
―thirteen‖ in your culture is like the
ghost in Chinese, such word help to dispel the
misgivings and anger of foreigners.
This example gives us such a truth that if we take
ignorance of culture differences
between China and foreign countries, iT is
unavoidable to appear the embarrassed
cases intrans-cultural communications. This is
limited and regulated by the
development of long history of each culture, which
shouldn't be treated lightly by every
person inside or outside the certain culture.
V. Conclusion
In a word, both the
Chinese cultures and the western cultures have
many things of
their own, with special,
connotations culture greatly impress on each
aspect of the
people's
life. So we have to study and research carefully
in translation with the aim of
shortening gap between two cultures and
making the translation more properly and
naturlly.
References:
Wu Yi Cheng
―the comparison of the culture between
China and western
country‖
《
The foreign language
》
98/3
P47
Qiu Mao Ru
―culture and the
translation about it‖
《
The foreign language
》
97/4
P7
Zhu yao xiao
―Alight talk about the cultura
differences and their translation‖
《
Chinese
translation
》
97/4
P7
Xu
Li Na
―Translation between the lines‖
《
Chinese translation
》
Paul Abraham.
Contect USA.
Prentice Hall Regant.
2000
张奎武
《英美概况》
上海外语教育出版实社
1999
A
Comparative
study
of
English
and
Chinese
Idioms
时间
:
2008-01-05
06:03
来源
:
作者
:
王白云
点击
:
404
次
A Comparative study of English and
Chinese Idioms
Written by
Wang Baiyun
Directed by
Zhang Ping
A
Thesis
Submitted in partial
fulfillment
Of the
requirements for the degree of
Bachelor of Arts in the school of
Foreign Languages
Guizhou
University for Nationalities
April 2006
Thesis statement:
understanding similarities and differences between
Chinese and
English idioms will help
English learners in translation and conversation.
Ⅰ
.Introduction
Ⅱ
.The
similarities and differences between Chinese and
English idioms in meaning
and usage
A. Similarities
B.
Differences
Ⅲ
.The
derivation in different image in Chinese and
English
A.
Deriving from military affairs
B.
Alluding
to well-known literary words
C.
Influenced
by different customs and beliefs
D.
Affected
by different cultures and backgrounds
Ⅳ
. Comparison of idioms of
color in Chinese and English
A.
Differences in meaning, similarities in
symbol
B.
Similarities in meaning and symbol
Ⅴ
.Conclusion
Abstract:
Understanding
similarities
and
differences
between
Chinese
and
English
idioms
is
of
great
importance
in
the
cross-
cultural
communication.
Based
on
a
comparative study, this paper will
study how they are similar, and what are different
in meaning and usage. It is hoped that
the study can shed light on the two language
features
and
also
provide
some
help
to
English
learners,
in
the
way
of
increasing
learner‘s interest in English. Besides,
it will help to improve culture awareness. I will
conform that learning English is happy
and easy rather than boring and difficult.
Key words:
idioms, differences, similarities,
comparison, conversation
Ⅰ
.Introduction
As
is known to all, language is the most direct way
for mankind to
communicate information
and exchange ideas, and it serves as a bridge
between
different people and cultures.
Idioms, as a special form of language, exist in
both of
them and carry a large amount
of cultural information such as history,
geography,
religion, and military
affair, custom, nationality psychology, thought
pattern and etc,
and therefore are
closely related to culture. They are the heritage
of history and
product of cultural
evolvement. Consequently, we can know much about
culture
through studying idioms and in
turn get better understanding of idioms by
learning the
cultural background behind
them. Francis Bacon said, ―Generous wit and spirit
of a
nation are discovered by their
idioms‖. Comparing English and Chinese idioms will
help us have a better understanding
differences and similarities of the two languages
in the cross-cultural communication and
translation.
Ⅱ
.
The
similarities
and
differences
in
meaning
and
usage
between
Chinese
and English idioms
A.
Similarities
Idioms are usually highly specialized
in meaning and closely tied to distinctive
cultural features and cultural
attitudes. It is believed that idioms are the most
cultural
ly loaded element in
any language‘s vocabulary. With relation to forms,
they
give an expression to the special
features of the language.
Some English idioms and
Chinese idioms share the same, or partially
similar
metaphors, and vice
versa
，
it is easy to
understand.
To
loss one‘s marbles
失去理智
Quick like
lighting
疾如闪电
as light as a feather
轻如羽毛
to fish in
troubled water
混水摸鱼
golden age
黄金时代
seeing is
believing
耳闻为虚，眼见为实
kill
two birds with one stone
一箭双雕
B.
Differences
On the other hand, English and Chinese
idioms differ in meaning and usage.
Therefore, sometimes, we may translate
or understand them in wrong way, and
make some fun. Such as ―pull one‘s leg‖
is ―
拉后腿
‖ but its true
meaning is ―
开
玩笑
.‖
(
单其昌
,1990
，
P.105) we could not take the words for
granted, We should
realize it is very
necessary to pay more attention to their
differences, and carefully
translate or
use it based on its cultures. Here are more
examples.
To have a card up one‘s sleeve
有妙计
The
apple of one‘s eye
掌上明珠
Let sleeping dogs lie
不要打草惊蛇
Hold a candle to the sun
徒劳无益
Six of one and
half a doze of the other
半斤八两
Back down
打退堂鼓
Have an axe to
grind
别有用心
At
sixes and sevens
乱七八糟
Make a mountain out of a molehill
小题大做
Spill the beans
走漏风声
Bag of wind
夸夸其谈
There exists
vast differences between English and Chinese
culture and this
difference can be so
formidable that the lexicographers may even think
that it is
impossible to give
equivalents to certain culture-bound idioms.
Ⅲ
.The derivation in
different image in Chinese and English
Every country or region within a
country has a unique common heritage and
has own language, joint experience, or
shared learning. This shared background
produces the culture and language of a
region, country, or society. In this case,
whatever are English or Chinese idioms
derive from their habits in the common
heritage.
A.
Deriving
from military affairs
Some idioms
deriving from military affairs are difficult to
understand and
translate, but such
idioms are not so much, and then we should know
the history about
them. Here are some
idioms.
All is fair in war
兵不厌诈
To know the
enemy and know yourself, and
you can
fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat
知
己知彼，百战不殆
Bury the hatchet
化干戈为玉帛
Resort to arms
兵戎相见
Speed is what
counts in war
兵贵神速
B.
Alluding to well-known literary words
Some idioms have their origin in well-
known literary words. It is very difficult
for us to understand, and the number of
such idioms is small in the English language.
As we all know, we must know them very
well if we want to be good learner in
English. Here are some such idioms.
Paint the lily
锦上添花，画蛇添足
A dead duck
将失败的计划
By the skin of one‘s teeth
死里逃生
There are
some idioms like suck idioms. Taking deriving from
allusion for
example, in history, such
as ―to burn one‘s boat‖, it is translated into
―
破釜沉舟
‖,not
―
烧舟
‖(
张安德
,200
2,P.20).Another example is ―to do one
thi
ng under cover of
another‖, is
―
暗度陈仓
‖. ―Cry wolf‖ is
―
谎报险情
‖, alludes to
fable.
C.
Influenced by different customs and
beliefs
Different country share different
customs and beliefs. It is certainly much easier
to learn about other cultures if one
approaches them. For example, most English
people believe that it is common to
communicate with each other in euphemism, in
order not to lead to awkwardness and
embarrassment.
Therefore,
the following
examples illustrate some
kinds of ―die‖; most of examples
are
the same to our
country.
To go to glory
升天了
To be gone or To expire
逝世
To depart or To
pass away
去世，与世长辞
To close (end)
one‘s day
寿终
To
breathe one‘s last
咽气，断气
To go west
归西天
To pay the debt
of nature
了结尘缘
To depart to
the world of shadows
命归黄泉
To
give up the ghost
见阎王
To
be no more
不在世
To kick the
bucket
翘辫子
To join the
majority
会见祖先
To kick up
one‘s heels
登腿，翘脚
We can have some ideas of
the cultural differences, which can help us
considerably, especially in translation
and conversation. English and Chinese must
have different culture due to
differences in
beliefs
、
politics and human
history, which
focus on usage of
idioms. Most Chinese believe Buddhism, they are
deeply influenced
by Buddhism, we
usually use this idiom
―
放下屠刀，立地成佛
‖,it is translated
into
―to drop one‘s cleaver and become
a Buddha
-achieve salvation as soon as
one gives
up evil‖(
张安德
,
杨元刚
,2002,P.23).
However, most English people believe
Christianity, they uphold Christian
culture. Different beliefs in Chinese and English
reflect the two different languages.
Therefore, we should take it seriously in
cross-cultural communication.
Otherwise, it is confused.
Such as
―
谋事在人，成事在
天
‖is
―Man proposes, God disposes‖, the translation
seems to be the best way,
however, the
two background of beliefs and cultures are
different, if it is translated
into
―Man proposes, God disposes‖, Chinese become
believing Christianity not
Buddhis
m. Thus, we should
take ―Heaven‖ instead of ―God‖.
D. Affected by different
cultures and backgrounds
Due
to the two different cultures and backgrounds, and
different understanding
of the source
language, these idioms may be translated in the
light of each cultures
and backgrounds.
Origin of idioms is closely related to their
backgrounds, different
idioms have
serious national cultures. Chinese take farming as
the dominant factor
since ancient
times, farmer plays large part in China, people
accumulate rich
experience in
agriculture, which give rise to lots of idioms in
terms of agriculture. The
following
Chinese idioms belong to this type.
瓜田李下
in a melon patch or under a plum tree
地老天荒
till the end of the world
五谷丰登
a bumper grain harvest
风调雨顺
good weather for crops
(
张安德
,
杨元刚
,2002,P.29)
On the other hand, England locate in
island, in history, people used to engage in
fishing and voyage, therefore, some
such idioms arise from the culture. Such idioms
include:
A sea of faces
人山人海
Fishing for
compliments
讨别人的恭维
To drink
like a fish
牛饮
Struggle not against the stream
潮流不可抗拒
To keep
one‘s head above water
奋力图存
A cold fish
冷漠的人
To
have other fish to fry
另有他图
To sail one‘s
own boat
独立行动
In low water
不如意（经济不宽裕）
These
idioms are very interesting, if you know the
cultures and background in
the related
country.
Ⅳ
. Comparison of idioms of
color in Chinese and English
A. Differences in meaning,
similarities in symbol
Although yellow
and blue are different, the symbols are same in
the two
different national cultures.
The two stand for diadem and dignity. Many
examples
illustrate such English
idioms.
A
blue-blooded family
表示具有王室血统的家庭
Blue Book
蓝皮书
The boys in blue
专指皇家警察和水兵
Blue ribbon committee
一流的委员会
And such
Chinese idioms are familiar to us, for example, ―<
/p>
黄袍加身
‖
，
i
t is
same to English ―raise sb to the
purple‖,―
黄屋
‖and so
on.
B.
Similarities in meaning and symbol
English country and China are different
in their surroundings and cultures, but
people also use similar color to
describe the same thing or view. For instance, in
the
two countries, color ―red‖ all
stands for danger, anger and shyness
.
Red battle
血战
Red activities
暴力活动
Red-cover papers
国家机密文件
Red alert
空袭警报
See red
火冒三丈，勃然大怒
Turn red with
blush
羞红了脸
Red
color plays an important role in China, and
Chinese people regard it as the
e
ndless ardency, such as
―
红鸡蛋
‖
、
―
红包
‖
、
―
滚滚红尘
‖. Likewise,
red color is
considered as ―serious‖,
―important‖ and ―welcome‖ in western country. So
―the
red-
letter day‖ means
―important day‖, and when they welcome honored
guests, they
use ―red carpet‖(
红地毯
) to indicate grandness.
Ⅴ
. Conclusion
Idioms are the reflections of people‘s
experiences, views, and emotions. In
whatever language, they are extremely
important. It is very interesting and useful to
study and compare English and Chinese
idioms; we should pay more attention to
different kinds of idioms in the two
languages, and we must fully understand their
cultural backgrounds, customs and real
meanings so that we can use them correctly.
As for English major
students, it is very necessary for us to master
enough and
general knowledge of idioms,
and we should realize that some idioms can be
translated literally, but others should
be treated in a flexible way. Finally, It is my
hope that it will increase learner's
interest in English, and let the learners know
learning English is happy and easy
rather than boring and difficult.
References
张安德，杨元刚。（
< br>2002
）《英汉词语文化对比》。武汉：湖北教育出版社
彭启良。（
1980
）。《翻译与
比较》。北京：商务印书馆
单其昌。（
1990
）。《英汉翻译技巧》。北京：外语教学与研究出版社
陈生保。（
1997
）。《英汉翻
译津指》。北京：中国对外翻译出版社公司
余立三。（
1985
）。《英汉修辞比较与翻译》。北京：商务出版社
Accepting China English
，
Not Chinese English
时间
:
2008-01-05
06:02
来源
:
作者
:
谢悦
点击
:
45
次
Accepting China English
，
Not Chinese English
Written by
Xieyue
Directed by
Zhangping
A thesis
Submitted in
partial fulfillment
Of the requirements
for the degree of
Bachelor of Art in
the School of Foreign Languages
Guizhou
University for Nationalities
March 13,
2006
Thesis statement
:
With the development of society in its
politics, economy and
culture in the
whole world, China English has been admitted and
accepted by scholars
in international
exchange. But we should divide boundary line
between China English
and Chinese
English in order to refuse Chinese English
thoroughly.
Ⅰ
.Definition
A.
The
definition of China English
B.
#
The definition of Chinese
English
Ⅱ
.About
China English
C.
Reasons for China English come into
being
D.
The expression form of China English
E.
The prospect of China English
Ⅲ
.About Chinese
English
F.
Chinese English exist universally
G.
Reasons
for Chinese English emerge
H.
The
expression form of Chinese English
Ⅳ
.Conclusion : accepting
China English ,refusing Chinese English
Abstract:
China English and
Chinese English is always a disputed issue
.Nowadays,
it is well accepted that
China English is a possible and feasible
phenomenon .
However, there are still
some people couldn‘t divide the difference of the
two. In
order to make a thorough
understanding of China English, it is necessary to
make
clear what are China English and
Chinese English. The best attitude people should
take is to envisage it and try out best
to solve the problem.#
Key
words
:
China English
Chinese English
contrast
acceptation
refutation
I .
To keep pace
with world, China have to communicate with foreign
countries in
many fields. China English
contribute greatly to China culture. What is China
English? ―According to normal English,
China English express specific object
about china social cul
ture
in many fields‖ (Liwenzhong 1993.4). China English
never disturbed by mother tongue and
have its own words and phrases, syntax and
languages of Chinese characteristic by
using transcription and semiotics. China
English is a language symbol. Only
under certain culture and ideology, can china
English appeared. It including
politics, economy, historic terminology, literary
quotation and so on. It is inevitable
that China English exist in China. The
existence is a large progress in
language variation. Then, what is Chinese English?
―Chinese English
(Chinglish) is a language which is interfered by
mother
language, and do not accord with
the culture habit of English.‖ The existence of
Chinese English is a negative aspect in
language variation.
II
.About China English
2.1.
In the process of understanding Chinese culture,
people from foreign countries
admit and
accept specific things of China gradually, then
they combine their
culture background
with Chinese. China English is the result of
culture exchange,
collision and mix
together between Chinese and western. China
English is the
result of language
influence, infiltration and development. With the
development
of social language and
culture, China English is inevitable. In cultural
exchange,
we should fully respect
English pragmatics principle and cultural.
Moreover,
foreigner should fully accept
and understand the real meaning between the line
and
behind the line. Beside, the
stronger China economy and national power to be,
the
more eager foreigner want to know
China culture. It made them to accept the way
of China expression.
2.2. Because we live in different
environment and have different way of thinking,
culture, local conditions and customs
are reasonably different. China English
come out in order to express unique
things of China, some expression are wisely
used and spread in international
association.
#
When we talk
with each other, for some unique things of China,
we do not
need to find some fixed
expression, infact, it is not exist. However, we
could creat
new words to fill with the
vacancy of expression for culture difference
between
China and Western. These new
words and new expression are satisfied the need,
it
is a positive element. We could get
the conclusion safely that China English is
enriched the way of expression and
satisfied the need of communication.
2.3. It is impossible to compare
vocabularies in different language. That is to
say,
there are not always corresponding
vocabularies between Chinese and English.
The phenomenon is called ―there
are some expression in English but not
exist in
Chinese‖ and ―there are some
expression in Chinese but not exist in English‖.
Some new words and phrase appeared in
foreign countries at first, there are no
corresponding words in Chinese, but
very quickly, people creat some words to
express then. Likewise, there are some
Chinese term or expression which can not
be matched in corresponding English
.For example, ―
功夫
‖
、
炕
‖
,―
白话文
‖and so
on.
It is easy to find out that there are close
relationship between language and
culture. China English emerge and
develop only in the course of cultural
exchange and communication. China
English solve a problem of cultural
exchange between China and Western.
The expression form of
China English
(1)
Linguistic relativity and intranslatability lead
to some Chinese mix
together with
English.
Kungfu
(
功夫
)
Baihua
(
白话文
)
Kang
(
炕
)
Litchi
#(
荔枝
)
Wonton
(
混沌
)
Chowmei
(
炒面
)
Doufu
(
豆腐
)
Bohea
(
武夷山
)
(2) China English appeared in specific
culture.
Four Book
(
四书
)
Xiucai (
秀才
)
Koutow(
磕头
)
mahjong(
麻将
)
Cheongsam(
旗袍
)
yamen(
衙门
#)
Erhu(
二胡
)
Red Army(
红军
)
Paper tiger (
纸老虎
)
(3) China English of specific economy
and policy.
Four modernizations
(
四个现代化
)
Spiritual
civilization (
精神文明
)
Two hundred policy
(
双百方针
)
Material
civilization (
物质文明
)
Cross-straits relations
(
海峡两岸关系
)
Development is
of over-riding importance
(
发展是硬道理
)
#
Strive for a
relatively comfortable life
(
奔小康
)
(4) China
English of specific allusion, idion, proverb,
admonition. China
English reserve
original characteristic and inside cultural
information of
words and phrases under
the circumstance.
People mountains and people
seas (
人山人海
)
Shoot two hawks
with one arrow (
一箭双雕
)
Like bamboo shoots after rain
(
雨后春笋
)
Seeking truth
from facts (
实事求是
)
No
discord, no concord (
不打不相识
)
Ten
thousand years are too long, seize the day, seize
the hour
(
一万年太久<
/p>
,
只争朝夕
)
2.4. The existence of China English is
a fact, not a hypothesis, it has a vast range
of prospects. The culture of China is
respected by all of the world. Foreigner have
a great deal of warmth to Chinese
culture. China English have some characteristic
of Chin
ese, we couldn‘t
prevent it, and we have responsibility to spread
#China
culture, and put China English
more forward. But many people may have some
difficulties use China English, we
should study and research it deeply.
III .About Chinese English.
Chinese English is not accepted by
foreigner, it is not the normal way of using
English.
e English prevent
and attack normal English more or less. It destroy
the
communication and influence the
quality of chatting greatly. It is easy for
Chinese
to understand Chinese English.
But when foreigner communicate with Chinese,
they often find hard to understand
Chinese English. Chinese English is created by
contacting words stiffly one by one
according to Chinese. At last, it bring lots of
joke and foreigner co
uldn‘t
make out the meaning and they looked at each other
with puzzled expressions. Sometimes,
some miss expression are called ―China
English‖. It is show clearly that we
have not a good command of English.
e English is the result of mother-
tongue interference. Now, we should
make a distinction between
―acquisition‖ (
语言习惯
) and
―learning‖ (
语言学得
).
At the beginning of 1980‘s, Krashen,
America linguist, once put forward the
conception of the two. He said, the
process of children learning mother tongue
belong to unconscious. People usually
not realized that he or she is learning
language but communicate using
language. However, language learning is a
conscious process which is built on
mother-tongue. People usually learning
language in a educational environment.
For foreign language learning, mother
language‘s influence have
both positive and negative aspects. It
called ―positive
transfer‖ and
―negative transfer‖. Meanwhile, in the process of
foreign language
learning, however,
mother language will bring a lot of trouble to us.
That is to say,
foreign language
studying will be disturbed and affected by mother
language. This
is ―negative transfer‖.
The emergence of Chinese English due to negative
transfer
of mother language.
Thus, we should know a number of
language information about idiomatic
English by means of TV, broadcast,
publications, books, even every day life. Only
in this way, can we recognize and grasp
the regular of English.
e English is
reflected by outside language environment. Beside
the
influence of mother language.
Chinese English is due to inappropriate guide of
teachers and authors. English have
large influence in the world, we may say
English has became Global language. The
most part of countries in the world have
regarded English as their second
language. Of course, China have no exception.
Thus, there are different kinds of
English varieties. China English belong to one of
them. However, Chinese English cannot
mention in the same breath, the main way
of learning English in #China are
teaching in school and medias. The correctness
of inputting language, direct affect
English study on the order of the day, but
without proper language environment,
teachers level remain to be improved,
abnormal
language
—
Chinese English
emerge.
are some expression form of Chinese English
(1) Chinese
English which were made up of words.
street women
(W)
—街道妇女—
housewives of the
neighborhood (R)
first products
(W)
—拳头产品—
competitive
products (R)
run car
(W)
—跑车—
sports car (R)
hand computer
(W)
—手提电脑—
portable computer
(R)
(2) Chinese English which do not
accord with the habit of English expression.
There are not
error in grammar and struction of sentence, but
foreigner
couldn‘t understand the
meaning of it.
If you have good body, you can do what
you want to do. (R)
*. ―good body‖ is
affected by Chinese ,‖good body‖ is not exist in
English
He first met with failure. (W)
He met with
failure for the first time. (R)
#
*. ―first met with failure‖
The sentence is not finish. It couldn‘t express
the
first time clearly.
He
regards men are heavy, while women are light. (W)
He regards men
as superior to women. (R)
*. ―heavy‖
and―light‖ couldn‘t express the real meaning of
men more superior
than women.
(3) Chinese English of wrong
collocation
do a good man
(R)
—做个好人—
be a good man (W)
my
most ideal job
(R)
—我最理想的职业—
my ideal job (W)
dear/cheap price (R)
—价格贵
/
便宜—
high/low price
(W)
live in campus
(R)
—住在校园—
live on campus (W)
IV.
The
existence of Chinese English is objective. Chinese
English and China
English will exist
side by side. Therefore, to overcome Chinese
English, we
should not only study
English but also have some awareness of culture
、
history
、
economy and policy of foreign countries.
#
At the same time, we should
refuse Chinese English, and make great
efforts to express our thought clearly
and understand foreigner in communication.
To avoid Chinese English, I suggest
that we should understand the local
conditions and customs of western
countries and understand the different culture
and different form of expression; we
should use proper language in proper
situation and cultivate the thought of
English.
So long as we have
confidence and will, we could grasp China English,
refuse Chinese English, and improve the
quality of communication.
Reference
李文中
―
中国英语与中式英语
‖
《外语教学与研究》
1993.4
杜瑞清
,
姜亚军
―
近二十年中国英语研究评述
‖
《语与外语教学》
2001.1
刘君栓
―
母语与第二语言习得
‖
《山东外语教学》
2005.4
吴
玫
―
语言僵化现象研究
‖
《中国外语》
2005.5
王
芳
―
#
中国学生怎样讲地道英语
‖
《大学英语》
2002.5
贾冠杰
,
向明发
―
为中国英语一辩
‖
《外语与外语教学》
1997.5
黄金祺
―
应当肯定西译文化现象的积极面
‖
《中国翻译》
1988.1
区
珙
―
概念困惑
,
不可译性及弥补手段
‖
《中国翻译》
1992.4
白靖宇
文化与翻译
北京
:
中国社会科学出版社
2000
How to Avoid
Chinglish in the Chinese-English
Translation
时间
:
2008-01-05
05:54
来源
:
作者
:
刘宁
点击
:
226
次
How to Avoid Chinglish in the Chinese-
English Translation
Written by
Liu Ning
Directed by
Xia
GuiQing
A thesis
Submitted in partial
fulfillment
Of the
requirements for the degree of
Bachelor of Art in the
School of Foreign Languages
Guizhou University for Nationalities
April 2006
Thesis
Statement
：
This paper
analyzes the reasons of engendering Chinglish in
the
Chinese to English translation, and
how to avoid it
I
、
Introduction
II
、
The conception
of Chinglish and root of its appearance
A
、
Factors of
Chinglish
B
、
Usage of
vocabularies in
Chinese
—
English translation
1
、
Chinglish often
appears in the form of redundancy
2
、
Misunderstanding of word
brings about a kind of unbearable Chinglish
3
、
Similar to
redundancy, unnecessary repetition also causes
Chinglish
4
、
Another kind of
Chinglish in the form of redundancy
C
、
The
structure and its perfect in translation
1
、
The arrangement
in short phrases is not good
2
、
Complete
ignorance or negligence of the correct syntactic
structure and
idiomatic collocation or
usage in English also results in
Chinglish
explains the method from the standard
of translation. A translation
standard
is
summed
up
in‘信、达、雅’
which
put
forward
by
Yan
Fu
in
the
19
th
century, has
always been a rule to the translators in
translatioin.
Because there are
disparities between one language and another
－
disparities
in
the
lexicology,
in
the
linguistic
structure
or
even
in
the
tradition
and
culture.
So,
the
paper
discusses
the
importance
from
three
aspects. People from
different language communities will meet cultural
shock
when
they
communicate
together.
Such
cultural
differences
can
cause
misunderstanding among
Chinese and English people. So, the paper mainly
elaborates
on
the
culture
differences
reflecting
in
color
words
to
discuss
the Chinglish.
The
last
part
of
the
paper
is
about
the
feature
of
Chinglish
and
how
to
avoid
it.
It
analyzes
the
reasons
of
engendering
Chinglish in
Chinese
－
English
translation, and it introduces the methods of
avoiding it.
Key words:
Chinglish, translation, culture, Chinese, English
I
、
Introduction
Chinese
and
English
are
quite
different.
However,
when
adult
native
speakers of Chinese learn English, they
tend to lose sight of the
difference
between the two. This is particularly the case
when it comes
to writing, because they
have formed the habit of trying to write in
English what they would in Chinese. As
a result, Chinglish, an awkward
mixture
in
which
ideas
conceived
in
Chinese
are
ungrammatically
expressed
in English, runs riot in their writing.
The main cause of Chinglish is,
of
course,
the
linguistic
interference.
To
remove
the
negative
influence
of the native tongue, therefore,
remains a task of paramount important
for students of English major in China.
II
、
The conception
of Chinglish and root of its appearance
What is Chinglish? It is that we create
English based on the habit
of Chinese
such as linguistic structure or even in the
tradition and
culture
and
the
words’
straight
translation.
It
is
not
appearing
in
the
Chinese-English dictionary. In the old
times; the English learners
usually
hear
the
word
“Chinglish”.
In
Qing
dynasty
（
1840
）
,
the
British
invaders brought the English to
China, many people wanted to learn
English, but they didn’t have enough
time to do. They just understood
their
physical meanings from the British’s
conversations. And in the
practical,
they didn’t avoid the influence of the mother
language--Chinese
.So
they
just
used
fewer
words
to
express
the
meanings,
the Chinglish was
invented by them.
These are some
Chinglish examples:
give you some color
to see see!!
给你点颜色看看！！
go and look!
走着瞧！
good good study,day day up
好好学习，天天向上
go a
head!
去个头！
no
three no four
不三不四
horse horse tiger tiger
马马虎虎
you ask me,
I ask who?
你问我，我问谁？
no money no door
没钱没门
we two who
and who
？
咱俩谁跟谁阿
how are
you ? how old are you?
怎么是你，怎么老是你
you do
not bird me, I do not bird you
你不鸟我，我也不鸟你
kill
one police hundred
杀一警百
give your face, you do not have
给你脸，你不要！
you me
you me
彼此彼此
one
car come, one car down, two car
一辆车来，一辆车往，两辆车“蓬蓬”，一个人死了
know is know no know is no know
知之为知之，不知为不知
...
come some music
来点音乐
5 talks, 4
beauties & 3 loves
五讲四美三热爱
watch sister
表妹
you give me stop!!
你给我站住！！
All
examples above are not often seen now. But the
Chinglish also
appears in
ourcompositions or articles.
A
、
Because
language
has
nationality
that
born
with
its
nation
and
survive
with it, therefore
special nations have their given language: there
is
no
language
without
characteristic
in
the
world
as
there
is
no
race
without
characteristic. So, any language is not
fully similar with each other,
every
race
has
its
language.
Take
a
same
sugar
for
instance,
Chinese
call
it “红糖” just in order
to distinguish with white sugar; English call
it “brown sugar” because its color is
brown. Then why is there a
different
name
between
things
of
one
?
The
answer
is
that
they
are
effected
by
culture
gene
that
references
human’s way
of
thin
king,
the
spoken
way
of
habit, and traditional
culture
?
etc.
People who is surviving in different culture will
have their given
culture including the
origin of history
、
place of
nation living, the
development of
society, the style of politic and economy. So, in
Chinese
—
English
translation, Chinese will be influenced by their
culture, language’s structure and the
way of thinking. Chinese usually
translate it in the way based on the
habit of Chinese such as linguistic
structure
or
even
in
the
tradition
an
d
culture
and
combine
vocabularies’
straight
translation. Then we call it Chinglish.
B
、
Usage of
vocabularies in
Chinese
—
English translation
①
①
出自本文作者
More and
more vocabulary with the feature of Chinglish came
out.
After the reform, new vocabularies
came out. They just exist in China.
We
did not find
the corresponding
words in
English, so we
translate them
just word to
word. So the Chinglish came out.
(1)
“三讲”
(
讲学习，讲政治，讲正气
)
Chinglish: emphasize the need to study,
to have political awareness
and to be
honest and upright.
English: emphasize
on three things: study, politics and integrity.
(2)
国际关系民主化
Chinglish: International relations
should be democratized.
English:
Democracy should be practiced in the international
relations.
（
/tec/
）
1
、
Chinglish often
appears in the form of redundancy, which arises
when
students fail to understand the
exact meaning of an English word. For
example, Chinese students are inclined
to say redundancy “a book desk
“or “a
writing desk”
instead of simply “desk”.
They do not
know “a
dance”
and
“a
study”
in
English
mean
exactly
“a
dance
party”
and
“a
study room” in Chinese. Similarly, it
is not uncommon to find the
following
redundant
sentences
in
Chinese
—
English
translation
by
Chinese
students.
(1)
The old man lived by
catching fish. (fishing)
(2)
I
can’t
afford
to
buy
the
color
TV
set
for
the
time
being.
(afford)
(3)
Please hurry to climb up the mountain
to help him.(hurry up)
(4)
My mother has gone to
the shops to buy things. (shopping)
(
肖启芬，
2004
：
37)
2
、
If
Chinglish caused by inexact understanding of the
meaning of word,
as appears in the
above sentences, is still understandable,
misunderstanding of word brings about a
kind of unbearable Chinglish.
Let’s see
the following sentences.
(1)
When he reached his hand into his
pocket for his wallet , he found
it
invisible.(missing; gone; lost)
(2)
As
the
price
for
the
coat
was
too
expensive
,
I
can’t
buy
it.
(high)
(3)
Hi, Mary. Come along. I will first send
you home in my car. (take)
(4)
I feel very painful in
my left leg. (great pain)
(
肖启
芬，
2004
：
37)
These sentences sound ridiculous to
native speakers of English due
to the
misuse of word. To keep a good
English
—
English dictionary
handy
in,
therefore,
seems
to
be
a
good
remedy
for
the
above
mentioned
two
kinds
of Chinglish.
3
、
Similar
to
redundancy,
unnecessary
repetition
also
causes Chinglish.
The following repetition sentences in
translation show clearly the
negative
influence of the native language.
(1)
English
grammar
is
very
difficult
and
few
writers
have
avoided
making
mistakes in
gra
mmar.(Here “grammar” should be
replaced by “it”)
(2)
Our country is a great country with a
long history and a large
population.(Use “Ours” instead of “Our
country” here)
(3)
Fish must stay in water. If they do
not, they will die. (Use “or”
to
compound the sentence.)
(4)
He
gave
many
reasons
for
his
failure,
but
the
reason
he
gave
did
not
convince
people. (The underline part should be “but none of
them was
convinced
”).
(
肖启芬，
2004
：
38)
To
get
rid
of
Chinglish,
students
have
to
be
made
aware
that
Chinese
is,
for
the
most
part,
a
logically
compact
language
while
English
strictly
compact
in
its
structure.
Unnecessary
repetition
is
a
deadly
enemy
to
good
written
English.
English
verbs
and
nouns
seldom
repeat
themselves
in
the
same
sentences, which are why conjunctions, pronouns
and other
substitutional
or
introductory
words
are
more
frequently
used
in
English
than
in Chinese.
4
、
Another
kind
of
Chinglish
in
the
form
of
redundancy
occurs
when
students
are not taught that
Chinese is a verb
—
redundant
language while English
a
preposition---and---noun---oriented
one.
The
following
wordy
sentences
will serve to
exemplify my point.
(1)
He
ran out when it was raining hard. (into a heavy
rain)
(2)
I looked at her
and felt surprised.( in surprise)
(3)
The meeting ended and everybody was
bitter. (in bitterness)
(4)
We were shown in by two young men who
wore black uniform. (in black
< br>uniforms
)
(
肖启芬，
2004
：
37)
Chinese
students
of
English
must
be
helped
to
discover
that
English
prepositional
phrases in many cases have the same semantic
function as
Chinese
predicate
verbs
plus
their
objects.
A
good
knowledge
of
this
fact
will provide Chinese
students with a very useful means of becoming
effective and idiomatic in their
translation.
C
、
The structure
and its perfect in translation
1
、
The arrangement
in following examples is not good.
The
words
：
来信写道
Chinglish
：
The letter writes
English
：
The
letter reads
The
words
：
取得成就
Chinglish
：
Make
achievements score
English
：
attain
achievement
The
words
：
革命接班人
Chinglish
：
Successors
to the Revolutionary
English
：
revolution successors
The
words
：
革命事业接班人
Chinglish
：
Successors
to the revolutionary cause
English
：
the
Successors in the revolutionary cause
<
/p>
（
/tec/
）
2
、
Complete
ignorance or negligence of the correct syntactic
structure
and
idiomatic
collocation
or
usage
in
English
also
results
in
Chinglish.
(1)
The bankruptcy of his father has made
him impossible to go abroad
for further studies. (Here “him” must
be replace by “it”)
(2)
His
English
knowledge
is
very
rich.
(The
correct
sentence
structure
here should be
“His knowledge of English is very
rich.)
(3)
The
“red guard” robbed all the books of the
old
professor. (the
right
collocation here has to be “The ‘Red Guards’
robbed the old
professor of all his
books.
(4)
I
want
the
newest
information.
(Idiomatically
speaking,
the
sentence
should be “I want
the latest information
,)
(
肖启芬，
2004
：
38)
To eliminate Chinglish
of this sort, students should be keenly
conscious of the differences in
syntactic structures and word
collocations between English and
Chinese, and adapt the Chinese mind to
English ways of expressing ideas.
III
、
Three aspects
in Chinglish
—
English
translation
A
translation
standard
is
summed
up
in
‘信、达、雅’
which
put
forward
by
Yan Fu in the 19th century, has always been a rule
to the translators
in
translation.
In
this
standard,
‘信’
means
‘faithful
(to
the
original)’.
Obviously
,
‘faithful’
is
the
most
important
among
the
three,
and
it
is
the
first
responsibility
to
a
translator.
However,
there
are
disparities
between
one
language
and
another
–
disparities
in
the
lexicology,
in
the
linguistic
structure or even in the tradition and culture.
How
to
achieve
the
real
faithfulness
in
a
possible
sense
–
a
faithful
translation
in
good
formality
with
is
not
only
the
original
context,
but
also
the original form and style.
To achieve
such an effect we should do well in two aspects.
On the
one hand, faithful to the
original does not mean to give an equivalent
correspondence to each word literally.
While doing this we should take
these
factors into consideration
–
idiomatic translation; the false
faithfulness resulted from obligatory
categories; different
classifications
in
different
cultures.
On
the
other
hand,
faithful
to
the
original also requires the
translator to bring to the readers the
feeling-tone of the original.
However, there are disparities between
one language and another
–
disparities
in
the
lexicology,
in
the
linguistic
structure
or
even
in
the
tradition
and
culture.
And
to
maintain
that
there
is
always
an
equivalent
correspondence
in
one
language
that
can
match
the
one
in
another
is
a
naive
thought.
And
what
a
translator
should
do
is
to
try
every
means
to
achieve
the
real
faithfulness
in
a
possible
sense.
That
means
a
translation
should
be in good formality with the original
context, form and style. And the
real
faithfulness includes two aspects. On the one
hand, ‘faithful to
the
original’
does
not
mean
that
a
translator
should
give
an
equivalence
to each word
literally. What a translator should be faithful to
is not
the meaning of the
odd words
but
that of
the grammatical
structure which
is made up by these
words. Take a short letter for example.
‘
昨奉大函，
诵悉一是。尊稿极佳，惟篇幅甚长，本志地位有限
，故不克刊登，良用歉然。
’
(/mofei_?id=188
)It
is
the
letter
written
in
ancient Chinese and the following
compares these 2 translations.
Translation
1:
I
received
your
letter
yesterday,
and
on
reading
noted
all its contents. Your
article is very good. But it is very long, while
this
magazine
has
only
limited
space,
so
that
it
cannot
be
published.
Thus
I
have much cause to be sorry.
Translation
2:
I
received
your
letter
yesterday.
Your
article
is
very
good, but I amsorry
that owing to pressure of space, I find it too
long
to be published.
Obviously, on the surface, the first
translation is more
‘faithful’ than the
second one, for it has translated out such
expressions
as
‘诵悉
’
、
‘一是’
、
‘良用’
,
etc..
But
it
seems
rather
rigid
and too formalistic.
In the second translation, I think it is wise not
to give an correspondence to each word
as
‘诵’‘悉’‘一’‘是’
. For
since
‘
I
received
your
letter
yesterday
’
,
and
‘
I
’
didn't
just
receive
(
奉
)
without
reading
（诵）
or
read
（诵）
without
noting
its
content
（悉）
,
the sentence
‘I received your
letter yesterday’ itself has already
contained the meaning of the
grammatical structure
‘诵悉一是’
.
A
、
To do well in
this respect, we should pay enough attention to
the
following three points.
First, idiomatic translation.
Each
language
has
its
own
idiomatic
way
of
collocations,
and
in
most
cases it
is impossible to find an expression in one
language that is
entirely equivalent to
the one in another.
B
、
Second,
the
false
faithfulness
resulted
from
obligatory
categories.
Some
translations
seem
to
be
quite
faithful,
while
in
fact
they
are
not.
The
reason
is
that
each
language
has its
own
obligatory
categories,
which differ
from language to language. For instance, in
English nouns
have both their singular
and plural form and verbs have both their past
and
present
tense,
which
it
is
not
the
same
with
nouns
and
verbs
in
Chinese.
Also in English,
‘cousin’ means ‘child of one’s uncle or aunt’, so
it
does
not
make
it
clear
that
whether
this
‘cousin’
is
male
or
female,
whether he/she is elder or younger than
the speaker, whether he/she has
the
consanguinity
with
the
speaker's
father
or
mother.
However,
in
China,
when we call
somebody
‘表姐’‘表弟’
, we point
out all these
characteristics.
Thus
problems
occur
in
translation.
But
as
long
as
such
obligatory categories
are not just as important, we can make a brief
translation.
Take
‘早上好，表妹’
for
example,
a
brief
translation
‘
Good
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
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