英语论文网

Chapter Four Strategies for E-C Translation of Idioms in the Light of Relevance Theory

4.1 Translatability of English Idioms
Although the meaning and structures of different language vary from one another,people of different language can use the same concept to interpret the identical thing.Predecessors point out: “Language is the direct reality of thought.” “No matter it isthought or language, they are only the reflection of realistic life.” Despite thelanguage of each person is different, the different languages can reflect the samereality. This is the foundation for translatability of English idioms.Some English and Chinese idioms have similar implications and the metaphorsused in the two idioms are very similar. For example, “burn one’s boat” means dosomething that makes it impossible for you to return to a previous situation (破釜沉舟). 49 B.C. Julius Caesar led the army to the Rubicon River to combat with theRoman Council. He ordered the army to burn the boats to cut off their means ofretreat. There is a famous historical event in Han Dynasty of China, that is the story of破釜沉舟. General Xiang Yu also asked the army to burn the boats. These two idiomshave the similar implications and metaphors.Some English idioms have equivalent expressions in Chinese. For example,“strike while the iron is hot” (趁热打铁).
……………

Conclusion

Idioms are widely used in various kinds of situations, such as literature and dailycommunication. Idiom is a fixed structure whose meaning does not make up of themeaning of the individual words. The features and the origins of the English idiomsare as following. (1)Despite the change of the idioms, the features of the idiom arerelatively stable. As a special form of language, idioms are words which have stablestructure, integrative meaning and variety rhetoric. (2)The origins of English idiomare varied. Most English idioms are created from the daily life of the common people.Some idioms are derived from the Greek myths and legends and are widely used bythe native speaker. Many idioms are originated from the historical events which hadprofound effects on the society.Relevance Theory is proved to be a proper theoretical guidance and distinctiveperspective for the E-C idioms translation. Relevance Theory in this thesis is used toguide the idioms translation and to obtain the optimal relevance between the originalwriters and the target readers so as to achieve successful communication. TheRelevance Translation Theory was first put forward by Gutt in 1991 which presenteda new theoretical framework for translation. The basic notions of the RelevanceTranslation Theory are as following. (1)Translation is an intercultural communication,in which the translator delivers the interpretation of the original to the audience.
……………
Reference (omitted)