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1. Introduction
Language can not exist without culture as its component. As part of language, idioms that include sayings and proverbs are characterized by their richness and vividness in their concise expressions. In translation, this special language form is greatly involved. In a broad sense, human beings share common culture and cultural similarities are the overlaps of cultural features between languages. When idioms of the source language are similar to those of the target language in terms of choice of words, collocation and social meanings, translation becomes easy because of the positive influence of cultural similarities. But a term in one language may not have a counterpart in another language. The main differences between Chinese and English idioms lie not only in the language expression ways of vocabulary, grammar, and rhetoric devices, but also in their different cultural backgrounds, because Chinese and English idioms originate from different cultures. Thus, in translation of idioms, much attention should be paid to the dissimilarities of cultures as well as languages themselves.
2. Cultural Dissimilarities
In any language, there is a profound cultural intention relative to its own physiology, convention, and religious belief, etc. Eugene Nida has categorized culture into three kinds: (1) ecology culture, (2) material culture, (3) social culture, English and Chinese idioms, closely related to their own cultures, convey different cultural features that result in great effect in idiom translation.
2.1 Regional Cultural Dissimilarities
Region cultures refer to the cultures formed by different regional environment and living conditions. Different language forms, as partial reflection of region cultures, are applied by different nations to show their attitudes towards things or phenomena. Briton is an island country where navigation business was in the lead while Chinese have lived in mainland and cultivated a love for farming and land life. So saying someone is extravagant, we say “spend money like water” in English, but “揮金如土” in Chinese. Furthermore, there many English idioms about ship and water have no counterparts in Chinese, e.g.
Language can not exist without culture as its component. As part of language, idioms that include sayings and proverbs are characterized by their richness and vividness in their concise expressions. In translation, this special language form is greatly involved. In a broad sense, human beings share common culture and cultural similarities are the overlaps of cultural features between languages. When idioms of the source language are similar to those of the target language in terms of choice of words, collocation and social meanings, translation becomes easy because of the positive influence of cultural similarities. But a term in one language may not have a counterpart in another language. The main differences between Chinese and English idioms lie not only in the language expression ways of vocabulary, grammar, and rhetoric devices, but also in their different cultural backgrounds, because Chinese and English idioms originate from different cultures. Thus, in translation of idioms, much attention should be paid to the dissimilarities of cultures as well as languages themselves.
2. Cultural Dissimilarities
In any language, there is a profound cultural intention relative to its own physiology, convention, and religious belief, etc. Eugene Nida has categorized culture into three kinds: (1) ecology culture, (2) material culture, (3) social culture, English and Chinese idioms, closely related to their own cultures, convey different cultural features that result in great effect in idiom translation.
2.1 Regional Cultural Dissimilarities
Region cultures refer to the cultures formed by different regional environment and living conditions. Different language forms, as partial reflection of region cultures, are applied by different nations to show their attitudes towards things or phenomena. Briton is an island country where navigation business was in the lead while Chinese have lived in mainland and cultivated a love for farming and land life. So saying someone is extravagant, we say “spend money like water” in English, but “揮金如土” in Chinese. Furthermore, there many English idioms about ship and water have no counterparts in Chinese, e.g.