Translation and Culture Translating Idioms between English and Chinese from a Cultural Perspective翻译与文化：从文化角度看英汉习语的翻译.PDF

ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 2, No. 11, pp. 2357-2362, November 2012 © 2012 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/tpls.2.11.2357-2362 Translation and Culture: Translating Idioms between English and Chinese from a Cultural Perspective Dayan Liu School of Foreign Languages, Chongqing Jiaotong University, No.66, Xuefu Road, Nan’an District, Chongqing, China Email: lucyldy2008@ Abstract—Translation is not only an interlingual communication, but a cross-cultural transfer, which involves a comparative study of the SL culture and TL culture. In translating cultural specificities, especially idioms, two criteria are proposed, informativeness and effectiveness, by which three translation methods are thus suggested: 1) literal translation; 2) literal translation with footnotes or explanatory phrases; 3) equivalent or corresponding TL idioms. A skillful use of those methods, subject to different contexts and purposes, serves to promote cultural exchange between English and Chinese. This contribution, in turn, aims to usher in further in-depth study of relations between culture and translation. Index Terms—culture, translation, idioms, informativeness, effectiveness I. LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND TRANSLATION Translation has traditionally been perceived as an interlingual communication, whereas some translation theorists, like Hans J. Vermeer, are vigorously against the conception of translation as simply a matter of language but view translation primarily as a cross-cultural transfer or intercultural communication (Bassnett & Lefevere, 1990