A comparative Study of English and Chinese idioms from their different derivation 英语论文.doc

culture difference between chinese and englisha 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. 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 idioms2.1 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; websters 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. 3.the 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 peoples 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 peoples 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. 3.1.1deriving 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. 3.1.2deriving 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 ones 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. its 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 relatedto military affairs in english: mark time踌躇/犹豫不决 mask ones batteries掩盖敌意 stick to ones 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 allusion3.3.1deriving 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 ones 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 ones waterloo 3.3.2deriving from myth english idioms mostly stem from bible、aesops 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 penelopes web永远完不成的巨作 a pandoras box潘多拉之盒？灾难 cats paw猫抓风（被人利用的人） （谢道华，1999：59） 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 ones 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. 3.3.3deriving 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 cats 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 lions share, 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 ones 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 ones lions准备行动 as poor as a church mouse家徒四壁 bear ones 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 translated 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 peoples 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 newstyles 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: bea cats 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 thecharacters 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 words meaning. idioms all have history cultural sources. idioms use 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 chineselanguages 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 humans ways of thought and aesthetics mentality. chinese is reduplication 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 tree（沉舟侧畔千帆过，病树前头万树春） 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 time comes, one will get ones 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 idioms 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 idi