谈英汉习语与民族文化特征差异.doc

摘要：习语是语言的核心与精华，与本民族的风土人情、历史文化有着千丝万缕的联系。它是各国文化的精髓，反映各国的风俗习惯。习语叉受文化的影响，反映其文化特征。中英两种文化孕育了各具民族特色的习语。试从自然环境、风俗习惯、历史典故、宗教信仰、事物认知观等方面探讨英汉习语所折射的民族文化特征。 关键词：英汉习语 民族文化 特征 差异习语是语言的一部分，包括成语、俗语、谚语、格言、惯用语、典故等，是一种在结构上与意义上都比较稳定的语言结构。它是语言中的精华与瑰宝，含义深刻且具有浓厚的民族文化色彩。同时，习语又受文化的影响，反映其文化特征。以下谈谈英汉习语与民族文化特征的关系。 一、 自然环境差异 英汉民族由于所处的地理位置不同、生活方式有异而形成各具特点的习语。英国是一个岛国，历史上航海业曾一度领先世界，因而英语中产生了大量的来自航海用语的习语。如：to go with the stream随波逐流，to take the ropes了如指掌，to trim onesails to the wind随机应变，nail ones colors to the ma坚持到底等等。英语 中有不少用鱼来比喻人的习语：a poor fish可怜的家伙，a cold fish冷淡的人，queer fish怪人，a shy fish羞答答的家伙等。汉民族在亚洲大陆生活繁衍 ，人们的生活离不开土地，土地、山水对人们来说是至关重要的，所以汉语中有许多与土地、农业有关的习语，如：山崩地裂、东山再起、水到渠成、土生土长、卷土重来、揠苗助长、顺藤摸瓜等。比喻花钱大手大脚，英语是 spend monelike water，汉语是挥金如土。又如，中国盛产竹，竹子有极丰富的文化内涵，习语如胸有成竹、势如破竹、罄竹难书、节外生枝等。古代的文人墨客也咏竹之高洁与坚贞。英美民族生活地区不产竹，bambo是舶来品、借用语，所以英语中与竹子相关的习语寥寥无几，更无联想意义。形容事物迅速发展，汉语用雨后春笋般 、如雨后春笋，英语用 like mllshrooms。在汉语的文化氛围中，夏天常常是骄阳似火，赤 日炎炎似火烧。英国夏季气候凉爽宜人，英国人形容夏天是如“爱人”般可爱、温柔、美好。在汉语中东风是春天的使者，在英语中报告春天消息的却是西风，著名的西风颂正是对春的讴歌。 二、风俗习惯差异 风俗习惯是一个民族在长期岁月中逐渐形成的文化意识的反映和表现，民俗是习语赖以生长并获得顽强生命力的深厚土壤，许多习语就出自民俗。要表示一件很容易的事情 ，汉语有习语“小菜一碟”英语有习语 a piece of cake。汉语的“小菜”与英语的“蛋糕”都有“容易(或轻松愉快)的事情”之义，这与两国的饮食习惯有关系。蛋糕是英国人在 13常生活中经常食用的一种食品，所以他们就用piece ocake表示一件容易做的事情。在中国，小菜在中国人的一日三餐中必不可少，吃一碟小菜对中国人来说易如反掌，因此常用“小菜一碟”来形容一件事情很容易。这两个习语反映了英汉两个民族不同的饮食风俗习惯。在性格方面，中国人质朴凝重，谦虚宽容；英美人性格外向开朗，看重自我，从不贬低自己。汉语习语如“不为祸死，不为福先”、“知足常乐”、“安贫乐道”、“枪打出头鸟”、“生死由命，富贵在天”、“命中无者莫强求”等表现了中国人以自苦、中庸、明哲保身为特点的为人处世哲学。而英美人则强调人要不断创新，不满足现状，标新立异，寻找新的机会。如“no money，no honey没有钱就休想得到称心如意的女人为伴侣 ；all is fair in love and war在爱情和战争中，采取任何手段都是正当的”等习语就是这种形象的反映，这些对于礼仪之邦的中国人是接受不了的。三、历史文化差异 中英两国都有着悠久的历史，文化的博大精深蕴藏着丰富的历史故事，习语中有很大一部分皆来源于此。由于古代中国长年战争，许多习语如围魏救赵、临阵磨枪、毛遂自荐、四面楚歌、卧薪尝胆、负荆请罪、三顾茅庐等出自国家间的征战故事，充分体现了汉民族独特的古代文化。古代的英国，磨坊和铁匠铺是农村的主要手工业生产地，许多习语如 arut!of the mill job没有多大变化的普通工作，to go tosomething at hammer and tongs全力以赴地，call a spadea spade实话实说 ，to come under the harmer被拍卖”等与此紧密相联 。 四、典故和神话故事 大量英汉习语源于典故。如“东施效颦、名落孙山、叶公好龙、守株待兔、刻舟求剑、黔驴技穷”等是源于寓言故事，“夸父追日、女娲补天、嫦娥奔月、精卫填海、画龙点睛、愚公移山”等出自神话传说。英语习语如“cats paw受人愚弄的人，the bear and thetwo travelers患难见人心，the dog and the cook吃一堑，长一智”等出自伊索寓言，“aladdins lame能满足人的一切愿望 的东西，old nqan of sea难以摆脱的人或物”等出自神话故事。神话故事以其久远的历史和丰富的内涵丰富了习语 ，成为语言中的一个重要组成部分。 五、对事物认知的差异 汉英民族对客观事物各持己见，赋予事物不同的内涵。如“龙”在汉语中象征着吉祥尊贵、威严和力量。习语有“望子成龙、生龙活虎、龙腾虎跃”等。有时也用“腾飞的巨龙”来形容我们的国家，称自己为“龙的传人”。然而在英语 中 aragon是邪恶的代表，是一种凶残狰狞的怪兽。撒旦被称为dgon，凶暴的女人称为dragon，“亚洲四小龙”是“four tigers”，而不是“four如 ns”。又如在中国北方，猫头鹰出现就是一种凶兆，和吉祥全然无缘。英语中却有 aswise as an owl，表明西方人把 owl象征“狡猾、机警、聪明”。两个民族都养狗，汉语中与“狗”有关的习语大多含有贬义，如“狗仗人势、丧家之犬、狼心狗肺、狐群狗党、狗嘴里吐不出象牙、狗腿子、狗头军师”等口j。由此可见中国人对狗讨厌之至，对狗没有任何赞美之意。然而，对西方人而言，狗既可以看门或打猎，也可以做人忠诚的朋友。英语中有关狗的习语多数有褒义。如“love me，love my dog爱屋及乌a top dog优胜者；a gay dog快活人；a water dog水性好的人；you are a lucky dog你真幸运。”又如中国人用“花花公子”表示“只追求享受、过纸醉金迷生活的轻浮阔少爷”，用“拈花惹草”表示作风不正派的男人。而英语的 flower却无汉语中提到的含义。再如daffodil汉语中是“黄水仙”，仅仅是一种花而已，但在英语中它是春天、欢乐的象征。在色彩方面，英语中的白色象征着快乐、纯洁。例如习语“days markedwith a white stone幸福的日子，a white lie无恶意 的谎言，white elephant大、笨而无用之物”。但在汉语中，白色蕴涵悲怆贫寒，衰败死亡之意。如“日暮苍山远，天寒白屋贫”，“一穷二白”，都勾勒出苍凉寂凄、衰败哀愁的意境。 六、宗教差异 与宗教信仰有关的习语也大量地出在英汉语言中。佛教传人中国已一千多年，人们相信佛主和因果报应及生死轮回，很多习语如“一尘不染、万事皆空、现身说法、借花献佛、在劫难逃”等与此有关。在英美，人们多信奉基督教，习语“god helps those whhelp themselves上帝帮助 自助的人，go to hell下地狱，a pandoras box潘多拉之盒，the sword ofdamocle即将临头的危险，at the eleventh hour最后时刻”等来自“圣经”。 总之，英汉习语结构凝练、意义深远、言简意赅形象生动、含蓄幽默，富于表现力和生命力，并都具有很深的历史渊源和文化背景，是民族文化在语言里的结晶，闪烁着民族文化的光芒。通过英汉习语来源的比较，我们看到了英汉两个民族文化的不同特征，能更好地理解和灵活运用英汉习语。 abstract: the idioms is the core of language and essence, and ethnic customs, history and culture are closely related. it is the essence of the various countries culture, reflect the custom of the nations. idioms fork culturally influenced, reflect the cultural characteristics. both in chinese and english culture with different breeds of ethnic idioms. try from the natural environment, customs, historical allusion, religious beliefs, things cognitive view, etc of english and chinese idioms refraction culture traits.keywords: of english and chinese idioms national culture differencesidioms are a part of language, including the idioms and proverbs, proverbs, motto, idioms, allusion and so on, is a way to structure and sense of relatively stable structure of language. it is the essence of language and treasure, deep meaning and has strong national culture colour. at the same time, idioms and the influence of the culture, reflect the cultural characteristics. the following talk of english and chinese idioms and national cultural characteristics of the relationship.a, natural environment differencesboth chinese and english on geographical position due to the different way of life, has the different with different characteristics and the formation of the idioms. britain is an island country, navigation history led by the world, thus creating plenty of english language from sailing idioms. such as: to go with the stream flow, hand to take the ropes, to trim one sails to the wind random strain, nail one s colors to the ma stick to it, and so on. in english, theres a lot of people with fish parable idioms: a good fish poor guy, a cold fish apathy, queer fish weirdo, a shy fish timid guy, etc. . ethnic han chinese living in asia continent breed, people cannot live without land, land, landscape for people is vital, so many of chinese agricultural land, with the idioms, such as: shanbengdelie, stage a comeback, success will come, a native, back, push them, shuntengmogua, etc. parable spend too recklessly, english is spend monelike water, chinese is spend money like water. be like again, china is rich in bamboo, bamboo with extremely abundant cultural connotation, idioms such as have answers, badge, were too numerous to record, had, etc. ancient scholars also of bamboo and noble arias firmness. british and american national life area not bamboo, bambo is imports, loan words, so english idioms related with bamboo very few, no more meaning. describe things developing quickly, with chinese have sprouted, have mushroomed, like mllshrooms with english. in chinese culture, summer is often the scorching sun, the red hot, like fire. british summer climate cool and delightful, british people describe summer is like a lover lovely, gentle, good. in the chinese middle east wind is the herald of spring, in english news reports of the spring is west wind, the famous the west wind, ode to the spring is the song.the difference, and the customs and habitscustom is a nation which gradually formed in the long years of the reflection of culture consciousness and performance, folk idioms is on growth and get vitality deep soil, many idioms, come from folk. to show a very easy thing, chinese idioms a piece of cake english idioms is a piece of cake. chinese side dishes and english cake have easy (or happy) things justice, the two countries with the eating habits have relations. the cake is english in the 13 often eat frequently in life of a kind of food, so they use piece ocake said easy thing to do. in china, the chinese dishes in the necessary in three meals a day, eat a disc of side dishes to the chinese people, is a piece of cake, so commonly used a piece of cake to describe a thing is very easy. the two english and chinese idioms reflect the two national the different diet custom. in character, the chinese plain dignified, modest tolerance; britain and the human nature to all the cheerful, value self, never lower himself. chinese idioms such as not for evil, and not for good death first, abundance, fortunate, shot, dying is as natural as, hit the no dont try so hard. the chinese people to show such as the bitter, mean trouble for characteristics of the human, and philosophy. and the british and american people emphasize people to continuous innovation, do not satisfy the current situation, do sth unconventional or unorthodox, looking for new opportunities. such as no money, no honey. no money, cant get satisfactory partner for women; all is fair in love and war. in love and war, take any means will be justified is the image of the idioms reflect, for formal state of the chinese people is to accept.three, historical and cultural differencesboth countries has a long history, culture broad and profound contain rich his