The Influence of Culture on Idioms in English Language.doc

the influence of culture on idioms in english languageintroductionenglish idioms are considered as the most active part of english language, and they are widely used in peoples daily life, newspaper, magazine, broadcasting and tv media. it is quite difficult to give a clear definition to the word “idiom”, for it possesses several meanings, which might cause confusion. it may mean the language of a people or a country, or a dialect, or a linguistic usage that defies grammatical analysis. but the most suitable definition for this paper is as follows. “idiom is an expression established in the long usage of a language that is peculiar to itself either in grammatical construction or in having a meaning that cannot be derived as a whole from the conjoined meanings of its elements.” english idioms, in a broad sense, include idiomatic phrase, proverbs, colloquialisms and slangs. in comparison, the chinese equivalent for “idiom” is “习语”. it means a kind of set phrase or sentence, which, like a stock expression, is often quoted by the common people. chinese idioms can be roughly divided into “set phrases”(成语),“common sayings”(俗语),“proverbs” (谚语),“a two-part allegorical saying”(歇后语),and “vulgar expression”（粗俗语)from the above definitions and classifications we can extract three basic characteristics of idioms. (1) an idiom is a special form of language. an idiom must be well established and accepted through common practice. it stands as a whole. so no element in an idiom can be changed. in many cases, idioms hold implied meanings, and cannot be interpreted just according to their literal meanings. (2) an idiom is the crystallization of language. language gives birth to idioms. it also polishes idioms. refined by long usage idioms have been described as the core of language. (3) an idiom is the representative of a language. though both british and chinese people use idioms and give the almost same definition of idioms, we cannot equal the two idioms, for their ranges are different.as an important means of spreading, retaining language and culture, idioms contain rich cultural factors themselves. from this point of view, it is totally wrong to study language by isolating idioms from the whole cultural background of one language. we can save many difficulties by mastering english idioms and learn them well.chapter 1 the relationship between idioms and cultureidiomatic expressions are even difficult for native english speakers because their meanings cannot be determined through an analysis of their individual words. for instance, “to fall out” means “to quarrel”, but neither “fall” nor “out” has a sense of quarrel. for we chinese students, english idioms are a stumbling block. it is very possible that they often not only feel at a loss in understanding conversations because of a key idiom but also misused idioms. in this paper, i am going to make a brief study of the relationship between idioms and culture and throw some light on the learning of english idioms.as we all know, language is closely related to culture and can be said as a part of culture. from a dynamic view, language and culture interact with each other and shape each other. language is the carrier of culture, which in turn is the content of language. we can dig out cultural features from language and explain language phenomena with culture.1.1. idioms, language and the language learnerenglish idiom is an important part of english language that is characterized by its profound meaning and special background. as it possesses a unique way of expression, those who learn english as a foreign language find it difficult to get a good understanding. therefore, even to those learners who spend a lot of time in remembering english vocabularies and learning grammar, understanding the conversations or articles from native english users still appears to be a very difficult job. for example, in some situations, it appears that when these phrases are separated, each single word is understandable. however, when these words are combined into a sentence in certain orders, it turns out to have some special meanings which cause confusions to those english learners. idioms are typical samples of this general phenomenon. language use is not only a matter of applying generative rules. many of the things we say are formulaic fixed or semi-fixed expressions which are conventionally associated with recurrent situations and meanings, and which may be more or less idiomatic. and idioms and idiomlike constructions are an important part of language use. in fact, they make up a large part of our knowledge of language and are a persistent feature of language. as far as a foreign language learner is concerned, idioms are in many ways crucial if he or she wants to improve his or her english fluently like a native speaker. according to gibbs(1995), one cannot be regarded as competent speaker of a foreign language until he or she masters the various idiomatic expressions that ever-present in every daily dialogue. fillmore(1979) maintains that mastery of idioms contributes to a sort of linguistic competence which makes for fluent performance characteristic of the able native speaker. vice versa, thiel(1979,quoted in lattey 1986) also points out that, “lack of precise idiomatic usage will betray the foreign background even of a speaker with an excellent grammatical knowledge, vocabulary, and punctuation. and just as surely command of idioms will generate confidence and respect”(see also yorio 1980,1989).1.2. idioms and cultureas has been noted, english idiom is an important part of a language. therefore, the relationship between idiom and culture is just like the relationship between language and culture. first of all, language is a part of culture, but not the full content of culture, since material culture is manifested by mans productions. furthermore, language mirrors culture. the most important function of language is to reflect productions made by humankind, peoples outlook on life and the development of a community. last but not least, language is influenced and shaped by culture. the development of culture promotes the creation of new words and expressions in a language. besides, every aspect of culture affects language directly. owing to this kind of close relationship, language is described as the carrier of culture and the mirror of cultural characteristics. therefore, idioms -the refined part of language, are influenced deeply by culture. they are culturally characterized. as is well known, different nations possess different cultures. as a result, idioms of different nations must be affected by their peculiar cultures.idioms are the result of a social activity. they are mirrors that reflect the historical and cultural background as well as the attitude to the life of people. the formation of english idioms, to a certain extent, is influenced by such cultural factors as geographical conditions, historical envelopments, customs, religious beliefs, and literature of the british nation. they are the heritage of history and product of cultural evolvement. consequently, we can know much about culture through studying idioms and in turn get better understanding of idioms by learning the cultural background behind them. therefore, idioms are closely related to culture and learning idioms can provides the leaner a gross view of the culture and studying cultures, helps us to grasp the marrow of the languages as well as the translation between english and chinese.chapter 2 the effects of english culture on idiomsas we all know, language is closely related to culture and can be said as a part of culture. from a dynamic view, language and culture interact with each other and shape each other. language is the carrier of culture which in turn is the content of language. we can dig out cultural features from language and explain language phenomena with culture. idioms as a special form of language exist in both of them and carry a large amount of cultural information such as geographical conditions, historical envelopments, customs, religious beliefs, and literature of the british nation, and etc, therefore they are also the heritage of culture. 2.1 the geographical factorgeographical environment plays an important role in shaping one countrys culture and human beings have no choices and opacities to change the geography. as a result, idioms based on geographical features appear different.britain is an island country, which does not share land border with any other countries except the republic of ireland. it is surrounded by the sea. it lies in the north atlantic ocean off the north coast of europe. it is separated from the rest of europe by the english channel in the south and the north sea in the east. britain covers an area of 244,100 square km. it runs 1,000 km from north to south and extends, at the widest part about 500 kilometers. so no part of britain is very far from the coast and it provides a valuable resource. the british coast is long and has good, deep harbors. furthermore, rivers in britain do not freeze in winter. they play a very important role in the countrys economy. the great ports of london, liverpool and glasgow are all connected to the sea by rivers. all these conditions make the ocean shipping of britain so flourishing. in history, its navigation industry has ever been the first one for a long time. so, there are a lot of english idioms, which is related to navigation. for example, the phrase “go by the board” means that somebody or something fall from sheep and disappear in the sea. it implies that someone is neglected. whats more, british people also have a special passion for water. for instance, to show somebody being extravagant in english the idiom is “spent money like water”. take the other instance, people often regard themselves as a fish in english, such as “cold fish”, “shy fish”. the former means a person who is very strange and the latter means a person who is very shy. when someone has another thing to do, they say “have other fish to fry” and when someone felt not easy, they say “feel like a fish out of water”, etc. because britain is an island country, surrounded by the sea. the climate of britain is the typical temperate oceanic climate, rainy and foggy. the annual rainfall of the whole britain is about 1016mm. moreover, it is foggy on the island, especially in winter. china is a country with a vast territory and various climates and has the temperate climate in the north whereas subtropical climate in the south. it is rainy in the east whereas arid in the west. so the weather is diverse. the traditional chinese invented the lunar calendar, in which a year is divided into twenty-four solar terms. these solar terms are often used in proverbs to illustrate principles concerning weather and climate. the following are some examples: e.g. (1) rain cats and dogs: rain very heavily. (2) fog-bound: trapped by fog. (3) it never rains but it pours: misfortunes usually cone in large numbers.2.2 the historical factorsas we know, any language in a long and splendid history has its magic power and great influence on the people who speak or learn it and the development of the social history influences the language tremendously. with the change of the dynasty, the new languages instead of the old languages continuously. in the change of languages, more and more idioms are caused in such trace of the historical culture as war.2.2.1 the influences of roman conquest on english idiomsin 55 bd, the commander in chief of roman, julius caesar, came to the great britain after conquering the gaul, but did not have conflict with the local celts. and the next year caesar came to the great britain second time. but this time he made his root firmly in the northeast of the great britain; he fired with the local ones. although the caesars won but they did not bring the celts to their knees, so they did not make great influences on the social cultures of the great britain.“appeal to caesar”， “great caesar”, “render to caesar the things that are caesars”, these three idioms are left by the roman general caesar who had captured the great britain. “appeal to caesar,” means that resorting to the highest leading bodies. “great caesar” equals great heavens. “render to caesar the things that are caesars,” mean that everything belongs to its rightful owner. so from these we can see that caesar had influenced the language a lot till now.and in 49 bd，pompous magnus, the person is at the helm of roman, assaulted caesar in conspiracy with senate. at that moment there was a river at the juncture of caesars manor gallia cisalpine and the central department of italy named rubicon. caesar led his army outrageously in all desperation to fight with pompous magnus. when he crossed the river he said: “the die is cast.” and then after he crossed the river he burned the boats to make the soldiers have no way to retreat but only go straight to fight against the enemy and win. so there were three idioms left according to the story of caesar. “cross the rubicon” means take action in great dangers. “burn the boats,” means to break the cauldrons and sink the boats to cut off all means of retreat. “the die is cast.” means that wood is already made into a boat and things what is done cannot be undone. from these idioms, we can see caesars courage at that time. and also some customs of roman were left through english idioms. “bear the palm”, in roman, the palm was the title of winner when he wore a palm corolla.“worth ones salt”. in the period of roman, salt was very valuable. in the army, the soldiers payment contained a part of salt and then it changed as some security named solarium that evolved salary. but “salt equals salary in idiom” is widely used nowadays. so now if someone says “worth his salt” means that he is an employee who proved reliable. for example, any engineer worth his salt should know how machine works. “thumbs up or down”, in order to get great pleasure, the nobles, roman slave owner, employed slave as gladiators to fight in the arena. after it was finished, they would invite the audiences to judge how to punish the loser. if the audiences thumbed up, the loser would be released. but if thumbed down, the loser would be killed. so now people use thumbs up to show agreement and use thumbs down to show disagreement. the romans reigned over captured great britain for nearly 400 years. till 407, the romans had to withdraw from great britain because roman was besieged inside and outside. four hundred years is enough time to form british latin culture. rome went away but the influences of great britain by their culture were still there on the island. “do in rome as the romans do.” “rome was not built in a day.” “all roads lead to rome.” from these idioms we can found the influences of roman conquest are so tremendous.2.2.2 the influences of teutonic conquest on english idiomsin about 449, three german tribes, residing in the northwest of europe, invaded the great britain. they were anglos, saxons and jutes. they crossed the north sea and took advantages of the waning in power of roman who could care nothing but about themselves. they came into the great britain and met with fierce resistance of celts, which made the conquest delayed one and a half centuries. at the end of 6th century, the celtics, the original residents of the island of great britain, almost died out. this was the most famous conquest in the history of britain named teutonic conquest. “cut someone to the quick” here quick means skin especially the skin of the nail that will make you painful when you touch. “quick” here is a word of anglo-saxon. this idiom infers that hurt somebody in motion. for example, “her cruel words cut him to the quick.” “go through fire and water” ，these idioms stemmed from the law of declare guilty in the period of anglo-saxon. if the suspects hands were good enough after making them into the boiling water, he was not guilty. so the meaning of this idiom is that defying all difficulties and dangers. it was widely quoted in the past. for example, i would go though fire and water to find out the truth of that matter.this conquest had great influences on the formation of english. anglos, saxons and jutes had their own dialects. but they all belonged to low west germanic. they applied to all. and the communication of language was almost promoting with the development of society. the three tribes gradually became a united english nation, and the dialects they used were mixed together. so there was a new language anglo-saxon. this new language was formed after experiencing a series of nation migrations and conquests in special circumstances of geography and history. in fact, anglo-saxon was the origin of modern english. or more actually that west saxon, the language of saxon dwelling on the south of thames, was the origin of the standard english. so the influences of teutonic conquest on english were overall and had great decisive influences. the anglo-saxon was one of the three origins of modern english vocabulary. many english idioms from this period could be taken as evidence.2.3 customs factorscustoms and habits are also of importance in the english language as well, especially in the forming of idioms. because one nations custom is formed through a long history and firmly rooted in peoples mind. it is closely related to national psychology and acts as one important source of idioms. in different countries and nations customs drastically differ in various aspects. due to that, a lot of idioms turn out with varied dress. as for us, it is helpful to grasp the marrow of the languages as well as the translation between english and chinese. therein