Abstract:Idiom is the carrier of culture, and idiom is the essence of language and culture. Idioms contain a large number of rich cultural connotations and cultural features. It reflects the vivid local features of different cultures of Western and Eastern countries. Animals are human beings’ friends from ancient times; therefore they have a very close relationship with human beings. People know many characteristics of animals in the long-term development of history. The characteristics of animals have a great impact on humans’ daily life. Thus there are some animal-related idioms which have abundant cultural connotations existing in human life. However, owing to the different backgrounds between eastern and western cultures, such as economic development, geographical conditions, folk customs and religion etc., people from eastern and western countries may have different attitudes toward the same animal. Therefore some animal-related idioms come into being both in English and Chinese, which have different cultural connotations. These cultural discrepancies can be divided into two kinds. One is the animal-related idioms which have the similar cultural connotations in English and Chinese. The other is the animal-related idioms which have the different cultural connotations in English and Chinese. In the process of cross-cultural communication, only when people understand eastern and western cultural differences exactly, can they have a better understanding. A good translation should be based on a good understanding of the cultural meaning of the source language. This thesis aims at making a comprehensive research about the understanding of animal-related idioms in English from a perspective of cultural discrepancies. Based on some translation theories and a large number of examples, this paper is trying to explore some suitable methods to translate animal-related idioms. According to the different cultural differences and different cultural connotations of animal-related idioms, some translation methods can be adopted, such as literal translation, free translation, literal translation plus free translation and substitution method, etc. During the translation process, it can make the contents and the form keeping maximum corresponding, and also make people have a better understanding about the western and eastern culture in cross-cultural communication.
Keywords: cultural connotation; animal-related idioms; cultural difference; translation
摘要:习语是文化的载体，习语又是语言的精华。习语中蕴含着丰富的文化信息，涵盖着大量的文化特征和文化背景，具有鲜明的形象和比喻，带有鲜明的民族特色和地域色彩。自古以来，动物与人类生活有着紧密的联系，人类在历史发展中逐渐了解了动物的许多特性，而人类也喜欢把动物的特性和人类的生活习惯联系在一起，这样，就形成了人类语言中丰富多彩的有关动物的习语。然而由于东西方文化在经济发展、地理环境、风俗习惯以及宗教信仰等方面存在差异，东西方人对不同的动物有着不同的看法，自然也就形成了有关动物的习语的不同文化内涵，这种文化内涵差异表现在同一动物在东西方文化中有相似的文化内涵和同一动物在东西方文化中的有不同的文化内涵。在英汉跨文化交际过程中，只有正确理解东西方语言和文化内涵，才能正确翻译。本文旨在通过文化差异的角度，对动物习语的文化内涵做一个较全面的了解，通过结合翻译理论和大量的实例来探讨几种有关动物习语的翻译方法。针对不同的文化差异和不同的动物习语文化内涵，可采用直译、意译、直译与意译结合和替代法等翻译方法，使得语言在翻译过程中，内容和形式得到最大程度的保持和对等，也使得人们在跨文化交际中对东西方文化有更好的理解。
关键词：文化内涵；有关动物的习语；文化差异；翻译
