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1、关于颜色的习语及其翻译On English Idioms about Color and Their TranslationAbstract: The cultural differences between Chinese and English peoples determine the expression patterns and connotations of the color words. So it affects their translation, which requires the translators to make their translation from t
2、he cultural context factors. During the translation, the translators should take into consideration the national cultures and linguistic characteristics contained in the color words and do their translation on the basis of a full understanding of the cultural background so as to maintain the linguis
3、tic style, linguistic pattern and artistic characteristic of the target language. Key words: color idioms; cultural connotations; translation摘 要: 英汉民族存在的文化差异决定了色彩词语表达形式及词义，对翻译也有很多影响。我们要从文化语境所包含的诸多因素出发，分析阐述如何进行色彩词语的英汉翻译。在翻译过程中，译者应充分考虑原色彩词语所包含的民族文化与语言个性，充分理解色彩词语所蕴含的独特的文化意味，尽可能结合原文的文化背景，保持原文的语言风格、语言形式及
4、艺术特色。 关键词：色彩习语; 文化内涵; 翻译ContentsI. Introduction1II. Background of the Present Study 2III. A Research on English Idioms 3A. The range of English idioms3B. The development of idioms .3C. The origins of English idioms .4IV. English Idioms about Color 4A. Concept of color idioms 4B. Color idioms and cul
5、tures .5C. The cultural connotation of color idioms 61. Red.6a. The same connotation in Chinese and English languages6b. The different connotations in Chinese and English languages 62. White7a. The same connotation in Chinese and English languages7b. The different connotations in Chinese and English
6、 languages.73. Black7 The same connotation in Chinese and English languages 74. Blue8 The different connotations in Chinese and English languages.8V. Conclusion8Works cited9I. IntroductionLanguage is a social phenomenon, and each language stands for one culture. To some extent, language and culture
7、develop simultaneously as an idea is firmly held that language occupies a very special position in culture when compared with other elements, though language is apart of the parallel of culture in a larger sense. With the development of modern society and the tendency towards globalization, English,
8、 as a international language, is gradually becoming a necessity for people of our day. However, when learning English, some native speakers as well as nonnative speakers often express their surprise at the wide use and distribution of English idioms. They are sometimes at a loss to understand what t
9、hey are reading and hearing because of the use of these idioms. As a result, they may not be able to fully understand the English culture.English is a language particularly rich in idioms-those modes of expression peculiar to a language (of dialect) that frequently defy logical and grammatical rules
10、. Without idioms English would lose much of its variety and humor both in speech and writing while using it properly, people will not only enhance the ability to express all sorts of ideas but also the ability to appreciate culture, which then improves the linguistic ability. English idiom relate so
11、 closely to English culture that they are like a drop in the ocean of English culture and reflect the significance of English culture.Idioms are pervasive. A large part of our everyday linguistic repertoire is formed by idioms. They arise in the natural use of natural language. The creation of idiom
12、s reflects new way in which individuals construct concepts of the world and convey them vividly. People enjoy idioms for their incisiveness, their frequent wit, their polish, and their savor. Familiarity with a wide range of idioms and the ability to use them appropriately in context are among the d
13、istinguish marks of a native-like command of language. Color idioms can reflect the deep national colors and their distinct cultural characteristics as well as the different characters of various nations and histories. This brings about the different specialties of different nations. All these requi
14、re the translator clearly and extensively learn about other cultures, beliefs, customs and so on so as to truly convey the value and essence of one country. Only in this way, can we effectively promote our cultural communication.II. Background of the Present StudyDiscourse will normally require a su
15、ccessful blend of conventionalized and original language. Fillmore(1979)maintain that formulaic language is far more pervasive than is often realized and that mastery of idioms and other formulae contributes to fluent performance characteristic of the able native speaker:“The strategy of acquiring f
16、ormulaic language is central to the learning of language: indeed, it is the step that puts the learner in a position to perform the analysis which is prerequisite to acquisition. Formulaic language constitutes the linguistic material on which a large part of their (learners) analytical activities co
17、uld be carried out (Fillmore , 640) .” British linguist John Sinclair (1991) goes so far as to suggest that “the idiom principle” may well be the basic underlying principle of language production under normal circumstances. Drawing on his decades of investigating vast quantities of naturally occurri
18、ng language as part of the University of Birmingham/Collins Publishers Cobuild Project, he puts forward his theory of “the idiom principle” forcefully:“A language user has available to him or her large number of semi-reconstructed phrases that constitute single choices, even though they might appear
19、 to be analyzable into segments. To some extent, this may reflect the recurrence of similar situations in human affairs; it may illustrate a natural tendency to economy of effort; or it may be motivated in part by the exigencies of real-time conversation (Sinclair , 110) .” According to Sinclair, th
20、ere is no doubt of the role of idioms in facilitating interaction by, for instance, indicating the speakers/writers attitude, evaluating people or events, directing the discourse, or alluding to shared knowledge or experience.The last few decades have witnessed, alongside a general move towards soci
21、o linguistics and pragmatics, an important number of studies turning their attention to idiom representation and processing that cover semantic, structural, functional and cognitive descriptions of idioms. Various classes of idioms have been proposed. Attitudes and norms are often inextricably bound
22、 up with idiomatic expressions. People resort to idioms not only to communicate propositional content but also to reflect upon and express attitudes and emotions. In some cases, idioms function as a kind of euphemism, the use of which makes it more socially acceptable to make comments on events or p
23、eople than the use of a non-idiomatic expression would be. To learn a cultures idioms, therefore, learners need to be made aware of the context in which the idioms occur. It is very often impossible to infer the meaning of an idiom until it is seen in its immediate context（骆，14-18）. A Research on En
24、glish IdiomsThe traditional idiom studies mainly classify and interpret their functions and resources. With the appearance of structural linguistics and transformational linguistics people give a comprehensive linguistic form analysis about the structure of vocabulary, the character of semantic mean
25、ing and the function of syntax of idioms. Currently, the idiom study is the horizontal and vertical aspects.In resent years, the study of English idioms has been developing into its culture, function and pragmatic and so on. From the cultural perspective, people consider English idioms as the produc
26、ts of especially social cultures. They probe the resources of idioms and the social- cultural aspects that are reflected by idioms（彭，13）. A. The range of English idiomsLike any other kind of idioms, English idioms consist of set phrases and short sayings, which are peculiar to the language in questi
27、on and stem from national and regional culture and ideas, colorful, forcible and thought-provoking. Strictly speaking, idioms are expressions that are not readily understandable from their literal meanings of individual constituents (张维友, 2004:228). In a broad sense, idioms of which most are colloqu
28、ial may include phrasal verbs, pairs of words, fixed group of words, etc.B. The development of idiomsWith the development of peoples social and living circumstances, idioms have also changed since the time that people started to communicate in language. Some old idioms out-of-date may have been aban
29、doned or modified by people, or have taken on new meanings as time goes by. However, idioms are still colorful, active and steadily used in many aspects by ordinary people even by famous writers in their works.C. The origins of English idiomsIdioms are mostly created by diligent laborers, workers, f
30、armers, sailors, etc. Idioms have got their roots deep in peoples daily life and daily work. For the idioms users, it is easy and handy to express their thoughts by idioms that they created. Most of the idioms are from the literal works, ancient fables, mythologies, traditional custom, sports, farmi
31、ng, animals characters, cooking, daily life and so on, and then they are accepted by the mass. They almost include every aspect of peoples life and it is the cultural background idioms carry that makes learners feel hard to understand and it is also the crux of studying idioms.IV. English Idioms abo
32、ut Color A. Concept of color idiomsIts well known that the world is composed of matter. During the process of its development, matter gives special effect on light. This makes matter respectively take on various colors. Which forms our colorful world? Being an objective existence, colors are the com
33、mon sense that all peoples have. Based on the research results of the neurophysiology in the 1960s, American linguist P.Kay C.K.Mcdaniel thinks that human beings have at least 15 fundamental color scopes. One is the main scope, such as black, white, red, yellow, green and blue. Another is the compre
34、hensive scope, that is the dark cold color (black or green or blue), the bright warm color (white or red or yellow), warm color (red or yellow), cold color (green or yellow). Another is the derivative scope that is the brown color (blank plus yellow), the purple color (red plus blue), the pink color
35、 (red plus yellow) and the grey color (white plus blank). The order of human language color is composed into derivative scope from the comprehensive scope. Due to the difference of the observing angle that the Chinese and English peoples hold, they choose the different orders of the color scope. For
36、 example, the color of the hurt skin is multi-level and dim. English employs the main scope, whose order is black plus blue. While Chinese employ the comprehensive or derivative scope. The order of the comprehensive is dark cold color, that is, black plus green plus blue. All these colors make dark
37、blue. And the order of the derivative is red plus blue, which makes purple (邵，150) .B. Color idioms and culturesThe cognition of human beings towards colors is the most fundamental and direct one. But color words or color idioms are the most distinct, the direct and the most concrete image pattern t
38、hat human beings hold. How gorgeous it is that thousands of millions of things have their own distinct color! The diversity of things makes up the diversity of colors. In return the diversity of colors advances the diversifying development of human vocabulary, with the consistent evolution of human
39、thinking; human beings are more and more exposed to other things. So its a great need to obtain both abundant and precious color words to describe our colorful world. Consequently the preciously described color words and idioms appear, and they become part of human vocabulary that is rich of cultura
40、l connotations. Due to their differences of geographical environment, social customs and religious beliefs, peoples use the color words in a great different frequency. Some usages even oppose each other. This phenomenon fully reflects their values and aesthetic conceptions. Because of cultures, diff
41、erent peoples may have differences about the classification of colors. However, at the same time, different peoples nowadays have a more and more similar opinion about colors. Like Chinese, English has a great volume of vocabulary about colors. The importance of color words is not only confined to e
42、xpressing various specialized color but also lies in their, with other words making up compounding words or customary words, which are called color idioms.The frequent use of color idioms fully reflects the close relations between languages and cultures. Color words are the most culturally connotati
43、ve one in English vocabulary. Besides representing their concrete colors, they also reflect their cultural background. Similarly, some color-related idioms have their own connotative meanings apart from representing some specialized colors. Color words are entitled with different cultural connotatio
44、ns by different peoples. They contain the whole work and life experience of one people, reflect the customs of the people and their cultural minds and contain the ways of thinking of the people. As a characteristically distinct one in human language, color idioms leave a deep brand on human language
45、s, forming an organic part of human languages. As long as we further study, well find that some colorrelated vocabulary produce lots of color idioms during the process of their development, such as “black and blue, the black sheep of the family” and so on. Take the color words which contain black fo
46、r example, according to Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English, it contains as many as thirty entities. So, color idioms play an indispensable role in English vocabulary. The uses of English idioms enrich the ways of expression of color vocabulary.C. The cultural connotation of color idiomsB
47、ased on the three main factors, English idioms bring about cultural connotations. One is their own physical colors of the color words. Another factor is the geographical environment, social customs, ways of thinking and interest of aesthetic of the people. The last factor is association. Association
48、 refers to that we relate one thing to another. There is no extension of word meanings without the effect of association. In reality, in different contexts, its not the external meaning of some color idiom that affects, but the internal cultural elements that make people have associations about some color （张，59）.
