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1、【标题】四字格成语中数字的英译 【作者】唐 云 欢 【关键词】文化；修辞特点；四字格成语；数字；翻译 【指导老师】程琼 项谊 【专业】英语 【正文】I. IntroductionChinese idioms, being a special and inseparable part of a language which is the instrument and shell of thinking, are translatable in terms of contents.1 Chinese idioms are set phrases or sentences abstracted fr
2、om a language through a long period of usage and become the nucleus and cream of the language. By using them appropriately, we can express ourselves in a more vivid, terse and effective way. However, they are different from phrases, vulgarisms, and even different from slang and proverbs in English.
3、The Chinese idiom has its unique“four-character”, which makes language into a high degree of convergence and meaningfulness. As a digital, which is the crystallization of human wisdom, is a measure of the scale of social and scientific development, is also a communicative language.2 Therefore, the n
4、umbers in the idioms can be said that is the most perfect combination and the most profound of Chinese language, beliefs and social experiences. The translation process of numbers, especially in the idioms can not be ignored. There are some ways to translate numbers in the Chinese four-character idi
5、oms, which depend on the numbers counting in four-character idioms and the English translation of Chinese four-character manners, which would be divided into four parts will be introduced, and conclusion at last.II. The Cultural Background of Four-Character Idioms with NumbersChinese idioms reflect
6、the national features of the native speakers and are said to be the sinew of the language. Number as an important part of language is only right and proper. Numbers have accumulated and taken form from plentiful cultural information. Different nationalities with different culture have different favo
7、rite numbers, which have a stamp of national civilization. As we all know, comparing English prefer seven to thirteen with Chinese who more prefer one, six, eight and nine but dislike the number of four.A. The Background of Numbers in English CultureSeven is a very occult number and very popular wit
8、h westerns. There is a saying that, seven can bring“luck”, is stem from Bible. It is considered that God created the world with seven days(also called Seven Day is Creation). In addition, seven contains strong religion color. Edward? Varai had mentioned in Biblical Mathematics that, seven used many
9、times in Revelation of Bible, such as, there are seven churches, seven souls, seven trumpets, seven new things and so forth. Religions and civilization in western countries, standardizing behaviors with seven makes a great sense of cultural language production. For instance, the Seven Deadly Sins th
10、at contains Pride, Wrath, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, Avarice and Sloth, meanwhile, the Seven Virtues, which includes Faith, Hope, Charity, Justice, Fortitude, Prudence and Temperance, are attractive in English culture. Most of English and Americans who are regarded seven as their lucky number, and most o
11、f them even think that July 7, 2007 was the luckiest day of this century. An American wedding magazine named A Married Couple said that the couples get married on July 7, 2007 was 2.5 times as large as July 7 last year.Nevertheless, what is opposite of it, thirteen is a taboo for most countries whic
12、h consider thirteen is an unlucky number. Analysts showed that, the problem is not the number has any magic, but psychological of taboo do mischief in peoples mind. There is a saying about taboo of thirteen for westerns. In Bible, the biblical tree in the Garden of Eden whose forbidden fruit was tas
13、ted by Adam and Eve on the thirteen day. Moreover, it is said that, while Jesus was murdered after he had a dinner with his disciples together. The thirteenth one who came to the dinner was Judas, one of Jesus disciples. Judas sold Jesus down the river to Judaism for thirty silvers that put Jesus wa
14、s racked with pain. There were thirteen people attended the dinner when the day is on the thirtieth day of the month. Thirteen had brought much misery and misfortunes to Jesus. That is why people would do nothing on that day which like a hazardous day in China.B. The Background of Numbers in Chinese
15、 CultureEvery nationality is fond of its own number. In China, Chinese people quite love one, six, eight and nine as people who love seven in western countries.One besides zero is the first one of numbers. It has a meaning of beginning and head the list of successful candidates of everything. Such a
16、s the idiom“一马当先”(of work or sports) takes the lead. Six is a special characteristic number, which is like a head of zero adding a protective umbrella makes people feel comfortable. For instance,“六六大顺” means everything goes smoothly；“六畜兴旺” has a means of the domestic animals are all thriving. Whats
17、more Chinese nation has a traditional view of advocates“the sky(天)”, so in ancient times there were“six meridians(六经)”,“six classic arts(六艺)” 3 and so on. Eight which pronunciation as“发” in Chinese is a metaphor of showing the success of lucky. This is extremely a lucky number for Chinese, especiall
18、y for businesspersons who believe this number can make a fortune for them. Chinese people think nine that has the same pronunciation with“久” which implies lasting for a time. Moreover, this number is considered as the apices of number. Most of people choose these numbers for their car numbers or pho
19、ne numbers like couples choose wedding days that contain these numbers for a lucky wedding day.But people do not like the number four that sounds like“死(death)”. People believe four is an ominous number and would not like to choose it as their car or phone number and do nothing on that day.III. The
20、Rhetorical Features of Numbers in Four-Character IdiomsFour-character idiom is a treasure in the vast forest of Chinese words. In the long history of progress, it not only forms their own fixed structure, in particular, precipitation of the Han ethnic social and cultural traditions, but also shows t
21、he profound value of the real meaning implied. The numbers in the idioms contain more than 400 articles in Chinese Idioms Dictionary, which are distributed from“一”,“百”,“千”and“万”. However, many of the numbers in idioms dont refer to a numbers original meaning or the actual content of its statements.
22、So we often need to explain them from a rhetorical point of view in order to reveal its original meaning, thus explain the idioms smoothly.Hyperbole is created by use of understatement, overstatement or exaggeration for emphasis.4 It is the meaning of some concept or some thing to be exaggerated or
23、be reduced, or for artistic rendering in order to reveal the essence of things vividly and enhance language infectant power. The number“三”，“十”，“百”，“千” and“万”，appear in the idioms reflecting the exaggeration function, such as“垂涎三尺”can be translated as“to cast greedy eyes at”. However, the number“一”ap
24、pears in the idioms reducing the rendering.“一毛不拔”can be translated as“unwilling to give up even a hair”, indicating the extent of mean. All these numbers are reflected in exaggerated tense, not the meaning of the expression of specific figures.Metaphor function refers to some specific numerals not r
25、eflecting the meaning it owned, but only a metaphor in order to put the argument much easier to understand and more concrete. For example,“一衣带水” can be translated as“a narrow strip of water”, which indicates that a stream is very confined like a narrow strip, implying the extremely close relationshi
26、p.“十指连心” is translated as“the nerves of the fingertips are linked with heart”, which means intimated relationship.Metonymy is a figure of speech by which the name referring to one object is used to indicate another, in order to highlight the essence of things and to make the expression more concise.
27、 For example,“志在四方” can be translated as“be ready to realize ones aspiration anywhere all over the country”.“四方” represents all the places of the world. Here the metonymy is used in the parts instead of the whole.“三寸之舌” translates as“an all-persuasive tongue”. Here is the specific thing replacing th
28、e abstract thing.Contrast function is to compare the two groups of numbers, generally comparing the large number“十”，“百”，“千” and“万” to the small number“一”，which can reflect distant effects and deeply affected. Such as,“九牛一毛”is translated into“a hair from nine cows, which vividly demonstrated“nine cow
29、” to“a hair” that indicates“a hair” takes a tiny proportion.Mosaic function is to make a solemn discourse representation more deliberate and more relievable, which intent to add a few insignificant numbers to the original meaning, thus these numbers lose their own meaning, but only appear a well-pro
30、portioned and neat structure in the syllables.5 For example,“百依百顺”（依顺），“千呼万唤”（呼唤），“一干二净”（干净），etc. can fully remove the numbers while the remaining words shown in the parentheses content is still to retain the original meaning.IV. Categories and the Chinese-English Translation of Numbers in Four-Char
31、acter IdiomsA. Categories of Numbers in Four-Character IdiomsAccording to incompletely statistics, the total number of Chinese idioms is about ten thousand in“the Big Thesaurus of Chinese Idioms”, and the thesaurus contains more than 18,000 idioms. Because the typical style of Chinese idioms are fou
32、r-character, so this thesiss content is limited to four-character. The Big Thesaurus of Chinese Idioms published in 1987 by Shanghai Dictionary Publishing Agency and intersected with the Chinese-English Dictionary published in 1997 by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press contains 537 four-ch
33、aracter idioms. Moreover, there are 364 idioms contained one number in these 537 idioms; this is about 67.78% of idioms in database. Even though, in the Latest Utilizing Idioms Dictionary published in 2006 by the Intellectual Property Publishing House, there are 563 idioms contain numbers and these
34、idioms account for about 20% of all idioms.There is a M.A. dissertation Analysis of Numbers in Four-Character Idioms by Lin Yan in 2008, which is the latest research about numbers in idioms. In her research, she categorize the Chinese four-character idioms with numbers into four parts, according to
35、the 563 idioms contained numbers in the Latest Utilizing Idioms Dictionary published in 2006 by the Intellectual Property Publishing House. The first part is the four-character idioms with one number, such as,“一帆风顺” contains one number“一”;“万马奔腾” contains one number“万” and so on. The second part is t
36、he four-character idioms with two numbers, such as,“九牛一毛” contains two numbers“九” and“一”. The third part is the four-character idioms with three numbers, such as,“三六九等” contains three numbers“三”,“六” and“九”. And the fourth part is the four-character idioms with four numbers, such as,“一五一十” contains f
37、our numbers“一”,“五”,“一” and“十”. B. The Chinese-English Translation of Numbers in Four-Character IdiomsTranslation that is a matchmaker of civilization work as an intermediate for different cultures, in other words, translation is a bridge as usual we called.6 It is the same in the Chinese-English Tra
38、nslation, we should make foreigners understand the Chinese idioms and can express the meaning of idioms. While we deal with translation, we should consider how we can translate it correctly. As Eugene A. Nida& Charles R. Taber writes:Is this a correct translation? Must be answered in terms of anothe
39、r question, namely: For whom? Correctness must be determined by the extent to which the average reader for which a translation is intended will be likely to understand it correctly.7According to the quantity of the numbers in the four-character idioms, Lin Yan counts the numbers into four parts: the
40、 four-character idioms contained one number, two numbers, three numbers and four numbers.1. The Chinese-English Translation of One Number in Four-Character IdiomsIn our extracted 563 four-character idioms which contained numbers, and there are 403 four-character idioms contain only one number which
41、is covered 71.58% of the whole database.8 The translation of one number in four-character idioms is always translatability and non-translatability.There are over 50% idioms are translatability in the 403 four-character idioms. Translatability is a category in traditional translation theory, is based
42、 on such an assumption that the original works have their ultimate meanings. Or we say，numbers in this kind of idioms can be translated directly. For instance,“百步穿杨” can be translated as“hit a willow branch at one hundred yards by arrow”( the number“百”is translated into“one hundred”);“一笔勾销” is trans
43、lated into“write off at one stroke” or“abolish at one stroke”( the number“一” is translated into“one” directly).“万马奔腾” is translated into“ten thousand horses gallop forward”(the number“万”is translate into“ten thousand”). So numbers in this kind of idioms we often used is literal translation, which is
44、 the basic translation method, trying to keep the original intention while translating in order to make every numbers in idioms are translatable.And the four-character idioms contain one number about 45% are non-translatability. Nevertheless, non-translatability mainly manifests in free translation.
45、 Non-translatability is that when there are significant differences between lexical meaning, syntactic structures and style of original meaning and target language. Translator should be liberal at style of original meaning and the goal is to express idea of the original meaning smoothly. Such as“八面玲
46、珑”is translated into“of a smooth article” or“(of speech) cover all sides beautifully”(the number“八” here can not be translated into“eight”, because it means all sides not only eight sides.)“十恶不赦” which is translated into“guilty of unpardonable crimes” or“ guilty beyond forgiveness”(the number“十” her
47、e is not to just express ten guilt who has made, but means a heinous crime that is a deadly sin).“五谷丰登” is translated into“an abundant harvest of all food crops” or“bumper harvests of different grains”(“五谷” is not actually refers to“ five crops”, so the number“五” can not translated into“five” at all
48、). Therefore, numbers in these idioms, we often used are free translation which proceeding from the significance of translation. Furthermore, numbers in these non-translatable idioms are not to express their significance, but to show their derived meaning.Translation is not an easy work, that not on
49、ly relates to civilization but also relate to context of culture. Context of culture is closely interrelated to translation. Translation as cross-cultural exchange activities, whether from broad sense or narrow sense, must work in a certain context of culture. Cultural context of the factors involved in all levels is important for the whole process which from the choice of translation to the acceptation of translation every aspect. 92. The Chin
