Cultural Differences between English and Chinese Idioms
having a meaning that cannot be derived as a whole from the conjoined meanings of its elements. From this definition we know that some of the English idioms are composed of several words and some are made of even a complete sentence. in a broad sense, idioms include verbal phrases, sayings, proverbs, colloquialisms, allusions and slang.(Jin Di,Eugene A.Nada 77) In a narrow sense, idioms can be regarded as those fixed phrases over long time of using, having unitary meaning and syntactic frozenness, such as “to play one's cards well” and “between the devil and the deep blues sea”. Compared with the definition of idiom, Most of Chinese idioms are made of four such as arid“张冠李戴”and some of them are composed of three, five，six or Even more characters, such as“马前卒”and“醉翁之意不在酒”. The English “idiom”that I'm going to discuss in this paper refers to the one in a narrow sense. It refers to the fixed phrases or short sentences which have unitary meaning and syntactic frozenness. The “idiom” does not equal the Chinese “idiom” exactly, because Chinese “idiom” are mostly made of four characters, while “idiom” are which not; Chinese “idiom” are mainly used in written Chinese, though they can be used in spoken Chinese, and “idiom” are mainly used in spoken English, though they can be used in written English. But Chinese “idiom” is the most popular term to translate the English “idiom”.(Claire kramsch 43)
III. The Difficulties in Rendering Idioms into the Target Language
The above-mentioned analysis shows the similarities and differences between English and Chinese idioms. It is not quite easy for us to understand the meanings of both English and Chinese idioms and it is even more difficult to find satisfactory equivalents in a target language. There are several reasons.
Firstly, both English and Chinese idioms are habitually and frequently used for a long time. That is to say, idioms are fixed phrases extracted from language over long time of using. Although idioms are combinations of words, the meaning of which cannot be determined from the meanings of the individual words alone. This is the main difficulty for us to understand the actual meaning of each idiom completely. Let's see the following examples. Someone thinks that the English idiom \crab\“抓住一只螃蟹”.But the true meaning of this idiom is the failure of the act of paddling. Another idiom \“房子着了火” literally and its real meaning is to describe a certain action“Vigorously”,
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Cultural Differences between English and Chinese Idioms
“fast”or “excellently”. Similarly, it is not quite easy for foreigners to understand some Chinese idioms. Take“骑马找马”for example, a foreigner maybe thinks that it refers to capturing elephants with an elephant, a thief to catch a thief or adaptation of means to end, but the real meaning of this idiom is to look for a horse while sitting on one or to hold on to one job while seeking a better one. (Peter Newmark 76) Therefore, neither English nor Chinese idioms can be derived from a knowledge of their component parts. Idioms can not be interpreted without real understanding.
Secondly, most of the idioms are metaphorical or figurative idioms. A metaphorical idiom refers to the idiomatic phrase or idiomatic expression in which a metaphor is used to convey a figurative meaning. Metaphors, easily found in both English and Chinese idioms, make images vivid and bring so much life to language. The metaphorical idiom is a complex item which has a meaning that cannot be determined from the meanings of its component parts. In order to grasp this kind of idioms we should first know the features of phenomena of nature which are used as comparisons. For instance, ball games are used for comparison in the two English idioms “to start the ball rolling”, which means to start a conversation or an activity and “to keep the ball rolling”, which means to continue a conversation or an activity. Similarly, the Chinese idiom“目不见睫”literally means the eye cannot see its lashes but it has a figurative meaning一to lack self-knowledge. (Peter Newmark 29)
In addition, idioms are mostly full of literary allusions, national features and so on, which makes us not always easy to understand the meanings of idioms. The problems of rendering idioms of one language into another are always complex, much more so if the two languages involved are of backgrounds and cultures so unlike each other. Just as Nida once said: Idioms are somewhat more open to intrusions and modifications than are words, and they are usually rather culture-specific, that is, they depend very much upon a specific social or ecological setting. Because of their close identification with a particular language and culture, idioms usually carry more impact than non-idiomatic expressions. Finding satisfactory equivalents for idioms is one of the mast difficult aspects of translating. (Peter Newmark 98) In many instances idioms can only be satisfactorily rendered by non-idioms in a target language, although in the process much of the psychological impact is lost. Thus the meanings of idioms involve the understanding of a culture in which the language is rooted. But understanding the meanings of idioms is more complicated since for the most part the meanings are very specific and culturally conditioned.
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Cultural Differences between English and Chinese Idioms
IV．Cutural Similarities and Differences between Chinese and English Idioms
English and Chinese cultures are totally different. Their origins and development are not the same. Chinese has a close relation with the Chinese culture. Many Chinese idioms can be translated when the Chinese culture expressed by them are uncovered. However, English idioms are bound up with British and American cultures. Culture similarities and differences between Chinese and English idioms are discussed in the following aspects.
A. Similarities
Both China and Britain have a long-time history, ancient civilization and glorious culture. Both the two countries have the similar experience and thought. During the Communication of the two countries, cultures are interacting. This made some idioms have the same or similar culture characteristic. Therefore, the idioms are corresponding no matter in meaning, image cultural flavor. In such condition, we could use the source language to translate the target language directly. For example, 失败乃成功之母（Failure is the mother of success）. In this idiom, we see that it is translated into English directly. 失败 is translated into“failure”, while成is “success” and母is “mather”.From this idiom, we notice there are some similarities between Chinese and English which made us translate the source language into the target language directly. Look at another example,祸不单行(misfortunes never come singly). In this phrase,祸is misfortune,单is translated into singly. Then the whole phrase is translated misfortunes never come singly. There are some other examples like these. 丢脸(lose face), 来得容易，去得快(easy come, easy go), 以牙还牙(a tooth for a tooth), 披着羊皮的狼（a wolf in sheep's clothing）牛市(bull market), 熊市(bear, market), 破釜沉舟(to turn one's boat, 火上浇油(pour oil on fire),水滴石穿(constant dropping wears the stone). (喻家楼 163) All these show the similarities between the two cultures.
B. Difference between Chinese and Western Culture
Chinese and English cultures are totally different. These differences are embodied in the following aspects.
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Cultural Differences between English and Chinese Idioms
1. Religions and Believes
As a cultural phenomenon, religion, which is the manifestation of different cultures, is the vital part of human thought. It penetrates into every possible aspect of people's life, which consequently causes great cultural difference between people with different religious beliefs.
China is a multi-religious country, yet comparatively speaking, Buddhism has a greater influence in Chinese culture. It was first introduced into China in the first century AD, and has shaped the Chinese language, diet, arts, etc. and greatly stimulated the development of Chinese literature. The large number of words and idioms derived from Buddhism is one of the manifestations of its influence, such as现身说法(to make a personal example as an effective means of convincing others),半路出家(switch to a new trade without solid foundation)，放下屠刀，立地成佛(A butcher becomes a Buddha the moment he drops his cleaver---a wrongdoer achieves salvation as soon as he gives up evil)，救人一命胜造七级浮屠(to save a human life is better than building a seven-storeyed pagoda)，一尘不染(remained spotless)，做一天和尚，撞一天钟(take a passive attitude toward one's work), 借花献佛(to present Buddha with borrowed flowers---to borrow something to make a gift of it)，五体投地(to throw oneself down at somebody's feet in admiration)，平时不烧香，临时抱佛脚(Neglect to burn one's joss stick before an idol in times of peace, then embrace the Buddha's feet in a crisis). Here the words with emphasized symbols such as “身”, “法”, “出家”, “成佛”etc. are words derived from the activities of Buddhism in China. (彭晓蓉 52) Besides, to the ordinary Chinese, Heaven is the supreme ruler of the world. All happenings on the earth are believed to be controlled and arranged by Heaven, hence it gives rise to the following idioms:谋事在人，成事在天(Man proposes, Heaven disposes)，生死由命，富贵在天(Life and death are decreed by fate, rank and riches determined by Heaven)，民以食为天(Food is the necessity of the people)，天理不容(Heaven will not tolerate injustice)，天生我才必有用(There must be some use for the talent Heaven granted me)，一人得道，鸡犬升天(When one becomes a high official, even his fowls and dogs will get promoted).
In contrast to the Chinese, most of the westerners are Christians, who believe that the world was created by God, and that everything in the world is arranged and disposed of according to God's will. The teachings and beliefs concerning Christianity are recorded in the Bible, which has contributed a great deal to English idioms, for many English people who believe in Christianity all read the Bible. Therefore,
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