A_Tentative_Study_of_the_Cultural_Connotations_of_Animal_Words_in_English_Idioms_and_Its_Implication_to_Translation

Introduction Idioms are given the specific meanings only in a certain group or community where people create them and accept them (Hornby, 873). The origins of idioms are strongly influenced by the surrounding social and cultural background, and the factors range from geographical environment, customs to historical culture (尹富林，148). Thus, cultural information embodied in idioms requires language learners to have a good command of culture before they can grasp the correct understanding of idioms, and further achieve successful translation. 2．Cultural Differences in Chinese and English Idioms Different cultural information contained in idioms makes it possible that misunderstanding may now and again occur during cross-cultural interactions. Some English idioms with animal words can be comprehended from their denotative meanings in Chinese while some seems to be unacceptable for readers if they are interpreted literally. Hence, it proves to be an obstacle for language learners to judge whether animal image in original text should be retained or removed in translation process. For this reason language learners should be familiar with similarities and dissimilarities of idioms about animal words in both languages for satisfactory translation. 2.1. Similar Images of Some Animal Words As Nida says, “the role of language within a culture and the influence of the culture on the meanings of words and idioms are so pervasive that scarcely any text be adequately understood without careful consideration of its cultural background” (Nida, 1). Connotative meanings of animal words are socially determined by the cultural background, and different cultures are correspondent to varied language features represented by their idioms. Yet in spite of discrepant cultural settings, people in both China and English-speaking countries possess the same images of or attitudes toward some animals. Take “wolf” for example. Wolf, in people’s view, usually has been reduced to a symbol of evil intentions. It is often endowed with a derogatory sense. Idiom like “a wolf in sheep’s clothing” means that a person who pretends to be good but really is bad and “throw somebody to the wolves” implies that to send somebody into danger without protection (Hou, 277). The image of wolf manifestly reveals people’s disdain and hostility when it comes to wolf. If any person was referred to a wolf, he could hardly be kindhearted or popular among a group, but would be left alone for his potential threat. Another shared image is from the pig. Undoubtedly a pig’s characters will associate people with its greed, dirtiness, laziness and ugliness. Hence, idioms about pig are mostly used to release negative feelings. For instance, “Pigs might fly, if they had wings” indicates that wonderful and impossible things might happen, if they would be different from what we know it to be (Hou, 265). But as a matter of fact, such things can never take place in reality and people just through the phrase show frustration more than any realistic anticipation. Some other idioms about wolf and pig including “the big bad wolf”, “pig-headed”, “eat like a pig” likewise exist with a negative image accepted by both Chinese and English people. They share the similar associative meanings based on their common understanding of these two animals which have unique natural instincts and life styles. Therefore, the examples taken above can be easily understood even without extra knowledge about cultures in the other nation. In most cases, however, idioms containing varied cultural connotations cannot be comprehended without any further investigations on their origins. 2.2. Discrepant Connotative Meanings of Animal Words Connotative meanings differ across cultures, so that straightforward images in idioms of one culture are not necessarily salient in another. The idioms of a given language may not recall the same conventional scenes in the minds of language learners from a different language. Consequently, language learners will be encountered a larger number of idioms among which majority of idioms are not as understandable as what they can expect. Idioms are combinations of words, but the meaning of which cannot be determined from the meanings of the parts (Taper 36). They must be treated and analyzed as a whole. Therefore, the comprehension of English idioms is often not easy at all because of the specific living environment, conventions and historical factors (伊富林,66), 2.2.1 Influence of Geographical Environment England is an island country surrounded by the sea. The distance from any place within this island to its coastline is no more than 120 miles. In other words, all people in England are more or less tied to the sea and cultivated by sea culture. Naturally, in their casual conversations, idiomatic expressions about fish are bound to be large in number. The pervasive existence of fish makes it an indispensible part of language use, while idioms related to fish at times become a cliché with derogatory sense. The idioms of fish can be linked to a person negatively. “Fish and guests stink after three days” is a figurative idiom which can fail to be understood by language learners when they meet the sentence for the first time. Anyone who has common sense agrees that fish will smell if it is left uncooked for long. But nobody will think it reasonable to say that a person stink like a fish. For language learners, contextual clues are needed to infer the sentence’s correct understanding. The idiom appears in such situation, like “How long on earth will she stay here' She should remember the universal truth that fish and guests smell after three days”. Now with the situational context, it is apparent that the speaker showing impatience cannot endure guests’ long stay at his home. And the idiom indicates that guests who stay for longer than three days risk becoming a burden or an irritation to their hosts (Manser, 103). There are other idioms about fish such as “a loose fish”, “a dull fish”, “a poor fish”, and “a shy fish” to help describe people’s defects. These phrases can be literally acceptable and understandable once the word ‘fish’ in phrases is substituted by ‘any person’. Certainly, fish is not necessarily a negative image. It also functions as a neuter word to convey meaningful information. For a language learner, the most common expression he has heard about fish might be “how to fish”, a phrase guiding people to master skills or know the right way before they set out to some work. In idioms, two proverbs “fish or cut bait” and “fish where the fish are” seem to produce the same effect to direct people to the right track. “Fish or cut bait” tells people either to go on with what you have to do or go away and let somebody else do it, which shows a dilemma that everyone has to face between choices. “Fish where the fish are” requires that if you want to obtain or achieve something, you must concentrate your efforts and attentions on the places, people, or activities that are most likely to bring success (Zhang, 77). These two proverbs are both instructive in one’s life. Similar idioms are “never offer to teach fish to swim”, “the best fish swim near the bottom”, “not only fish in the sea” and so on. Therefore, the fish related idioms which result from the specific living environment are reflected in people’s selection of language use. Some can be used to achieve witty and vivid effect during communications, and some tend to be significantly meaningful and instructive. 2.2.2 Influence of Social Conventions According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, idiom is the kind of language and grammar used by particular people at a particular time or space (Hornby, 873). Since it is confined to a particular time or space, it is exclusive to the native speakers so as to be in line with their social conventions. Convention is a set of stipulated, generally accepted standards, rules and norms which govern people in the ways of thinking and of language use （Hornby,368）, and which cannot be changed casually once it has taken form. Hence, just as convention is to some extent unchanged, idiom occurs in a relatively fixed state, and in return reflects its unique custom. The following idioms are caused by conventions. For instance, “look a gift horse in the mouth” conveys that to find a fault with a gift given by others, which implies great impoliteness (Zhang 57). This idiom could trace back to ancient times in England when a horse was regarded as a present. Some people would check and count how many teeth the horse had so that they could infer the horse’ age, which put the gift giver in an awkward situation (Zhang 57). Thus, this idiom regularly appears in a negative expression to warn people to be as polite as possible whenever they receive a gift, for a gift embodies one’s good wishes more than the practical utility in itself. Another relevant idiom is again about the fish. “Kettle of fish” shows a stale of affair that is confused, difficult, and different from expected (Hou, 288). The idiom stemmed from people’s celebration in a feast. During18th century in Scotland and English, the locals nearby rivers would irregularly hold a carnival for celebration when they caught plenty of fish for food cooking. The fish as the staple food were boiled in a large kettle before they would be grabbed away by crowded people. It was natural to imagine that after the feast, everything would be in a mess (Zhang 43). So the “kettle of fish” reveals problems that are hard to deal with. The two idiomatic expressions originating from the given circumstances are familiar to native speakers who bear conventional usages of them in the minds and can response to the expressions even without thinking. Yet, it is impossible for English learners to reach the implied meanings without any knowledge of the conventions about horse and fish. As we know, the meaning of an idiom does not lie in the individual words that compose it. Although each word in the two idioms can be easily understood, the full expression does not seem to make sense. Therefore it is recommended that to explore the knowledge of their cultural connotations effected by conventions is the best way to understand idioms. 2.2.3 Influence of Historical Culture Cultural history records and interprets past events involving human beings and examines the narrative descriptions of past knowledge (伊富林,158). English-speaking countries possess their own historical culture. It comprises of allusions, myths, folktales, literary works, ancient books and records, etc. The cultural connotation from history is the cream of human cultural heritage. Knowledge of the historical background of English language can be helpful to comprehend what the cultural connotations of idioms mean. In the West, dog is of respectable status. The long-term intimate contact with dogs makes people have the deep-rooted understandings about their natural instincts. But the dog being the favorite of human beings is not of no reason. People ardently love dog mainly for two reasons. One is that the dog is extensively helpful. He can locate the prey during hunting, escort the blind for directions, and serve as a door keeper for the host and a detector for the police to find out illegal drugs. The second reason is that the dog as an ideal pet is treated as a loyal companion. As early as in 1150, the great writer Benard Shaw once wrote such a line “love me, love my dog” as to show his affection for dog (Zhang 74). Other idioms involving dog like “top dog” describes a person who has control and power over others. “Every dog has its day” means every person, however unfortunate or unimportant, has a time in his life when he is successful or victorious (Hou.239). Similar idioms with commentary sense are “a lucky dog”, “work like a dog”, “dog does not eat dog” and so on. Naturally in the Western nations, dog always remains an image of high status. The lion in English culture likewise enjoys high prestige. Richard I, king of England in the latter part of the 12th century, was known as lion-hearted for his courage and chivalry (Zhang 57). There is an expression “to be brave as a lion”. When someone is called a lion, he is referred to a celebrity or a famous person. Hence, there is another idiom like “a lion-hunter”, which means “hosts or hostesses who seek out celebrities with whom to impress their guests”（Hou,82）. It’s natural, then, that the British have chosen the lion as their symbol as in the expression “the British lion”. The word has been used to form many English idioms with such connotations. For instance, “lion's share” means the largest part; “the lion's den” means a place of great danger; “to meet a lion in one's path” means to encounter a daunting obstacle etc. Moreover, fables also contribute to be the source of idiom origins. As is the case with the idiom “kill the goose that lays the golden egg”. This idiom is derived from one of the fables attributed to Aesop. In this tale, a man and his wife had the good luck to own a goose that laid a golden egg every day. Thinking the bird must be full of gold, they soon tried to kill it to get all the gold at once. But when they cut the goose open, only to find that there was no gold inside (Den 16). If they hadn't been greedy and killed the goose, it would have kept laying a golden egg every day. Thus, this idiom is to reveal the bitter result of being too greedy. In general, there is no lack of idioms alluding to historical culture. Such idioms are simply-structured but highly significant. Only with the knowledge of cultural background in the source language, can the correct understanding will be achieved and the further translation will be feasible. 3. Methods of Idiom Translation from English into Chinese A correct understanding of the connotations of words is the prerequisite of a translating process. If it is neglected, misunderstandings can occur during cross-cultural communication. Traditionally, a translation should be faithful and exact to the original text. However it is hard to contain in a translated text all the elements of an idiom from its superficial meaning and image to its deep implication and cultural features, which leads to different versions of translation. In the light of Nida’s theory of functional equivalence, a number of different translations can in fact represent varying degrees of equivalence. This means that “equivalence” cannot be understood in its mathematical meaning of identity, but only in terms of proximity (Nida.117). Accordingly, although differences from the translated text will not be avoidable, they are acceptable in terms of proximity. Approaches involved in English-Chinese translation may be mainly divided into two methods: literal translation and free translation. In coping with different idioms, correspondent methods will be adopted.¬. 3.1. Literal Translation—maintaining the image of idioms The method of literal translation represents the associative meanings of the original idiom and makes readers know something about the features of the original text (毕秀英,124). It is a means of accurately representing the meaning of the original idiom. By trying to reflect every meaningful feature of the text in form, the most accurate reflection of the original can be produced. In the translating process, one should translate as literally as possible in order to reproduce the basic meaning of the words and to remain the original figure of speech or style on the precondition of not violating language rule. In general, this translation technique tends to be widely accepted in idiom translation. The English idiom “killing two birds with one stone” can be translated into the Chinese way of expression “一举两得”. If we keep the original way of expression “一石二鸟”, it retains the original images “stone” and “birds” and it sounds very vivid and comprehensible to Chinese people (毕秀英,162). Moreover, idiomatic phrases including “an old fox”, “Trojan horse” and “paper tiger” can be respectively translated into “老狐狸”, “特洛伊木马” and “纸老虎”. As a matter of principle, a translator is not supposed to add any meaning to or miss any information from the original work (伊富林,5). Nevertheless, Chinese and English are two different languages, whose native speakers have such entirely different historical and cultural background that many idiomatic expressions so well understood in the country of their origin, if translated literally without the necessary “amplification” can hardly make sense to the foreigners, (伊富林,149). Therefore, the good method to deal with the idioms full of rich national characteristics is to give a literal translation and then add a tag phrase or comment that brings out the wits or humor. For example: The idiom “Be like a bull in a china shop” conveys “像头闯进瓷器店的公牛——动不动就惹祸”. In the Chinese translation, the first part separated by the dash can lead to different associative meanings, and the second part supplies the implied meaning. 3.2. Free Translation—target-language-culture-oriented Free translation is to express the main idea of the original writing but vary the way of expression. This method is employed when no equivalent is found in the target language or when it is not necessary to translate literally. This method aims to replace the cultural expressions of the source text with those of the target language. More concretely, free translation means that in translation process, cultural relevant element in target language is fully utilized to replace the cultural connotation in source language, creating certain familiarity with non-native readers, thus arousing their interest (Taber, 106). Nida says, “Translating means communicating and the process depends on what is received by persons hearing or reading a translation. Judging the validity of a translation cannot stop with a comparison of corresponding lexical meanings, grammatical classes, and rhetorical devices”. What is important is the extent to which receptors correctly understand and appreciate the translated text (Nida, 116). One of the translator’s tasks is to avoid misunderstanding of the translated text caused by cultural differences. A translator should consider carefully the associative implications of the cultural transfer while he attempts to translate a text into another culture. There is no doubt that meaning is important in translation and translation aims at achieving the greatest degree of equivalence. A translation is said to “have the same meaning” as the original. Therefore, conveying the intended meaning flexibly is absolutely significant. If one translates literally into Chinese a phrase like “rain cats and dogs”, it will certainly produce a totally confusing statement, because it does not mean that cats and dogs really fall from the sky, thus making no sense. In such cases through semantic adjustment, it should be translated into “倾盆大雨”. Another example for free translation is “let the cat out of the bag”. If one sticks to maintaining the image of cat, the literal translation might be “让猫露出袋子”. Then Chinese readers must feel puzzled when meeting such expression. In fact, this idiom is from a trick commonly practiced by medieval market traders: instead of selling customers an edible live animal for the cooking pot, such as a piglet, duck or hare, they sometimes had an inedible cat tied up in a bag ready to pass off on the unsuspecting. Wary customers would always check the contents of any bag sold to them, sometimes letting the cat out (Manser 38). So “let the cat out of the bag” means inadvertently let a secret become known and the proper translation should be “泄露秘密”. 4. Conclusion Through the analysis of the cultural connotations of animal words in English idioms, it can be concluded that animal words effected by geographical circumstances, conventions and historical backgrounds, form their own features and cultural values in the language. Therefore, in the process of translation, special attention must be paid to the cultural connotations of animal words of the source language. Some practical translation skills including literal and free translation are essential for successful translation. Moreover, translators cultivate his cultural awareness throughout the translation and keep consistent orientation in the translation process. Works Cited Den John. The Fables of Aesop. Beijing: Capital University of Economics and Business Press, 2002. Hornby A S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, 6th edition. 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