An Analysis of the Cultural Connotation in English and Chinese Idioms.doc

浅析中英习语的文化内涵An Analysis of the Cultural Connotation in English and Chinese IdiomsAbstract: Different people from different countries may have different understandings of the same sentence because of their different cultures. While the ultimate aim of English learning is to cultivate students competence to apply English correctly, fluently, and appropriately in inter-cultural communication. Idioms, a part of language, are the essence of culture in every country and they embody the rich cultural features. If students don’t understand the cultural connotation reflected in idioms they may have great difficulty in understanding and communicating with people from different countries. Therefore, it is necessary for language learners to make the study. This paper is divided into three parts. The first and second part shows people what idiom is, what culture is., as well as their relationship. The principal part of this paper is the third part, which discusses the idioms reflecting the differences of Chinese and Western cultures in various levels with many lively, important, and interesting examples of idioms in hope of helping language learners lessen misunderstanding and improve the communicative competence in inter-cultural communication.Key words: idioms; culture; culture connotation 摘 要： 不同的人来自不同的国家，因为他们不同的文化，可能对同一个句子有不同的理解。

然而，英语学习的最终目的是让学生能正确的，流利的，恰当的，在跨文化交际中运用英语习语是语言的一部分，是各国文化的精髓，体现了丰富的文化特征如果学生不理解习语所反映的文化内涵，他们可能很难和其他国家的人们正确交流因此，英语学习者很有必要对习语进行研究这篇文章分为三部分第一和第二部分主要写了什么是习语，什么是文化，以及它们之间的关系第三部分是文章的主体部分，论述习语在文化的各个层次上所反映的中西文化差异，并采纳生动有趣的例子作为论据进行适当的分析，希望帮助语言学习者减少对习语的误解和提高跨文化交际的能力关键词：习语；文化；文化内涵ContentsI. Introduction………………………………………………………1II. Literature on the Studies of Idioms……………………………..2III. Idioms and Culture………………………...…………………….3A. Definition of idioms………………………...……………………3B. Brief introduction of culture………………………...……………4C. Language and culture…………………………………………....5IV. Comparative Analysis of Cultural Implication of Chinese and English Idioms ………………………...………………………....6A. Differences in regions and geography …………………………….6B. Differences in convention and values……………………………...7C. Differences in historic allusion……………………………………8D. Differences in religious belief……………………………………10V. Conclusion ………………………………………………………11Work cited ……………………………………………………………..12第 2 页 共 12 页I. Introduction Idioms are an important part of the language and culture of a society. Idioms are often hard to understand and even harder to use correctly. The proper use of idioms in a language is often a mark of a person's command of the language. English and Chinese idioms carved with cultural characteristics account for a great part in communication. Generally speaking, idioms include colloquialism, proverb and slang. It is a group of words with a special meaning different from the meanings of its constituent words (Eugene 15). The abundance and variety of idioms in the English language may be to a great extent for by the historical development of the language. Many idiomatic expressions come from the everyday life of people.Every language is laden with idioms. An idiom is a word or group of words that cannot be literally translated from the sources language into the receptor’s because an idiomatic meaning cannot be understood by literally defining its component part. Idioms are one of the important language elements. They are formed through long—time practice. They are not only the core and cream of a language but also an indivisible part of it. They usually have their unique national and local cultural connotations which bear a deep national and local imprint that is unsubstantiated for. Besides, idioms are the symbolic representation of a people; and it comprises their historical and cultural background as well as their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking.English, as the most active and widely used language, enjoys a vast idiomatic, basis which makes its learning very exciting and interesting with about 4,000 idioms used in the daily communication (Li 1). Similarly, there are also so many idioms in Chinese language. However, because of cultural differences, there exist great differences between English idioms and Chinese idioms. As language learners, they should develop their cultural awareness and have a clear understanding of the cultural differences between Chinese and English idioms in order to achieve success in intercultural communication.II. Literature Review on the Studies of IdiomsIdioms are very useful for communication, e.g. Alexander 1984; Carter & McCarthy 1988; Cooper 1999; Irujo 1986b; Nippold 1991points that: As an integral part of vocabulary learning, idioms constitute one of the most difficult areas of foreign language learning. So both theoretical and empirical foundations for study idiom have emerged (Peter 45). People began to study idioms in early times, after world warⅡwestern linguistics conducted their 。