translation as cultural transfer the case of translating idioms of food and drink = dịch thuật như sự chuyển đổi về văn hóa ứng dụng trong việc dịch thành ngữ về đồ ăn thức uống

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT
**0**


ĐÀO MAI LAN


TRANSLATION AS CULTURAL TRANSFER: THE CASE
OF TRANSLATING IDIOMS OF FOOD AND DRINK

(DỊCH THUẬT NHƯ SỰ CHUYỂN ĐỔI VỀ VĂN HÓA:
ỨNG DỤNG TRONG VIỆC DỊCH THÀNH NGỮ VỀ ĐỒ ĂN THỨC UỐNG)


M.A. MINOR THESIS




Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15






HANOI - 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT
**0**


ĐÀO MAI LAN


TRANSLATION AS CULTURAL TRANSFER: THE CASE
OF TRANSLATING IDIOMS OF FOOD AND DRINK

(DỊCH THUẬT NHƯ SỰ CHUYỂN ĐỔI VỀ VĂN HÓA:
ỨNG DỤNG TRONG VIỆC DỊCH THÀNH NGỮ VỀ ĐỒ ĂN THỨC UỐNG)


M.A. MINOR THESIS




Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof., Dr. Lê Hùng Tiến




HANOI - 2010

iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale……………………………………………………………………………….
1
2. Aims of the study………………………………………………………………………
1
3. Limitation of the stuy………………………………………………………………….
1
4. Method of the study……………………………………………………………………
2
5. Design of the study……………………………………………………………………
2
DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1. LANGUAGE ANDCULTURE……………………………………………………
3
1.1. Definition of language and culture………………………………………………….
3
1.2. The relation between language and culture…………………………………………
4
2. TRANSLATION…………………………………………………………………….
6
2.1. Definition of translation……………………………………………………………
6

2.2 Translation Process and Methods……………………………………………………
7
3. IDIOMS AND TRANSLATION……………………………………………………
10
3.1. Definition of idioms………………………………………………………………….
10
3.2. The interpretation of idioms…………………………………………………………
11
3.3. Idioms versus proverbs……………………………………………………………….
13
3.4. Culture in idioms and its relation to the transfer in translation……………………
15
CHAPTER TWO: CULTURAL TRANSFER
THROUGH TRANSLATION OF IDIOMS OF FOOD AND DRINK

1. Idioms of food and drink……………………………………………………………
18

1.1. Criteria for idioms of food and drink…………………………………………………
18
1.2. Syntactical feature of idioms of food and drink……………………………………
19
1.3. Cultural features of idioms of food and drink………………………………………
22
2. Cultural transfer through translation of idioms of food and drink………….
23
2.1. Idiomatic equivalence………………………………………………………………
24
2.2. Conceptual equivalence…………………………………………………………….
26

2.3. Lexical equivalence………………………………………………………………….
28
2.4. Semantic and pragmatic equivalence……………………………………………….
30
3. Suggestions of some strategies in translating idioms of food and drink…………
31
CONCLUSION

1. Review of the study……………………………………………………………………
35
2. Suggestions for further studies……………………………………………………….
36
REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………
37


1
INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Since human’s society developed, there has been a trend of integration between people
and nations. People living together in the world need to help each other to gain economic
development, political stabilization and equality. That, the need of understanding between
people and nations has increased. Translation constitutes an essential tool for better
communication, better understanding each other.
Of all the translation work, translating idioms seems to be the most challenging since it
is a meaning-based translation which makes every effort to communicate the meaning of
the source language ( SL) text in the natural forms of the target language (TL). To deal
with translating idioms, one must have good cultural background of not only the SL but
also of the TL. Therefore, mastering translation theory in general and strategies of
translating idioms in particular is very important to learners and translators.

Being interested in idioms for a long time, I choose idioms as my thesis topic. Due to
the limited time and knowledge, I just focus on how culture transfers through the process
of translating idioms of food and drink. When searching for equivalence in translation to
see how cultural transfer occurs, some strategies of translating idioms of food and drink
will be discussed to overcome the difficulties of idiom translation.
2. Aims of the study
The study has the following aims:
 considering how cultural transfer occurs through the process of translating idioms
of food and drink;
 suggesting some practical strategies in translating idioms of food and drink
3. Limitation of the study
Due to the limited time and knowledge, I cannot cover all aspects of idiomatic expression
of food and drink in this study. Thus, I just focus on the cultural transfer through the
idiomatic translation and suggest some strategies of translating English – Vietnamese
idioms of food and drink and vice versa.

2
4. Method of the study

To achieve these aims, I have consulted many dictionaries and books of languages, idioms,
proverbs, etc. in both English and Vietnamese in which whatever relating to idiomatic
expressions of food and drink is taken into consideration. One hundred idioms of food and
drink in Vietnamese and another hundred idioms of food and drink in English which are
thought to be widely used are selected for the study. For English idioms, a number of
reference books were consulted, but the main ones are Longman Dictionary of Idioms
(1998), Collins Cobuild Idioms Dictionary (2002), Thành ngữ Tục ngữ Tiếng Anh (2008).
These books were selected because they contain a large number of idioms of food and
drink. Vietnamese ones were selected from Từ điển Thành ngữ Tục ngữ Việt-Anh (2006),
Kể chuyện thành ngữ Tiếng Anh (2006).
Then a comparative analysis is designed to point out how cultural transfer occurs through

the translation.

5. Design of the study

Apart from Introduction and Conclusion, the study is organized around two chapters.
Chapter one attempts to look into the nature of culture, culture in relation with language
and translation. Later, the chapter presents an overview of translation theories developed
by well-known authors with certain basic theoretical items such as definition of translation,
the process, and methods of translation. The chapter ends by taking idioms into
consideration: the definition of idioms, the interpretation of idioms, idioms versus
proverbs, culture in idioms and its relation to the transfer in translation.
Chapter two deals with the translation of idioms of food and drink. Firstly, how cultural
transfer occurs through idioms translation is studied by looking for stylistic equivalence,
conceptual equivalence, lexical equivalence, semantic and pragmatic equivalence. After
that, the chapter mentions some of the translation strategies for translating idioms of food
and drink.




3
CHAPTER ONE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1. Language and culture
1.1. Definition of language and culture
Language is a factor that distinguishes man from other animals. For existence, human
being must work hard to produce goods, food, clothes, machines and other materials…
Through out the duration of working, people need to exchange goods, the experience of
producing and also the information of all fields of the life. That’s why language appeared.
Language is a means of communication and it is the best way for human to express their

thoughts and feelings. To have a better understanding of language, let’s study the
definition of language stated in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (1995):
“ Language is a system of sounds, words, patterns, etc… used by humans, nations,
or group of people to communicate thoughts and feeling manner of expressing ideas.”

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: “A language is a particular kind of
system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to
so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to
humankind. In cognitive science the term is also sometimes extended to refer to the human
cognitive facility of creating and using language. Essential to both meanings is the
systematic creation and usage of systems of symbols—each symbol referring to linguistic
concepts with semantic or logical or otherwise expressive meanings.”

From these definitions we can see how important the language is in the process of
communication. To serve my purpose, I suggest here another definition: Language is the
means of expressing thoughts and feelings.

Now, we move to the definition of culture. Culture can be seen as all human
activities. Some people look at culture as the collective programme of the mind which
distinguishes the members of one category of people from another. Someone concluded
that “there is not one aspect of human life that is not touched and altered by culture”. In
many ways it is correct: culture is everything. Because culture is so broad in its scope,

4
many definitions have been suggested. Let us examine some of these definitions so that we
might understand them better.
Anthropologists Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952) reviewed some five hundred
definitions, phrasings and concepts and proposed the following definition:

“Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of and for behaviour acquired

and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups…
the essential core of culture consists of traditional ideas and especially their attached
values; culture systems may, on the other hand, be considered as products of action, and
on the other as conditioning elements of further action”

Another definition by Byram (1998) runs as follows:

“A society’s culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believes in order
to operate in a manner acceptable to its members. Culture is not a natural phenomenon; it
does not consist of things, people’s behaviour or emotions. It is rather an organization of
these things. It is the form of things that people have in mind, their models of perceiving,
relating and otherwise interpreting them”

I believe that these definitions are broad enough to include most of the major territory
of culture. However, for the goals of this paper, I think my conclusion is good enough that
“Culture is the people’s ways of thinking, behaving, talking, valuing things and working”

1.2. The relation between language and culture

Language and culture are said to be interwoven. Language is a part of culture and
culture is a part of language. It is difficult to separate one from the other. If it were
desirable to separate the two, the significance of either language or culture would be lost.
That’s why two individuals taking part in the communication must have a shared
knowledge of both culture and language. Misunderstanding may occur if we violate a
grammatical rule of language. But it is more serious if we violate a social usage.

5
It is apparent that language is a means to describe culture it belongs to and parallelly,
culture’s development enriches language. For example, before the bicycle was introduced
to Vietnam, there was no word to express it. But when the Vietnamese got acquainted with

it, they borrowed the word “bicycle” and either borrowed or invented words to describe the
bicycle parts. Therefore, the vocabulary of language was enriched along parallel line with
the development of culture.
Language usages follow culturally determined patterns. The patterns not only
influence the order in which people use words to form phrases, they also influence thinking
patterns. The use of language to describe time, for instance, differs from culture to culture.
Western societies perceive time as something that can be kept, saved, lost or waste.
Therefore, time system is exactly divided and being on time is extremely important. In the
Vietnamese language, the time system is more complicated and the verb system is such
that only context can indicate time. This different perception directly affects the translation
from Vietnamese language into Western languages and vice versa.
We can see that language is distinctly a form of human cultural behaviour.
Language helps us understand not only one another but culture as well. If one uses a
language well, one must know the culture that uses the language. This is because the
ability to react with speakers of another language depends not only on language skills but
also on comprehension of cultural habits. For example, in Vietnamese culture, it is
considered polite behaviour to ask someone at first meeting about his or her age and
marital status. But this way of talking is not acceptable in other culture like English,
Australian and American culture.
In learning language, we can see that language is a key element of any culture.
Language is a part of social life. As a result, every expression such as greeting,
addressing…are affected by culture. This aspect should be paid attention to when we do
translation. Byram (1998) said that:
“It is readily assumed that exposure to language will lead to some kinds of cultural
learning…
Thus as learners learn about language they learn about culture and as they learn to
use a new language they learn to communicate with other individuals from a new culture”
That also means that cultural difference leads to the differences in the way and the
perception of communication which is the expression of language. For example, in the

6
Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai languages, the greeting “where are you going?” is
appropriate instead of “Hello” “Good day”. However, it may be inappropriate in other
cultures like Western culture; it may be regarded as a curious question. So, if Vietnamese
people think in Vietnamese way and express themselves in their own cultural way while
communicating with native speakers of Western cultures they may annoy them. Therefore,
it is obvious that if we don’t pay attention to cultural differences while translating and
interpreting, the inevitable result of the translation is something of misunderstanding.

2. Translation
2.1. Definition of translation
Though the role and history of translation can be easily agreed upon, it is almost
impossible to find an undisputed definition of translation. From different directions, there
can be various definitions. Translation, by dictionary definition, consists of changing from
one form to another, to turn into one 'own or another' language (The Merriam - Webster
Dictionary, 1974). Some authors have given the following different definitions of
translation:
“Translation, as a process of conveying messages across linguistic and cultural
barriers, is an eminently communicative activity, one whose use could well be considered
in a wider range of teaching situations than may currently be the case” (Tudor, 1987)
“Translation is rendering the meaning of a text into another language in the way that
the author intended the text.” ( Newmark, 1988)
As implied in the definitions above, translation is basically a change of form (which is
usually referred to as the actual words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs etc, which
are spoken or written).
In translation the form of the source language (the language of the text that is to be
translated) is replaced by the form of the target language (the language of the translated
text). The purpose of translation is to transfer the meaning of the source language (SL) into
the target language (TL). This is done by going from the form of the first language to the
form of a second language by way of semantic structure. It is meaning which is being

7
transferred and must remain unchanged. Only the form changes. Moreover, translation not
only involves understanding the general meaning of the communication, but calls upon the
ability to understand the culture of the communication.
Despite the great variety of definitions, we can still have an overall view of what
translation is by combining the most essential aspects of those definitions. The below
quoted definition from “Training Translators and Conference Interpreters” by Weber
(1968) is not quite satisfactory but appears as one of the most widely agreed: “Translation
is the transposition of a text written in a source language (SL) into a target language (TL).
The translated version must be absolutely accurate in meaning, contain all nuances of the
original, and must be written in clear, elegant language that can be easily understood by
the reader. Needless to say, punctuation spelling and grammar must be flawless”.
It must be noted that this definition is mainly for the sake of translation theory,
since in practice, there are few translation versions that can be “absolutely accurate in
meaning” and “ contain all nuances of the original”. People are different in all aspects so
the message perceived by the reader is frequently not identical to the message meant by the
writer. There are numerous elements that cause this distortion of the message and cross-
culture is one of the major ones. And minimizing this distortion in meaning is the aim of
all academic activity, translation can be defined as a process which is rendering a written
text into another language and a product which is an artistic and scientific result of the
translating activity.

2.2. Translation Process and Methods

Translation is the process to transfer written or spoken source language (SL) texts to
equivalent written or spoken target language (TL) texts. The basic purpose of translation is
to reproduce various types of texts, comprising literary, religious, scientific, philosophical
texts etc. in another language and thus making them available to wider readers, to a greater
number of target audiences and to bring the world closer.

However, translation is not an easy job. If language is just a classification for a set of
general or universal concepts, it will be of course very easy to translate from a source
language to a target language. But translation covers not only word for word translation but

8
also many other factors. The concepts of one language may differ radically from those of
another. This is because each language articulates or organizes the word differently. The
bigger the gap between the SL and the TL, the more difficult the process of transfer will
be. The difference between the two languages and the difference in cultures makes the
process of translating a real challenge. The problematic factors include translation like
form,style,meaning,proverbs,idioms,etc.

The translating procedures can be divided into two groups:
 Technical procedure: This implies an analysis of the source and target languages
and a complete study of the SL text before translating it.
 Organizational procedure: This implies a constant re-evaluation of the translation
made. It also includes the comparison of the existing translation with the
translations of the same text by other translators. The organizational procedure also
checks the translated text's communicative effectiveness by getting the opinion of
the TL audience to evaluate its accuracy and effectiveness and studying their
reactions.
(

Methods of Translation

According to Newmark (1988), some of the common methods of translation are as follows:
 Word-for-word translation: Here the source language word is translated into
another language by their most common meanings, which can also be out of
context at times, especially in idioms and proverbs.
 Literal Translation: Here the source language grammatical constructions are

translated to their nearest target language. However the lexical words are translated
singly, out of context.

9
 Faithful Translation: Here the translation interprets the exact contextual meaning
of the original within the constraints of the grammatical structures of the target
language.
 Semantic Translation: Semantic translation refers to that type of translation which
takes into account the aesthetic value of the source language text.
 Adaptation: Adaptation refers to that type of translation which is used mainly for
plays and poems. The text is rewritten considering the source language culture
which is converted to the target language culture where the characters, themes,
plots are usually preserved.
 Free Translation: This method of translation produces the translated text without
the style, form, or content of the original text.
 Idiomatic Translation: It translates the message of the original text but tends to
distort the original meaning at times by preferring colloquialisms and idioms.
 Communicative Translation: This method displays the exact contextual meaning
of the original text in a manner where both content and language are easily
acceptable and comprehensible to the readers.
Translation processes

The translation processes implies an entire process of how a translator produces
equivalences between a text or portions of a text into another language. The translation
process can be described as:
 Decoding the meaning of the source text, and
 Re-encoding or translating this meaning in the target language.
Behind this simple process lies various activities like checking grammar, syntax, idioms,
semantics, and the like of the source language and also the culture of its speakers. The
translator needs in-depth knowledge in decoding and then re-encoding the meaning in the

target language. In many cases, it is necessary that the translator's knowledge of the target

10
language is more important than his knowledge of the source language.

The following is the process that is usually followed by all to ensure a well written,
accurate translation:
 The document that is to be translated is assigned to a person who is well versed
with the native language is that which the document is being translated into.
 The document is edited by a person who is fluent in both the target and source
languages. Accuracy, grammar, spelling and writing style are all checked in the
editing stage.
 The document is proofread by a person who is fluent in both languages. It is also
necessary to check spelling and layout.
 Finally, before the document goes to the client , the document is further rechecked
to ensure that the translation is correct, there is no missing texts and the layout is
perfect.
(
3. Idioms and translation
3.1. Definition of idioms
The English language is very rich in the use of idioms. They are used in formal style
and in slang. Idioms may appear in poetry, literature, in Shakespeare language and, even,
in Bible. What, then, is an idiom?
McMordiew (1983:4) in her book English Idioms and How to Use Them provides a
definition for the idiom:
“we can say that an idiom is a number of words which, taken together, mean something
different from the individual words of the idiom when they stand alone”.
Moon (1998:3) in her book Fixed Expressions and Idioms in English: a Corpus-Based
Approach defines idiom as “an ambiguous term, used in conflicting ways. In lay or

11
general use, idiom has two main meanings. First, idiom is a particular means of
expressing something in language, music, art, and so on, which characterizes a person or
group. Secondly (and much less commonly in English), an idiom is a particular lexical
collocation or phrasal lexeme, peculiar to a language”.
Baker (1992:63) in her book In Other Words distinguishes idiom from collocation by
the transparency of meaning and flexibility patterning. According to Baker, idioms are
“frozen patterns of language which allow little or no variation in form and often carry
meanings which can not be deduced from their individual components”. Baker excluded
five things that normally can not be done to an idiom as it will lose its sense: the translator
can not change the order of the words in an idiom; can not delete a word from it, can not
add a word to it; replace one word by another one and change its grammatical structure.
According to Collins Cobuild (1995), “ An idiom is a special kind of phrase. It is a
group of words which have a different meaning when used together from the one it would
have if the meaning of each word were taken individually… Idioms are typical
metaphorical: they are effectively metaphors which have become “fixed” or “fossilized”.
From the definitions above, we learn that idioms tell much about a people's traditional
ways of experiencing reality, about the proper or expected ways of doing things, about
values and warnings, and rules and wisdoms the elders want to impress on the minds of
their young. Linguistically, an idiom is an expression which is unique to a language and
cannot be understood simply from the meaning of its individual words. In other words, the
actual meaning of an idiom is not the total of the meaning of its individual parts. An idiom
is a figure of speech.
3.2. The interpretation of idioms
As far as idioms are concerned, the first difficulty that a translator comes across is
being able to recognize that s/he is dealing with an idiomatic expression. This is not always
so obvious. There are various types of idioms, some more easily recognizable than others.
Those which are easily recognizable include expressions which violate truth conditions,
such as It's raining cats and dogs “ trời mưa như trút”, throw caution to the winds “ thiếu
thận trọng khi hành động”, storm in a tea cup “chuyện bé xé ra to”, jump down someone's

12
throat “nói chặn họng ai” , and food for thought “ điều đáng suy nghĩ”. They also include
expressions which seem ill-formed because they do not follow the grammatical rules of the
language, for example the powers that be “ kẻ nắm quyền thực sự, người có thực quyền”,
by and large “ nhìn chung, nói chung, rút cục”. Expressions which start with like (simile -
like structures) also tend to suggest that they should not be interpreted literally. These
include idioms such as like a bat out of hell (ba chân bốn cẳng) and like water off a duck's
back (nước đổ đầu vịt). Generally speaking, the more difficult an expression is to
understand and the less sense it makes in a given context, the more likely a translator will
recognize it as an idiom. Because they do not following text are easy to recognize as
idioms (assuming one is not already familiar with them).
Provided a translator has access to good references works and monolingual dictionaries
of idioms, or, better still, is able to consult native speakers of the language, opaque idioms
which do not make sense for one reason or another can actually be a blessing in disguise.
The very fact that s/he cannot make sense of an expression in a particular context will alert
the translator to the presence of an idiom of some sort.
There are two cases in which an idiom can be easily misinterpreted if one is not already
familiar with it.
a) Some idioms are 'misleading'; they seem transparent because they offer a reasonable
literal interpretation and their idiomatic meanings are not necessarily signaled in the
surrounding text. A large number of idioms in English, and probably all languages, have
both a literal and an idiomatic meaning, for example go out with ('have a romantic or
sexual relationship with someone') and take someone for a ride ('deceive or cheat someone
in some way'). Such idioms lend themselves easily to manipulation by speakers and writers
who will sometimes play on both their literal and idiomatic meanings. In this case, a
translator who is not familiar with the idiom in question may easily accept the literal
interpretation and miss the play on idiom.
b) An idiom in the SL may have a very close counterpart in the TL which looks similar on
the surface but has a totally or partially different meaning. For example, the idiomatic

question Has the cat had/got your tongue? is used in English to urge someone to answer a

13
question or contribute to a conversation, particularly when their failure to do so becomes
annoying. Instances of superficially identical or similar idioms which have different
meanings in the source and target languages lay easy traps for the unwary translator who is
not familiar with the source-language idiom and who may be tempted simply to impose a
target-language interpretation on it.
Apart from being alert to the way speakers and writers manipulate certain features
of idioms and to the possible confusion which could arise from similarities in form
between source and target expressions, a translator must also consider the collocational
environment which surrounds any expression whose meaning is not readily accessible.
Idiomatic expressions have individual collocational patterns. They form collocations with
other items in the text as single units and enter into lexical sets which are different from
those of their individual words. Take, for instance, the idiom to have cold feet. Cold as a
separate item may collocate with words like weather, winter, feel, or country. Feet on its
own will perhaps collocate with socks, chilblain, smelly, etc. however, having cold feet, in
its idiomatic use, has nothing necessarily to do with winter, feet, or chilblains and will
therefore generally be used with a different set of collocates.
The ability to distinguish senses by collocation is an invaluable asset to a translator
working from a foreign language. It is often subsumed under the general umbrella of
'relying on the context to disambiguate meanings', which, among other things, means using
our knowledge of collocational patterns to decode the meaning of a word or a stretch of
language. Using our knowledge of collocational patterns may not always tell us what an
idiom means but it could easily help us in many cases to recognize an idiom, particularly
one which has a literal as well as a non-literal meaning.
3.3. Idioms versus proverbs
It is easy to find that idioms and proverbs have some in common, and until now there
have been no clear-cut borders between them. However, basing on some criteria, we can
distinguish idioms and proverbs.

A proverb is a sentence expressing a completed meaning of social relation, living
experience, moral lessons or criticism. Therefore, a proverb is regarded as a literature work

14
containing three functions of literature: awareness, aesthetics and education. For example,
the Vietnamese have a proverb: “ thuận vợ thuận chồng, tát bể Đông cũng cạn” “ a burden
of one’s own choice is not felt” which expresses the power of solidarity, an experience of
working in group leading to good results, the morality of relationship between husband and
wife. The awareness function of this proverb is to express the equality between husband
and wife in family life. The educational function is to guide the relation between husband
and wife in particular and between people in general to equality and justice. Its aesthetics
function is the use of metaphor with illustrating image which persuades readers.
An idiom is a fixed phrase or other sequence of words. Syntactically, it’s not a sentence
but just a word. An idiom does not give any criticism, experience or morality, so it has
only aesthetics function. Without the awareness and education function, it is not a literature
work. For example, the Vietnamese idiom “ mặt hoa da phấn” just expresses the beauty of
the woman. It does not give any experience or criticism about social life, so it does not
have awareness and education functions.
Considering the content and the way of expressions we see that the content of idioms is
concept while that of proverbs is judgment. The relation between idioms and proverbs
reflects the relation between the forms of concept and judgment. For example, the concept
of “uổng công” “uselessness” must go through the process of generalization of “ nước đổ
lá khoai, nước đổ đầu vịt, dã tràng xe cát…”. As described, these are isolated phenomena
acquired through the senses. The aim of this awareness is to confirm the features of these
phenomena. The confirmation is presented as judgment: “ nước đổ đầu vịt thì nước lại trôi
đi hết, nước đổ lá khoai thì nước lại trôi đi hết hay dã tràng xe cát biển Đông, nhọc lòng mà
chẳng nên công cán gì”. So the similarity between idioms and proverbs is that they both
contain the people’s knowledge about the phenomena. The difference lies on the way we
express them. If that knowledge is generalized to concept, we have an idiom. If we explain
it in the way of a judgment, we have a proverb.

Considering the function of linguistics form, idioms are actually the creations of words
to meet the demand of describing and naming things and phenomena. So idioms belong to
linguistics. Proverbs, while doing its informing function, has a nature of an awareness

15
activity among other activities like science, art, literature… therefore, it’s seen as social
and cultural phenomenon.
In brief, the differences between proverbs and idioms can be seen as in this table:
Aspect of study
Idiom
Proverb
Syntax
- Fixed phrase equal with a
word
- A sentence
Literature function
- Aesthetics
- Awareness
- Aesthetics
- Education
Form of logical thought
- Expressing concepts,
generalizing isolated
phenomena
- Expressing judgments,
confirming features of the
phenomena
Function of linguistics
form
- Naming things and

phenomena by words
↓
Linguistics phenomena
- Informing belonging to
awareness activities
↓
People’s cultural and social
phenomena

(Hùng, Nguyễn Đình, Tuyển tập Thành ngữ, tục ngữ ca dao Việt – Anh thông dụng.
.)

3.4. Culture in idioms and its relation to the transfer in translation
As mentioned in the previous part, language is closely related to culture and can be
said as a part of culture. From a dynamic view, language and culture interact with each
other and shape each other. Language is the carrier of culture which in turn is the content
of language. We can find out cultural features from language and explain language
phenomena with culture. Idioms as a special form of language exist in both of them and

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carry a large amount of cultural information and rich in cultural connotation as they
represent the unique culture of the language, and therefore are closely related to culture.
They are the heritage of history and product of cultural evolvement. Consequently, we
know much about culture through studying idioms and in turn get better understanding of
idioms by learning the cultural background behind them. There are great differences
between English and Vietnamese idioms as the result of respective geographic
environment, national experience, cultural inheritance and formation of thinking. Many
English idioms connect with ocean as the result of the oceanic culture (e.g. drink like a
fish, on the rock, sea of troubles, rats leave a sinking ship…), some with the traditions of
Britain, which traditionally belongs to commercial and marine economy (e.g. sow the wind

and reap the whirlwind, put money aside for a rainy days, penny wise and pound
foolish…), while Vietnamese idioms with agricultural economy (mất bò mới lo làm
chuồng, một nắng hai sương…)
Having good cultural background knowledge is useful for translators when dealing
with translating idioms because translation is not simply a linguistic transformation of
texts, but it is also a rendering of cultural concepts from one language to another. The
translation of idioms takes us a stage further in considering the question of meaning and
translation, for idioms are culture bound. Bassnett (2002) stated that: “Translation involves
far more than replacement of lexical and grammatical items between languages and, as
can be seen in the translation of idioms and metaphors, the process may involve discarding
the basic linguistic elements of the SL text so as to achieve Popovic’s goal of “expressive
identity” between the SL and TL texts.”
Also according to Bassnett (2002), transference is the process of transferring a SL
word to a TL text as a translation procedure. On translating idioms, translators do not
simply deal with transferring the individual words that form the idiom but rather transfer
the idiomatic meaning and of course, the culture within the idioms as well. Anuradha
(1995) stated that “ the translation involved in making another culture comprehensible
entail varying degrees of violence, especially when the culture being translated is
constituted as that of the “other”. That is the reason why translator is considered as a
creative artist who ensures the survival of writing across time and space, an intercultural

17
mediator and interpreter, a figure whose importance to the continuity and diffusion of
culture is immeasurable.
In brief, translation is an intercultural activity as well as an intralingual one as it
deals with (at least) two linguistic systems embedded in two different cultures. However,
the difficulties inherent in the translation process vary proportionately with the degree of
distance between the languages and the cultures involved.
Cultural value systems are difficult to grasp as they are intricately woven into the
texture of the native language. A conscientious translator, therefore, must be willing to

make the extra effort that is required to unearth the full cultural meaning hidden in the
language. He must be alive to the two sociocultural systems with which he is working in
order to narrow the gap that separates them. It is definitely true for translators in translating
idioms.
















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CHAPTER TWO: CULTURAL TRANSFER
THROUGH TRANSLATION OF IDIOMS OF FOOD AND DRINK

1. Idioms of food and drink
1.1. Criteria for idioms of food and drink
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, food is any substance, usually composed of
carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be eaten or drunk by an animal, including
humans, for nutrition or pleasure. Items considered food may be sourced from plants,
animals or other categories such as fungus or fermented products like alcohol. Although

many human cultures sought food items through hunting and gathering, today most
cultures use farming, ranching, and fishing, with hunting, foraging and other methods of a
local nature included but playing a minor role.
Almost all foods are of plant or animal origin. However water and salt (both inorganic
substances) are important parts of the human diet. Salt is often eaten as a flavoring or
preservative.
Other foods not from animal or plant sources include various edible fungi, such as
mushrooms. Fungi and ambient bacteria are used in the preparation of fermented and
pickled foods such as leavened bread, alcoholic drinks, cheese, pickles, and yogurt. Many
cultures eat seaweed, a protist, or blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) such as Spirulina.
Additionally baking soda, another inorganic substance, is used in food preparation.
- Plants:
Many plants or plant parts are eaten as food. There are around 2,000 plant species
which are cultivated for food, and many have several distinct cultivars. Plant food may
include cereals (such as maize, wheat, and rice), legumes (such as beans, peas, and lentils),
and nuts. Fruits are the ripened ovaries of plants, including the seeds within. Many plants
have evolved fruits that are attractive as a food source to animals, so that animals will eat
the fruits and excrete the seeds some distance away. Fruits, therefore, make up a significant
part of the diets of most cultures. Some botanical fruits, such as tomatoes, pumpkins and
eggplants, are eaten as vegetables.

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Vegetables are a second type of plant matter that is commonly eaten as food. These
include root vegetables (such as potatoes and carrots), leaf vegetables (such as spinach and
lettuce), stem vegetables (such as bamboo shoots and asparagus), and inflorescence
vegetables (such as globe artichokes and broccoli). Many herbs and spices are highly-
flavorful vegetables
- Animals
Animals can be used as food either directly, or indirectly by the products they produce.
Meat is an example of a direct product taken from an animal, which comes from either

muscle systems or from organs. Food products produced by animals include milk produced
by mammals, which in many cultures is drunk or processed into dairy products such as
cheese or butter. In addition birds and other animals lay eggs, which are often eaten, and
bees produce honey, a popular sweetener in many cultures. Some cultures consume blood,
some in the form of blood sausage, as a thickener for sauces, a cured salted form for times
of food scarcity, and others use blood in stews such as civet.
Drink is defined by the dictionary as any liquid suitable for drinking. It may be water,
tea, coffee, alcoholic drink, coca, fruit juice, etc…
From these definitions of food and drink, I consider all idioms related to any kind of food
and drink in their forms as “idioms of food and drink”. The idioms of food and drink may
relate to a certain kind of food or drink as “ butter and cheese”, “good egg”, “bad egg”,
“fish in troubled water”… or food and drink in general as food in “food for thought”, cỗ
(party) in “ma ăn cỗ”, lương (food) in “cao lương mĩ vị”….

1.2. Syntactical feature of idioms of food and drink
It can be seen that idioms in both languages are lexically fixed. Different types of idioms
of food and drink are found in both English and Vietnamese. They vary in size form and
structure from verb phrases or clause idioms as classified by Oxford Dictionary of English
idioms: noun phrases to adjective phrases or phrase idioms. In the two languages there
appear to be correspondent to each other in kind of phrases.
Examples of verb phrases:

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Bear fruit
Chew the cud
Chew the fat
Don’t cry over spilt milk
Eat humble pie
Go fry an egg
Separate the wheat from the chaff

Spill the beans
Ăn nói cà riềng cà tỏi
Ăn mận trả đào
Đâm bị thóc chọc bị gạo
Được con diếc tiếc con rô
Khát nước mới lo đào giếng
Mọc lên như nấm
Nằm gai nếm mật
Thuộc như cháo
Vặt đầu cá gá đầu tôm
Sinh quả
Nghiền ngẫm, ngẫm nghĩ
Nói chuyện phiếm, tán dóc
Khóc cũng bằng thừa
Phải nhận lỗi, chịu nhục
Đi chỗ khác, đừng quấy rầy nữa
Phân biệt cái tốt với cái xấu
Để lọt tin tức ra ngoài
Speak disrespectfully.
Return gift for gift
Play off two adversaries
Get inch and want mile
Act at last minute
To spring up like mushrooms
To nurse vengeance
To know by heart
To misapply

Examples of noun phrases:
Apple of your eyes

Bread and butter
Salt of the earth
Bạn bè xôi thịt
Cao lương mĩ vị
Củi quế gạo châu
Vật quý báu phải giữ gìn nhất
Miếng ăn, kế sinh nhai
Người tử tế
Good-weather friends
Rich food, delicacy
High cost of living

Examples of adjective phrases:
Flat as a pancake
Full of beans
Worth your salt
Ngọt như mía lùi
Nhạt như nước ốc
Nhạt nhẽo, vô vị
Đầy năng lực, hăng hái, sôi nổi
Xứng đáng với tiền kiếm được
As sweet as honey
insipid

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Apart from the above similarities, both languages also have sentence idioms. They
may be simple or complex sentences.
Butter wouldn’t melt in their mouth
Half of loaf is better than no bread
You can not have your cake and eat it too

It’s no use crying over spilt milk
Life is just a bowl of cherries
Cà cuống chết đến đít còn cay
Cơm tẻ no xôi vò chẳng thiết.
Không có cá lấy rau má làm ngon
Không ưa thì dưa có giòi.
Vỏ quýt dày có móng tay nhọn
Làm ra bộ đoan trang
Có còn hơn không
Được cái nọ mất cái kia
Khóc cũng chẳng ích gì
Cuộc sống thật đẹp
It’s difficult to change one’s nature.
Not want, not wait
There is small choice in rotten apples.
Faults are thick where love is thin.
Diamond cut diamond

The simile in idioms of food and drink of the two languages is another similarity. Simile is
an expression that describes something by comparing it with something else, using the
words “as” or “like”. (Longman Exam Dictionary:1435)
Here are some common idioms of English and Vietnamese which are widely used in
everyday life.
As cool as a cucumber
Cheap as chips
Easy as beans
Like two peas in a pod
Câm như hến
Chán như cơm nếp nát
Ngọt như mía lùi

Lạnh như tiền
Rẻ như bèo
Dễ như bỡn
Giống nhau như hai giọt nước
As close as a clam
As dull as ditch-water
As sweet as honey

In these examples, “like” and “as” are used in English and “như” in Vietnamese to
compare food to something.
There is only one difference in the structure of the idioms of food and drink
between the two languages that English idioms exist in prepositional phrases whereas
Vietnamese ones don’t have this structure.


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1.3. Cultural features of idioms of food and drink

Vietnamese idioms in particular and Vietnamese language in general base on the
agricultural civilization, experiences of the poverty together with the struggle for existence.
Therefore, Vietnamese idioms reflex the agricultural lifestyle of our nation. Rice is the
staple food of Vietnamese people. That’s easy to understand why there are so many idioms
related to rice. The examples are:
- Cơm tẻ mẹ ruột
- Cơm bưng nước rót
- Cơm chẳng lành, canh chẳng ngọt
- Cơm hàng cháo chợ
- Cơm ngang khách tạm
- Cơm trắng canh ngon
- Củi quế gạo châu

- Corn is the staff of life
- Be treated like a king
- Discord between husband and wife
- To be without home
- A passerby
- a happy life
- high living cost

For living basing on the agriculture, Vietnamese people depend so much on the
weather and crops. The hunger and the poverty is one part in their life experience. As a
result, there are many idioms showing the difficult conditions of living. We can see that in
those idioms “ cơm niêu nước lọ - to live on simple fare”, “cơm thừa canh cặn – a
miserable life of a servant”, “cơm đen vận túng – stroke of bad luck”.
English idioms are different in this sense. Though English people experienced an
agricultural life a long time ago, they are affected by the industrial civilization. Therefore,
English idioms of food and drink don’t express the poverty or the agricultural experience.
Though bread and butter or soup… ( their staple food) are mentioned in the idioms, they
don’t reflex the poverty so much as in Vietnamese. Let’s check some examples here:
- bread and butter
- breadwinner
- half a loaf is better than no bread
- quarrel with bread and butter
- miếng ăn, kế sinh nhai
- trụ cột trong gia đình
- có còn hơn không
- bỏ nghề đã nuôi sống mình

For the reason of different living conditions, of course, the two nations have different
lifestyles. While working together in the fields, Vietnamese people seem to be more