Translation as cultural transfer the case of translating idioms of food and drink

translation as cultural transfer: the case of
translating idioms of food and drink


Đào Lan Anh


Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ
Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành:English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15
Người hướng dẫn: Assoc. Prof., Dr. Lê Hùng Tiến
Năm bảo vệ: 2010


Abstract: In the English language, idioms are one of issues that have never been studied
exhaustively. There are many interesting topics in this valuable treasure of the language, and
food and drink is not an exception. This study focuses on the cultural transfer through the
idiomatic translation. Data was collected from professional translations of idioms of food and
drink. The author, then, will analyze how cultural transfer occurs through the translation and
give some suggestions on the strategies of translating idioms of food and drink.

Keywords: Tiếng Anh; Dịch; Thành ngữ.

Content:




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.




37
REFERENCES

ENGLISH

1
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2
Bảo, Bùi, & Thu, Đặng (1999), Interpreting and Translation Course Book. Hanoi:
Education Publishing House.
3
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4
Byram, M. (1989). Cultural Studies in Foreign Language Education, Philadenphia
Multilingual Matters Ltd., 22-36.

5
Cobuild, C. (2002), Collins Cobuild Idioms Dictionary, HarperCollins Publisher.
6
Duff, A. (1989), Translation, Oxford University Press, 124.
7
Hinkel, E. (Ed.) , (1999). Culture in Second Language Teaching and Learning.
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8
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9
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10
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11
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12
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13
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14
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15
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38
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17
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VIETNAMESE

21
Phạm Bình (1993), Từ điển Tục ngữ, Thành ngữ Anh Việt, NXB Hải Phòng
22
Lê Đạt (2006), Kể chuyện Thành ngữ Tiếng Anh, NXB Tổng hợp Đồng Nai.
23
Nguyễn Hùng (2005), Hướng dẫn kỹ thuật dịch Anh – Việt. Hanoi: Social Sciences
Publishing House.
24

Nguyễn Hùng. Tuyển tập Thành ngữ, tục ngữ ca dao Việt – Anh thông dụng.
.
25
Nguyễn Khánh (2008), Sổ tay thành ngữ tục ngữ tiếng Việt, NXB Giáo dục.
26
Nguyễn Lân (1994), Từ điển Thành ngữ và tục ngữ Việt Nam, NXB Khoa Học Xã
Hội.
27
Tiêu Minh (2006), Đi tìm Điển tích Thành ngữ, NXB Thông tấn.
28
Bùi Phụng (2006), Thành ngữ Việt Anh, NXB Văn Hóa Sài Gòn.