Understanding English and Chinese Idioms from a Cultural Perspective英语(毕业论文).docVIP

Understanding English and Chinese Idioms from a Cultural Perspective 1. Introduction Every language in this world has a great many of idioms, especially those highly developed tongue. Idioms consist of set phrases and short sentences, which are peculiar to the language in question and steeped in the national and regional culture and ideas, thus being colorful, forcible and thought-provoking. (Zhang Weiyou, 2011, P181) It’s believed that foreign language learners learn not only language, but also the culture in which language shapes and develops. The process of receiving a language is also the process of acquiring the culture related since they affect each other so deeply and widely. English and Chinese, as two of most highly developed languages in the world, definitely contains abound idioms. Britain and China which once have contributed a lot to world civilization and caused a tremendous impact to the whole world are absolutely representatives of Western culture and oriental’s. culture means the customs, institutions, objects, techniques, organizations，family patterns and political systems that characterize the life of a human community，which are explicit(Dai Lisheng, 2009)．A better understanding of English culture would help people learn a language better. Idioms as an important part of language, is intimately bound up with culture. 2. Definition of Idioms According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, an idiom is a group of words whose meaning is different from the meanings of individual words. Idioms are expressions that are not readily understandable from their literal meanings of individual constitutes, and in a broad sense, it includes colloquialisms, catchphrases, slang expressions, proverbs, etc.. HYPERLINK /search?q=correspondingkeyfrom=E2Ctranslation Correspondingly, Chinese has similar terms such as “成语”(chengyu) which in Current Chinese Dictionary is defined as phrases or short sentences that have been accustomed used and consist o