口译技巧_任静生_Idioms.ppt

4. Handling of Idioms / “hard nut to crack” The interpreting of idioms is always difficult. Our mother tongue, the Chinese language, is particularly rich in idioms. So is English. Idioms are usually forcible, terse and vivid. The same meaning could of course be set forth in some other ways, but not with equal force and terseness. This feature of idioms makes it difficult to translate——and all the more difficult to interpret——into a different language off-hand. ( ①pressing, limited time; ②lack of cultural and cross-cultural knowledge.) Metaphorical meaning and certain kinds of invariableness are related to each other. This can be seen in two well-known phrases, (1) give up the ghost and (2) spill the beans. The meanings are (1) to die and (2) to reveal something; make something known. These meanings are quite different from the literal meanings of the words in the phrases. The man gave up the ghost=the man died. He spilt the beans (=revealed the secret) over my plans to find a new job. But practice has led us to believe that we can present an adequate rendition of an idiom (either C-E or E-C) provided we manage to get an accurate comprehension of the meaning or implication and, on this basis, put across the idea or meaning properly in the light of the context. A . Definition of Idioms and Their Scope/Range An idiom can be defined as a group of words with a meaning different from the combined meanings of its component words. It is a combination of two or more words which are usually structurally fixed and semantically hard to understand, and function as a single unit of meaning. And idioms can be understood both in a broad sense and in a narrow sense. In the narrow sense, they refer to the set phrases or clauses used in a language. Broadly speaking, they comprise all the idiomatic and special expressions in that language, namely, all the set phrases, colloquialisms, proverbs, slang and clichés in English, and all the four-character set phrases（成语）, common sa