摘要

自翻译现象出现之时，其作用就在于不断促进不同民族间文化的交流。随着上个世纪90年代，苏珊•巴斯内特和安德烈•勒菲弗尔在他们的著作《翻译，历史与文化》一书中，首次提出“文化转向’’的概念，翻译研究从而向前迈出了巨大的一步。翻译不再仅仅只是传统的语言的传递，更是两种文化之间的交流，甚至在一定程度上，文化的传播比语言信息的表达更为重要。所以，要做到最为精准和传神的翻译，译者必须熟知语言背后的文化背景，并且在翻译中熟练运用，保留和传递这些文化特征。
英语习语，作为英语语言中重要的一个组成部分，历来被看作是英语词汇中一颗璀璨的明珠。习语大多言简意赅,遣词隽永，且诸多情况下让人觉得妙趣横生。由于习语在反映文化的各个方面如地理环境，历史背景，民俗风情，宗教信仰等尤为突出，所以习语的翻译更是与文化紧紧相连。在英语习语的翻译中若抛开特定的文化背景而孤立地翻译习语，往往会让读者觉得它晦涩难懂。奈达的“功能对等理论”在处理文化因素在翻译中造成的难点提供了很好的解决之道。因此，论文从文化角度入手，并在奈达“功能对等理论”的指导下找出英语习语最为合适的翻译策略方法。
本文共分五章。第一章主要介绍了该课题的研究现状。
第二章详细阐述了语言，文化和翻译之间的关系，以及影响英语习语的五个主要的文化因素。
第三章详细阐述论述了“功能对等理论”，以及它对英语习语的翻译策略和方法的指导作用，从而找出最为合适的英语习语翻译方法。
第四章集中论述了基于“功能对等理论”，采用的不同的翻译策略和方法。
第五章为全文的结尾，强调了从文化角度结合“功能对等理论”对英语习语进行翻译的重要性。

关键词：翻译，习语， 文化 ，功能对等理论

ABSTRACT

Since its birth, translation has contributed to promoting the exchanges of culture among different nations. In 1990s, Susan Bassnett and Andre Lefebvre put forward the concept of “cultural turn” in their book "Translation, History and Culture" for the first time, translation has taken a huge step. Translation is no longer just the delivery of language, but also the exchange between two cultures. To some extent, the spread of culture is even more important than linguistic information expression. Therefore, to achieve the most accurate and vivid translation, the translator must be familiar with and proficient in the culture background behind the language during translating so that to keep and transmit these cultural characteristics.
English Idioms, as an important component of English vocabulary, has always been regarded as a bright pearl. Most idioms are concise, meaningful and beautiful, and in many cases, are full of wit and humor. As idioms are particularly outstanding in　reflecting the aspects of culture such as: the geographical environment, historical background, customs, religious belief and so on, the translation of idioms is especially closely linked with culture. In the translating of English Idioms, if a translator sets aside a specific cultural background and translates idioms in isolation, he will finds it obscure. Eugene Nida’s functional equivalence serves a reasonable way to solve the problem of culture in translation of English idioms. Therefore, this thesis aims at finding the most appropriate translation techniques of English idioms from a cultural perspective based on functional equivalence theory.   
The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter gave an introduction to the present research on this issue. The second chapter states the relationships between language, culture and translation followed by major cultural backgrounds that impact English idioms in detail. The third chapter focuses on functional equivalence theory and its important guidance role in finding appropriate ways of different English idioms. The fourth chapter discusses how to choose appreciate translation techniques according to different English idiom based on the principle of functional equivalence. The last chapter concludes this thesis with emphasis on the importance of translating English idioms in terms of culture and functional equivalence theory.

Key Words: translation, idioms, culture, functional equivalence theory