Abstract

Idioms are a fixed group of words with a special meaning and are the essence of language which reflects culture feature and culture information of a nation. As cultural styles differing across countries, idioms also diversify in these four aspects: living environment difference, customs difference, religious difference, historical difference. Cultural difference has great effect on the formation of idioms, so the cultural factors of the idioms should be specially considered in translation. Translators should not only probe into proper methods to keep the target language accurate but also maintain the original characteristics.

This thesis mainly researches on the transfer of cultural image in idioms translation. At the beginning of the thesis, it elaborates the concept of the cultural image. Then it introduces the four situations about the referring meaning and associative meaning of the culture image and the tight connection between transfer of cultural image and idioms translation. Cultural image transfer is the process of coding—recombination, while more importantly, a process of communication. Image transfer cannot be limited to the description of the source text, but should emphasize on the information equivalence in the target text.

Through the example analysis on the right and wrong, this thesis dissects the reason of feasibility in the C-E/E-C cultural image mutual translation – the existence of culture common core and culture inclusion offers the text with a comparatively accurate translatability. On the other hand, there are many factors affecting the cultural image transfer. Through the analysis on the wrong and the right and their influential factors, specific methods are suggested to deal with the problems. Furthermore, it also provides better suggestions for learning negligence and teaching reference

Key words: idioms, transfer of cultural image, referring meaning, associative meaning