A Study on the Translation of Color Words in the English and Chinese Idioms from the Perspective of Cultural Implications

Abstract

With the development of technology and economy in the whole world, all countries in the world have joined in the activities of globalizaiton especially the cross-cultural communication. Idioms as a means of expression are widely used in the increasingly deep cultural communication, so are color words. In both the Chinese and English cultures color words have rich cultural meanings and there are similarities and differences among them because of many factors. These similarities and differences have impact on the cross-cultural communication. So we need to explore the factors causing the similarities and differences and to provide proper translation methods to lessen the obstacles on the road of cultural communication.

This paper aims at analysing the similarities and differences of color words’ meanings in the Chinese and English idioms from the point of view of cultural meaning, exploring the factors causing the similarities and differences, and providing methods to translate the Chinese and English color idioms properly. By making contrast between Chinese and English color idioms of red, white and yellow, it is found that althrough there are many differences in the meanings of color words in the English and Chinese idioms because of affections for colors of different nations, various allusions and legends, and different religions, there are still many common points in both expressions. And according to their diverse meanings we can adopt direct translation, conversion, amplification and interpretation to translate idioms of color words, which would help the cross-cultural communication among the Chinese and English people.

Key words: cultural implication, idioms, color words, translation methods