Abstract

As the essence of language, idioms reflect people’s life styles and thinking patterns, so it is of great significance to analyze foreigniztion and domestication from a cultural perspective. Due to the importance of culture, it is necessary to study the relationship among culture, language, idiom and translation. 

As more attention has been paid to the cultural influence in translation, the debate between foreignization and domestication, two cultural translation strategies, has become one of the focuses in current translation studies. These two translation strategies have long been practiced by translators both at home and abroad. Some hold that every target text should be domesticated to be more readable and intelligible; while some believe that it should be foreignized to retain its foreignness; others take their stance in between the two extremes and regard both as necessary. Since idioms are linguistic symbols loaded with cultural connotations, translators should bear in mind taking cultural elements into account during the process of translation.

This paper focuses on how to make a choice between domestication and foreignization in translating process. It starts with the relationship among culture, language, idiom and translation. Then it moves to the analysis of the two translation strategies. This paper holds that domestication and foreignization are not contradictive but mutually complementary. Under the circumstance of globalization and ever-increasing exchanges among different cultures, foreignization should be the general trend, but when foreignization is not feasible, translators are advised to resort to domestication as a supplementary method. 

Keywords: foreigniztion; domestication; idiom; translation; cultural strategy 

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1 Introduction-3

1.1 Research background of the paper-3

1.2 Significance and purpose of the paper-3

2 Literature review-3

2.1 Culture, language, idiom and translation-3

2.1.1 The relationship between culture and language-3

2.1.2 The relationship between culture and idioms-3

2.1.3 The relationship between culture and translation-3

2.2 Foreignization and domestication-3

2.2.1 Definition of foreignization and domestication-3

2.2.2 Debates on foreignization and domestication-3

2.2. 2.1 Debates abroad-3

2.2.2.2 Debates at home-3

3 Application of foreignization and domestication in idiom translation-3

3.1 Preference of foreignization in idiom translation-3

3.2 Foreignization as a major strategy in proverb translation-3

3.2.1 To retain SL cultural implications-3

3.2.2 To retain SL religious belief-3

3.2.3 To retain SL emotions-3

3.2.4 To retain SL Conventions, Values and Aesthetic Perspective-3

3.3 Domestication as a supplementary strategy-3

3.3.1 Domestication by abandoning SL images-3

3.3.2 Domestication by substituting SL images-3

3.4 Combination of foreignization and domestication-3

3.5 Summary-3

4 Conclusion-3