Culture Vacancy in Translation of Chineseand English Idioms

王佳瑩

(廣州市信息工程職業學校 英語培訓部，廣東 廣州510610)

1 The Definition of Vacancy

The phenomenon of vacancy was discovered by Hockett,an American linguist,in the 1950s.He brought forward the “random holes in patterns”after comparing the grammatical modes of two languages.Until the end of 1980s,the Russian scholar like Sorokin put forward the theory of “vacancy”.Until then,the theory of vacancy had been produced.

There are mainly two types of vacancy:lexical vacancy and culture vacancy.And this thesis only discusses about the latter.

Culture vacancy in idioms can be vacancy in expressions,vacancy in associations,and differences in pragmatic functions(for example:“Beggars cannot be choosers”cannot be translated to “饑 不 擇 食”,because“Beggars cannot be choosers”means“have no right to choose”but“饑不擇食”means“Not choosing because of in great need”).

2 Reasons for Culture Vacancy in Idioms

2.1 Social and Historical Changes

Every nation has its historical background,and the historical figures and events of each times have their unique stories.There are a great amount of idioms which came from historical stories in both Chinese and English,and this kind of idioms are with strong national color,vivid characteristics of culture,full of historical and cultural information and are most capable of representing the characteristics of history and culture.

The Chinese nation has a long history as well as long standing and rich culture.Many literary quotations of historical idioms are directly from some events or historical figures in history,which are pretty meaningful.For example:“杞人憂天(the man of Chi worried lest the sky fall)”，“圖 窮 匕 首 見 (when the map was unrolled,the dagger was revealed---the real intention is revealed in the end)”etc.Those idioms are unique to Chinese and default in English.They are hard to be understood by English speakers if we translate them literally.

Many English idioms are from the Bible and myths of Greek and Rome.For example,“Achille's heel”、“Mercury fig”、“Promethean fire”、“Pandora's box”.Those idioms are unique to English and Chinese people need to know the stories to understand those idioms.

2.2 The Uniqueness of the Thinking Mode

The thinking mode of one nation is gradually formed under the influence of its longstanding philosophical background and cultural tradition,while language plays an important role in its consolidation.Based on the relationship between language and mind,different thinking modes will definitely reflect on their carrier---language,and their reflection on idioms is the most apparent.

Take number words in idioms for example.In traditional Chinese culture,every item is composed of Yin and Yan,and only the combination of Yin and Yan can produce everything in the world.“Only Yin is not capable of reproduction,neither can Yan”.“The supreme truth of everything in the world is that everything does not come singly but in pairs”,so dual numbers indicate propitiousness in Chinese culture.

In English speaking countries,people always treat odd number as pattern,so usually in English,people add “one”to hundred and thousand.For example“One hundred and one thank”.The Christianity's religious tradition is the trinity,so they have certain indication for the number “three”.For example, “three sheets to the wind”is used to express the condition of being drunk.

Number words as language signs have no indications themselves；their different indications and usages in Chinese and English idioms are due to the cultural differences in the two cultures.Readers should know something about the culture of source languages or they will feel confused by the usage of the number words.

2.3 Differences in Religion

Religion plays an important part in the development of culture in all nations,and the different religion beliefs in different nations definitely have different influences on their cultures.The culture of one religion is default in another religion,so this culture vacancy also becomes a problem for translators.

The western society believes in Christianity.God in Christianity has become the almighty god and the chief representative of truth,kindness and beauty as well as the creator of everything in the world.While in China,Buddhism and Taoism have a great impact on the culture for a long time.They believe that Pangu created the world and the heaven is in charge of the world.

The doctrines in the Bible in Christianity have deep influence in people's opinion of value and morality.Many English idioms come from the literary quotation of the Bible,like “Adam's apple”、“forbidden fruit”、“the tree of life”、“my cup runs over”、“the lost sheep”.

Chinese people worship the heaven,they think that heaven is the dominator of the world.In the ancient times,the emperor was called“天子(the son of the heaven)”；and “天之驕子(the son that the heaven is greatly proud of)”is the person who is unusually lucky and has great ability.“天賦”is the ability give by the nature.

2.4 Summary

All in all,t here are so many factors which lead to the various cultural vacancies between Chinese and English idioms,not just the factors we mentioned above.Therefore,culture vacancy in idioms has become an obstacle in translation and it is very challenging to deal with.

［1］Chitra Fernando,Idioms and Idiomaticity[M].Shanghai:Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press，2000，6.

［2］Edwin Gentzler,Contemporary Translation Theories（Revised Second Edition）[M].Shanghai：Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press，2004，4.