Abstract

Four-character idioms, developed through long history, are quintessence and treasury of Chinese language. They are widely used in literary works and people’s daily life for their concise forms and rich meanings. 

However, China and English speaking countries belong to different families with their distinct cultures, customs, religions, language expressions and geological environments. The absence of common cultural background will inevitably cause semantic voids. The four-character idioms with such vacuum of sense in Midnight are divided into four categories according to Dagut (1978)’s theory as cultural voids, environmental voids, lexical voids and other voids.

Translation is a purposeful activity, which serves for certain aims. In accordance with the Skopos Theory, the paper studies the translation of four-character idioms in Midnight and analyses how the translator Xu Mengxiong compensated those semantic voids contained and what translation strategies did he employ.

In conclusion，it is summarized in the paper that Xu resorted to domestication as the dominating translation strategy of idioms with foreignization as supplement. Based on the specific time and cultural background in the 1950s, the paper analyzes and finds out the connection between Xu’s choices of translation strategies and the popular concept of Chinese translational academic circle as well as China’s overall national strength then.

Key Words:  the translation of four-character idioms     semantic voids     Skopos Theory     translation strategies     domestication and foreignization

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 Researches on Midnight ’s Translation-1

1.2 Significance of the Study-2

1.3 The Skopos Theory-2

1.4 Domestication and Foreignization-4

Chapter Two An Overview of Four-Character Idioms-6

2.1 An Introduction to Four-Character Idioms-6

2.2 Problems in the Translation of Four-Character Idioms-7

2.3 Previous Studies on the Translation of Four-Character Idioms-8

Chapter Three Semantic Voids of Four-character Idioms and Their Translations in Midnight-11

3.1 Idioms Containing Cultural Voids-11

3.1.1 Idioms from Classical Literature-11

3.1.2 Idioms from Allusions-13

3.1.3 Idioms from Religions and Beliefs-14

3.1.4 Idioms from Art-16

3.2 Idioms Containing Environmental Voids-17

3.2.1 Idioms about Sky or Earth-17

3.2.2 Idioms about Weather-18

3.2.3 Idioms about Plants-19

3.3 Idioms Containing Lexical Voids-20

3.3.1 Idioms about Human Body-20

3.3.2 Idioms about Animals-21

3.3.3 Idioms about Numbers-22

3.3.4 Idioms about Colors-23

3.4 Idioms Containing Other Voids-24

Chapter Four Results and Discussion-26

4.1 Strategies Employed in Idiom Translation of Midnight-26

4.2 Factors Influencing the Translator’s Choices-28

Chapter Five Conclusion-31

References-32