Cultural Differences Reflected by Chinese and English Idioms开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义

As the globalization deepens, the communication between China and English countries is getting unprecedentedly frequent, which accelerates the whole world#8217;s development in all fields. Jargon in economics, politics, science and technology is easily understood. However, idioms from different cultures are quite elusive. That is to say, there are still some misunderstandings between Chinese and English because of cultural differences. Besides, idiom is not only a part of but also the essence of culture. The understanding of different cultures somehow decides the understanding of the idioms from different cultures. Therefore, the most important way to understand those idioms is to know its culture very well.

Since the cultural background is so significant to the comprehension of idioms, how to get full awareness of the connection between idioms and cultures have attracted many scholars#8217; attention. This paper aims to illustrate Chinese and English cultural differences from several aspects by taking some typical examples.

2. 研究内容和预期目标

This paper is aimed to study the cultural differences reflected by Chinese and English idioms. Those cultural differences are generalized into five main parts, including geographical differences, historical differences, mythological differences and the differences of food culture and the way of thinking. The key problem of this paper is to illustrate the cultural differences and find ways to deal with them.

At first, this paper explains the relationship between culture and idiom, containing their differences and connections. After that, cultural differences reflected by idioms will be analyzed in details. At last, ways to figure out those cultural differences will be given.

3. 国内外研究现状

As an academic study, cultural communication is quite common in China as well as in the western countries. It has become a popular topic because of the deeper and deeper integration of the whole world and the advent of the serious cultural conflicts. Nowadays, domestic scholars, such as Liu Huying, Jiang Yan and Peng Xiaorong, have gained great achievements on the study of cultural differences reflected by idioms. Especially Yang Yongfang, she has pointed out the cultural differences of English and Chinese animal idioms. What#8217;s more, she has also given suggestions about how to translate foreign idioms. So do the foreign scholars. The work of Xiuzhi Li, Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Teaching of English and Chinese Idioms, talks about the relationship between conceptual metaphor and semantic motivation of English and Chinese idioms from three aspects, namely, structural metaphor, orientation metaphor and ontological metaphor. Based on that, the author puts forward applying conceptual metaphor theory to English and Chinese idiom teaching.

However, the way to solve those misunderstandings caused by Chinese and English idioms is still not enough. Those scholars have already paid enough attention to the cultural differences. But what is the most important thing is to find ways to deal with them. This paper attempts not only to illustrate the cultural differences reflected by Chinese and English idioms, but also to seek for methods of solving them.

4. 计划与进度安排

1. introduction

2. the relationship between culture and idiom

2.1 the differences between culture and idiom

5. 参考文献

[1] yang, chunli. cultural differences on chinese and english idioms of diet and the translation[j]. english language teaching, 2010, vol.3 (1).

[2] li, xiuzhi. conceptual metaphor theory and teaching of english and chinese idioms [j]. journal of language teaching and research, 2010, vol.1 (3), pp.206.

[3] xie, qunying. contrast study of english and chinese idioms in the background of cross- culture [j]. cross-cultural communication, 2007, vol.3 (1).