The Language barriers of English Idioms in Cultural Communication

By Li Zhen

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

May, 2017

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my thanks to those who have helped me with my thesis. First of all, I must thank Dr. Zhang Houzhen for being my supervisor. His support and guidance made all the differences in this process. He gave me constructive suggestions and helped me go through all the difficulties in writing this thesis. Without his guidance and encourage, I would not have completed this thesis. I also owe a special debt of gratitude to all the professors in Foreign Languages Institute, from whose devoted teaching and enlightening lectures, I have benefited a lot and academically prepared for the thesis. Last but not the least. I want to show my appreciation for all the support and help from my friends and classmates. They gave me useful advice and suggestions before I decided on this topic.

contents

Abstract: 1

Ⅰ. Introduction 2

1.1 Research Background 2

1.2 Significance 2

1.3 Thesis Organization 2

Ⅱ. English idioms 3

2.1 The origin of English idioms 3

2.2 The form of English idioms 4

2.2.1 Idiomatic phrases 4

2.2.2 Proverbs 4

2.2.3 Slang 5

2.3 The features of English idioms. 5

Ⅲ. Intercultural communication 6

3.1 The definition of cross-cultural communication. 6

3.2The feature of intercultural communication 6

3.2.1 Two parties in communication must come from different cultural backgrounds. 6

3.2.2 Two parties in communication must use the same language to communicate. 7

3.2.3 Two parties in communication must conduct the real-time talk. 7

Ⅳ. The barriers brought by English idioms in the cross-cultural communication. 7

4.1 The difference of living environment. 7

4.2 The difference of custom. 8

4.3 The difference of religious. 8

4.4 The difference of the allusions and myths. 9

Ⅴ.The solutions of resolving language barriers brought by English idioms. 9

5.1 Familiar with the cultural differences 10

5.2 To understand the real meaning of English idioms. 10

5.3 Use idioms timely 10

Ⅵ. Collusion 11

References 12

The Language barriers of English Idioms in Cultural Communication

Li Zhen

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

Abstract: Idioms are the essence of a language which have been refined through ages of application. Idioms are fixed sentences or phrases which are concise in forms and comprehensive in meanings. This thesis makes analysis and research for the English idioms from the four different aspects, which are the western living environment, customs, religious beliefs and historical allusions. It also puts forward specific solution to resolve and avoid the language barriers of idioms in intercultural communication, that is, comprehending the cultural differences between the West and China, mastering English and Chinese idioms, understanding the true meaning of English idioms and using idioms timely.

Key words: English idiom; intercultural communication; language barriers

摘要：习语是经过人们长期使用而提炼出来的语言精华。它是形式简单的短语或定型词组，其意义精辟，本文从中西生存环境，习俗，宗教信仰和历史典故出发，对其进行了研究和分析，进而提出了怎样解决英语习语给跨文化交际带来的障碍的具体的解决办法:了解中西文化的差异、掌握英汉习语、理解英语习语的真正意义、适时使用习语.

关键词: 英语习语；跨文化交际；语言障碍

Ⅰ. Introduction

1.1 Research Background

The studies of idioms in China, the last twenty years have witnessed an increasing interest. A large number of scholars has carried out different approaches from many perspectives. Such as from the micro-linguistic perspective, the structure and characteristic are the main topic of them to analysis. Some scholars from the perspective of translation to study, they have discussed tactics of translating idioms. Furthermore, there are still many researchers who are interested in how to correctly understand the idioms from the psycholinguistic and cognitive perspective. From above we can conclude that the study of English idioms was chiefly within the domain of idiomatic phrases and sentence proper in the past. Many domestic and international scholars and researchers in idioms only have enthusiasm to collect and compile idioms dictionary from the practical perspective. Though some people studied the function and source of English idioms, few people analyze the idioms from the perspective of solving language barriers in cross-cultural communication systematically. Therefore, studies on this perspective is urgently required.

1.2 Significance of the Research

Idioms are the elite of language. It reflects the ways in which one person construct views of the world and convey them vividly. Idioms also exist everywhere. According to an investigation of the foreign institutions use of non-literal language by H. R. Pollio, Barlow, Fine and M. R. Pllio, “most English speakers utter about 10 million novel metaphors per lifetime and 20 million idioms per lifetime. This works out 3,000 novel metaphors per week and 7,000 idioms per week”. Idioms are numerous and complex in our life, many people in the seismological community have studied it systematically. The fact has proved that if we do not grasp English idioms, we would not master the native English, especially we can not use spoken English proficiently. This situation always make trouble for intercultural communication. Therefore, based on these scholars’ research and achievements, this article make up some shortcomings in the previous studies on English idioms and propose a new angle to recognize it.

1.3 Thesis Organization

This paper is organized as follows:

Section 2 is the general introduction of idioms. In this section, it discusses the detailed sources and features of idiom, which evidently different from other phrases and sentences.

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