从paint the lily到“画蛇添足”——英汉典故跨文化之对比研究

典故是英汉语言和文化的宝贵遗产,是其民族文化的长期历史积淀和智慧的结晶,是语言与文化之间最紧密的结合部分。英语典故虽然在某些方面与汉语典故具有相同或相似之处,如在设喻比较方面,但两者也存在着很大差异,如在释义渊源、结构形式、民族特色方面。通过对英汉典故的释义渊源、结构形式、喻体寓意、民族特色方面的对比研究,旨在揭示其内在的文化喻义,消除跨文化交际障碍,促进中英文化交流。

From ＂Paint the Lily＂ in English to ＂Draw a Snake and Add Feet to It＂ in Chinese-- A Contrastive Study on Intercultural Allusions in English and Chinese Languages

Allusions, a valuable heritage of language and culture in both English and Chinese, is a crystallization of a long histo- ry and wisdom of the two peoples, and a combination where a language and its culture are most closely integrated. English allu- sions are similar to or the same as Chinese ones in some respects, for example, analogy comparison, but the two are different in sources of definitions, structure, national features and so on. By making a contrastive study on sources of definitions, structures, meanings of figurative bodies, and national features, the paper aims at revealing their inner metaphoric meanings in cultures, re- moving obstacles in inter-cultural communication, and promoting cultural exchanges between Chinese and English.