[b-greek] IDIOMS

From: Wayne Leman (wleman@mcn.net)
Date: Thu Dec 28 2000 - 11:33:01 EST


Robert replied:

"It seems to me that the difficulty in translating idioms is to preserve
accurately the sense the writer intended when they used that idiom."

Exactly, since that is the essence of a true idiom, that they mean something
very different from what the literal meaning of the words is.

> In some
cases when the idiom is replaced with some modern equivalent

I would word this differently: I would say that the original figurative
meaning is being accurately translated by the same meaning in the target
language.

>some of the
possible theological intent of the author is lost in the translation.

I don't think there is theological intent in true idioms. Idioms are
socially conventionalized expressions in any language which do not literally
mean what they say. They are not unique expressions of an author used to
make some theological point. True idioms are used and understand by high
percentages of a language group. They are colorful, lively.

> I
wonder if we are not better off when the idiom is simply translated and the
reader is left with the job of determining the intent and meaning of the
idiom rather than being handed the translators interpretation.

Then the original meaning cannot be determined by someone from another
language. That is the nature of true idioms, unlike some other figures of
speech whose meaning can sometimes be determined contextually.

People who are not native speakers of English have no idea what the
following English idioms mean:

Are you pulling my leg?
It's raining cats and dogs.
He's pushing daisies.

Similarly, I suspect that if you are a native speaker of English, you have
no idea what this literal translation of a Spanish idiom means:

Are you twisting my hair?

It is helpful periodically to go back to the definitions posted for "idiom"
by Steven Craig Miller of this list. He gave two definitions, of which the
first is the only one that has the meaning of true linguistic idioms, as we
are discussing them in this topic thread. Such idioms cannot be translated
from one language to another so that those who use the translation can
understand their original meaning. It's just the nature of figurative
language, and especially the nature of idioms which are a unique kind of
figurative language whose words do not let us know what the meaning of the
entire idiom is. In translation, if we want people to understand the meaning
of the original idiom, we have to find an accurate way to state that meaning
in the translation language. It is usually not very difficult to do so,
except in cases where we do not know for sure what the original idiom meant,
such as "heaping coals of fire upon a person's head".

Wayne
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