Abstract

English, the Lingua Franca of the modern world, is a beautiful language acclaimed by many

across the globe. English language grows rapidly along with various discoveries and inventions in

the world. There are very many features that are unique in this auxiliary language. English

vocabulary is one such feature. In general, vocabulary in English is categorised into three. They are

single lexical, phrasal verbs and idioms. In English language, the role of idioms, in particular, is

colossal. It is not an exaggeration that idioms add beauty to the Queen’s language. An idiom is a part

of English vocabulary. One of the aspects of English idioms is its peculiarity. Idioms are of native

varieties which are considered unique. Though English embraces single lexical and idioms from

languages around the world, it is a Herculean task while translating idioms into regional languages.

The reason is idiom’s constituent parts and its idiomacity in nature. As against translating English

vocabulary in to regional languages, translating English idioms poses a great challenge. This article

sheds light on the various problems faced in translating English idioms.

Keywords: Translating English Idioms, Idiomacity, literal meaning, cultural context, sense

Idioms are peculiar ones in English language. More than the fact that it adds beauty and

colour to the language, idioms interest students/learners to learn English. An idiom is a group of

words that gives an idiomatic meaning. Here in an idiom, the constituent parts do not give meaning

individually. An idiom is viewed or treated as a single entity or unit. It, for convenience sake, can be

said as a lengthier item of vocabulary with a unique meaning. Idioms, by and large, are not literal,

though there are transparent and opaque idioms in English.

Idioms are present /available in almost all the languages. These multi-word expressions have

its origin from culture of respective countries. In fact, idioms and culture are inextricably linked. One

can even go to the length by saying that no idioms can exist without a cultural context/background.

Opaque idioms pose difficulty in the comprehension of its meaning. This is because opaque

idioms give no clue at all in the semantic aspect. The constituent words in an opaque idiom are

clueless and challenging for the L2 learners. They, the opaque idioms, as a single unit, give a special,

readymade and fixed meaning. Neither the meaning nor the structure of the idioms could be
changed.
It is reiterated that idioms are fixed one.

As far as translating English idioms is concerned, it is a Herculean task. In translating idioms,

verbatim i.e. word to word translation results in a futile effort. The reason is, as mentioned earlier,

individual words in an idiom has no role to play as far as its meaning is concerned. An idiom cannot

and should be translated verbatim.

Since idioms all culture bound, they are very much embedded in every culture. This results in

that they become difficult or rather impossible to translate from one language to another language.

In the modern technological era, the advent of computer and internet are handy in regard to

translation. When a passage in one language is fed in the computer/internet, it translates the
passage

into English. There is considerable accuracy in this type of machine translation. On the other hand,

machine translation is, out and out, a failure/futile one as far as translating idioms are concerned.

When an idiom is fed in the computer or internet, it gives the actual literal meanings of the

constituent words in the idiom. In other words, machine translation of idiom results in verbatim. As
a

result, the original fixed meaning of the idiom is not known.

When the idiom ‘apple of one’s eye’ is machine translated into Tamil, the machine translated

version of the idioms is not only incorrect, but it gives an unsuitable meaning. The translated version

would be in no way related to the idioms semantically. There will no semantic congeniality between

the actual meaning of the idiom and the machine translated meaning.

The idiom ‘shed crocodile tears’ has its origin in Aesop’s Fables. When this idiom is

translated into Tamil, the original meaning ‘to pretend’, ‘act/cry falsely’ is not retained. One must

understand that there are underlying meanings in every idiom. Idioms should never be taken at face

value. They are highly contextual in meaning.

The idiom ‘down to earth’ gives a meaning that someone is practical, realistic and not

pretentious. When this idiom is translated into Tamil, the original idiomatic meaning is not retained.

There are transparent idioms which retain some of the literal meanings of the constituent

parts of the idioms. However, when a transparent idiom is translated into Tamil, what appears as
answer is its literal meaning. Yet another idiom is ‘add fuel to the fire’. When this idiom is

translated into Tamil, the translated version is a mere verbatim. Readers end up understanding the

idiom as ‘pouring oil in fire’. Besides, the actual meaning of the idiom i.e. making a bad situation

worse remains unknown.

There are other opaque idioms that give no clue at all for the comprehension and production

of it. For example, ‘by the by’ and ‘by and large’ are such idioms that are difficult to translate. These

aforesaid idioms have no Tamil equivalents, at least at the literal level.

Idioms and its mere literal meanings should never go hand in hand. It never works. Idioms

should be translated by its sense, by what the idiom means. There are idioms with same common

themes, meanings and ideas. The words in an idiom may not be as same or equal as in the translated

version. The bottom-line in translating idioms from one language to another language is its sense,

meaning and not just the words.

The idioms ‘add fuel to the fire’, ‘fan the flame’ and ‘rub salt on the wounds’ give same or

similar meanings though the constituent words in the idioms are entirely different.

Every language has idioms on its own, depending upon the context and cultural background.

Fortunately, there are umpteen of idioms in Tamil that find its equivalent ones in English. Most of

the Tamil idioms could be matched with its English equivalents concerning the same sense or

meaning. In the process of translating English idioms, one can only find equivalent idioms in his

native language to the English version. However, when there are no semantically equal idioms to

English idioms in one’s native language, translation is a redundant one. No idioms can be translated

at one’s whims and fancies.

All said and done, it is important to remember that idioms lose their cultural and semantic

values when translated. One should find idioms with similar meanings in their native language as

against the English equivalents. In other words, there are idioms in every language with similar sense

and meanings. The translators’ duty is to find such idioms with common or similar meanings.

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