THE TRANSLATION OF IDIOMS AND FIXED EXPRESSIONS

Idioms and fixed expressions are frozen patterns of language which allow little or no variation in form and, in
the case of idioms, often carry meanings which cannot be deduced from their individual components. As their
name suggests, fixed expressions as well as proverbs allow little or no variation in form. In this respect, they
behave very much like idioms. Unlike idioms, however, fixed expressions and proverbs often have fairly
transparent meanings. But in spite of their transparency, the meaning of a fixed expression or proverb is
somewhat more than the sum meanings of its words; the expression has to be taken as one unit to establish
meaning.
What are the following phrases examples of?
• Ladies and Gentlemen • Merry Christmas
• Practice what you preach • The long and the short of it
• Bury the hatchet • When there’s a will there’s a way
• As a matter of fact

IDIOMS, FIXED EXPRESSIONS, AND THE DIRECTION OF TRANSLATION

The main problems that idiomatic and fixed expressions pose in translation relate to two main areas:
 The ability to recognize and interpret an idiom correctly
 The difficulties involved in rendering the various aspects of meaning that an idiom or a fixed
expression conveys in the target language
These difficulties are much more pronounced in the case of idioms than they are in the case of fixed
expressions.

THE INTERPRETATION OF IDIOMS

There are two cases in which an idiom can be easily misinterpreted if one is not already familiar with it:
(a) Some idioms are “misleading”; they seem transparent because they offer a reasonable literal
interpretation and their idiomatic meanings are not necessarily signalled in the surrounding text.
Several idioms in English have both a literal and an idiomatic meaning.
(b) An idiom in the source language may have a very close counterpart in the target language which
looks similar on the surface but has a totally or partially different meaning.

What kind of difficulty might translators have with the following idioms?
• To pull someone’s leg
• To take someone for a ride
• To have cold feet
• To go out with someone

THE TRANSLATION OF IDIOMS: DIFFICULTIES

The main difficulties involved in translating idioms and fixed expressions may be summarized as follows:
(a) An idiom or fixed expression may have no equivalent in the target language. The way a language
chooses to express, or not to express, various meanings cannot be predicted and only occasionally
matches the way another language chooses to express the same meanings. It is therefore
 unrealistic to expect to find equivalent idioms and expressions in the target language as a matter of
course.
(b) An idiom or fixed expression may have a similar counterpart in the target language, but its context of
use may be different; the two expressions may have different connotations, for instance, or they may
not be pragmatically transferable.
(c) An idiom may be used in the source text in both its literal and idiomatic senses at the same time.
Unless the target-language idiom corresponds to the source-language idiom both in form and in
meaning, the play on idiom cannot be successfully reproduced in the target text.
(d) The very convention of using idioms in written discourse, the contexts in which they can be used,
and their frequency of use may be different in the source and target languages. English uses idioms
in many types of text, though not in all. Their use in quality-press news reports is limited, but it is
quite common to see idioms in English advertisements, promotional material, and in the tabloid
press.

What kind of difficulty might translators have with these idioms or fixed expressions?
• ¡Buen provecho!
• Es cosa de machos
• Tener tela para cortar
• A falta de pan, buenas son las tortas
• Descubrir América

THE TRANSLATION OF IDIOMS: STRATEGIES

When translating idioms or fixed expressions, translators may:
(a) Use an idiom of similar meaning and form.
(b) Use an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form.
(c) Paraphrase the idiom or fixed expression
(d) Omit the idiom or fixed expression.

Translate the following idioms into Spanish. Explain the strategy used and why it was chosen.
• Perhaps Granamyr wanted to show us that things aren’t always what they seem.(Fiction)
• India’s Holy Cow: Still a Political Hot Potato. (Quality Newspaper Headline)
• Light-fingered thief makes off with pub's cursed mummified hand (Tabloid Headline)
• In the same period hundreds of bikes in the French capital were stolen by light-fingered Parisians
(Quality Newspaper Article)
• The suspension system has been fully uprated to take rough terrain in its stride. (Car Brochure)

Source: In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation (Mona Baker, 1992)