Abstract

English proverbs, along with the literary words, began to appear in various literary works. Parts of English proverbs come from the written literature, mainly from Greek and Roman myths, fables, Shakespeare’s plays and a number of famous works. This thesis will analyze and explore the characteristics of English proverbs and their translation methods from the three aspects of lexical devices, syntactical devices and phonetic devices.

Key words: English proverb; rhetorical characteristics; translation methods

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-1

3. Rhetorical Features-2

3.1 Lexical devices-2

3.2 Syntactical devices-4

3.3 Phonetic devices-5

4. Translation of English Proverbs-6

4.1 Literal translation-7

4.2 Free translation-9

4.3 Equivalent translation-10

4.4 Annotation-12

5. Conclusion-13

Works Cited-15