About the idioms related to people’s names, Yin Li and Han Xiaoling (2007:211-240) have further understanding that names, especially male’s names embodying ethics and morals, Yin-Yang five elements philosophy and clan consciousness as Chinese names are originated from ancestral clan name, temple name, historical country name, geographic name, dwelling place, official position, job, numbers, etc. and as Chinese emphasize seniority in the family or clan and avoid using the name of sage and respectable elders. The names in English nations not only come from job, geographic name and so on, but also come from grandfather or father’s name, names in Bible and Greek and Roman mythology.
2.1.3 Study of English idioms from the Pragmatic Perspectives
The usage of idioms contains abundant pragmatic values and multiple pragmatic functions. Peng Qinghua(2007:11-270) has studied it from English idioms’ pragmatic context, speech act theory, conversational implicature, discourse analysis, pragmatic functions, negative meaning, rhetoric pragmatics, English idioms’ flexible use and varieties, etc. The conversational implicature of English idioms is mainly embodied by interpersonal function, politeness and euphemism, while the pragmatic functions are reflected in social contact, economy, labor saving, evaluation, contextualization, cultural identity, cultural inheritance and education. Zhang Zhenhua(2007:177-219) agreed, but he reduced several former parts to one. That is interaction.
2.1.4 Study about Idioms and Inter-cultural Communication
Due to the differences between orient and occident culture systems, the English and Chinese idioms are both similar to and different from each other. In inter-cultural communication activities, the way people talk and their habits are various as speaker and listener lack some basic understanding of mutual cultures in different cultural context, which may cause pragmatic mistakes and lead to cultural conflict, misunderstanding and even hatred, resulting in inter-cultural communicational failure. Study about idioms and inter-cultural communication can avail to learn how to use decent idioms to promote inter-cultural communication, maintain social and cultural consciousness, and understand the social function of idioms in inter-cultural communication. (Zhang Zhenhua, 2007: 223-260)
2.1.5 Study about Translation of Idioms
Study about translation of idioms is always hot spots in idiom study. Tan Weiguo(2011) paid great attention to specific roles and methods of English-Chinese idiom translation. The universal strategies are domesticating strategy and foreignizing strategy from abroad as well as literal translation, free translation and the mixed former two, which have used frequently interiorly.
However, different scholars hold different views in domesticating strategy and foreignizing strategy. The representative figure of domesticating strategy is Nida E. A, who put forward the functional equivalence theory, while that of foreignizing strategy is Lawrence Venuti, who came up with deconstructive translation theories. In concrete application of idiom translation, foreignizing strategy should also be along with cultural figures of source context, while domesticating strategy should aim at target context. (Qiu Jixin, 2002)
Liu Zequang and Zhu Hong(2008) take the famous Chinese masterwork A Dream in Red Mansions as an example, it is difficult to translate the idioms originating from Chinese traditional mythology, literary allusion and the past daily life in A Dream in Red Mansions, where domesticating strategy and foreignizing strategy are both used in translation together with combination of literal and free translation.
2.1.6 Study about Rhetorical Devices in Idioms
Rhetorical devices are the arts of language expressions. Rhetorical devices in Idioms include simile, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, personification, allusion, euphemism, humor, reception, rhyme, assonance, hyperbolic, rhetorical question, paradox and hypotyposis. 英汉语中与饮食相关习语的文化含义及形象意义对比(3):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_12700.html