Abstract Four-character idioms, developed through long history, are quintessence and treasury of Chinese language. They are widely used in literary works and people’s daily life for their concise forms and rich meanings. 34470
However, China and English speaking countries belong to different families with their distinct cultures, customs, religions, language expressions and geological environments. The absence of common cultural background will inevitably cause semantic voids. The four-character idioms with such vacuum of sense in Midnight are pided into four categories according to Dagut (1978)’s theory as cultural voids, environmental voids, lexical voids and other voids.
Translation is a purposeful activity, which serves for certain aims. In accordance with the Skopos Theory, the paper studies the translation of four-character idioms in Midnight and analyses how the translator Xu Mengxiong compensated those semantic voids contained and what translation strategies did he employ.
In conclusion，it is summarized in the paper that Xu resorted to domestication as the dominating translation strategy of idioms with foreignization as supplement. Based on the specific time and cultural background in the 1950s, the paper analyzes and finds out the connection between Xu’s choices of translation strategies and the popular concept of Chinese translational academic circle as well as China’s overall national strength then.
Key Words:  the translation of four-character idioms     semantic voids     Skopos Theory     translation strategies     domestication and foreignization
 摘 要习语是是人们在长期实践和认识过程中提炼出来的短语，是一个民族语言的核心和精华。汉语成语短小精悍，均来自古代经典名著、历史故事或经过人们的口头流传下来。
但是，汉英两个民族在地理环境、生活习俗、宗教信仰、表达习惯等方面存在很大差异，汉英读者共同文化背景的缺乏多多少少会带来语义的缺失，本文根据Dagut的语义空缺归类对《子夜》中四字成语进行分类，大致分为文化空缺、环境空缺、词汇空缺和其他空缺四大类。
同时，翻译是有目的性的活动，无论采取何种翻译策略都是为了服务于一定的目的。本文根据目的论，结合1959年许孟雄版英译本，分析了该译者是如何处理这些存在空缺的成语形象，如何补偿这些语义缺失，采用了哪些翻译策略等问题。
最后，本文总结许孟雄对《子夜》中成语翻译，并非片面地采取单一的翻译策略，而是以归化为主，异化为辅。结合上世纪五十年代中国特定的时代背景，本文分析了当时中国学术界观点，中国文化输出以及综合国力对其翻译策略选择的影响。
毕业论文关键词：成语翻译     语义空缺     目的论     翻译策略     归化异化        
Contents
Abstract    i
摘 要    iv
Chapter One Introduction    1
1.1 Researches on Midnight ’s Translation    1
1.2 Significance of the Study    2
1.3 The Skopos Theory    2
1.4 Domestication and Foreignization    4
Chapter Two An Overview of Four-Character Idioms    6
2.1 An Introduction to Four-Character Idioms    6
2.2 Problems in the Translation of Four-Character Idioms    7
2.3 Previous Studies on the Translation of Four-Character Idioms    8
Chapter Three Semantic Voids of Four-character Idioms and Their Translations in Midnight    11
3.1 Idioms Containing Cultural Voids    11 Dagut的语义空缺归类对《子夜》中四字成语进行分类:http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_31978.html