Translation of Idioms and Fixed Expressions: Strategies and Difficulties

Abstract

This research tries to investigate and identify firstly some existing obstacles in the process of translating inter-lingual idiomatic pairs, and then to suggest some weighty theoretical strategies to overcome such difficulties. Following Mona Baker's (1992) classification of difficulties and strategies and the related sub-categories mentioned, the present study makes an effort to analyze such classifications and practically apply them largely for some English and the equivalent Turkish (Azeri) as well as Persian pairs. Findings show that there are a number of factors which should be considered in order to translate idiomatic expressions correctly. The most important of such factors include socio-linguistic elements, cultural aspects, linguistic and stylistic considerations as well as some specific meta-lingual factors.