论文总字数：31239字

摘 要

一个民族的语言和其文化息息相关，习语更是如此。含“Dutch（荷兰）”的习语尤具代表性，它们的产生和其民族历史文化背景紧密相连，是人民大众在生活中经过长期反复使用后自然沉积形成的形式固定、寓意深刻的短语。因此在日益频繁的跨文化交际中，对含“Dutch（荷兰）”习语的文化内涵进行研究是十分必要的。本文主要是对含“Dutch（荷兰）”习语的文化内涵进行论述，包括它们的起源、发展以及分类三个方面，并着重论述其在跨文化交际中的影响。同时本文从历史文化的角度对其积极影响和消极影响都加以论述，旨在帮助人们客观的认识含“Dutch（荷兰）”习语并合理的利用它们从而推进跨文化交际的顺利进行。

关键词：含“Dutch（荷兰）”习语；文化内涵；影响；跨文化交际

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

2.1 Previous studies of idioms containing “Dutch” 2

2.2 The unsolved problems in studies of idioms containing “Dutch” 2

3. The Cultural Connotations of Idioms Containing “Dutch” 3

3.1 The origin and connotations of idioms containing “Dutch” 3

3.2. The classification of idioms containing “Dutch” 4

4. The Influences of Idioms Containing “Dutch” on Intercultural Communication 9

4.1 Positive functions in intercultural communication 10

4.2 Negative effects in intercultural communication 11

5. Conclusion 12

Work Cited 14

1. Introduction

Language is an indispensable social phenomenon and the evolution of human society is in pace with the change of language. At the same time, language is the carrier of a given culture, and also an important component of a given culture. Language can reflect and transmit cultural information. As an important part of language, idioms are closely linked with a given culture.They are created by common people, after a long-term repeatedly use, forming a kind of stable and deeply meaningful connotation. Hence, a good case in point are expressions containing “Dutch”. The word Dutch, in English, it originally meant “the Netherlands (people)”, without any derogatory or commendatory sense.But later Dutch was used to formulate idioms and undergone the ups and downs of history and culture through the three massive Anglo-Dutch Marine Wars, they began to take unique meanings, positive or negative.

This paper evolves around the formation of expressions containing “Dutch” and their course of development, further classifying idioms containing “Dutch” into expressions of business, wars, life and death, with a careful analysis. In addition, this article put an emphasis on influences of idioms containing “Dutch” on cross-cultural communication, beneficial and harmful so that people can have an objective evaluation about idioms containing “Dutch” and make the best of them, ensuring a pleasant intercultural communication.

With the fast development of international contacts, intercultural communication happens increasingly frequently than ever before. In modern society, intercultural communication has become an unavoidable trend. Then, idioms containing “Dutch”, as an integral part of English idioms, are bound to be employed by chatters in the process of intercultural communication. Without any knowledge of idioms containing “Dutch” , people may well perform an embarrassing cross-cultural communication. As a result, the study of cultural connotations of idioms containing “Dutch” should be highlighted. Only when the cultural connotations of idioms containing “Dutch” are fully studied can people improve the quality of language, developing and strengthening intercultural communicative competence.

2. Literature Review

In such a world with inevitable intercultural communication, studies of cultural connotations of idioms containing “Dutch” has been a popular topic. Many scholars have made a lot of contributions in this field, and they discussed expressions containing “Dutch” from different perspectives and focused on different aspects in this field. In this part, it make a brief summary of major researches on idioms containing “Dutch” .

2.1 Previous studies of idioms containing “Dutch”

Chinese scholar, Chang Jianrong, in his article National Slurs on Dutch, studies unequal treatment on Dutch and explains the formation, application, and cultural connotation of national slurs on Dutch. By national slurs, he refers to: National slur is a linguistic form expressing unequal treatment of one ethnic group by another. From his personal point of view, expressions containing Dutch do it best about this phenomenon. Furthermore, he also holds that the illustration of national slurs on Dutch can facilitate intercultural communication, helping English-learners quicken the course of communication in a more flexible. Similarly, Chen Xiao also pays attention to negative opinions about expressions containing Dutch. However, he further describes the historical and cultural reasons of these expressions’ appearance and proves that learning one language needs to acquire not only necessary vocabulary and grammar knowledge,but also the thorough understanding on the historical and cultural background of the people using this language.

2.2 The unsolved problems in studies of idioms containing “Dutch”

However, past studies paid more attention to the effect of Dutch expressions on acquiring languages, and they lacked systematic research from the perspectives of intercultural communication. Therefore, this paper focuses on illumination from the cultural connotations of Dutch expressions to intercultural communication. Based on the inseparable relationship and some other theories about intercultural communication, this thesis lists and analyses expressions containing Dutch and accounts for their origin and evolvement. The article reveals the cultural connotations of idioms containing Dutch can exert both positive effect and negative effect on intercultural communication so that people can objectively treat idioms containing Dutch, carrying out a win-win intercultural communication. But the process of intercultural communication is dynamic, data and materials are difficult to collect to further study. More seriously, foreign scholars rarely do research on idioms containing Dutch, which leads to that it is not easy to make an overall analysis of them.Therefore, for better understanding idioms containing Dutch in intercultural communication, just this paper is far from enough. In future, more attention should be given to other aspects about idioms containing Dutch in other areas, not just in intercultural communication.

3. The Cultural Connotations of Idioms Containing “Dutch”

3.1 The origin and connotations of idioms containing “Dutch”

Dutch, also called the kingdom of the Netherlands, is a small coastal country , located in European mainland, with well-renowned seawall, windmills and tulips.In 1463, the country established his own the kingdom of the Netherlands and in 1581, he gained independence from Spain. Originally, “Dutch” is a just proper name. Before stepping into Shakespeare’s time,that is 16^th century, the English had being regarded the Dutch as friendly partners and in all English literary works, the Dutch obtained much respect, more often than not. However, the situation began to change since the 17^th century, the Netherlands rapidly grew to be the strongest capitalistic country. In the 17^th century, the Netherlands dominated the world trade market and expanded his colonies into the East, raking in exorbitant profits and treasure. But the Dutch, as greedy as a wolf, with a large amount of money, attempted to seize the control of the marine trade. At the same time, the British got the better of the Spanish, breaking Spanish and Portuguese hegemony in colonial parts. Standing out of most strong countries, Britain gradually developed to be the powerful colonial country. In order to further consolidate and expand its power in colonies, it is unavoidable for Britain to fight against the Netherlands for treasure. In 1651, the British parliament passed the Navigation Regulation with the purpose of hitting Dutch intermediary role in trade between Britain and the rest of the world and weakening his sea power and colonization. Certainly, the Netherlands, not resigned to playing second fiddle, strongly opposed this regulation and threw no attention to it, whereas Britain still stock to his guns. Hence, the fierce sea wars broke out, as a saying goes, when Greek meets Greek, there comes the tug of war. During more than twenty years of the wars, there were three famous large-scale naval warfare, which were called the Anglo-Dutch wars. After years of wars, though sometimes failed or successful, anyway, at last, England won victory.

Although England debated the Netherlands, through years of marine wars, the relationship between them was increasingly worsening. Year by year, both they showed themselves’ hatred of each other. At that moment, in order to express their abomination for the Dutch, English began to create some expressions related to the Netherlands, that are idioms containing :Dutch”, to refer to something bad, cheap and shameful.=

3.2. The classification of idioms containing “Dutch”

An idiom is a set of word combinations whose meaning cannot be derived from the meaning of the individual elements (Bussmann 138).Idioms are typically metaphorical in historical or etymological terms. The metaphor may be relatively straightforward to decode (Chen 45). The article classifies examples into expressions of business, wars, life and death.

3.2.1 Idioms of business

Dutch auction (荷兰式的拍卖, 削价拍卖）

Oxford Advanced Dictionary defines “Dutch auction” as sale in which the price is gradually reduced until a buyer is found. In fact, this is a open auction and sells goods with a large quantity. In auctions like this, there is a regular ruler that the first bidder can buy whatever he wants at his own price, and if remaining goods, the price would go down and down until people buy all goods. However, this kind of auction have an disadvantage that the first bidder is always parting with so much money. Although the price is in a downward trend, in order to consider others, the first bidder have to buy goods at the highest price. The greedy salespersons usually make a profit at this moment. Consequently, this idiom is used to refer to those who perform a sleight hand on transactions.

Dutch bargain（不公平的交易）

It is said that the in ancient time, the Dutch often did business on the wine table. Drinking and bargaining, in this case, chances are that the deal is unequal and doesn’t deserve dependent. As a result, it refers to wet bargain and a one-side exchange-Dutch means giving too little and asking too much.

Dutch book（大弃赌）

Dutch book refers to a kind of gamble that the gambler doesn’t guarantee his profit, regardless of the outcome of the gamble. In economics a Dutch book usually refers to a sequence of trades that would leave one party strictly worse off and another strictly better off ( Wikipedia). Actually, this idiom is a theory that is difficult to understand. In the process of intercultural communication, apart from professionals, ordinary people normally don’t heard of it, let alone use it. However, in the light of the preciseness of academic study, this paper decides to list it.

Dutch reckoning（单方面有利的结账；一厢情愿的事）

According to Oxford Advanced Dictionary, it means an unilaterally good account. It also refers to just one’s own wishful thinking. Interestingly, this idiom describes a different way of account that the more the consumer dislikes expensive price, the higher the bill. It fully explains the English hatred for the Dutch.

3.2.2 Idioms of wars

Dutch courage（酒后之勇，虚勇，酒胆）

Oxford Advanced Dictionary defines Dutch courage, also called liquor courage, as courage that comes from drinking alcohol. It was said that in ancient times, only when the Dutch had drank some liquor to build up their courage could they dared to take part in wars. Unfortunately, once they had drunk too much, they would be in full rout. Edmund Waller, English poet, in 1665, in his book Instructions to a Painter, wrote: The Dutch their wine and all their brandy lose./D isam ed of that from which their courage grows.（荷兰人没有了白兰地没有了酒，他们借酒鼓起的勇气也就化为乌有了）Since then, Dutch courage appeared in English.

beat the Dutch（了不起，令人吃惊）

Beat the Dutch means amazing or marvelous. It excellently shows the image of rudeness. It origins from the Anglo-Dutch wars in the 17^th century. At that moment, Dutch navy could sweep away all obstacles. In English opinions, the Netherlands is his formidable rival and it’s very difficult to debate the Netherlands. Therefore, it’s really a big deal to beat the Dutch.

Dutch defence（虚张声势）

It was a shameful defence to mask retreat.

This idioms fully expresses English’s hatred of the Netherlands. They think the Dutch cannot say boh to a goose and don’t dare to defence in real.

Dutch leave（士兵擅离职守）

Dutch leave was what a soldier took when he left his base without permission. It is used to make strict remark on undisciplined Dutch soldiers.

3.2.3 Idioms of life

Dutch uncle（严厉或直率的批评者）

Dutch uncle means to lecture someone severely with a long, noisy and meaningless speech. During the training, the young men must be obedient to the leaders. The cruelness of Dutch also comes from this idiom. This idiom is usually used in “to talk to someone like a Dutch uncle”. If someone speaks to you like a Dutch uncle, it implies that he or she is hard on you and you should listen to he or she carefully.

Dutch treat（个人自己付钱或聚餐的娱乐活动, AA制）

According to Oxford Advanced Dictionary, it was a meal, an entertainment, etc at which each person pays for himself. It originates from the image of stingy which English made on the Dutch. Long ago, a Dutch treat was a dinner at which the invited guests were expected to pay for their own share of the food and drink. Now, Dutch treat means that when friends go out to have fun, each person pays his own share. Most people don’t know Dutch treat has two slightly different sense. The first sense is that each person pay his own expenses. The second sense is that the entire bill being split ( divided evenly) between all participants. When you use Dutch treat in communication, please take notice of these two senses. There are some similar expressions like go Dutch, Dutch date or treatment, drink Dutch, dutch supper and a Dutch party. Dutch treat maybe the number one to be employed in intercultural communication, so this thesis list a example to tell people how to make the best of Dutch treat.

Let’s look at the example.

A: OK, so what have you got in store for me tonight?

B: I’m really sorry, Cindy. I tried so hard, but I’m afraid I couldn’t find a Dutch restaurant in town. The best I could do was a German one about 15 minutes from here.

A: What? I don’t understand.

B: I thought you said you wanted to have Dutch food.

A: Oh! Ha-Ha! That’s not what I mean when I said “Dutch treat”.

B: Huh? What were you talking about, then?

A: “Dutch treat” means to split the bill, silly!

B: Oh...that makes so much more sense! Ha-ha! Well, great, I don’t like German food anyway.

From this example, we can see someone misunderstands Dutch treat and makes a joke. Therefore, we should pay attention to this kind of idiom.

Dutch concert（吵闹的音乐会）

Originally, Dutch concert refers to a concert that is held by a group of drunken Dutchmen, in which people are singing, crying and talking in a mess. Now, it is reduced to too much harsh noise made by people.

Double Dutch（言语不知所云，莫名其妙的话）

Traditionally, double Dutch is a different style of jump rope. It was not invented by the Dutch but actually originated in New York, United States. This kind of rope skipping requires that people should jump between two ropes which are swinging in the opposite directions. You can see that it is excessively difficult for common people to jump in this way. To jump this kind of rope skipping, you have to comprehend and grasp a perfect skill. But not every person can skip rope with great skill, like an athlete. So, to express their grudge against this kind of jump rope, the English employ their resent Dutch to represent weird things. In modern times, as a rule, it stands for unintelligible words or nonsense.

In Dutch（处境困难， 失宠）

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