1.2 Purpose and Significance of the Study
Abundant research has been conducted in this field．Many scholars and linguists
have studied idioms from semantic，syntactic，pragmatic and psycholinguistic perspectives．In China, idioms have been studied in terms of their features，classification, sources，formation，application, rhetorical functions and cultural connotation．All of these studies have provided a good basis for interpreting and comprehending idioms，but they share a common view that idioms are fixed expressions whose meanings cannot be predicted from the literal meanings of the constituent parts．
Idioms are a kind of crystallization of human wisdom and the essence of the language．Without idioms language would become dull and dry, whereas a proper use of them in speech and writing will add much to variety, strength and vividness of language．Idioms are widely used not only in literary works，but also in people’s daily life．More importantly, most of idioms are heavily culture-loaded，which can help us learn much more about the history, the folk customs and the values of people who use them．With more frequent communication between the Chinese and the Western people，a greater demand for more research on idiom translation is emerging．It is clear that idiom translation plays an increasingly important role in cultural translation studies in recent years． 浅析英语典故性成语的来源及汉译(2):http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_7903.html