The Linguist

Chartered Institute of Linguists SUMMER 2025 The Linguist 25 FEATURES for heart is 心 (xīn), which has the longer expression 心脏 (xīnzàng). In some sentences, and with the appropriate context, this can also be translated as 'mind', 'thought' or 'soul'. 心 can be a whole character but also a radical – i.e. a graphical component of a more complex sinogram. When 心 becomes a radical it takes the form of 忄or ⺗. Examples include 回忆 (huíyì; 'memory'), 性格 (xìnggé; 'personality'), 懂 (dǒng; 'understand') and 聪明 (cōngmíng; 'clever'), where the heart radical ⺗ is located under other strokes. Radicals give us clues about the meaning of a sinogram or information about how to pronounce it. These examples all contain the heart radical and all relate to mental activities. If we restrict our attention to idioms, we see again that the heart is creating a sense related to our mind or spirit. For example, 一心一意 (yīxīnyīyì) can be literally translated as 'one heart, one idea' to indicate a very concentrated attitude towards whatever we are doing. 全心全意 (quánxīnquányì) is equivalent to 'to one's heart's content', implying the culmination of one's desires. When in Rome… Understanding phraseology helps us adjust to different communicative situations. As we say, 'when in Rome do as the Romans do' or à Rome, fais comme les Romains (Fr). Although other languages convey this same idea, this is a good example of phrasemes that use different metaphors in different languages. Spanish uses the more literal donde fueres, haz lo que vieres (lit. 'wherever you go, do what you see others do'). The expression employs an anachronistic tense that is restricted to legal language today, but (unlike de coro) it does not sound old-fashioned because the idiom is still in common usage. Arabic has the phrase د ا ر ه م م ا د م ت ف د ا ر ه م ا ر ض ه م م ا د م ت ف ا ر ض ه م (daruhum ma dumt fi darihim, arduhum ma dumt fi ardihim), which can be roughly translated as 'while you are in their home, do as they do in their home; while you are in their land, do as they do in their land'. In Chinese, the meaning is conveyed by 入乡随俗 (rùxiāngsuísú), which can be approximately translated as 'when entering a new land you should follow their customs'. The literal equivalences provided here serve to illustrate how different languages convey the same phraseological meanings. However, translators typically use a corresponding idiom in the target language whenever possible, rather than a literal translation. This approach ensures that the translation sounds natural, even if sometimes the frequency of use or linguistic register is not the same in the two languages. It is, of course, interesting and challenging when the target language does not have an idiom for a given phraseological unit in the source language, but the overlap in idiomatic expressions between languages is more common than we tend to think. JUST A PHRASE Many metaphors and idiomatic phrases are surprisingly similar across very different cultures, including (clockwise from above) a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush; to learn something by heart; when in Rome do as the Romans do; don't judge a book by its cover; and (above left) to be free as a bird IMAGES © PEXELS IMAGES © SHUTTERSTOCK

• Cover