INTRODUCTION
The theme of the present bachelor paper is “Idioms Originating from the Bible in the English and Latvian Languages”. The reasons for writing the present bachelor paper is to get more information about idioms originating from the Bible and demonstrate the use of idioms in two Bible translations in English – King James Version and New Living Translation – and in Latvian translation of the Bible. The English versions of the Bible used in the research are translated in different periods of time and show different approaches to using idioms in the Bible contexts.
Bible is considered as being one of the major sources of which idioms originated in any language. Nowadays translators of the Bible tend to preserve the idea expressed in the Bible not the form of verses used in ancient manuscripts; therefore, idioms disappear from the Bible verses and are substituted by expressions more commonly understood by readers. Therefore, two methods are involved in the translation of the Bible: word-for-word translations or thought-for-thought translation.
The aims of the bachelor paper are:
• to compare two English translations of the Bible and analyse the changes that took place over time in the use of idioms in the Bible translations;
• to find and analyse corresponding idioms in the Latvian language.
The objectives:
• to select English idioms originating from the Bible
• to compile a corpus of English idioms originating from the Bible and their Latvian equivalents
• to compare the use of idioms in two English translations of the Bible
• to study and analyse scientific literature on the Bible translations
The research question:
• What changes have idioms from the Bible undergone over time?
The hypothesis:
• The New Living Translation (NLT) does not contain as much idioms as the King James Version (KJV) does.
The methods of research:
• study and critical analysis of scientific literature
• classifying idioms according to the changes they have undergone over time
• comparison of selected English idioms originating from the Bible in two Bible translations
• analysis of selected idioms
The present research is based on 25 bibliographic sources, the essential ones being:
• Hendrickson Publishers, The Christian Book Distributors (CBD) Parallel Bible, (2003), Prince Press
• Manser, M.H., “The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs”, (2002), Facts On File, Inc.
• Bībele, Vecās un Jaunās Derības Raksti, (1991), Bībeles Sabiedrība
• „Latviešu tautas mīklas, sakāmvārdi un parunas”, Avots
The outline of the chapters: the paper contains five chapters.
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