On the Cultural Differences Between English and Chinese from

从英汉动物习语的对比看文化差异

On the Cultural Differences Between English and Chinese from

Animal Idioms

二、湖南科技学院本科毕业论文（设计）评审表

Contents

摘要 (Ⅰ)

Abstract (Ⅱ)

Introduction (1)

1 A Brief Review of Animal Idioms (4)

1.1 Definition and Features of Animal Idioms (4)

1.2 Relationship Between Culture and Animal Idioms (6)

1.3 Embodiments of Animal Idioms (7)

2 Cultural Differences Between English and Chinese from Animal

Idioms (13)

2.1 Dog and Gou (13)

2.2 Dragon and Long (14)

2.3 Bat and Bianfu (16)

2.4 Peacock and Kongque (17)

3 Reasons for the Differences Between English and Chinese Animal

Idioms (19)

3.1 Different Social Conventions (19)

3.2 Different Living Environments (21)

Conclusion (23)

Bibliography (25)

Acknowledgements

摘要

习语在任何语言中都是精华。它是在不同的历史，地理环境和文化背景下形成的；承载着一定的民族文化特色和文化信息。英汉两种语言历史悠久，包含着大量的动物习语，由于历史，社会生活等方面因素的影响，英汉动物习语体现了中西文化的相同和差异。

国内外多数学者已对习语做了研究。我国邓炎昌教授对动物习语体现的英汉语言文化进行对比分析，其为对动物习语日后的研究打下基础。本论文从一些动物习语入手，通过比较其在中西文化中所具有的不同文化内涵，向读者展示中西文化的差异，以便人们更好地理解动物习语，在跨文化交际中恰当运用。

关键词：动物习语；文化差异；原因

Abstract

Idiom is the cream of any language. The formation of idiom is achieved under different history, geographical environment and cultural background, which is a symbol of one national’s unique culture and culture information. English and Chinese languages both have a long history, and they contain many animal idioms. Because of the history, social life and some other influences, English and Chinese animal idioms reflect the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western cultures.

Many scholars and linguists at home and abroad have done researches about idioms. Professor Deng Yanchang (2003) made a contrastive study of English and Chinese language cultures from the animal idioms. The research of animal idioms laid a foundation for the researches on idioms later on. This thesis starts its discussion from animal idioms to show the differences between Chinese and Western culture by contrasting the different connotation in different areas. To get people to know the function that animal idioms are used in multi-cultural communication, can make people use it proficiently.

Key words: animal idiom, different culture, reason

Introduction

Nowadays, with the economic globalization and the regional economic integration strengthening, the cultural exchanges between China and the West have become more and more important. Transmission and application in English is used widely, so understanding the differences between Chinese and Western culture is imperative. However, the social development is reflected in the language.

Without idioms, our language would become dull and dry, whereas an appropriate use of them in our speech and writing will add to the strength and vividness of our language. And the idiom can better reflect the cultural characteristics and connotation. Idioms are fixed and unique expression, which are formed in the process of using a language. Idioms are the sediment of the history and culture, the essences of culture derived from the process of recognizing and transforming the nature, the substantial corpus of information, and a vivid reflection of national culture. Both English and Chinese languages have a long history, and they contain many idioms which are implicitly, humorous, serious, elegant, concise and vivid image. These idioms are closely linked with the cultural traditions, which reflect the cultural characteristics and cultural information of the nation. Therefore, the idioms of English and Chinese, especially the animal idioms, reflect sharp differences of

national culture. Deeply understanding animal idioms makes cross-cultural communication go smoothly.

Animal idioms have been emphasized and studied at home and abroad. At home, Yu Fumin (1996) made strenuous and successful efforts in comparing English and Chinese idioms to illustrate the author’s pertinent points. Chen Dezhang (1999) had a research of cultural connotation of animal words in English and Chinese and find out what images people have over 30 common animals. Jiang Lei (2000) analysed animal idioms and made a survey of contrastive studies of English and Chinese idioms, which show the nation’s long history and cultural character. There are also overseas linguists who have done researches of idioms. Strassler (2004) made a pragmatic analysis on English idioms and created a pragmatic model for English idioms and to provide a basis for a theory of idioms as a phenomenon of natural language. (Chang Chenguang, 2004:36)

A contrastive method will be taken to analyze the difference of animal idioms between English and Chinese to help people have a good understanding of the different cultures. It contains five parts. Introduction, the first part, states the significance, method, framework and modern researches of the thesis. The second part of this thesis is a brief review of animal idioms such as definition, features, the relationship between culture and animal idioms. Cultural differences between English and

Chinese from animal idioms are illustrated in the third part. The fourth part of this thesis lists the reasons for the differences between English and Chinese animal idioms. The last part is a summary of the whole paper.

1

A Brief Review of Animal Idioms

1.1 Definition and Features of Animal Idioms

Animal idiom, just as its name implies, is one type of idioms which are combined by animal words, therefore it is essential to define idiom first of all.

Idiom is a phrase or sentence whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its inpidual and which must be learnt as a whole unit, in Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary.

Idioms are fixed phrases or short sentences derived from a long-term use of language. It contains a wealth of cultural information, cultural characteristics and cultural background. It has a distinctive image and metaphor, showing the distinctive national characteristics and geographical color. (包惠南,2001:148)

The fixed phrases or sentences in English and Chinese are called “idiom”, and can also be interpreted as “set phrase”. Idioms, fixed in their structure, have been used for expressing the full meaning for a long time. Such phrases or short sentences are gradually formed in the development of the language, so they can not be opened or re-combined. (蒋磊,2000:49)

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