中西方动物词语文化对比

中西方 动物词语 文化对比 英语 论文

题目：中西方动物词语文化对比

摘 要

语言是文化的载体，在中西方的语言中，动物词语都扮演着重要的角色。动物词语不仅仅是单纯意义上的名词，它们的内涵在语言文化的发展过程中不断被扩展，增加。同一个动物在中西文化中可能承载着同样的文化内涵，也可能蕴含不同的含义。而不同的动物也可能在不同的文化中代表相同的内涵。本文从上述几方面进行探讨，有助于人们增加对东西方文化的理解和进行跨文化交际。

关键词：动物语言；文化内涵；中西文化

I．Introduction

With the development of human history, animals became our basic necessities and keep a close relationship with us. So, it is inevitable that animals convey many human's emotions, such as fear, sympathy, loyalty and so on. The same animal may have the same connotation as well as different connotations in different culture, and different animals can also present the same connotation in different culture. II. The same animal words have the same cultural connotations Because the animals have their particular appearance and attribute. So from the view of animals' attribute, they present the same or similar connotations whether in Eastern or in Western culture.

For example, cock are the symbol of "pride" in both Eastern and Western culture. In English, there is a phrase, "as arrogant as a cock". In Chinese, we say “像公鸡一样骄傲”. Another example is sheep. No matter in English or in Chinese, sheep is considered as a kind of tame and docile animal. So, in English, "a wolf in sheep's

中西方 动物词语 文化对比 英语 论文

clothing", means someone who seems to be friendly but is in fact, unpleasant, which in accordance with Chinese phrase,“披着羊皮的狼”.

There are other examples. Snail is slow (as slow as a snail). Fox is cunning and sly. Bee is busy (as busy as a bee) and monkey is naughty (as naughty as a monkey).

The similarity of human evolutionary process and the civilization development is the main reason that the same animal words have the same cultural connotations. III. The same animal words have different cultural connotations

It is natural that under different culture, different backgrounds cause different association to the same words. The most impressing animal is dragon. As we all known, dragon is the most suitable image presented the Chinese tradition. Once Chinese people mentioned dragon, the phrase like “望子成龙”, “龙腾虎跃”, “龙的传人”etc. come to their minds. In addition, Chinese people have special affection for this animal. While in Western culture, dragon is seen as horrible and evil. In the famous old English heroic epic poem, Beowulf, the dragon was depicted as a great evil which finally killed by the hero Beowulf. The phrase "saw dragon's teeth" came from a Greek myth, in the legends of the Phoenician prince Cadumus the dragon's teeth, once planted, would grow into fully armed warriors. Now, this is used as a metaphor to refer to doing something that has the effect of fomenting disputes. And English slang " chase the dragon" means "to smoke the drug heroin".

Another example is bat. In Chinese culture, because of bat is the homophone of happiness（蝙蝠的“蝠”字与幸福的“福”字同音）, bat was the symbol of auspicious. Especially when five bats appeared at the same time, which means the greatest happiness（五福齐天）. In comparison, the western people connect some bad and evil things to bat. As a result, the word "batty" means slightly crazy and "old bat" refers to an unpleasant old woman.

Because of the difference of the traditional culture, aesthetic orientation and the type of thinking, the same animal word have different cultural connotations.

IV. The same animal word have on responding cultural connotations in Eastern and Western culture

With the development of language, the animal words may have abundant and luxuriant cultural connotations in one culture but have no association in another culture.

Cat is not a good image in Western culture, so if the sentence "And I suppose she

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