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英语词汇学期末论文


论中英文中动物词汇的文化差异
The Cultural Differences of Animal
Words in English and Chinese

ABSTRACT

Language is the crystallization of human cultural development contains a
nation's social consciousness, history, culture, customs and other social
characteristics. Different cultural backgrounds and cultural traditions, making
the different way of thinking, values, codes of conduct, and lifestyle between
Chinese and English. There is much more obvious in animal words. Due to the
differences in culture, the two languages, English and Chinese, the cultural
connotation and significance given the same kind of animal is generally different.
From a linguistic point of view, by contrast of Animal Words in English and
Chinese to reveal the cultural differences.
KEY WORDS: cultural differences, language









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中文摘要
语言是人类文化发展的结晶 ，蕴含着一个民族的社会意识、历史文化、风俗
习惯等各方面的社会特征。不同的文化背景和文化传统， 使中西方的思维方式、
价值观念、行为准则和生活方式等方面也存有一定的文化差异，在中西方的动物词汇中体现得尤为明显。由于中西方文化的差异，英汉两种语言赋予同一种
动物的文化内涵和意义 一般是不同的。本文从语言学的角度，对比英汉语言中
的动物词汇，以揭示文化差异。
关键词：文化差异、语言





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Contents

I Introduction.... .................................................. ................................................5
II

The Cultural Meaning of Animal Words in Chinese and
English……....5
2.1 The Same Animal Words with Commendatory Meaning in Chinese
but Derogatory in English …………………………………………….6
2.2 The Same Animal Words with Meaning in Chinese but
Commendatory Meaning in English………………………………….6
III

Reasons for These Differences................. .................................................. ..6
3.1 Religious Influences…………………………………………………..7
3.2 Fables…………………………………………………………………..7
3.3 Customs and Living Habits…………………………………………..8
IV Conclusion ………………………………………................. .........................8





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I Introduction
Animals play a very important role in the lives of human beings. Every kind of
animal has their own characteristics, which endow them with many cultural meanings.
Language is an essential element of one concrete culture of a people, and it influences
culture deeply. Animal words ,as an essential aspect of language also influence culture.
At the same time , culture also influences language and animal words. Along with the
development of human society , animals in different peoples own different cultural
meanings by different prospect of views according to their characteristics, their stories,
and their relation with human beings, etc. This phenomenon can be found in Chinese
and English easily. China, which has a long history of 5000 years, possesses rich
culture which influences Chinese language and the animal words. In Chinese , many
animal words have their own cultural meanings and these meanings are used
frequently in the lives of Chinese people. What will reflect in people’s mind as soon
as mentioning one concrete animal is not only the image of that animal, but also its
cultural meaning. English, which is most widely spoken in the world, is also
influenced by the culture of English-speaking countries. So animal words also load as
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rich cultural meanings in English as that in Chinese. Because of these differences in
Chinese and English culture, the cultural meanings in Chinese and English of animal
words are different.

II The Cultural Meaning of Animal Words in Chinese and English
There are many animal words as well as animals in the world. However , animal
words in different culture may not necessarily have the same meanings. In fact, they
might be quite different in Chinese and English.
Some of the animal words have totally different cultural meanings in Chinese
and English. There are some animal words have commendatory meanings in Chinese
but derogatory meanings in English. While some other animal words have derogatory
meaning in Chinese but commendatory meanings in English.

2.1 The Same Animal Words with Commendatory Meaning in Chinese but
Derogatory in English
It is quite common to find that many animal words have completely opposite
meanings in Chinese and English. Some of the animals are appreciated by the Chinese
people, so those animal words own commendatory meanings in Chinese .
Every Chinese is quite familiar with dragon, which has rich cultural meanings in
Chinese .It is the symbolization of Chinese nation. To Chinese ,a dragon is something
scared and has been referred to as the ancestor of the Chinese nation-that’s why the
Chinese all call themselves descendents of the dragon. In ancient time, people thought
dragon is a mythical with great power. It symbolized the king in feudal society. So the
kings were called “sons of dragon”.
Dragon is scared to every Chinese . However, in western people’s minds, dragon
is a large imaginary animal that has wings and a long tail and can breathe out fire.
Dragon, is a word that generated from Greece word “drakon” that means “to see”, “to
look out ” , “to watch” and “to flash” .In English speaking countries people think a
dragon is dangerous , winged monster that kills and eats people, lives in caves and
breathes fire. Therefore ,in western ,the dragon is with derogatory meaning.
It is the most typical example to show the different meanings of animal words in
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Chinese and English.

2.2 The Same Animal Words with Meaning in Chinese but Commendatory Meaning
in English
There are also many animals which are appreciated by the people in
English-speaking countries while rejected in China. Those animal words have
completely opposite meanings in Chinese and English as well.
Owl is a kind of usual animal. But its cultural meaning is totally different is
English from in Chinese. Its cultural meaning in English is quite positive while in
Chinese it is completely negative. In English culture, owl symbolizes wisdom.
However it is totally distinctive in Chinese. There is a superstitious belief that owl is
an unlucky bird and is the symbol of disaster and death in Chinese people’s minds.
Their cry symbolizes that some bad things would happen in a short time and it is also
related to the corpse and funeral.
It is difficult for English to understand why so wise a bird is considered as bad
luck in Chinese .And the same dose the Chinese.


III Reasons for These Differences
There are so many differences in the cultural meaning of words in Chinese and
English. With the development of culture in China and English-speaking countries,
the language develop as well. These differences are mainly caused by the different
culture of China and English-speaking countries. Therefore different cultural meaning
of animal words are also resulted in by culture.

3.1 Religious Influences
Religion is an essential element of culture . It has great influences on language
and animal words. Serpent , in English means wisdom, subtlety, and devil. In Bible,
Jesus tells his disciples to “be wise an serpents and innocent as doves.” In Chinese
there is no phrase about serpent related to wise.

3.2 Fables
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In both Chinese and English culture ,these are many fables. Many animals play
some characters in those fables. They have special meanings in these stories. Along
with the development of culture, the meanings of animal words have been influenced
by fables
In Canada there is a fable about a lion and a beer. The lion plays the role of the
king of animal. It is wise and knows the characteristics of all animals and their good
qualities. It is also knows how to make full use of their characteristics. So in English
lion is just as solemn as a king.
In Chinese there is also a fable about lion. A lion meets a dog, and it wants to eat
the dog . At first it is cheated by the dog. But when it meets the dog again, it eats the
dog without any hesitate. In this story ,the lion is fierce without any regal. So when
Chinese people want to express the meaning expressed by lion in English , they would
choose tiger.

3.3 Customs and Living Habits
Animals are in important part of people’s lives. The customs and living habits
of people in China and English-speaking countries influence the cultural meanings of
animal words.
In English-speaking countries, people like having a dog as their pet. They treat
their dog as their friend or even their family member. So dogs are appreciated by most
of the people in English-speaking countries. But in China dog is not the pet in a
family. If a family keeps a dog, it must be treated as a slave, which is just used to
watch the gate of the house.
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Conclusion
Animals and human beings are closely linked with each other. Animals have
great influence on human languages. Cultural meanings that come from some
characters of animals are deep in implosion and symbolism. As part of the huge
vocabulary system, animal words embody each cultural character of English and
Chinese. Through the contrast of these “culturally-loaded words”, it is clear that
animal phrases in any language are not the representatives of animal image only;
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cultural differences impress a mark a=on animal phrases which therefore have all
kinds of abundant cultural contents. It is obvious that cultural tendency cannot be
ignored during their process of language learning. People should store their minds
with related cultural background knowledge at right time to solidify their knowledge
structure and improve their capacity to acquire and apply knowledge.
It can be seen that the cultural meanings of animal words in different language is
a subject being worthy of further exploring. In most cases, although both English and
Chinese have the same conceptual meaning of animal words, they are varied in
cultural meaning. Their cultural meanings are related closely with daily life, which
can stimulate learner’s interests to learn it. In the process of learning English, learning
different cultural meanings can provide practical guidance on language learning.




























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Bibliography
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http:e66309545
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Corpus-based Approaches to Contrastive Linguistics and Translation Studies S.
Granger
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