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1、ComparisonofChineseandEnglishAnimalWordsIn the long advancement of human history development, animals continuously keep close contact with humanitys survival, and have profound influence on the development of the humanity. Gradually animals have become part of peoples life, and therefore animal word
2、s are destined to become a basical part of language. Languages of all nations contain a lot of words denoting animal, and so do Chinese and English. However, because of different history and culture, the connotations of some animal words in Chinese are quite different from those in English while som
3、e have the same meaning in these two different cultures. Therefore, by comparison, people can know more about foreign culture and communicate smoothly and correctly in across-culture and it also helps to avoid cultural shock.Many people in the world learn all kinds of animals by their basic characte
4、rs; naturally some animals have the same meanings in Chinese and English culture. For example, parrot is a kind of bird that can imitate peoples sound. English people and Chinese people use parrot to refer to those people repeat someone elses word and ideas without really understanding what they are
5、 saying, e.g. He doesnt have an idea of his own. He just parrots what other people say .Fox is the symbol of crafty. In English, there is a saying She is as cunning as a fox. In Chinese, “old fox” means someone who is very crafty. This example shows that the fox stands for sly, doubt, crafty in both
6、 English and Chinese.As the two nationalities live in different cultural backgrounds, different social and regional environments, and receive different history, naturally animal words often appear in different meanings.As we know, English people regard dogs as their reliable good friends. And dogs a
7、re used to describe something good, such as lucky dog. However, in Chinese, dogs are related with bad things or bad guys, and they have derogatory sense, for example, Crow like a cock and snatch like a dog. But now more and more Chinese people regarded dogs as mans faithful friends.The westerners do
8、 not like dragon at all. In English, dragons are symbols of evil, regarded as fierce monsters which can spit fire and destroy everything. However, it is opposite in Chinese. Dragons stand for propitious, authority, and rareness in Chinese. In feudal society, dragons stand for the monarch. The sons a
9、nd grandsons of dragon is usually used to call oneselves by Chinese people.From all the comparisons above, we can easily see that although there are language and cultural differences existing in human language, there still exist some certain relations. To some extend, animal words reflect cultural connotations and for certain learning about their connotation is a useful window for us to have a better understanding of other cultures.
