-
The
similarities
and
differences
between
Chinese
and
Western culture in the
meaning of animal words
外国语学院英语国际贸易系
09
级
2
班
李欣
Abstract:
As we all know, animals are human
being’s friends. In the long
history
of
human
being’s
development,
animals
provide
the
ess
ential
basis
for
human
being.
So
there
exist
many
animal
words
in
human’s
language. As an objection, animals
should be the same to every nation.
But
due to the different traditional culture in
Chinese and Western, people
get so many
varying feeling about animal that animal words
have diverse
associative
meaning.
Therefore,
there
are
always
communicational
obstacles
when we communicate with foreigners. Thus, it is
necessary to
work
out
the
cultural
difference
of
animal
words between
Chinese
and
English. It not only can smooth our
transcultural communication, but also
can
make
the
translation
easier.
This
thesis
summers
up
some
cultural
similarities and
differences of animal words in translation.
Key words:
animal culture translation
The
similarities and differences between Chinese and
Western culture in
the meaning of
animal words
Same or similar cultural
meaning of animal words in Chinese and English
Different culture often has more or
less common with others; no matter how
enormous the distinctions are, just
like eastern culture and western culture, which
have great differences. Because from
the structure of human’s body viewpoint,
whoever it is, Chinese or Westerner,
the organ which percepts objective world is the
same
——
brain;
otherwise, from the life circumstance viewpoint,
both easterner and
westerner live on
the same planet, facing the roughly same
environment. During the
process of
conquering and changing the nature, it is
impossible to not form basic same
life
experiences. These experiences naturally make the
language get almost identical
associative meanings both in Chinese
and English. Some almost identical associative
meanings reflect in animal words.
Same words, same meaning
There are a few animal words in Chinese
and English which have the same or similar
associative meaning.
For
example,
Dove makes people
associate with “peace”.
Swan
means “nobleness” and “purity”.
Cuckoo is regarded as “herald of
spring”.
Bee represents
“busyness”.
Some expression,
As sly as a fox
As stupid as
an ass
To parrot what others say
As black as a crow
A
wolf in sheep’s clothing
As free as a bird
As slow as
a nail
Different words,
same or similar meaning
However,
most animal
words convey
ideas
that differ
from the
meaning of
the other
national language,
which always confuses people during communication
or translation,
especially when
two different animal words
in Chinese and
English
have the same or
similar
meaning.
Translators
or
speakers
who
are
influenced
by
their
own
national
culture
easily
misunderstand
the
figurative
meaning
of
animal
words.
During
the
Chinese
and
English
translation,
we
must
make
the
sentence
accord
with
idiomatic
expression of
target language.
For instance,