英语论文网

“separate the sheep from the goats”? The Bible, Matthew tells us that “sheep” refers to “people”. We can see the original passage from the Bible, Matthew (25:31-33): “When the son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand the goats at the left.” [17] And thus the English idiom can be translated into “分清好人与坏人”. But to Chinese people, the goat is only a common animal. Let us see more animal words only having figurative meanings in English: “nightingale (夜莺：告密者，坐探) ”,“albatross (信天翁：沉重的负担，无法摆脱的烦恼障碍)”, “cock (公鸡：头头)”, “beaver (河狸：卖力工作的人)”, “cat (猫：心地恶毒的女人，胆小鬼)”, etc. [18] 2.4.2 The same animal words with rich figurative meanings in Chinese, but with no figurative meanings in English For Chinese people, we must be very familiar with the word “crane (鹤)”, a symbol for longevity in Chinese culture. Therefore, some Chinese parents like to name their children as “鹤年”, “鹤龄” with the hope that their children live a long life. The crane is often linked with the pine tree, which is a symbol for sturdiness and long life. The two often appear together with the meaning “松鹤延年”. In China, it is a good way for people to send gifts with such designs of crane and pine tree to the older generations, especially on their birthday celebrating occasions. But in English culture, the crane is only an ordinary animal with no figurative meanings. “龟(tortoise)” contains two figurative meanings in Chinese. One is longevity because of its physical features. Stone tortoises symbolic of venerable old ages can be seen in front of ancient halls, temples and palaces. The other is the symbol for the cuckold. To call a person a tortoise “王八” is highly insulting. However, to the English, the tortoise is just a slow-moving creature with no such figurative meanings. [19] Other animal words indicate that only Chinese language has the figurative meanings. For example, “蚕(silkworm) ：奉献精神”, “鹗(osprey) ：有才能的人”, “鸿雁(Chinese wild goose) ：喻指信使”, “鸳鸯(mandarin duck) ：夫妻”, “黄雀(sis kin) ：得志小人”. [20] 3. Influences of figurative meanings of animal words on intercultural communication Intercultural communication is concerned with communication among people from different cultural backgrounds. With the rapid development of science and technology, especially communications, the world is becoming smaller and smaller. And it is necessary to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds. However, different cultures may favor different value systems and worldviews. Moreover, the belief, customs and habits of the people from different countries may be different. Therefore, intercultural communication provides guidance for those people engaged in intercultural communication. In the human communication, a plenty of animal words are widely used to enrich the language and culture. The vivid images of animals enhance expressive ability of language by associating with their features showed from outside appearances or individual temperaments. As the above comparisons represent, animal words have many same or different figurative meanings. If we do not know the cultural information and only understand the information according to our national cultural backgrounds, we would cause the deviation from information transmission and misunderstanding in