英语论文网

[Abstract] As we know, animals are good friends of human beings. In the long progress of human society, animals contribute much to man’s living. Therefore, animal words come to human language and play a very important role in human communication. Language is a cultural carrier. There are a lot of animal words in both English and Chinese but the two countries have great differences in cultural backgrounds and thinking modes. These differences between the two cultures lead to different figurative meanings of animal words. This essay will try to compare the figurative meanings of animal words both in English and Chinese from the following aspects: same animal association vehicles with the similar and different figurative meanings, the different animal association vehicles with the similar figurative meanings and the semantic gaps. With comparison, we can clearly see that these figurative meanings of animal words greatly influence the intercultural communication. As an important means of cross-cultural communication, translation is also closely connected with culture. For the purpose of our effective communication, we should use different kinds of methods to do the equivalent translation between the two languages and build a bridge for the linguistic cultural exchange. 【摘要】众所周知，动物是人类的朋友。在人类社会漫长的发展过程中，动物为人类的生存提供物质基础。而语言作为文化的载体，记录着人类社会文明发展的进程；人类的语言中必然存在着大量的反映动物名称的词汇。但由于汉英两个民族各自的社会文化背景和思维方式不同，在动物词的喻义的表现上也不尽相同。本文拟从英汉两种文化中动物词的联想喻体与喻义之间的对应关系着手，主要表现为：同一联想喻体，喻义却有同有异；不同联想喻体，喻义却相同以及一方语义空缺等来进行比较分析，从中得知汉英两个民族在以动物为比喻的应用上存在着差异，而这种差异给跨文化交际带来障碍。因此在跨文化交际中，我们必须正确理解这些动物联想喻体所负载的文化信息，采取不同的方法进行英汉两种语言的等值翻译，以便减少交际障碍，为两种语言文化的交流搭建一座沟通的桥梁。 1. Introduction 1.1 Close relationship between animals and human beings Human beings and animals are both the products of natural evolution, and factually man had evolved from animals. But since human beings created language, there have existed some great differences between man and animals. Language, the result of human labor and social activities, is human specific, which is the major factor that distinguishes human beings from animals. In the long progress of human society, animals, which provide food and labor force for human, have been closely bound up with human existence and development. Their furs were also good dress materials for ancient human to keep out wind and cold. In a certain stage of primitive society, man once considered animals as Gods to worship. So far animals are still close friends of human beings. Now that animals play an important role in human lives, the animal words in human languages will bear the deep socio-cultural imprints in the course of being used long by the human beings. 1.2 Influence of animal words in both Chinese and English culture Language is the carrier and container of cultural information. Human beings have been interacting with the world and accumulated their experience and knowledge about the world, which are represented in language. As a result, we can find in language all human knowledge and experience which are interpreted as cultural information. [1] So in human language there exist a plenty of animal words that are often used as kinds of association vehicles. Human beings often associate their feelings and emotions with various animals according to animals’ features such as their appearances, habits and characteristics so that the names or images of animals possess specific cultural connotations. Culture is the soil of language. Sir Edward Tylor, a British anthr