Abstract

Cultural-loaded vocabulary plays an increasingly important role in the development of language. This thesis adopts a method of contrastive analysis to mark some objective connotation differences on animal words both in English and in Chinese. It can be divided into four parts: same animal expressions with same cultural connotations, same animal expressions with different cultural connotations, same animal expressions without corresponding meanings in English and Chinese and the last but not the least is different animal expressions with similar cultural connotations. In addition, at the bottom of this paper it indicates four main reasons: geographical influence, historical influence, the influence of religion and myth and the influence of customs and habits.

Key words: animal words, cultural differences, reasons for the differences-

CONTENTS

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. The Comparisons of English and Chinese Animal Words-2

2.1 Same animal expressions with same cultural connotations-2

2.2 Same animal expressions with different cultural connotations-3

2.2.1 Animal expressions with commendatory meaning in Chinese, but with derogatory meaning in English-3

2.2.2 Animal expressions with commendatory meaning in English, but with derogatory meaning in Chinese-5

2.3 Same animal expressions without corresponding meaning in English and Chinese-5

2.3.1 The same expressions with rich connotations in Chinese, but with no cultural connotations in English-5

2.3.2 The same expressions with rich connotations in English, but with no cultural connotations in Chinese-6

2.4 Different animal expressions with similar cultural connotations.-7

3. Reasons for the Differences-8

3.1 Geographical influence-9

3.2 Historical influence-9

3.3 The influence of religion and myth-10

3.4 The influence of customs and living habits-10

4. Conclusion-11

Reference-12