Cognition And Culture Study For The "Livestock" Idioms Of Chinese

Language carries culture, and culture embedded in the language being. Idioms aretherefore deemed to be a treasure of Chinese culture and Chinese wisdom. It vividly showsthe long history and culture of the Chinese nation and reveals the characteristic of the Chinesenation psychological cognition and value judgment. This paper is based on the Chineselivestock idioms and the theory of metaphor in cognitive linguistics as the research object.The first part defines Chinese livestock idioms firstly, and then discusses Chineselivestock idioms’ metaphor category. From the source domain it can be divided into eightkinds, the animal’s appearance, material and color as source domain, the animal’s body partsas source domain, the animal’s behavior as source domain, the characteristics of animal assource domain, the animal entity as source domain, slaughter and cooking animal as sourcedomain, allusions and legend as source domain and else. From the target domain it can bedivided into nine kinds, they are the country’s political, military war, the state of things, thecharacter and ability, the thoughts and feelings, human behavior, language and arts, on behalfof the kind of people and things and else.The second part focuses on Chinese livestock idioms’ mechanism of metaphor. The studyis mainly from the interaction between source domain and target domain, and the similarity ofsource domain and target domain.The third part is mainly research the relationship between the Chinese livestock idiomsand culture. Through analysis, Chinese livestock idioms reflect the Chinese national spirit,agricultural thoughts, military culture, hierarchy and Buddhist thoughts.The last part compares the different views of these animals in different nation. Throughthe comparison and analysis, these animals have their own national characteristics in differentethnic groups.