A Study On Cultural Connotation Of Animal Words In English And Chinese

Animal words are an important component part of almost all the human languages. As a group of culture-bound words, animal words reflect cultural diversities in the aspects such as social psychology, customary habits, beliefs as well as value orientations. English and Chinese, as languages with a long history, are both abundant in animal words, and almost all of the animal words carry their own peculiar connotation resulting from social cultures, historical background and geographic conditions. With the deepening of intercultural communication between China and the Western World, it has been realized that animal words are likely to form an area in which misunderstanding in intercultural communication seems inevitable because of the diversities of their cultural connotation, and that the instruction of their connotative meaning cannot be neglected.So far in China, however, there has not been a work published, dealing systematically and comprehensively with the connotative differences of animal words in English and Chinese, though short articles about them can be seen in some journals. And studies from the perspective of language teaching are insufficient either in breadth or in depth.In this thesis, the present writer first defines the "cultural connotation" and then, basing on some theories of linguistics, attempts to give a comparative analysis of the cultural connotation of animalwords in both English and Chinese. The present writer observes that animal words in the two languages can be divided into five groups according to the degree to which they are different from each other in their cultural connotation: 1) animal words having the same conceptual meaning in both languages but some connotative meanings only in one language; 2) animal words having the same conceptual meaning and bearing nearly the same connotative meaning in both languages; 3) animal words having the same conceptual meaning, and bearing similar connotative meanings in both languages; 4) animal words having the same conceptual meaning but bearing totally different connotative meanings in English and Chinese; 5) different animal words in different languages having the same or similar connotative meaning. Their differences as well as their similarities in such semantic and pragmatic aspects as association, symbolism, application, and function and possible origins are discussed respectively. This thesis also analyzes different cultural connotations of animal words in their collocations with other words. Based on the above-mentioned study and analysis, the thesis also discusses the problem of how to apply the findings in this area to the EFL teaching practice. Some suggestions are given as follows: raising cultural awareness via reading literary works, creating a native cultural atmosphere among the learners, crossing disciplinary boundaries, and taking advantage of movies and TV programs. All this is for the purpose of illustrating the importance of removing obstacles in intercultural communication.