The Study About The Choice Of Animal Words Under The Influences Of Chinese And English Culture

Chinese is the language which owns the largest users in the world, and the culture which is related with Chinese is the representative of Oriental Culture. English is the language which is the most widespread in the world, and English culture is one of the representatives of Western culture. It is representative to make a comparison between Chinese and English because the differences between them basically represent the differences between Oriental Culture and Western culture. These differences are comprehensive, so are their influences. They reflect in the lives, customs, religions and language of the two cultures. Among these, the influence, which is caused towards language by culture differences, has the greatest influence for people’s exchange because it directly influences whether the exchanges of language and culture can be successful. In the impact of culture on language, word which is one of the three elements of language is influenced most by culture. And in the language exchange, it is a very important element whether the speaker has an accurate understanding of the words’meaning in the language exchange because it influences the expected results. Under the influence of cultural differences between Chinese and English, there are great differences in word choosing when the same meaning is expressed in respectively language. It often leads to the deviation of understanding for the words’meaning. It is because under the influence of cultural differences, a word has been added culture meaning besides the basic meaning. And the culture meaning will influence the word choice when people exchange with others.There are various words both in Chinese and in English. And this paper will choose animal words, which are numerous and well known by people in the two languages, as the research object for the comparison of cultural differences. According to what Liao Guangrong said in his paper, Contrast Between English and Chinese Culturally-loaded Animal Words, there are 105 animal words which have cultural meaning in Chinese, and there are 258 animal words which have cultural meaning in English. Even if we choose 105 animal words as the object of comparison, it will be a very complex one. In order to make the comparison representative and to make it operable in practice, the paper chooses the idioms of Chinese zodiac as the research objects because the animals of Chinese zodiac and their idioms are very representative in Chinese and well known by Chinese people. At the same time, they are very representative in English and well known by Englishmen. So, in the second part of the paper, it detaily discusses the reason why the paper chooses the animals of Chinese zodiac and their idioms as the comparative objects. Then the paper discusses the meaning of the animals of Chinese zodiac and their idioms in Chinese dictionary and the form of English in English dictionary. After that, the paper discusses the cultural differences of the animal idioms of Chinese zodiac in the two languages and the correspondence and noncorrespondence for word using in the two languages. At last, the paper discusses the social and cultural origins which cause the meaning differences of the animals of Chinese zodiac and their idioms.Where there is comparison, there must be a certain demand in practice. We study the influences which are caused by the Chinese-and-English-cultural differences to the animals of Chinese zodiac and the choice in their idioms. Then we will know the phenomenon of the correspondence and noncorrespondence about the choice of animal words which are existed in the idioms of Chinese zodiac. After that, we will use this phenomenon to guide the animal words teaching of foreign Chinese. So in the third part, the paper detaily discusses how to deal with four phenomena of the correspondence and noncorrespondence of animal words choosing which are caused by the differences of Chinese and English culture when we are teaching foreign Chinese. These types are1. the choice of animal words is the same in Chinese and in English, at the same time, they have similar meanings in a certain idiom.2. the choice of animal words is different in Chinese and in English, at the same time, they have similar meanings in a certain idiom. 3. the choice of animal words is the same in Chinese and in English, at the same time, they have different meanings in a certain idiom.4. when an idiom of Chinese (English)chooses a certain animal word, it will be noncorresponding in the idiom of English.