A Study On The Semantics Of English Animal Idioms From The Perspective Of Memetics

Idioms as a kind of special linguistic phenomenon are the quintessence of vocabulary.Idioms are stable in structure and integral in meaning.Due to their profound meanings,rich philosophies,vivid images and abundant cultural connotations,animal idioms are in common use among human beings.Correct and proper application of idioms makes the expression of language users more perfect.Animal idioms draw attention from various scholars for their high research value.The studies on idioms are numerous which mainly involve translatology,pedagogy,category of idioms and comparison of different national culture implications.Human's life is closely bound up with animals,so animals contribute a great share to the richness of human language.However,the researches on the diffusion,evolution and selection of English animal idioms are rare.Studying on the evolution process of the implicature of animal idioms helps them to be applied better.Memetics first appears in the Selfish Gene which is the masterpiece of well-known scholar Richard Dawkins.It is a newly-born theory of pragmatics which bases upon Darwinian evolution and is used to decipher cultural evolution.Its key term meme is produced by imitating the word gene.However,there are differences between the two terms.Gene is diffused breadthwise through heredity while meme is transmitted not only breadthwise but also lengthwise through imitation.This thesis is an exploratory research on the birth,development and spread of English animal idioms under the guidance of memetic theory.Firstly,it sets forth the related researches of animal idioms.Then,the characteristics of strong meme,classification of meme and lifecycle of meme are all introduced.Moreover,the evolution process of animal idioms which touches upon heredity,variation and selection is revealed through analyzing the numerous instances.By asking the question why the idioms about cat,dog,horse and fish are relatively more,it gets a result that four cultural factors mainly influence the meanings of idioms and their spreading scope.Learning the functions of culture on the generation and evolution of English animal idioms' connotations helps language users know more cultural connotations of them,which in return facilitates the spread of animal idioms.This thesis puts out that animal idioms evolve ceaselessly and diffuse widely.Weak animal idiom memes combine with each other to become strong memes in order to get diffused and this enriches animal idioms.Culture connotation is one of the main factors that cause the generation and variation of the meanings of English animal idioms and its functions are elaborated in this thesis.Based on the memetic theory,this thesis enriches and broadens the studies of animal idiom to a certain degree.It obtains a conclusion that study of memetics on English animal idioms has not only theoretical significance but also practical meaning.Owing to the limitations of the study,the author expects that the following researches will be much more extensive and intensive.