Russian-English Animal Idioms: Structure, Semantics And Culture

Language contains a wealth of information and cultural connotations. Idiom is an important component of language, playing an essential role in language and functioning as a tool to make expressions concise and vivid. Animals are the closest friends of human beings on this planet, so there are a lot of idioms referring animals. Animal idioms are more expressive and more vivid in expression. But due to the existence of differences in living environment, religion, custom and sense of value, people living in Russian culture, English culture and Chinese culture systems plant separate cultural connotations in animal images. For example, people in Russian, English or Chinese society will think of the same specific animal when speaking of a certain animal name, but will associate dissimilar cultural connotations, which are far beyond the literal meaning. Therefore, the significance of analyzing Russian, English and Chinese animal idioms lies in two. First, it can help learners to establish right mode of thing when they run across to idiom confusion, and accordingly settle the question through analogy. Second, it can also help people who dealing with multilateral communication affairs.The paper presents a comparative analysis of Russian, English and Chinese animal idioms. First, this paper illustrates the results of contrast of animal images in Russian, English and Chinese animal idioms with three respects:structure, semantic categories and cultural connotation; and then, cultural elements which cause similarities and dissimilarities of animal image are discussed in detail.