Cross-cultural Study of Animal Words in Respect of cultural connotation中西动物词汇的文化差异.doc

B.A. Thesis Cross-cultural Study of Animal Words in Respect of Chinese and English Cultural Connotation B.A. Candidate Advisor School of Foreign Languages May 6, 2013  Acknowledgments My deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to my tutor, Miss Lin Ailan, for her constant encouragement and guidance. She has walked me through all the stages of the writing of this thesis. Without her consistent and illuminating instruction, this thesis would not have been possible. Second, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all the teachers who have given me generous help in the pass three years. Then, my thanks would go to my beloved family for their loving considerations and great confidence in me all the time. Last, I owe my sincere gratitude to my roommates and my friends who gave me their help and time in listening to me and helping me word out my problems during the difficult course of the thesis.  Abstract In the long course of the development of human history, animals usually keep a close relation with human beings and influence human existence and development deeply. People often use animals to express their feelings. Both English and Chinese cultures have may vocabularies with relation to animals. They make up a great part of their own respective system of language. However, we cannot ignore that language keeps the closest relationship with culture. Words reflect the special social culture, and difference social backgrounds and cultural difference lead to the connotative differences of words in English and Chinese. It is very necessary for English learners to have a profound study on animal words influenced by culture. The thesis makes a comparative analysis, focusing on four aspects of similarities and differences of animal words and cultural connotations in both Chinese and English: identical animal word