CulturalComparisonbetweenEnglishandChineseAnimalIioms英汉动物习语文化比较.docx

Cultural Comparison between English and Chinese Animal Idioms Abstract：Language is the main carrier of culture. Idioms are conventionalized phrases and sentences. English and Chinese idioms carry the different national cultural characteristics and cultural information. Among these idioms, a large number of them employ the animal images because of the significance of animals in people’s life. In order to understand these idioms clearly, this paper will analyze cultural differences from four aspects of geography, customs, historical allusion and religion, and then put forward the reasons why they have the cultrual similarities.Key words：English and Chinese idioms; animals; cultural comparison; difference; similarityI. Introduction Idiom is a fixed group of words or a single word, or even a sentence with a special meaning that cannot be guessed from the literal meaning of its components.“Language is the carrier container of culture, and is strongly influenced and shaped by culture.” So in order to learn English idioms, one cannot ignore the importance of the cultural meanings they contain. As the essence of languages,idioms have two features: semantic unity and structural stability. On its broad sense, idioms including set phrases, proverbs, sayings, colloquialisms, allusions and so on are an important part of the language and culture.Human’s lifeis closely related to animals, and there are an increasing number of English and Chinese idioms about animals which are concise, readable and vivid. Many animals have become a kind of symbolism in people’s thinking, and this symbolism is reflected in the language. However, because of different history and culture, the connotations of animal words in one language do not parallel with those in another. Due to the cultural differences of geography, customs, historical allusion, religion and so on, such idioms embody the distinctive characteristics of national culture. And with the development of economy and science, globalization