A comparative analysis of commendatory or derogatory meanings of animal between Chinese and English.doc

中英文动物词语褒贬意义对比分析The commendatory or derogatory meanings of animal between Chinese and EnglishAbstractIn the long course of the development of human history, animal usually keep a close relation with human beings and influence the existence and development deeply .the close result in human complex of feelings of fondness. Sympathy antipathy, or fear, people often use animals to express their feelings. Many animals have become a kind of symbolism in people thinking，which is reflected in language. However, because of the influence of different factors, such as history and region, animal word with rich and various cultural connotations often result in misunderstanding in communication. This thesis is intended to explore the commendatory or derogatory meanings of animal between Chinese and English. The complete research is based on the Leechs theory. This thesis adopts a method of contrastive analysis. The author will look into cultural similarities and differences relating to English and Chinese animal expressions to accomplish a purpose of understanding fully the whole messages that a animal word carries and communicating correctly in intercultural communication .at last, this thesis put forward some suggestions about how to improve college students communicative competence in college English learning. Key words: animal words; commendatory or derogatory meanings; cultural connotations; intercultural communication摘要 在人类历史发展的漫长进程中，动物一直与人类保持着密切的联系，并对人类的生存和发展产生深远的影响，这种亲密无间的关系使得人类对动物产生了喜爱，同情，厌恶或是恐惧的情感。人们常常借动物寄托和表达人类的情感。许多动物已经在人们的思维中形成某种象征，并且体现在语言中。然而，由于历史、地理和宗教等因素的影响，具有丰富内涵的动物词汇使人们在中西文化交际中产生误解。 本论文以 Geoffrey Leech 语义理论做为理论基础，本文试图对动物词语的褒贬意义进行对比研究。本论文采用了对比分析的方法，来研究英汉动物词汇的异同，以寻求一个目的:能够完全了解一个动物词语所承载的褒贬意义，以便顺利的进行跨文化交际，最后，作者对英语学习中如何提高英语学习者的交际能力提出些建议。关键词：动物词汇、褒贬意义、文化内涵、跨文化交际ContentsAbstract-摘要 - ii1. Introduction - 11.1 The Aims of This Thesis - 11.2 The Outline of This Thesis - 22. Literature Review - 32.1 Animal Words Research at Home - 3 2.2 Animal Words Research Abroad -33. Theoretical Basis -3.1 Leechs Theory of Meaning -4. Study on Commendatory or Derogatory Meanings of Animal Words in English and Chinese -4.1 Commendatory or Derogatory Meanings of Animal Words -4.2 Study on Commendatory or Derogatory Meanings of Animal Words in English and Chinese- 4.2.1 Identical Animal Words With the Same Commendatory or Derogatory Meaning- 4.2.1.1 Identical Animal Words with the Same Commendatory Meaning - 4.2.1.2 Identical Animal Words with the Same Derogatory Meaning-4.2.2. Identical Animal Words with the Different Commendatory or Derogatory Meaning- 4.2.2.1 Identical Animal Words with Commendatory Meaning in English, but not in Chinese- 4.2.2.2 Identical Animal Words with Derogatory Meaning in English, but not in Chinese -5. Factors influencing differences of meanings- 5.1. Geography- 5.2.Conventional- 5.3.Legend-5.4 the way of thinking - 6. Conclusion - References - iiiAcknowledgements -ivAppendix - v Chapter IntroductionLanguage and cultural are closely related and the former is indispensable to the latter. Their close relationship can be illustrated by crosslinguistic to comparison of animal words in respect to Commendatory or Derogatory Meanings 1.1 The Aims of this Thesis Animals are friends of human beings, along with the development and progress of human society, people associate their feelings, even happenings and natural phenomena with various animals. Many animals become a kind of symbolism in peoples thinking, and this symbolism is unavoidably reflected in the language. Language is studied for communication, however, complete communication requires more than linguistic knowledge. The communication behavior of people from different cultures is called intercultural communication. Learning language, we can see many English books that the association of most animal expressions differ from those of Chinese. This is reflection of cultures. Therefore, similarities and differences in the connotations of animal expressions in the two language should be taken into account, in intercultural communication and their social and cultural factors should be illustrated in great detail. The difference of Commendatory or Derogatory Meanings of animal words in English and Chinese has a great influence on intercultural communication. When a native speaker cant understand background correctly a certain animal expressions, which badly hinder intercultural communication. So, this thesis will focus on the relationship between Commendatory or Derogatory Meanings of animal words and intercultural communication, to help us to avoid misunderstanding in intercultural communication. 1.2 The Organization of this Thesis This thesis is divided into six chapters, which closely related to each other. Only mastering the structure and function of animal expressions. To better understand cultural connotation, to distinguish the differences of Commendatory or Derogatory Meanings of animal words between English and Chinese.The first chapter introduce the aims and the organization of this thesis.The second chapter is literature review. The writer lists the studies on animal words, cultural connotations, intercultural communication in Chinese and abroad. The third chapter simply introduce the theoretical basis in this thesis.The fourth chapter is most essential part of this thesis. After giving the definition about Commendatory or Derogatory Meanings of animal words, the writer makes the comparisons of English and Chinese words from three aspects: same animal words with same Commendatory or Derogatory meanings; same animal words with different Commendatory or Derogatory meanings.The fifth chapter, it discusses four factors causing difference Commendatory or Derogatory meanings of animal words: geography influence, conventional influence, legend influence, values and thinking modes influence.The sixth chapter draw conclusion that animal words play an indispensable role in communication in our life. The Commendatory or Derogatory meanings shift from cultural to cultural. In intercultural communication, we should take correct attitudes towards cultural conflict and avoid making cultural mistakes. Chapter literature review Due to the animal words play important role in all languages, many scholars have done relevant researches. This chapter is a brief review previous research on animal words both at home and abroad. 2.1 Animal Words Research at Home In china, many scholars have done the specific research on animal words. Some of them focus on animal and cultural relation; some of them study on animal metaphors; some of them works on animal idioms.Most outstanding scholar in the field of animal and culture relation is liao Guang Rong, Wei Shen. Liao Guang Rong (2000) did a rather comprehensive research on the analysis of culturally loaded animal terms of different cultural. Wei Shen (2003) works on similarities and differences of cultural connotation between English and Chinese animal words in terms of living environment, customs, religion and values. Kong Ying (2005) researches construction of metaphorical meaning in animal terms. One of the representatives is Wang de Chu (1999) who did the study of cultural idioms. He thought animal nature resulted in the same associations for some animal idioms and similar cultural connotations between English and Chinese.2.2 Animal Words Research at AbroadThe westerners study on animal words is also for a long time. Some of researches are concentrated on the deterioration of animal expressions. Some of researches are concentrated on the metaphor.Low (1988) and New mark (1988) suggest that most animal metaphors are used to describe inferior or undesirable human habits and attributes. Sutton (1995) focuses on language discrimination towards females and concluded that “women are animals ”. Whaley and Antonely (1983) gets a result that malefemale relations could be revealed by animal metaphors.In a word, many scholars have done a research on the animal terms from different point of view. In this thesis, the writer just compares the differences of Commendatory or Derogatory meanings of animal words between English and Chinese so that it could do some conducting functions in intercultural communication. Chapter Theoretical BasisThis thesis is based on the Geoffrey Leech theory. Geoffrey Leech presents a breakdown of meaning into seven aspects: denotative meaning, connotative meaning, social meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning, collocative meaning and thematic meaning. The denotative meaning, connotative meaning, and affective meaning play a important role in this paper. Denotative meaning is sometimes called the conceptual meaning. It is the central factor in linguistic communication. One of function of words is to designate or describe something, such as an object, a property, a process or a state of affairs. Denotative meaning is used when the emphasis on the relationship between language.Connotative meaning refers to the emotional association which a word or a phrase suggests in ones mind; it is the supplementary value which is added to the purely denotative meaning of a word. For example, The denotative meaning of the word mother is “female parent”, but it generally connotes love, care, and tenderness.Affective meaning is concerned with expression of feelings and attitudes of the speaker or writer. For instance, “a dog in the manger ”,in so far as it is indicative of a disrespectful attitude on part of the speaker, has affective meaning. The power of language is not only that values attached to words reveal attitudes of speakers but also that words are used to create compatible attitudes in hearers.Chapter Study on Commendatory or Derogatory Meanings of Animal Words Between English and Chinese4.2 Commendatory or Derogatory Meanings of animal words Every animal has its own obvious characteristics, while different cultural backgrounds, English and Chinese people associate their feelings and emotions, even happiness and natural phenomena, with various animals, which are thought to represent different characters like people, or serve as omens. Many animals have become a kind of symbolism in peoples thinking. Therefore, people use animal words to express something as a metaphor. English and Chinese users use the animal words from the animal basic attribute, most of animal words have same or different commendatory or derogatory meanings. 4.3 Study on Commendatory or Derogatory Meanings of Animal Words Between English and Chinese While admitting that occasions when some cultural connotations of animal words in both English and Chinese may overlap, thesis attaches importance to the conflict or the different aspects of commendatory and derogatory meanings. 4.3.1 Identical Animal Words with Same Commendatory or Derogatory Meanings English and Chinese people live on the same earth, they live in the same natural which give them more or less the similar feelings. So, most of the same animal images have the same commendatory or derogatory meanings, 4.3.1.1 Identical Animal Words with Same Commendatory Meanings The following animal words have same commendatory meaning both in English and in Chinese. Sheep (羊) can be regard as a kind of animal with sweet and temper. Therefore, “sheep” stand for tameness, weakness, spinelessness and obedience both in English and Chinese. In Chinese, “羊” stand for “good luck” because”羊” sounds like”祥”. For example, the city of “广州” is nicknamed “五羊城” and the traditional design“三羊开泰” symbolizes that the new year ushers in good fortune. In English ,sheep also bears a very commendatory meaning. British people are fond of sheep, “sheep” refer to the “善良的人” Swan (天鹅) means “graceful” “pure” and “beautiful” in both English and Chinese. People tend to compare women of pure beauty to swans, describing them “as graceful as a swan ”(像天鹅一样的优雅，姿态优美，举止端庄). In English ,”swan” is often used to describe a brides purity. The Britain poetry Edmund Spenser wrote the poet:With store of vermeil roses, 鲜红的玫瑰，To deck their bridegrooms posies 装点新人的花束，With that, I saw two swans of goodly hue 两位天鹅般纯洁的新娘 In Chinese, “天鹅” is look upon as the symbol of dignity nobleness as in “癞蛤蟆想吃天鹅肉”4.3.1.2 Identical Animal Words with Same Derogatory Meanings The following animal words have same derogatory meaning both in English and in Chinese. Fox (狐狸) can be used to described some p