摘要
动物隐喻是指以动物作为喻体的文化联想，它通过人们日常生活中熟悉的、具有鲜明形象的、突出特征的动物来喻指相似特征的人或事物。当今中英两种语言中存在着大量的动物隐喻，客观的文化背景和人们的主观因素又给动物隐喻的理解带来了一定难度，例如，有的概念意义相同，语用意义却不同，有的语用意义相同，形象意义却缺失，还有的由于地域文化不同而造成无法比较。而主观的因素则可能包括人们对动物的兴趣、爱好，和个人的联想能力等方面。
目前，很多动物隐喻的研究仅仅局限于从中英文化的角度解释一些简单的文化现象，他们都没有系统地讨论这些动物隐喻的理解过程。
本文旨在对一些有代表性的中英动物隐喻进行探讨，然后分析出一些导致动物隐喻误解的主客观因素，最后总结出一些如何正确理解动物隐喻的方法和策略。
通过对英汉动物词语隐喻意义的对比分析，本文认为造成误解的原因主要来自客观因素，如文化背景、地域文化的不同。然而人们自身的主观因素也给动物隐喻的理解带来了一定的困难。为此，本文认为人们应该在吸收有效的理论和文化背景知识的同时，注意培养自己对动物的兴趣进而提高对动物的了解，注意发展与他人讨论和联想尽可能多关于动物在不同文化中的信息的能力，从而最终达到中英文化的融合。
关键词：动物隐喻 文化差异 对比分析
Abstract
Animal metaphor is an expression with cultural association through using animals as vehicle. It symbolizes people or things with similar characters by using the animal with vivid image, outstanding character and people are familiar with. There exist many animal metaphors in both Chinese and English, but objective cultural backgrounds and subjective factors also bring some difficulties in comprehension. For example, some of them have the same conceptual meaning but different pragmatic meaning, while some have the same pragmatic meaning but do not have the corresponding image meaning, and also some of them cannot make comparisons because of different regional culture. As to the subjective factors, that might include people’s different interests in animals and different ability of association, etc.
Nowadays many studies on animal metaphors are just limited to a brief list of some simple cultural phenomena from a cultural perspective or to a list of animals. Those studies haven’t systematically explored the process of understanding animal metaphors.
This thesis aims to discuss some typical animal metaphors by making comparisons, and then analyze some factors which lead to misunderstanding and finally give some suggestions and strategies to improve the comprehension.
By this comparative study, we find that the misunderstanding is mainly from the objective factors, such as different cultural background and regional culture. However, people’s subjective factors also bring difficulties to the understanding of animal metaphors. Therefore besides adopting more effective theories and cultural backgrounds, also people should expand their own interests in animals and develop the ability of discussing and associating as much information as possible about animals in different cultures, so as to come to the cultural fusion between Chinese and English.
Key Words: animal metaphor cultural difference comparative analysis
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements……………………………………………….ⅰ
Abstract in English……………………………………………….ⅱ
Abstract in Chinese………………………………………………ⅲ
Contents………………………………………………………….ⅳ
Chapter 1 Introduction.1
1.1 The Definition of Metaphor……………………………….…2
1.2 Animal Metaphors and Culture………………………………2
Chapter 2 Literature Review………………………………………4
Chapter 3 Similarities and Differences between English and Chinese on Animal Words—A Comparative Study.7
3.1 Same Animal Words, Same Meanings.7
3.2 Same Animal Words, Different Meanings……………………9
3.3 Different Animal Words, Same Meanings11
Chapter 4 Factors of The Formation of Animal Metaphors.12
4.1 The Social Cultural Factors of The Formation of Animal Metaphors.…….12
4.1.1 Different Regional Culture…………………………12
4.1.2 Different Religious Beliefs……………………………13
4.1.3 Different Ways of Thinking………………………….13
4.2 Possible Factors for Difficulties in Understanding of Animal Metaphors…14
4.2.1 Objective Factors…………………………………….14
4.2.2 Subjective Factors……………………………………….15
Chapter 5 Ways and Strategies to Improve Understanding Animal Metaphors17
5.1 Be Aware of The Cultural Meaning of Words…………….17
5.2 Supplement Culture Backgrounds…………………….….17
5.3 Develop The Interest of Animals in Daily Life……………17
5.4 Expand The Ability of Discussion with Others…………….18
5.5 Show Great Interest of Different Cultures………………….18
Chapter 6 Conclusion.20
Bibliography……………………………………………………….23
