《中英语言与文化比较》学期论文样本

1、中英语言与文化比较课程期末论文浙江大学20082009学年秋冬季学期 中英语言与文化比较 课程期末论文姓名 宋阳扬 学号 3072001236 专业 金融学(李志文商学班) 成绩 a contrastive study of the semantic association and pragmatic analysis of animal terms in english and chinese* this paper is a curricular assignment of the comparison of language and culture between chinese and

2、 english. of all the ten essay titles for the course provided by teacher wu, i chose the seventh title, which interests me most. as a curricular assignment, this paper fully abides by the requirements proposed by the teacher. to illustrate this, useful statistics are presented here for reference: (1

3、) english abstract, 318 words; (2) chinese abstract, 334 words; (3) text, 3910 words. by song yangyang song yangyang: once a student of school of management (from august 2007 to september 2008), now in chu kochen college, major in finance. address: zijingang campus, zhejiang university, hangzhou, zh

4、ejiang province. postcode: 310000. tel.: (86) 137-3220-9571. e-mail: yangta.soongabstract: language, which is often referred to as the carrier and container of culture, to a large extent, reflects the social life of different people. people use language to store and transmit their experience. in the

5、 broad sense, language is the symbolic representation of a people, and it comprises their historical and religious backgrounds as well as their ways of living and thinking. nevertheless, due to different geographical surroundings, dissimilar ways of logical thinking, different aesthetic standards an

6、d different social systems, it is a widespread phenomenon that the same word can evoke different emotions among different people. chinese and english can not be exceptional, too. because of that, due attention should be given to the analysis and comparison of the cultural connotation of the words. i

7、t is especially shown in the expression of animal terms in english and chinese. animals, having a closing connection with people since the existence of human being, inflict a profound influence on humans life. thus animals are often used to convey peoples emotion and gradually acquire unique connota

8、tions beyond their literal meanings. but when it comes to make a contrastive study of animal terms, it may be somewhat an ambiguous conclusion to simply point their differences out. actually, semantic association and pragmatic analysis of animal terms in english and chinese is a far more intricate s

9、tuff. and this paper will make an intensive research on this problem in a hope of better understanding the connotations of animal terms. just as the title of the paper illustrates, this article mainly focuses on contrastive study, that is to say, there will be a lot of comparisons throughout the art

10、icle. through comparison, we can have a deeper insight of similarities and differences of animal terms in english and chinese. moreover, these comparisons can also give us a miniature of the impact on words exerted by culture, which can surely promote the communication between people from different

11、cultures.descriptors: animal terms, semantic association, pragmatic analysis, cultural connotation【摘要】语言是文化的载体，不同民族的语言使世界上的文化呈现出千姿百态，精彩纷呈的局面。词语反映了特定的社会文化。然而，由于地理环境、思维方式、审美观念以及社会体制的不同，同一个在字面意思上相同的词语经常会被不同文化中的人们赋予不同的文化内涵。这在动物词语上表现的尤为明显。这些文化内涵上的差别，容易造成理解上的偏差和语用上的错误。本文就是针对这个问题，对英汉动物词语的语义联想及其语用进行了比较。正如文章

12、标题中所说的那样，本文采用了比较分析，列举了大量的典型动物词语，并分两个部分，分别对语义联想和语用分析进行了阐述。通过比较分析两种语言中有关动物的词语，可以透析出文化对词汇的影响，也可以生动的揭示出中英两种文化间的差异，从而促进来自不同文化的人们更好的进行文化交流和对话。【关键词】动物词语；语义联想；语用分析；文化内涵1. semantic association of animal terms in english and chinesebefore we tackle this issue, we must have a clear definition of the so-called

13、“semantic association”. briefly speaking, the semantic association of animal terms is the additional meaning attached to the conceptual meaning of words by the society and people either out of conventions or out of other cultural factors. so in this part, we will use culturally loaded words to exemp

14、lify semantic association of animal terms. in order to illustrate these words in a more clear and intelligible way, id like to clarify them into five broad groups: (1) animals with basically the same associations; (2) animals with partially equivalent associations; (3) animals with completely differ

15、ent associations; (4) animals with cultural meanings absent in the other; (5) different animals with the same associations.1.1. animals with basically the same associations the animals in themselves have their own characteristics, which is often used by people from different cultures to describe som

16、e specific personalities. english and chinese are the two languages belonging to two totally different language families. yet due to the similarities of the objective environment and the convergency of different cultures, we can sometimes find that some animals can have remarkably similar associatio

17、ns in both english and chinese culture. we can exemplify this phenomenon. for example, in english culture, ants stand for thrifty, industry and prevision, and in aesops fables, there is a story concerning that: in a field one summers day a grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its h

18、earts content. an ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.“why not come and chat with me,” said the grasshopper, “instead of toiling and moiling in that way?” “i am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the ant, “and recommend you to do the same.”

19、 “why bother about winter?” said the grasshopper, “we have got plenty of food at present.” but the ant went on its way and continued its toil. when the winter came the grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the store

20、s they had collected in the summer. then the grasshopper knew: it is best to prepare for the days of necessity. aesops fables: the ant and the grasshopperthis story is a good example to highlight the ants industry. besides that, the bible also mentions the wonderful diligence of ants: go to the ant,

21、 you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!it has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.bible: proverb 6:6-8 (king james version)in our chinese culture, the ants also signify thrift, union and prevision. the idiom such as “蚂蚁搬家”,

22、 which indicates that when you see ants moving house, it is about to rain. and another idiom “蚁穴”, which means ants cave, often refers to as an omission which can bring about big troubles, and “天下英才，云屯蚁聚”, which means the elites from the world assemble in one place. all these phrases are good exampl

23、es to testify the chinese peoples view towards ants.we can also take snake as another example. in western culture, the snake is a really awful creature. bible symbolizes snake as satan recently, there are scholars arguing that the image of snakes in the bible is misunderstood by most people. one ren

24、owned scholar points out that in bible, “the snake is used as a symbol for everything from satan to alcohol, from lying to wisdom. quite a range! symbolism is used to make it easier to understand something, and does not denote inherent characteristics.” these scholars analysis may be right, but sinc

25、e most people still regard the snake as evil, so in this paper, we still regard the snake in accordance with what most people think. (: “see, i will send venomous snakes amoung you,vipers that cannot be charmed,and they will bite you.” declares the lord.bible: jeremiah 8:17 sin and punishment it wil

26、l be as though a man fled from a liononly to meet a bear,as though he entered his houseand rested his hand on the wall,only to have a snake bite him. bible: amos 5:19 the day of the lordin china, almost every idiom containing the character “蛇” can give us an image of a disgusting, wicked or ungratef

27、ul person, such as “佛口蛇心”, which literally means a person with a buddhist mouth but a snake-like heart, can be used to reflect someones insidiousness. another idiom, “强龙不压地头蛇”, also conveys negative meanings indicating that an outlander can be easily bullied by natives. other idioms like “蛇神牛鬼”, “人心

28、不足蛇吞象”, “蛇食鲸吞” all display our resentment towards the snake. other animals having similar associations in both cultures include wolf (indicating people who are cruel and greedy), fox (symbolizing sly person), deer (standing for timidity), pig (denoting dirty and greedy qualities) etc.1.2. animals wi

29、th partially equivalent associations in both english and chinese, there are some animal terms that are partially equivalent in meanings because of cultural similarities as well as differences. that is, in some aspects, they may have the similar cultural connotation while in other phases, they may ev

30、oke different emotions.we can exemplify this phenomenon by considering some specific animal terms. for instance, cat, in both chinese and english society, are regarded as a lively and lovely animal. people in both countries keep them as pets. but in china, people sometimes feel that the cat may be d

31、isloyal, for the cat turns glad eyes to everyone. while in english culture, the mystery of the cat always gives inspiration to writers. thus so many pomes use cats to communicate the authors innermost emotion to readers: that way look, my infant, lo!what a pretty baby-show!see the kitten on the wall

32、,sporting with the leaves that fall.william wordsworth: the kitten and the falling leaves cruel, but composed and bland,dumb, inscrutable and grand,so tiberius might have sat,had tiberius been a cat.matthew arnold: had tiberius been a catbut on the other hand, the black cat is extremely unpopular in

33、 english-speaking countries, which is so often connected with the witch. this association may derive from the tale that there is always a black cat accompanying the witch. so if a pedestrian come across a black cat in the street, there may be some misfortunes waiting for him.another example is the t

34、iger, which is often connected with fierce and cruel personalities in english culture, for they always describe a person “as fierce as a tiger”. and the common association appears in our chinese culture, too. our ancestors have created phases like “拦路虎” (means a tiger getting in the way), “虎视眈眈”(mea

35、ns staring at someone like a tiger), “如狼似虎” (means behaving like wolves and tigers) etc. but besides that, in our chinese culture, the tiger also has a martial connotation which entitles the tiger as “the king of all beasts”. and in chinese idioms, tiger is always combined with another holy animal i

36、n china, dragon. these idioms include “生龙活虎”, “龙腾虎跃” and so on.1.3. animals with completely different associationsas everything is unique, same animal terms in the two languages may differ completely in their associative meanings. to discuss this phenomenon, we can basically separate this issue into

37、 three categories:1.3.1. animals pejorative in english while commendatory in chinesetake the dragon as an example, which is an obvious case. to westerners, the dragon is often regarded as a symbol of evil. as in the bible, satan, the devil, is called “the great dragon”: and there was war in heaven.

38、michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. but he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. the great dragon was hurled down - that ancient serpent called the devil, or satan, who leads the whole world astray. he was hurled to the e

39、arth, and his angels with him.bible: revelation 12:7-9 the woman and the dragontherefore, in their eyes, the dragon is a fierce monster that must be destroyed. apart from the aforementioned paragraph cited from the bible, there are many stories of saints or heroes dealing with the struggles against

40、such monster, which in most cases are slain in the end. besides that, english people sometimes refer to a fierce and unpleasant woman as a dragon. foe example, she is a real dragon; youd better keep away from her.the situation is quite different in chinese, where the dragon is attached to a lot of c

41、ommendatory cultural meanings. in our chinese culture, the dragon is the symbol of authority, prestige, and divine power. and it also has traditional connotations such as wealth, grace and prosperity. so it is comprehensible why we chinese call our nation as “东方巨龙”, and address ourselves as “龙的传人” (

42、means offspring of the dragon). furthermore, we have long used the dragon to indicate the feudal emperor and such terms include “龙颜” (the appearance of the emperor), “龙体” (the body of the emperor) and “龙袍” (the rob for the emperor). besides that, the dragon can also denote the elites among people an

43、d these terms include “卧虎藏龙”, “龙驹凤雏” and “望子成龙”.like the dragon, the magpie, which is considered as “gossip person” in western culture, is viewed by chinese people as a bird of propitious sign.1.3.2. animals pejorative in chinese while commendatory in englishwe will take the dog to illustrate the to

44、pic in this part. in china, the dog is very pejorative in meaning. this can be easily seen in the terms such as “走狗”, “狗腿子”, “狗嘴里吐不出象牙”, “狐朋狗友” and so on. we can not list all the terms involving dog, but these aforementioned words are enough to demonstrate how negative the chinese peoples attitude i

45、s towards dogs.but in western culture, the condition is quite the reverse. the dog, in westerners eyes, is not only a pet getting along well with people, but also considered as a family member. and just as an old saying goes: “there are three faithful friends: an old wife, an old dog and ready money

46、.” so it maybe hard for them to comprehend why “走狗” (literally meaning running dog) is so despised by us chinese. furthermore, just as the cat, the dog also frequently appears in western literature: yet, my pretty sportive friend,little is it to such an endthat i praise thy rareness!other dogs may b

47、e thy peershaply in these drooping ears,and this glossy fairness.elizabeth barrett browning: to flush, my doganother renowned english poet, georgegordonbyron, can be almost awarded as “the person loving the dog most in the world”. and one of his eight dogs, boatswain, which was buried in newstead ab

48、bey, even has its own inscription written by byron himself: near this spot are deposited the remains of one who possessed beauty without vanity, strength without insolence, courage without ferocity, and all the virtues of man without his vices. this praise, which would be unmeaning flattery if inscr

49、ibed over human ashes, is but a just tribute to the memory of boatswain, a dog who was born at newfoundland, may, 1803, and died at newstead, nov 18th, 1808.byron: inscription on the monument of a newfoundland dogapart from boatswain, there is another famous dog appearing in homers masterpieces, ody

50、ssey. in odyssey, ulysses faithful dog, named argos, waited for his masters return to ithaca for over a decade, and was the first one to recognize the king returning from the trojan war, even though ulysses was masqueraded as a beggar to discover what was going on in his palace during his absence. a

51、nd the myth mentions that the very old dog died just after recognizing his master having fulfilled his destiny of faith.1.3.3. other animals without specifically pejorative or commendatory meaningsthere are also other animals conveying different meanings (they can be pejorative, commendatory or neut

52、ral meanings or just different associative meanings according to the context) in english and chinese cultures. and in this part, we still exemplify this phenomenon by selecting one typical animal.fish, in chinese, conveys a great many of cultural meanings. in the first place, as fish resembles the p

53、ronunciation of another chinese character “余”, which has a connotation of savings and remains, chinese people would like to have fish in spring festival but do not eat it all. moreover, the fish can also imply a bad guy, as in the idioms “鱼龙混杂” (good people get along with bad people), and “鱼目混珠” (ta

54、ke the eyeball of a fish as a pearl). last but not the least, due to the inconvenience of transportation in ancient times, our ancestors always take some specific animals as the depositors of peoples yearning. so in ancient chinese literature, we can frequently find that fish, especially carp, is us

55、ed to express writers yearning towards their relatives or good friends: 玉人应是数归期，翠敛愁眉。塞鸿不到双鱼远，叹楼前流水难西。宋康与之风入松 蝶去莺飞无处问，隔水高楼，望断双鱼信。宋晏几道蝶恋花 驿寄梅花，鱼传尺素，砌成此恨无重数。宋秦观踏莎行when it comes to the connotation of fish in english culture, massive differences exist. as an island country, fishing is well developed and

56、prosperous. in reflection of this, english is rich in idioms or phrases involving the word fish. but their associative meanings are quite different from those in chinese. in english culture, fish can be used to imply a specific kind of person. when they say someone is “a cold fish”, they actually de

57、note that this guy is very aloof. and if someone can drink a lot of wine, english people are likely to say that he “drinks as a fish”. moreover, when someone asks you to do him a favor, if you happen to have something else important or emergent to do, you can decline that guy by saying you are about

58、 to “have another fish to fry”.1.4. animals with cultural meanings absent in the othersometimes, we can find that some animal terms with their associative meanings in english culture can only find their conceptual meanings in our chinese culture and vice versa. one linguistic terminology “semantic zero” may be used to illustrate this phenomenon. for instance, “蝉”, in english called cicada, is just regarded as an commonplace ins