英汉语言中动物词语的联想意义

英汉语言中动物词语的联想意义

On the Association of Animal Words in English and Chinese

Abstract:The cultural meaning of animal words reflects the culture of a nation from a perspective, and the different cultural meanings of animal words in English

and Chinese languages reflect the similarities and differences between these

two cultures. Some reasons account for this phenomena, such as different

cultural background, different customs, different ways of thinking, ect. So,

in my paper I will expound the phenomena from four aspects. The first is

the same animal words with the same or similar associative meanings in

English and Chinese. The second is the same animal words with different

associative meanings in English and Chinese. The third one is the different

animal words with similar associative meanings in English and Chinese.

The last is one animal word has rich associative meanings in one language

but has no associative meanings in the other languages. With the

development of our society, the globalization is becoming an unavoidable

tendency, and human beings contact with each other more and more

frequently. This explains the necessity to understand not only our own

culture but other cultures to facilitate the cross-cultural communication.

Moreover, the animal words play an important role in the culture, so it is

necessary for us to understand the associative meanings of animal words so

as not to make mistakes.

Key words: animal words, associative meanings, intercultural communication

摘要：动物词汇的文化意义从一个角度反映了一个民族的文化，英汉语言中动物词汇的不同文化含义反映出英汉文化的异同。这些不同点的存在有很多原因，比如：不同的

文化背景，不同的习俗，不同的思维方式等等。因此，在我的论文中，我会从四个

方面谈这些不同点。第一个是相同的动物词汇在英汉语言中会产生相同或相似的联

想意义。第二个是相同的动物词汇在英汉语言中会产生不同的联想意义。第三个是

不同的动物词汇在英汉语言会产生相同或相似的联想意义。最后一个就是一种动物

词汇在一种语言中有丰富的联想意义，而在另一种语言中却没有相应的联想意义。

随着社会的发展，全球化已为大势所趋，人们之间的交流越来越频繁。为了适应世

界的发展，我们不仅要知道我们自己的文化，而且要了解其他国家的文化。另外，

动物词汇在语言文化中扮演了重要的角色。所以，为了在跨文化交际中避免犯错误，

了解动物词汇的联想意义对我们来说是很有必要的。

关键词：动物词汇，联想意义，跨文化交际

Contents

I. Introduction (1)

II.The Associative Meanings of Animal Words (1)

A. The same animal words with the same or similar associative meanings

in English and Chinese (1)

B. The same animal words with different associative meanings in

English and Chinese (3)

C. The different animal words with similar associative meanings in

English and Chinese (5)

D.One animal word has rich associative meanings in one language but

has no associative meanings in the other languages (7)

III. The Causes and Influence of the Association of Animal Words in Cross-Cultural Communication (8)

IV. Conclusion (9)

Works Cited (10)

I. Introduction

With the development of our society, language plays an important role and it records the process of the development of our social civilization. Human and animals co-exist and contact frequently. Therefore, there are a great quantity of animal words and phrases in human languages. And human endow them with certain feelings and meanings according to animals’ appearances, habits, ect. English and Chinese all have long history and rich cultural heritage. In their languages, there are a lot of animal words with associative meanings. The animal words are the summary of human life, the mark of the development of human language and the symbol of the process of human civilization. Our society is developing very fast. The globalization is influencing our life. Western and Chinese cultures communicate with each other frequently. So it is helpful for us to understand and master the associative meanings of animal words.

II. The Associative Meanings of Animal Words

When we talk about associative meaning, we should know what the associative meaning is. As we all know, a word has not only its conceptual meaning, but its associative meaning. The conceptual meaning is the basic meaning of a word. However, the associative meaning not only has the relationship with language, but also has deep relationship with culture. The associative meaning of a word is the extended meanings of it. Its appearance is related to the culture, environment, psychology, ect. So, the associative meaning of a word is the total meanings a person thinks of when they hear or see the word.

A. The same animal words with the same or similar associative meanings in English and Chinese

There are many phrases which contain certain meanings of animal words. It is very easy to understand their forms, and then we can associate the associative meanings of them. It goes without saying that because of the similarity of the ways of thinking, the same animal words may have the same or similar associative meanings.

In English and Chinese languages, people have the same associative meanings to pig. In people’s mind, they think pig is ugly, dirty, lazy, greedy and rough. This is

really unfair. People abuse pig but they eat pork. In Chinese language, there are many phrases about pig, such as “as fat as a pig”, “as lazy as a pig” and so on. These are dirty words which people use them to abuse others. The Pilgrimage to the West is one of the four famous books in China. It is a myth. In this novel, Zhubajie is an ugly, lazy, greedy and lust person and he is very hateful. In English, a pig refers to a greedy, dirty or bad-mannered person. So people always use it to refer to a person who is greedy, lazy and dirty. There are also many idioms of pig which almost have derogatory meanings. For example, “eat like a pig or make a pig of oneself”, “you greedy pig”, “pigs in clover”, “buy a pig in a poke” and so on.

The same case happens to the word wolf in English and Chinese. It is associated with violent, cunning and greedy. In Chinese we can find如狼似虎（ferocious），狼心狗肺（ungrateful），狼吞虎咽（wolf down）狼子野心（wolfish ambition）ect. In English, we meet “wolf down”, “throw to the wolves”, “have a wolf by eats”, “cry wolf”, “wolf in sheep’s clothing”, “a sheep among wolves”and so on. They all express derogatory meanings. Moreover, when a wolf represents a person, it means a man who is always ready to make sexual advances to a woman. So in English, there is a idiom “a wolf whistle” which means a man attracts a woman’s attention with whistle when he sees a beautiful woman on the road. In Chinese people always use “Selang”to express this kind of person.

Fox represents the person who is very cunning. In English, there have “he is a fox, as cunning as a fox”. Fox also has another meaning. It means sexually attractive woman. In Chinese it is a derogatory meaning and it means “Hulijing”who always seduces man. But in English it has the opposite meaning and it means a very beautiful woman.

There are also many other animal words which have the same or very similar associative meanings in English and Chinese. For example, bee symbolizes diligence and the quality of hardworking both in English and Chinese. So we often use the phrase “as busy as a bee” to describe a person who is busy and hardworking. Parrot is a bird which can copy people’s pronunciation. It represents a person who only copies other people and doesn’t have his own opinion. People use ass to describe a person who is stupid and obstinate both in English and Chinese. For instance, “he is rather an ass in some ways”, “make an ass of oneself”

B. The same animal words with the different associative meanings in English and

Chinese

Because of different cultural backgrounds, the same animal words may produce different associative meanings. This reflects the differences between English and Chinese cultures and embodies the individuality of national cultures. Dragon is the most representative example. In Chinese culture, dragon is a capricious supernatural animal. It is not a real animal but an animal which is imagined by human beings. In ancient China, the imperial King named themselves “Zhenlongtianzi”. Common people thought the dragon as their power of spirit. Now we Chinese people all believe that it is the symbol of Chinese nation. Chinese people not only at home but also abroad all name themselves “the offsprings of dragon”. We can find the image and trace of dragon almost everywhere, such as in painting, sculpture, calligraphy and building. Now dragon has become an immortal spirit and we call this as “dragon culture”. So there are many idiomatic phrases in Chinese. For example, 龙腾虎跃（dragons rising and tigers leaping—a scene of bustling activity），生龙活虎（doughty as a dragon and lively as a tiger），龙飞凤舞（like dragons flying and phoenixes dancing —lively and vigorous flourishes in calligraphy）and so on. These all reflect the associative meanings of dragon in Chinese culture. While in western culture, dragon is the representative of evil. It is the devil incarnation. In the Bible, the great dragon refers to Satan. And the old dragon is devil. In English, dragon also means a fierce bad-tempered old woman. Because the same animal words have different associative meanings. People in western countries want to express the concept of dragon in Chinese, they will say Chinese dragon. In Asia, there are three developed countries and one developed area, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong. We call them “Sixiaolong”. In order not to make mistakes in communication, we call them four tigers but four dragons.

Because of the differences of aesthetic appreciation and social psychology, the same animal words will produce different associative meanings in English and Chinese cultures. Some animal words express good meanings in English, while in Chinese they express derogatory meanings, such as dog, owl and so on. Under most conditions, Chinese people think dog is a very disgusting animal. In Chinese, the words which contain dog almost express derogatory meanings, such as 狗仗人势（like a dog threatening people on the strength of its master’s power—be a fully under the protection of a powerful person），狼心狗肺（ungrateful），狗胆包天（monstrous audacity）, ect. And people always abuse others with 狗腿子（lackey），癞皮狗

（loathsome creature），狗眼看人低（act like a snob），狗拿耗子多管闲事（poke one’s nose into other people’s business）, and so on. In western countries, many people love dog. They raise dogs as their pets and believe dog is man’s best friend. So there are many commendatory phrases which contain dog. For instance, “to be top dog”, “a lucky dog”, “a gay dog”, “as faithful as a dog”, “love me love my dog”, “every dog has its day”, ect. Sometimes, the comparison of dog has obvious derogatory meaning in English, but it is not as strong as in Chinese. For example, “treat someone like a dog”, “live a dog’s life”, “dog eat dog”. In English, people also abuse others by using “you dog”or “a dog in the manger”, but this can not affect the position of dog. Chinese people also like some qualities of dog, such as faithfulness, reliability and cleverness. But they feed dog simply because it is very useful. It can help people to look after their houses.

In China, owl is a bird which always goes out and acts at night. Because its crying sounds sad, people often associate its crying with misfortune and they think owl is the sign of unlucky. While western people consider owl is an intelligent bird and it is the symbol of intelligence. In children’s books and cartoons, the image of owl is calm, serious and clever. When animals dispute something, they will let owl to judge. So, in English, there has the idiom “as wise as an owl”. Because owl is used to acting at night, owl is referred to people who often sit up all night or are used to acting at night in English.

In Chinese traditional culture, bat and happiness have the same pronunciation, people always use it to express good luck. It is the symbol of auspicious and happiness. However, in English culture, people always associate it with ugliness, vampire, darkness and sin. So there are some phrases like “as blind as a bat”, “have bats in one’s belfry”, “like a bat out of hell”, “as crazy as a bat”, ect.

In China, peacock is a bird which is very beautiful and Chinese people think it is an auspicious bird. But sometimes someone who likes himself, we will say he is a peacock. In English, peacock refers to people who are very proud and like to make pretence. So they have the phrases “as proud as a peacock” and “play the peacock”.

Magpie refers to people who like to chatter and babble on and on in English. While in Chinese, it is an auspicious bird. It is the symbol of auspicious and lucky. So in China, when people hear the crying of a magpie, they will believe that some happy event will happen.

Because fish has the same pronunciation with surplus in Chinese, people often

buy the pictures with fish in Spring Festival. This means people have surplus every year and people’s life is better and better. But in English, it describes fish as bad people or bad things. For instance, “a poor fish”, “a loose fish”, “fish in the air” and so on.

Petrel is the example of study in Chinese. A lonely petrel in the rain which is flying over the sea bravely is the example of young people. In 2008 Olympic Games, we have five Olympic Mascots and petrel is one of them. So we can see petrel has an important position in China. In western countries, a petrel in the storm predicts the disaster, trouble and violence will come to someone.

Phoenix is the King of birds in Chinese. People consider male is Feng and female is Huang. In ancient China, when a man woos a woman, this is called Feng woos Huang. Sometimes, phoenix means something very rare and precious. In western countries, phoenix represents reviving in myth.

We are all very familiar with cat. Chinese people like cat because it is very lively and lovely and it can catch rat. So it is very useful. In Chinese culture, it is also the symbol of long life. In some places, when someone walks or drives at night and sees a cat running in front of him, some unfortunate thing will happen to him. In western countries, people think cat does not do anything all day except causing troubles. People hate cat especially black cat. There are many phrases about cat. For example, “no room to swing a cat”, “like a cat on hot bricks”“the cat shuts its eyes when stealing cream” and “the cat out of the bags”.

C. The different animal words with similar associative meanings in English and Chinese

Because of different cultural backgrounds, different animal words have similar associative meanings in English and Chinese cultures. That is, in English and Chinese, different animal words express similar associative meanings. Although in the two languages, they use the different animal words, the animal words express similar associative meanings. These animal words have the relationship with the different history of English and Chinese. Also, this embodies the different cognition to objective things of western and Chinese.

Bull and horse are two totally different animals, but bull in Chinese culture has similar associative meaning with horse in English culture. Chinese is an agricultural civilization on the continent, so bull is a very important animal. Farmers and bull

stayed together every day. Gradually, there formed a deep love for bull in people’s minds. So in Chinese people’s mentality, the image of bull is that it has huge figure, strong body and it is hardworking and selfless. People always speak highly of it. There are a lot of phrases which are used to praise bull, such as 力大如牛(as strong as a horse)，钻牛角尖（get into a dead end），对牛弹琴（play the harp to a bull）. Luxun has a famous saying “横眉冷对千夫指，俯首甘为孺子牛（Fierce-browned, I coolly defy a thousand pointing fingers; head-bowed, like a willing ox I serve the youngsters）”which people like to quote very much. Of course, we can find some phrases from myth which express derogatory meanings, such as “牛鬼蛇神（monsters and demons —forces of evil；class enemies of all descriptions）”. But there are just a few. In ancient English, people mainly rely on horse to plough land and bull is seldom used to plough land. People only eat beef and drink milk. In their eyes, they just think bull is their food and it only has weak points. For example, “a bull in a china shop”, “like a bull at a gate”, “throw the bull”. John Bull is the nickname of English. It refers to someone who always acts recklessly and is ridiculous. Therefore, in English language, people use “as strong as a horse” to express someone who is mighty and strong, and use “work like a horse” to describe someone who is hardworking.

In Chinese culture, tiger is always considered to be the King of all animals. Because it is very strong, powerful and fearful. So there are many words or phrases which relate to tiger. For instance, 虎符（a tiger-shaped tally issued to generals as imperial authorization for troop movement in ancient China），如狼似虎（as ferocious as wolves and tigers），如虎添翼（like a tiger that has grown wings—with might redouble），狐假虎威（The fox borrows the tiger’s terror）and so on. While in western countries, lion is always considered to be the King of all animals. The image of lion is brave, fearful and majestic. British people believe lion is the national emblem of Great Britain. The British Lion refers to British. The English King, Charles the first is called the lion-hearted because of his bravery. Therefore, they use lion to express someone who is very famous. For example, “a literary lion”. There are a lot of idiomatic phrases in English which contain lion, such as “the lion’s share”, “as bold as a lion”, “majestic as a lion”. In English, lion symbolizes power. The seal of British royal family is lion and unicorn. And there are many other phrases about lion. For example, “play oneself in the lion’s mouth”, “like a key in a lion’s hide”. When the phrases are translated into Chinese, people is used to replacing lion with tiger.

Sometimes, the same associative meanings may be expressed in different ways in

the animal words of English and Chinese languages. We can find the phenomena in idioms. For example, when we say someone is timid, we will think of “as timid as a rat”in Chinese. Chinese people use rat to describe someone who is timid. But in English, people use rabbit, chicken and pigeon to describe someone who is timid. For instance, “as timid as a rabbit”, “chicken-hearted or pigeon-hearted”.

“害群之马”in Chinese equals to “the black sheep of the family”in English. When we say someone who often talks big words, we will say “吹牛” in Chinese and “talk horse” in English. Moreover, there is an idiomatic phrase “瓮中捉鳖” in Chinese. It equals to “a rat in a hole” in English. “落汤鸡” equals to “like a drowned rat” and “一丘之貉” is said to be “birds of a feather”.

D. One animal word has rich associative meanings in one language but has no associative meanings in the other languages

Different nations have its own language because of the different values, different religions, different aesthetic psychologies, different ways of thinking, different customs and so on. In a way, the particularity of language is the particularity of national culture. Language records the history of a nation. The same animal word has rich associative meanings in one culture, but has no corresponding associative meanings in the other cultures.

Bull had a deep effect on Chinese traditional agriculture and it also plays an important role on Chinese traditional culture. Of course, there are many vocabularies about bull. For example, “老黄牛(a willing ox)”, “吹牛皮(talk horse)”, “钻牛角尖（get into a dead end）”ect. From ancient to now, Chinese people like to compare them to bull.

There are some animal words with associative meanings in English but without associative meanings in Chinese. For example, in English, there are many idiomatic phrases about horse, “back the wrong horse”, “change horse”, “from the horse’s mouth”, “never swap horses while crossing the stream”, “put the cart before the horse”, “work for a dead horse”, “you may take a horse to the water, but you can not make him drink”, “horse doctor”, “horse laugh”and so on. Horse has certain associative meanings in these idiomatic phrases. But it is very difficult to find corresponding associative meanings in Chinese.

As we all know, panda is very lovely and people all like it very much. But it only can be seen in China. Because it is big and walks very slowly, when people say

someone who does something in a slow way, they will say he is like a panda. While in western countries, people almost have not seen a panda because of the environment. So there is no associative meaning of panda in English.

Beaver does not exist in China. So Chinese people only know it is an animal. But in English, “eager beaver” means someone who is hardworking to do something but is impatient in order to fulfill something. When it expresses derogatory meaning, beaver means someone who is very hardworking for the purpose of pleasing his boss.

Crane is the symbol of long life in China. Chinese people often associate it with pine because of the idiomatic phrase “松鹤延年”. Because of the geographical environment, crane does not exist in western countries. So crane does not have associative meanings in English.

.

III.The influence of the association of animal words in cross-cultural communication

The animal words in English and Chinese cultures not only have the same or similar associative meanings, but also have very different associative meanings and sometimes it is very difficult for us to understand. The American linguist Lade indicates that: “When students learn a foreign language, they may find some points are easy and some are difficult to understand. The points which are similar to native language are very easy to them, while the points which are different from native language are very difficult to understand. Therefore, we should pay more attention to the differences of the associative meanings of animal words in English and Chinese”. From the differences, we can see if we only understand the literary meanings of the animal words and we do not master the associative meanings, we will be prone to make some mistakes in intercultural communication, or we may cause cultural conflict.

A. The differences of associative meanings of animal words in English and Chinese cultures may cause mistakes in cultural communication.

Different understandings of animal words can cause misunderstandings on communicative purpose. For example, people have different understandings on bat in English and Chinese. In English, people are afraid of bat and hate it. When they think of bat, they will associate it with ugliness and evil. So the idioms which are about bat

express derogatory meanings in English, such as “as blind as a bat”. While in Chinese, because of the same pronunciation of bat and happiness, bat represents good luck and happiness, especially red bat. If Chinese people describe someone who is timid, they will use rat or mouse. So when we see the phrase “as quiet as a mouse” in English, we may misunderstand it as “as timid as a rat or mouse”. On the contrary, the meaning of “as quiet as a mouse” refers to someone who is very calm when he meets things in Chinese.

IV. Conclusion

By the comparison of the associative meanings of animal words in English and Chinese, we can see every animal word is not only the representative of the image of the animal, but also some associative meanings because of cultural differences. Meanwhile, the different associative meanings of animal words in English and Chinese produce some deep effect on intercultural communication. Therefore, when we learn English, we should not only master its literal meaning, but also its associative meaning. (Deng and Liu)The associative meaning of a word is different from its literary meaning. For English learners, we should not only master the literary meaning of a word, but we should know its associative meaning. If we do not know its associative meaning, we may make mistakes in communication. We should associate the word with its culture.

Globalization has profound influence on the culture of every nation. We need to communicate with other cultures in the world. And when we communicate with the people who have different cultures, we need to pay more attention to their culture in order to avoid some misunderstandings. Under this condition, it is necessary for us to know the animal words well because of their important position in the culture.

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