Abstract and Key Words

Abstract: Animals are friends of human beings. Languages of all nations contain many animal words. The animal word is an important part of language and many animal words are shaped by its culture and have cultural connotations. This thesis makes a comparative study of cultural connotations between English and Chinese animal words. And it discusses the factors which may cause differences of cultural connotations from three aspects: geography, history, custom. Also some implications on cross-culture communication are given. It is hoped that the present study may do some help for language learning and may help to eliminate the barrier to understanding in cross-cultural communication.

Key words: animal words; cultural connotation; cross-culture communication
                                 
摘要：动物是人类的朋友，各国语言中都包含了许多动物词汇。在英汉两种语言中，动物词数量较大, 并且打上人类社会文化的深深印记，具有各自的文化内涵。本文采用对比分析的方法，探讨了英汉动物词汇文化内涵的异同，从历史、地域、人文风俗三个方面探讨了产生内涵差异的原因，并探讨了其对跨文化交际的影响，旨在为语言学习提供帮助，减少跨文化交际中交际障碍，提高跨文化交际能力。

关键词：动物词汇；文化内涵；跨文化交际

1.    Introduction
  In the long history of social development, human beings accumulate rich languages. And any language is influenced by the culture which it belongs to. Language is the carrier of culture. Like a mirror, it reflects the culture. They are indispensable to each other. The culture varies from nation to nation. As the basic element of language, vocabulary is the mainstay of language system. Therefore, the cultural difference reflected in vocabulary is the most obvious and extensive.
Animals are friends of human beings. Languages of all nations contain many animal words. According to Liao (2000), there are 649 animal words in English, and 258 of them have cultural connotations, which take up 39.5% of its total number of animal words. In Chinese, there are 105 animal words with cultural connotations. It takes 16.6% of its total number of animal words. We can make the conclusion that the animal word is an important part of language and many animal words are shaped by its culture. Sometimes the meaning of animal word is not its basic meaning. Without knowledge of culture, it is difficult to understand and use languages correctly. Language learning is inseparable from learning its culture. So it is very important to compare the cultural connotation of animal word between English and Chinese. This thesis will make a comparative study of cultural connotations between English and Chinese animal words and discuss the factors which cause differences of cultural connotations. Also some implications on cross-culture communication would be given.