An Contrast Analysis of Animal Words in English and Chinese开题报告

 2022-07-14 21:30:57

1. 研究目的与意义

Language is a part of culture and plays a very important role in culture. Some social scientists consider language as the keystone of culture. Culture may not he maintained without language(邓炎昌，刘润清，1989: 159). With the rapid development of science and technology, the world is becoming smaller and smaller. People from different countries and cultural backgrounds have more and more communications. Words, as one of the most active and flexible unit of a language, only have meanings under of the specific cultural background in which they are used and to which they belong (Nida, 1993: 4). So words are the best tools to convey cultural information and reflect cultural differences. Many animal words and phrases are filled with cultural connotations in English and Chinese, which reflect cultural characteristics between English and Chinese. Thus, to learn about the different connotations of animal words in English and Chinese can help English learners to understand the cultural differences between the two languages.

2. 研究内容和预期目标

Animals are friends of human beings. Both the Chinese and English contains a lot of words denoting animals. Along with the development of society, animal words gradually got their connotations in both languages. However, because of different cultural backgrounds of English and Chinese, the implied meanings of the same animal are possibly different. The article starts with the discussion on four causes of special connotation of animal words. Afterwards, the paper makes comparison between the cultural connotations of English and Chinese animal words. It mainly dwells on four types to explore the differences: similarity, part similarity, distinction and vacancy in equivalence. A large amount of examples have been employed to show the differences of connotation between English and Chinese animal words. Hopefully, the barriers in intercultural communication can be removed and mutual-understanding between the cultures will be achieved accordingly. Outline: I.Introduction of Animal Words 1.1The Definition 1.2The Origin II.Comparisons of Animal Words in Chinese and English 2.1Equivalent animal words in both languages 2.1.1Animal words with similar denotations and connotations in both languages 2.2Overlapping animal words in both languages 2.2.1Animal words with the same denotations but with different connotations 2.2.2Animal words with the same connotations but with different denotations 2.3Vacant animal words in both languages 2.3.1Animal words with rich connotations in Chinese but without connotations in English 2.3.2Animal words with rich connotations in English but without connotations in Chinese III.Factors that cause the differences IV.Influence of Animal Words to the Present Society V.Conclusion

3. 国内外研究现状

Contrastive studies on animal words have something to do with cultural studies, for this kind of study fall into two or more different cultures which will make overt differences. They could be general linguistic study or topological study of animal words. But in China, scholars have a tendency to the contrastive studies on animal words in English and Chinese. Zhong Liangbi(钟良弼1991: 7-12), through analysis the plentiful data abstracting from English and Chinese classic literature and modern literature, he made a comparison of cricket and cuckoo in English and Chinese, and exhibited the relationship between the sense of image and cultural traditions. Zhang Jimo, Yu Genyun(张积模amp;喻云根1992: 55-64), what they defined as animal words were those animal words in the actual use in daily life, and could be applied to other figurative occasions by ways of word-formation, inversion, derivation, and combination. This article pays key attention to figurative effect of animal words. Liao Guangrong(廖光蓉2000: 17-26) argues that the basis upon which animal words are loaded with culture includes: (1) features of animal''''s appearance, attributes, habits, behavior, roles in social life, etc.; (2) the cultural contents, cultural tradition and cultural psychology of a nation, such as myths, religion, history, literature, arts, language, geographic environment, customs, morals, ways of thinking, esthetic values, etc. and (3) association which connect animals with other things while cultural tradition especially cultural psychology plays an essential role. In this study, the general agreement is that many English and Chinese culturally-loaded animal words differ in meaning owing to different cultural contents, tradition and psychology of the two nations (or different national flavor), as L.A. Samovar (1995: 152) points out 'It is more accurate to say people possess meaning and that words elicit these meaning. A crucial function of contrastive studies on animal words is for the application to translation and cross-cultural communication.

4. 计划与进度安排

At first, the paper makes a brief introduction of animal words, including its definition, origin, features and so on. It gives readers a general concept of what we will touch on in the later part of this paper. Then, it introduces similarities and differences between animal words in denotations and cnnotations, each from several specific parts with some examples. For the similarities, it discusses equivalent animal words in Chinese and English, which are animal words with similar denotations and connotations in both languages from some classical or main perspectives. These are both China and western countries may agree with. Concerning the differences, they are divided into several parts like overlapping animal words and vacant animal words in both languages. Examples for these differences will be given like dogs, dragons and so on. In the following, factors that cause the differences and influence of animal words to the present society have been discussed. At last, it gives readers some suggestions to use animal words correctly in intercultural communication.

5. 参考文献

[1]高永晨.英语动物拟声词及其翻译[J]. 外语与外语教学，2002(08):78-81。

[2]廖光蓉. 英汉文化动物词对比[J]. 外国语(上海外国语大学学报)，2000(05):206-218。

[3]廖光蓉.英语词汇划分的目的、角度、类别及启示[J]. 外语教学，2007(01):9-10。

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