动物隐喻在汉语和英语中的比较

动物隐喻在汉语和英语中的比较
［Abstract］Animal metaphor, as a kind of metaphor, refers to a cognitive process in which some aspects of human beings are understood or experienced through the aspects of animals. The meanings of animal metaphors are determined by culture. Because it is based on human’s experience, there are many similarities in English and Chinese animal metaphors. But due to the differences in cultural backgrounds which include the influence of history, religion, geography, custom, and the way of thinking, there are different attitudes towards the animal metaphors. There are many figurative expressions in English and Chinese cultures, especially animal metaphors. Although English and Chinese are rich in animal words, they bring some problems because of the different cultures. Because human beings accumulate experience and knowledge from their practice and express them by language, different languages contain and represent different cultures. Therefore the comparison of animal metaphors becomes the method of getting to know the different cultures.
［Key words］animal metaphor,communication,comparison,culture
I. Introduction
Human beings and animals are both the products of natural evolution, and there has existed some inseparable relations between man and
animals since human beings created languages which are the carrier and container of cultural information.
Metaphor, as a linguistic and cognitive phenomenon is an important way of understanding human cognition. Animal metaphor, as a kind of metaphor, refers to a cognitive process in which some aspects of human beings are understood or experienced through the aspects of animals. The meanings of animal metaphors are determined by culture. Because it is based on human’s experience, there are many similarities in English and Chinese animal metaphor. But due to the differences in cultural backgrounds which include the influence of history, religion, geography, custom, and the way of thinking, there are different attitudes towards the animal metaphor （Qin 2010）. These differences lead to the diversity of language finally. This paper attempts to analysis the animal metaphors’differences and similarities and some methods to translate them are also addressed.
Ⅱ. The Similar Meaning of Same Animal in both
English and Chinese
As all human beings live in the similar environment, there is some same knowledge about animals. Therefore, they have the same or similar figurative meanings to animal words. For example, in English someone
would sayp The other animal that there is similar meaning in English and Chinese is sheep or lamb which is usually considered as sweet and tame. As a result, it is used to show the sweet and tame character. We can not forget the other animal, wolf. On the contrary, it refers to greedy and cruel. So in Chinese there exits many metaphors to describe its characters such as“狼狈为奸”, “狼子野心”. In English we can find the similar examples: “a wolf in a sheep’s clothing or a wolf in lamb’s skin”, “hold a wolf by the ears”. In addition, asses are regarded as stupid, e.g. “ass in grain (十足的大傻瓜)”; “an a ss in a lion’s skin (from Aesop’s Fables, 冒充聪明人的傻瓜)”; “all asses wag their ears (谚语：驴子摇耳朵，傻瓜装聪明)”. What’s more, bees are regarded as busy, birds are associated with freedom and nails are related to be slow. To parrot what others say and as grace as a swan also have the similar metaphor meanings. Pig refers to a greedy, dirty or bad-mannered person both in Chinese and English for instance eat like a pig and make a pig of oneself.
The word “dove” in Chinese and English shares the same meaning, and symbolizes for peace. We regard the dove as “peace dove”. In some grand celebrations, we often see the scene of taking the doves away, standing for cherished desire for peace world of all of us. We can see the phenomenon in National Day in China.
Let’s take our famil iar animal word “dog” for example. The dog is
closely related with people. In Chinese and English, the dog both has the commendatory and derogatory sense. Compared with Chinese, most of the “dog” expressions possess a commendatory sense or at least a neute r sense in English. It can be used to refer to certain people as “big dog (重要人物)”, “top dog (优胜者)”, “lucky dog (幸运儿)”, etc. in English. “To help a lame dog over the stile” means “to help someone in difficulty”. “Every dog has its day,” means “every person will succeed or become fortunate.” But in Chinese the word in most Chin ese phrases is associated with some derogatory meanings, as the sayings like “狗胆包天、狗头军师、狗腿子、狗血喷头、狼心狗肺、狗眼看人低”, etc. Although most Chinese people think the dog is man’s faithful friend, it usually has the derogatory metaphor. It seems that this animal is really very closely related with people so that person knows its feature and like to use the metaphor about it no matter what is good or bad.
Because of the similar reason, in some cases the word may have derogatory sense in English, as is shown in the following examples: “yellow dog (卑鄙之人)”, “dirty dog (龌龊之人)”, “sly dog (阴险之人)”, “dead dog (无用的人)”. Meanwhile some vulgar languages also use it to express the derogatory sense.
Ⅲ. Special Animals in Chinese and English
3.1 Meaningful in English but meaningless in Chinese
Ostrich is a kind of large bird with a long neck and long legs, living in the area of African deserts. It can not fly but run very fast. In the English culture, “ostrich” has such figurative meanings like stupid evading and having a good appetite”. Its figurative meaning wo uld be reflected in the following expression: “Ostrich belief (鸵鸟信念)” .This belief is referred to deceptive idea. “To bury one’s head ostrich-like in the sand” is a person who prefers to ignore problems rather than go to have a try and deal with them. In addition, there exists another saying “have the digestion of an ostrich (胃口好如鸵鸟)”. It just shows the meaning of having a good appetite. With the development of the society, Chinese also use this metaphor which is always connected with the idea of evading. Although it is used, Chinese seldom consider the other meanings. However, in the past to most Chinese people, an ostrich is only a kind of animal without any figurative meanings.
In Western culture, the goat is generally thought to be related with evils and the devil. In the legend, the devil created the goat, which is regarded as the phantom of the devil. Therefore the goat typically stands for those immoral people who are fond of women immorally.
There are some sentences like these “The stock visited Howard Johnstons yesterday” or “you chicken.” The first one refers to the birth of a baby and the second one means that you are coward.
Beaver is someone who works hard, cat is a woman who has a poisonous heart, cock is someone who is a leader, nightingale is someone who tells the secret, and a shark is a dishonest businessman.
3.2 Meaningful in Chinese but meaningless in English
For Chinese people, we must be very familiar with the words crane and tortoise, a symbol for longevity in Chinese culture. Therefore, some Chinese parents like to name their children as crane with the hope that their children live a long life. The crane is often linked with the pine tree, which is a symbol for sturdiness and long life. In China, it is a good way for people to send gifts with such designs of crane and pine tree to the older generations, especially on their birthday celebrating However they do not use the tortoise as it has derogatory meaning. One is longevity because of its physical features. Stone tortoises symbolic of venerable old ages can be seen in front of ancient halls, temples and palaces. The other is the symbol for the cuckold. But cranes are just ordinary animals in English. Mandarin Duck and silk worm also play important roles in Chinese. Mandarin duck is regarded as couple. Chinese often use it to express that the couple has good relationship with each other. Or they hope the new couple stays together happily forever. It stands for love .Silkworm has the meaning of hard working.
Ⅳ. The Different Meaning of Animals
4.1 The different meanings of same animals
We are sure to be familiar with dragon and phoenix which are significant in Chinese culture. At beginning, we will try to get to know them in Chinese culture. No matter in ancient time or in modern time, we still think that dragon and phoenix represent sacred and notable. Dragon is the symbol of the Chinese nation, especially in the ancient time, people worshiped dragon to beg for rain Chinese people consider that they are descendents of the dragon. In ancient the Chinese emperors call themselves the sons of dragons. Phoenix is the king of birds. In Chinese phoenix represents the high position and good luck. (Luo 2007) .
It usually has two: one is male we call it feng and the female one is called huang. What’s more, dragon and phoenix usually appear and refer together. So the wives of the emperors are called phoenix. Their clothes even anything is related them. Finally there are many metaphors about dragon and phoenix such as 龙凤呈祥，龙飞凤舞.
In fact there is no evidence to prove that they ever exist but both these two cultures endow them meanings. Dragon is completely opposite in Chinese and English either in its shape or meanings. In Western people’s minds, the dragon is some evil monster with a large tail with wings and claws, breathing out fire and smoke. It symbolizes evil. However, phoenix means pure and rebirth.
Monkey has different figurative meaning in Chinese and English languages. In Chinese, “monkey” is often likened to a sm art and agile person, with commendatory sense. The Chinese people often jokingly call clever and cute children “little monkey”. But, if you praise a western child “You are like a little monkey,” he will be angry, thinking that you curse him. Because in Eng lish, “little monkey,” means “a troublesome playful child”. And “monkey” is often likened to a person with a whole bag of tricks.
In English the petrel is considered as an omen of disaster. However, in China the word “petrel” is associated with braving har dship and adversity, advancing with perseverance and courage. The spirit is well reflected in the poem petrel written by Gorky, a famous Russian writer. The magpie is a symbol of bad luck in English but opposite in Chinese. There are two explanations in The Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary: (a) person who collects or hoards things (爱收藏或贮藏东西的人), (b) person who chatters a lot (爱饶舌的人). All these explanations are figurative with derogatory meanings. On the contrary, a magpie is a symbol of good luck in China. If a magpie sings in a tree near houses, people would think some happy things would happen. Chinese people often say, “Magpie sings, happy thing comes.” because the pronunciation of magpie in Chinese represents good luck. The legend about the magpie tells the story of love. The beautiful fairy who lives in
the heaven falls in love with the ordinary boy. Unfortunately the girl’s mother does not allow their romantic love, so she let them live in the different sides of the Milky Way. They should have not met each other forever. To our pleasure, the magpie helps them by building the bridge which is across the river so that they can get together one day in a year. What’s about fish In English “fish” often has derogatory meaning that refers to bad things and persons, e.g.: “a poor fish (可怜虫)”; “a loose fish (生活放荡的女人)”; “fish in the air (水中捞月)”. In Chinese the pronounce of fish is similar with 余. Therefore, in the important festivals such as Spring Festival, Chinese people would like to use “fish” as an indispensable dish to symbolize “abundance”.
In Chinese “bear” means “cowardly and timid” or “stupid” but people use “bear” to refer to those persons having special ability in English for instance he is a bear at music. Sometime bear is someone who is rude in English. In English sayings that as wise as an owl. It shows that English-speaking people put owl as a symbol of intelligence. At children’s books and cartoons, the owls are usually very serious, very minds, While Chinese people are afraid to see owl or hear its sound. They think it stands for bad luck.
4.2 The different animals but same meanings
Different animal words have similar cultural connotations in English
and Chinese languages and people use different animal words to express similar meanings. For instance, agriculture is the foundation of China’s economic development, so the cattle play a great role in Chinese culture. There are so ma ny expressions which use “cattle” as association vehicles. Meanwhile horse is important in English people’s life so they say that as strong as a horse or to work like a horse while we use cattle to express.
In Chinese, tiger is regarded as the king of animals and stands for power, vigor and bravery. So there are many expressions with the letter : “英雄虎胆”, “龙争虎斗”, “藏龙卧虎”, “如虎添翼”, “虎将”, etc. But in English “tiger” symbolizes cruelty. The western regards “lion” as the king of animals. They think it is brave and powerful. They use “as bold as a lion” to describe a brave person. It is full of the respect in English which can be proved in these phrases regal as a lion, majestic as a lion and to see the lions （游览名胜古迹）.
So when people translate them, they should find the right translation like talk horse (吹牛) and a lion in the way (拦路虎).
In addition the rabbit and the rat also share the similar meaning. They both describe the person who is lack of brevity and always afraid of anything for example as timid as a rabbit is translated as胆小如鼠.
Ⅴ. Translation of Animal Metaphors
Translation is a dialogic process. The purpose of translation is to transfer the source language into the target language to obtain the maximal equivalence. So translators play an important role in the process of translation. They should consider how to deal with the images of the words and how to express the figurative meanings correctly and properly. Meantime, they should think over not only the language structures and national features in source language but also the cultural backgrounds and the expressions in target language. Animal words contain many cultural meanings. In the process of translating animal words, the big problem is how to get the same or nearly the same effect culturally in the target language as that of the source language.
English culture and Chinese culture have much in common, so the English and the Chinese share the same or similar feelings or attitudes to some animal words. And they use the same animal images to express the similar figurative meanings. Therefore, we can adopt literal translation to keep the original association vehicles. For example: （1）You stupid ass! How could you do a thing like that （2）dark horse (黑马), paper tiger (纸老虎), lamb duck (跛脚鸭子). Keeping image of association vehicles can make language vivid and vigorous and preserve the original style.
English language and Chinese language have some cultural discrepancies. If some original association vehicles are kept in the
process of translation, the target language readers may not understand them. Indeed, there are occasions where certain cultural aspects of original cannot be directly transferred into the target language culture. Thus, in the process of intercultural communication, we may replace the original image with a different one that retains the meaning of the original message and well fits in with the target language. For example: Mr. Smith may serve as a good secretary, for he is as close as an oyster.史密斯先生可以当个好秘书，因为他守口如瓶。

Another example: In Chinese culture, people always associate “sparrow” with someone talkative. This coincides with the asso ciative meaning of “magpie” in the English culture.
Ⅵ. Conclusion
Some animals are people’s friends, and some are human’s enemies. But no matter what, animals are often personalized by people because they have some similarities with people or human life. It is not surprising to know that despite cultural differences, animal terms do not only contain their literal meanings but also have metaphorical meanings that are formed by people. It can be said that human language reflects human ideas and acts; so animal words play a very important role in human linguistic communication. That is to say animal metaphor is an important part in both Chinese and English culture. For the purpose of our effective
communication, we should understand these animal words correctly and build a bridge for the linguistic cultural exchange.
Intercultural communication is concerned with communication among people from different cultural backgrounds. With the rapid development of science and technology, especially communications, the world is becoming smaller and smaller. And it is necessary to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds. However, different cultures may favor different value systems. Moreover, the belief, customs and habits of the people from different countries may be different. Therefore, intercultural communication provides guidance for those people engaged in intercultural communication. In the human communication, a plenty of animal words are widely used to enrich the language and culture.
［摘要］动物隐喻作为隐喻的一种是指人类的某些方面可以通过动物的某些方面被人类所理解的认知过程。

动物隐喻的意思是由文化所决定。

由于它是基于人类的经验，所以英汉动物隐喻中有许多类似之处。

但是，因为文化背景的不同，其中包括历史、宗教、地理、习俗、思维方式的不同，动物隐喻的理解也有区别。

在英语和汉语中存在很多比喻表达，尤其是动物的暗喻。

尽管拥有很多动物词汇，但也由于不同文化背景从而带来很多麻烦。

因为人类从他们的实践中积累
了经验和知识并通过语言表达出来。

所以不同的语言包含代表了不同的文化。

因此动物隐喻的比较成为了解文化的好方法。

［关键词］动物隐喻；交流；比较；文化。