英语动物词汇文化与汉语的比较分析 第3页
Historical Records, such sentences can be seen as “all those, who are as fierce as tiger, or as obstinate as goat, or as greedy as wolf, could not survive.” Accordingly, goat is usually considered stubborn and hard to tame in ancient Chinese culture.
2.4 Rat (Mouse)
In imperial Chinese culture, the rat (sometimes referred to as the mouse) is the first of the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac. It is said that people born in this year are expected to possess qualities associated with rats, including creativity, honesty, generosity, ambition, a quick temper and wastefulness (Wikipedia). And the expression “像老鼠一样精” (as shrewd as a mouse) is not uncommon in Chinese conversations. Whereas, having the odious appearance and behaviors, rats are seen as one of the abominations. In ancient China, people fear and despise the rat because this creature can at times damage and eat crops, be disease-ridden, spreading diseases through their parasites and feces. In China, there is a saying“老鼠过街人人喊打” ( a person or thing is hated by everyone), and expressions like“贼眉鼠眼” (shifty-eyed), “胆小如鼠”(as timid as a hare),“鼠目寸光”(cannot see beyond one’s nose), “抱头鼠窜” (to scamper off like a frightened rat).
Notwithstanding, in Lu Xun’s Dogs, Cats and Mice, since Lu viewed cats negatively, it’s understandable that he took a relatively positive attitude towards rats. And indeed, in the contemporary society, people have changed their views about this ever heinous animal, taking it cute and acute, for which we can find evidence in some Chinese cartoons such as The Adventures of Shuke & Beita, a fairytale about two little smart mice.
Not come singly but in pairs, whether 原文请找腾讯752018766优,文'论~文^网
http://www.youerw.com as good guys who are endowed with certain virtues like kindness, amicability, smartness. Some people in European cultures keep rats as pets and conversely find them to be tame, clean, intelligent, and playful.
English associations with the rat are generally negative. In the English language, “rat” is often an insult. “Rat” is generally used to signify an unscrupulous character and refers to an unpleasant person, especially one who is not loyal or tricks somebody. As a noun, “rat” means “a person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible”, or “one who reveals confidential information in return for money”. “Rat race” means a fierce struggle for success, especially in one’ s career or business, when describing the throat-cutting competition of the contemporary society, we can say “rat race”. The proverb “Rats abandon a sinking ship” means something is about to fail because large numbers of people begin to leave it, implying that the people who leave are “rats,” that is, selfish and disloyal. “He is as poor as a church mouse” shows us, even though there’ s little logic relationship between the concept “poor” and the referent “mouse”, the characteristics of “church mouse” may contribute to the connotative meaning of the expression which denotes it. Church mouse is a fictional mouse created by Lewis Carroll, referring to having or earning barely enough money for one’s needs. This 17th century expression is most likely derived from a tale which recounts the plight of a mouse that attempted to find food in a Church. Since most Churches of that time did not have kitchens, the proud mouse found it difficult to survive since its pickings were slim at best. (芮巧燕, 2003)
2.5 Elephant
Elephant is a symbol of wisdom in Asian cultures and is famed for its memory and intelligence, as Aristotle once said, the elephant was “the beast which passeth all others in wit and mind”.
The symbol of the American Republican Party is also elephant whose “characteristics are cleverness and unwieldiness. The animal is easy to control until he is aroused; but when frightened or stirred up, he becomes absolutely unmanageable. Here we have all the characteristics of the Republican vote.” (来安方，2004)
The misunderstanding of the meaning of a word in a certain culture may hinder the cross-cultural communication or even cause offence to others. Some years ago, the battery of a Chinese famous brand, “white elephant”（白象牌）, encountered a downturn in foreign markets despite its low price and high quality. The dilemma wasn’t turned around until the connotative meaning of “white elephant” was recognized. Instead of its Chinese connotation of being pure and propitious, “white elephant” in English is referred to as something useless and no longer needed, although it may have cost a lot of money. The term “white elephant” supposedly stemmed from the practice of the King of Siam, who presenting one of the sacred albino elephants to a courtier who had fallen from favor. The gift was a great honor, but the cost of proper upkeep of one was ruinous. People in western cultures have such a prejudice about these giants because elephants are rare in Western countries. To them, elephants are exotic. Other idioms related to elephant are “seeing pink elephants” which means being intoxicated, recovering from a drinking bout, or having the delirium tremens, and “to have a memory like an elephant” means to be very good at remembering things.
As characters, elephants are 原文请找腾讯752018766优,文'论~文^网http://www.youerw.com in fiction are surrogates for humans, with their concern for the community and each other depicted as something to aspire to. (Van Riper, 2002)
For many foreigners, the large diversity of China’ s fauna is shrouded in mystery, with the possible exception of the giant panda, elephant, which is thought to be rare and dear find its sanctuary in the west of China, Yunnan Province. Here, the people of the Dai ethnic group worship and convey their deep reverence for elephant, taking it as god, especially in Xishuangbanna, where there are many fabulous folklores about 上一页 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] 下一页
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