4。1 Geographical environment 9

4。2 Historical allusions and fables 9

4。3 National psychology 11

4。4 Social custom 12

5。 Conclusion 13

References 14

1。 Introduction

1。 1 The research abroad

Idioms, with their frequent appearance, are commonly recognized as the core and essence of language and culture。 Without idioms, any language is sure to be proved lifeless。 The prominent translation theorist Eugene A。 Nida （ 2001, p。12 ） maintained that idioms usually carry more impact than non-idiomatic expressions because of their close identification with a particular language and culture。 Idioms hold great interest of linguists。 As the saying puts it， “A thousand-li starts with the first step”。 Some basic knowledge is needed to further idiomatic studies。

Animals are friends of human and they have contributed a lot to human being, especially on enriching the language, which for the most part is neglected。 Early linguists mainly had comprehensive classification and interpretation on source of idioms and the expressions function of idioms。 British linguist Smith (L。P Smith,1925), the representative of early linguists, put the animal idioms as a part of the idioms in the classification of idioms。 And according to communicative functions of animal idioms, he classified them into emotion, attitude, desire and determination, fury and curse, etc。

Foreign linguists classify animal idioms according to the behavior of animals。 Christine Ammer (1999) in his Cool Cats, Top Dogs, and Other Beastly Expressions, believed that animal idioms can be pided into pet idioms like Cats and Dogs, birds idioms, idioms related to farm animals, idioms related to animals in water and idioms related to animals in the park。 In all animals, dogs and horses play the most important role in idiom (L。P Smith, 1925)。

Affected by systemic functional linguistics, linguists began to study the role and function of English idioms in the communicative activities。 The linguist Ruth Benedict(1976) in his book, Patterns of Culture , thought the cultural meanings of animal idioms is embodied in three aspects , the surface layer, the middle and the deep。 The surface layer of culture in English animal idioms belongs to the material culture, including all the physical material and spiritual products。 It mainly is reflected in the architecture, clothing, food, equipment, etc。

English animal idioms show middle culture mainly on system culture, including the system of laws and regulations, customs and habits, etc。 The deep culture in English idioms generally refers to spiritual culture, which is reflected from the way and the product of people's thinking activity, including values, ways of thinking, aesthetic taste, thinking habits, moral sentiment, and religious beliefs。论文网

1。2 The research at home

Idioms in both English and Chinese, which are rooted in the social of people, bear similarities as well as difference with each other。 Therefore, at the semantic level of both languages, there are idioms that are corresponding to same extent, and also idioms non-corresponding to each other, with the forms being similar and the meaning different(潘丽红, 2006)。

Idiom is an important part in vocabulary which includes metaphorical phrase, slang, colloquialism and proverb。 As an ethic form of a language and a central reflection of figures of speech, they are fixed, concise clauses or phrases with profound meanings。(胡文仲，平洪， 张国扬， 2001)