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English and Chinese are the two major representatives of the western and the eastern countries. They have different types of economy, policy and culture. But as the trend of acculturation is inevitable, English and Chinese are communicating and collaborating more and more frequently. And in order to maintain the harmonious relationship, learning the different cultures is an effective and efficient way.
People from different culture background respond discriminatively. The reason why during communication exists this phenomenon is that the pair do not know the culture from each other. Idiom is the key of culture and it can reflect the national custom. As a language, idiom is playing an important role in transmitting the culture information and reflecting the contradictions totally both in Chinese and English.
In China, people unfold a vigorous mass campaign for learning English, which results from the global economy. There are varieties of people whose age range widely from the young to the old enthusiastic about learning English. They regard English as the second language and its influence has surpassed all other foreign languages. In addition, thanks to the decrees enacted by government, which once limited the Chinese to go abroad has been ameliorated, more and more Chinese are working, studying and traveling in English. Before entering the new country, they would try their best to acquaintance all the knowledge about English, which mostly devotes to the language.
1.2 Significance of the thesis
Language contains colorful cultural connotation, especially so does animal idioms, as it is the essence of language. For Chinese and English, during the long developing history of society, forming varieties of language, which are regarded as stereotyped, brief, allegorical and full of national characteristics.
Those animal idioms with strong cultural characteristics are the key and essence of the language, and they are also the significant segments in reflecting the society and culture. They keep intimate touch with the national geography and historical culture.
Culture is complex, including object, knowledge, belief, art, ethnics, morality, law, custom and other capabilities learned from the society. Animal idiom completely shows the value conception, social customs , and the thinking method about a nation.
Thus, as a significant part of culture, on the one hand, animal idiom shows the pergent thinking method between English and Chinese. On the other hand, it reflects the comparison between English and Chinese in many aspects. It is beneficial for people who are preparing to go into a new environment if he learns the idiom well.
2. Animal Idioms and cultural differences
2.1 Definitions of key terms
2.1.1 The definition of idiom and animal idiom
It is obvious from the literary words that animal idioms is a kind of idioms, which places an important position in knowing the definition of idioms. In ancient times, because of the limited knowledge and restricted instruments which retrained people to search the truth of the enigmatic incidents, people were awesome to the unique things, gradually forming a belief and a sense of admiration. In daily life, people were plain during that period, and what they talked about was the weather, custom, folks heard of the ancestors and such kind of things that were related with themselves. They blended their lives into the spoken language and chatted with people from one to another. As time fled away, these kind of spoken language were reserved well and people were accustomed to speaking and using them into daily communication. Gradually, experts definited those spoken language as a concrete terminologe as idiom.
Idioms, which constitute a large part of our knowledge of language, is a constant feature of language. Both English and Chinese are rich in idioms, which make their meaning very significant and interesting. However, most idioms are composed of few words but carry a meaning not fully deducible from the meaning of their constituents, and some are originated from literary works so people can’t know the meaning from the words, which often make themselves hard to be understood and used appropriately. As a matter of fact, the appropriate use of idioms in a language is a demanding mark of a person’s ability of mastering the language. As idioms are the essence of culture of a nation, it reflects the differences when comparing two different nations. The birth and the development of idioms are connected with the specific living environment, social condition and culture background.