英语论文-英汉语言中关于狗的谚语比较研究.doc

XX大学 毕 业 论 文 英汉语言中关于狗的谚语比较研究 院系名称： 专 业： 学生姓名： 学 号： 指导老师： XX大学制 二〇一 年 月 日 Acknowledgements I am deeply indebted to Jiang Zhaozi, my supervisor, who not only has given me constant and valuable advice during my writing of this thesis, but also has gone over my drafts meticulously and offered critical comments on them. Without his help, the thesis could never have reached its present form. My sincere gratitude also goes to my teachers who have given me lectures and help, which are indispensable to the completion of this thesis. I give my hearty thanks to my classmates who have offered help and suggestions in the process of writing this thesis. Finally, I would like to thank those critics and writers whose essays and works have provided valuable information concerning the subject of my thesis. Abstract Proverb is a traditional product of cultures in different countries, which can create unexpected effect in communication. With the rapid development of linguistic study, increasingly numbers of scholars begin to focus on the special field such as animal in order to get better research on human language. Dog, one of the most favorite animals all over the world is the intimate pet or friend of human beings and produces unique culture especially on proverbs. But proverbs about dogs from different countries usually convey various information and connotation. Therefore, this thesis is trying to make a comparative study of English and Chinese proverbs about dogs including the different meanings of the proverbs, some similarities and differences between the two kinds of proverbs and the reasons. From my study I find that the difference is not so much. Chinese proverbs containing dogs lay stress on the loyalty to his host. But English proverbs containing dogs emphasize on the friendship. The author thinks that Chinese proverbs containing dogs lay stress on the loyalty to their host because of the inequality status of Chinese society. English proverbs containing dogs regard dogs as friends because they emphasize on the concept of equality and democracy. Key words: dogs; proverbs; comparative study 摘要 谚语是不同国家的一种传统文化产物，在交际中能够产生意想不到的效果。随着语言学研究的迅速发展，大量学者开始放眼于特殊领域的研究，比如动物，以求可以更好的进行人类的调查研究。狗作为全世界最受宠爱的动物，是人类亲密的宠物或者说是朋友，尤其在谚语方面产生了独特的文化。但是来自不同国家的关于狗的谚语通常传达多样化的信息和内涵。因此，这篇文章致力于比较研究英汉语言中关于狗的谚语，包括：此类谚语的不同含义，异同以及产生异同的原因。通过研究发现汉语与英语对狗的分歧并不是那么大，汉语中强调狗的忠诚而英语中更多强调的是友谊。笔者认为汉语对狗忠实的强调反映了汉语长时间对人地位不平等，而英语一般强调平等，故视狗为朋友。 关键字：狗; 谚语; 对比研究 Table of Contents  TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261937" Acknowledgements  PAGEREF _Toc387261937 \h i  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261938" Abstract  PAGEREF _Toc387261938 \h ii  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261939" 摘要  PAGEREF _Toc387261939 \h iii  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261940" Table of Contents  PAGEREF _Toc387261940 \h iv  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261941" Introduction  PAGEREF _Toc387261941 \h 2  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261942" Chapter One Proverbs Containing Dogs and Previous Studies on It  PAGEREF _Toc387261942 \h 3  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261943" 1.1 The Roles of Dog and Proverbs Containing Dogs  PAGEREF _Toc387261943 \h 3  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261944" 1.2 Previous Studies on Proverbs Containing Dogs  PAGEREF _Toc387261944 \h 3  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261945" Chapter Two Methods and Materials  PAGEREF _Toc387261945 \h 5  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261946" 2.1 Methods  PAGEREF _Toc387261946 \h 5  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261947" 2.2 Materials  PAGEREF _Toc387261947 \h 5  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261948" 2.2.1 Chinese Proverbs containing Dogs  PAGEREF _Toc387261948 \h 5  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261949" 2.2.2 English Proverbs containing Dogs  PAGEREF _Toc387261949 \h 7  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261950" Chapter Three Major Findings  PAGEREF _Toc387261950 \h 11  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261951" 3.1 Data Analysis  PAGEREF _Toc387261951 \h 11  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261952" 3.2 Factors Affecting Cultural Connotation of Animal Words in English and Chinese Proverbs  PAGEREF _Toc387261952 \h 12  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261953" Chapter Four Conclusion  PAGEREF _Toc387261953 \h 14  HYPERLINK \l "_Toc387261954" References  PAGEREF _Toc387261954 \h 15  Introduction Proverb is a culturally significant pithy saying with a moral or practical message. Simple and brief proverbs can achieve profound insignificance and produce humorous wit. In various cultures, most proverbs are connected to animals. And we can find the different attitudes toward animals from the proverbs of their culture. Among all the animals, dogs apparently play an important role in our daily life since ancient time. Therefore, during the development of culture a great many proverbs containing dogs are produced. In common views, dogs are treated as the symbol of loyalty, inferiority and snobbery, which in fact are related to dogs’ character. And in most cases, people tend to criticize people by the description of dogs. It is seemingly to talk about dogs, but the real purpose is to express human principles with the aids of rhetoric devices like metaphor, irony or euphemism. I am interested in the proverbs containing dogs and I want to use this aspect as an entry point to understand the similarities and differences between American and Chinese culture better. More importantly, through the comparative study on these proverbs, we can observe various social phenomena. However, proverbs from different countries usually convey special and different messages and connotation. For example, in Chinese, the proverbs about dog mostly express derogatory sense while in English, the proverbs show commendatory sense, which is resulted from different culture about dogs and the attitude towards dogs. In China, dogs are considered to be the watchdogs, which evidently will decide the tragic fate and image of dogs in our minds. On the contrary, in the western countries, dogs are always regarded as lovely and intimate pet or companion especially for the elders. Sometimes, dogs can even be treated as the family members, which undoubtedly make the western dogs own a totally different life and status. By focusing on "culturally loaded" aspects of the words or phrases which people from another country use require our special attention, which would help us do smoothly and properly in intercultural communication. The article will discuss the proverbs about dogs mainly from four aspects. Chapter one is to give a brief introduction to the roles of dog and the various proverbs containing dogs and previous studies on proverbs containing dogs. Chapter two is to show the methods and materials of comparative study of English and Chineseproverbs containing dogs. Chapter three is to show the major findings .Through the detailed analysis of Chinese and English for examples, we can get a good understanding of the expressive effect of the proverbs containing dogs and the differences and similarities between the two language’s proverbs. And we will know that there was a bit of misconception about the common concept Chinese and English proverbs containing dogs. After analyzed the data reflected from two tables and charts. I try to explore the reasons that cause the difference and similarities including the influence of the culture difference, from which we can thoroughly comprehend the proverbs containing dogs. Chapter four is the conclusion of this thesis. Chapter One Proverbs Containing Dogs and Previous Studies on It 1.1 The Roles of Dog and Proverbs Containing Dogs The role of dogs with humans is different in different periods. In their early roles, wolves, their dog descendants, would have derived significant benefits from living in human camps—more safety, more reliable food, lesser caloric needs, and more chance to breed. Humans would also have derived enormous benefit from the dogs associated with their camps. For example, dogs would have improved sanitation by cleaning up food scraps. The relationship between the presence of a dog and success in the hunt is one of the primary reasons for the domestication of the wolf. "The most widespread form of interspecies bonding occurs between humans and dogs" and the keeping of dogs as companions, particularly by elites, it has a long history. They have earned the unique nickname, "man's best friend" because they have lived and worked with humans in so many roles. People often enter their dogs in competitions such as breed-conformation shows or sports, including racing, sledding and agility competitions. The scientific evidence is mixed as to whether companionship of a dog can enhance human physical health and psychological wellbeing. There are many differences between dog and cats or any other animals. Have you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face he will get mad at you? And he will stick his head out the window if you take it for a ride in the car. Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow. Dogs come out in both Chinese and English proverbs. 1.2 Previous Studies on Proverbs Containing Dogs In the graduation thesis of A Comparative Study of English and Chinese Proverbs Containing Animal and Plant Words written by Feng Xiaohui. The reason why different peoples can create different metaphorical proverbs about the same idea has discussed in detail. He made a comparative study on the Rhetoric Level and on the cultural Level. He tried to find connections between language and culture. And he had noticed the effect of different living environments, different living styles, different religious beliefs, studies of different values on proverbs containing animals including dogs. In the thesis of English "DOG" and Chinese "GOU":Comparison on English and Chinese Cultural Connotations in Terms of Animal Words written by Yang Jing. He found that the words or phrase people use and the culture in which people live are closely related. Connotations of the words or phrases are in general closely related to the culture they are rooted in. we should be aware that the words or phrases we choose to use may lead to misinterpretations and misunderstandings. And in the thesis of The Comparison in the ”Dog” image in the Idioms Between English and Chinese written by Dong Xiaojin, he said that dog is humble in Chinese. It is a curse if one uses it to describe human beings. However dog for British and American people, both can be used to guard, hunting; it can also be seen as partner and love. In the thesis of A Comparative Study of English and Chinese Idioms Containing Animals written by Dong tao. In ancient times, people around the world lived on farming; there should be some animals in common, such as cows, horses, rabbits, cats, dogs so on. The functions of these animals are quite similar all over the world. Thus, there is no doubt that some of the animals have same meaning between different cultures. For instance: “ Dog eat dog” 狗咬狗. Dogs are representing of loyalty both in English-speaking countries and China. To the English-speaking people, dogs are often regarded as one of the best friend of human beings. Dogs can be kept not only as watchdog but also as pets. They are kept because they are intelligent, loyal, dependable and being able to make good companions. Therefore, the dog is usually associated with positive qualities in the West. “Every dog has his day”, in this proverb his way does not mean common but mean the day when someone became success. We can translate it as 风水轮流转. “To put the dog”, It means that someone doesn’t t have lots of money in pocket when he or her makes the first appointment with lover he is also not dressed so brightly. And he or she borrows some money and clothes from their friends for the appointment. We can translate it as 充门面摆阔气. In chapter 3 named learning methods of animal proverbs; he proposed the theory of learning the cultural background of the animal idioms including dog idioms. Chapter Two Methods and Materials 2.1 Methods Document analysis and comparative method are adopted in the research. I spent much time searching proverbs containing dogs on the internet and read the books I borrowed from our library. Through the extensive data collection, I classified these data to three parts: positive, neutral, negative two table, and two charts came out. Document analysis is mainly used on the basis of the previous studies, different Chinese and English proverbs containing dogs and the achievements by other scholars. Document analysis method is used to set the research content or the research object. It is clear that the research deals with the contrastive analysis of proverbs containing dogs between Chinese and English. Many other methods are also used with the comparative method, such as the statistical method, categorization, and exemplification. In the process of collecting the relevant proverbs the methods are used. From two chat and tables we can see both in Chinese and English the negative account for the most part about 45 percent. In Chinese proverbs containing dogs, positive only account for 4 percent. But in English its account for 15 percent. In the part of data analysis appeared in the next chapter, methods of categorization and exemplification are adopted. I classified these data to three parts: positive, neutral, negative. 2.2 Materials 2.2.1 Chinese Proverbs Containing Dogs In China dogs are often used to watch over its master's house. Many proverbs containing dogs in Chinese is negative they try to express the bad quality of dogs. There are also many proverbs containing dogs try to express the loyalty to their host. Positive： 子不嫌母丑，狗不嫌家贫 Neutral: 猫捉老鼠狗看门：本分事 好狗不跳，好猫不叫。 好狗不咬鸡，好汉不打妻。 绊人的桩，不一定高；咬人的狗，不一定叫。 狗咬人，有药治；人咬人，没药医。 爱叫的狗不咬人;咬人的狗不露齿。 闷头狗，暗下口。 Negative: 肉包子打狗：一去不回头。 街上的疯狗：乱咬人。 见狗扔骨头：投其所好。 要饭的打狗：穷横。 疯狗咬月亮：狂妄。 苍蝇嘴巴狗鼻子：真灵。 狗拿耗子，多管闲事。 牛眼看人高，狗眼看人低。 狗仗人势，雪仗风势。 人怕没理，狗怕夹尾。 画人难画手，画树难画柳，画马难画走，画兽难画狗。 虎父无犬子。 画虎不成反类犬。 狡兔死，良狗亨:高鸟尽，良弓履。 Most proverbs on dog in Chinese is negative. From“虎父无犬子”、 “牛眼看人高，狗眼看人低”