摘要本文以最常见的动物“狗”为例，将中英文中动物习语表达的情感作为对比点，寻找差异表象后的语言学依据。研究立足于文献研究，建立了与“狗”相关的习语语料库，并试图通过定量与定性研究相结合的方法，即问卷调查和个例访谈，对语言使用者赋予与“狗”相关的习语的情感进行考察与分析，进而在语言的情感作用，隐喻，萨皮尔-沃夫假说等语言学理论框架中探求合理解释。本文的研究期待有助于为整体动物习语的情感色彩的研究提供思路。67140

毕业论文关键词  狗   动物习语   情感   语言学

Title  On The Emotional Differences between Animal-Related Idioms in Chinese and English — A Case Study of “Dog”

Abstract

This paper compares the emotional differences reflected by animal-related idioms in Chinese and English with “dog” as the common image of, and tries to explore the linguistic theory for evidences. Based on the detailed review of previous studies, this paper establishes a specific corpus with “dog” as the key word, and then adopts a combination method of questionnaire and personal interview, for the consideration of qualitative and quantitative research. Finally, it brings the findings under the explanation of linguistics, such as emotive function of language, the use of metaphor, Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, etc. It is hoped to assist the research on the emotional differences reflected by animal-related idioms of different languages as a whole.

Keywords   Dog   Animal-Related Idioms   Emotion   Linguistics

Table of Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Theme 1

1.2 Organization 1

1.3 Significance of this Paper 2

2 The Previous Studies of Animal-related Idioms 2

2.1 Characteristics of Idioms 3

2.2 Differences in the Meaning 3

2.3 Factors Contributing to the Differences 3

3 Research Methodology and Process 5

3.1 Specific Corpus Centering on “Dog” 5

3.2 Questionnaire 6

3.3 Personal Interview 7

4 Results and Analysis 7

5 Linguistics Evidences for Emotional Differences of Animal-related Idioms 9

5.1 Emotive Function of Language 9

5.2 Use of Metaphor 10

5.3 Language, Culture and Society 11

Conclusion 14

Acknowledgements 16

Bibliography 17

Appendix 18

1 Introduction

Idioms, as the essence of language, are born with strong ethnic colors and distinctive cultural connotations, and also can manifest people’s emotional preference towards a certain item. 

1.1 Theme

Both English and Chinese are abundant with idioms, whose meanings are difficult for foreign learners to acquire due to their unique characteristics. Considering the fact that idioms with animals as key words take up a large proportion of the whole, and they have the typical features of idioms as a whole, this paper tries to conduct a research on the emotional differences of animal-related idioms in Chinese and English, and to explore the linguistic factors. All the research is conducted based on the most common animal, both to English and Chinese, “dog”. It is hoped that this paper can meet the goal of viewing animal-related idioms in Chinese and English from a new perspective and providing some suggestions to ESL learners.