-
The
Differences
of
the
Denotative
Meaning
of
“Dog”
in Chinese and English Language
Yiying
(School of Foreign Language, China West
Normal University, 637000)
Abstract:
different
countries have different culture. In the long
history when we talk about
animals, we
have discovered their nature and traits. Thus, a
great of words and phrases and idioms
of animals are coined to express a more
vivid and cunning meaning. Meanwhile, there are
lots of
differences between the use of
animal in Chinese and English. Therefore, only the
students master
the differences of some
particular animals, can they avoid making mistake
in daily communication?
Due to the
important role of understanding the cultural
differences, it is essential for students to
learn
and
master
this
knowledge
deeply
and
expertly.
The
original
appearance
of
dog
and
it
nowadays meaning are
studied in this paper. The differences are
discovered them.
Key Words:
Dog; Idiom; Chinese; English; Differences.
I Introduction
According to transfer theory in second
language acquisition, there are two different
transfer
including
positive
transfer
and
negative
transfer.
There
are
a
lot
of
idioms,
phrases
and
slangs
which contain animals
in them both in Chinese and English. This paper
tried to conclude one of
the animals of
12 Chinese zodiacs---
dog?s denotative
meanings. Before writing this paper, a lot of
books and passage have been both in
paper characteristics and on internet. Finally,
the differences
of
the
denotative
m
eaning
of
“dog”
in
Chinese
and
English
are
discovered
in
order
to
let
the
students learn the
idioms, phrases and slangs which contain a “dog”
easily and enjoyably; also to
arouse
their interest of learning English.
II
The origin of the dog
2.1 legends of
the dog in Chinese culture
There have a lot of dogs? stories in
ancient time.
For instance, in Tao
Qian?s “Duration of
Immortals”, there
was a person whose first name was Yang and who
lived in Jin dynasty. He had a
dog. In
daily life, he went out together with the dog and
was like peas and carrots. One day, he
was drunk, passed through a swamp, lay
on the grass and fell asleep at once.
Unfortunately, one
unknowing fire was
starting to burn the grass and become more and
more violent by wind. The
dog
deeply
frightened
and
constantly
cried.
However,
Mr.
Yang
still
didn?t
wake
up.
The
dog
showed
resourcefulness in a emergence. He jumped into a
pond so that lots of water is in his body.
He
put
out
the
fire
through
jumping
the
pond
and
bought
out
the
water
over
and
over
again.
Finally, the person was survival and
the dog was dead due to exhaustion. There have
also a great
deal of stories about the
dog?s sacrifice in order to his master. Therefore,
people in ancient time
had a
good impression on do
g. They considered
dog as loyalist. So there is a say in Chinese: ?A
son never thinks his mother ugly, and a
dog never shuns its owner?s home how shabby it
is.?
（儿
不嫌母丑，狗不嫌家贫）
However, as time went by, the denotative meaning
of dog became more