Animals are friends of human beings. At the early stage of primeval society, animals were regarded as idols by people to adore. Nowadays, they still are the best intimates of people. Many animals were tamed to domestic animals for serving people, and many others have become people’ pet animals. So, animals have become part of people’s life and even influence their life obviously. That is, people put their feelings and emotions, even happenings and natural phenomena on various animals which represent different characters of people, or serve as omens.
Chinese and English, as the two languages which spoken by the most people in the world, naturally contain a lot of words relating to animals. However, because of different history and culture, the connotations of animal words in one language do not coincide with those in another. Hence, the purpose of the paper is to make a comparison of the different connotations in different cultures and to discuss their translations respectively.
Despite the major cultural diversities, it is self-evident that the same animal shares the same or similar connotation in Chinese and English for the similar way they are thinking. Saying like “a duck’s egg” and “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” appear in such two languages. Meanwhile, both cultures think the fox stands gracefulness and nobility. And the bee stands for labor and business, the wolf stands for ferocity, wiliness and greediness. To both Chinese and English speaking people the swan stands for labor and busyness. Give another example. In Chinese we usually say “笨驴”“蠢驴”because“驴”stands for asininity. It is the same case in English: an ass refers to a foolish person. Apart from those examples mentioned above there are other images with very subtle difference in both languages, which can be addressed as follows. Firstly, to the English speaking people the pig’s first character is dirtiness, followed by greediness. But to most Chinese it stands for laziness and stupidity. In Chinese the saying“猪猡”“猪头阿三”“懒得像头猪”are all with this word. In English a pig stands for a greedy, dirty or bad-mannered person. Moreover, English speaking people using this word to call the police, racialists and sluts in a derogatory way (包惠南,2001,p.213,223). Another case in the subtle difference images is the tiger. To both the English speaking people and Chinese the tiger stands for ferocity, while some Chinese think it also stands for dignity, for the tiger is often considered by the Chinese as the “king of animals”. (郭建中,1999,p.348)
From the mentioned above, it can be seen that the connotation of some animal words in the Chinese culture and English culture are very similar. But, some of others vary greatly. In the two languages, certain characters may be represented by different animals. For example, the horse in English often plays the role of the ox in Chinese, and the image of the lion in English often assumes the image of the tiger in Chinese. In English, the horse is often used to refer to a person, such as a “willing horse”. Chinese word“吹牛”is called “talk horse”; when people describe good health, we say“壮得像头牛”，while English people would say “as strong as a horse”. This is because the Chinese have been using 牛in farming for thousands of years while the horse has been used to do most farming work in western countries. (张安德、杨元刚,2002,p.141)
To most English speaking people, the lion stands for dignity and royalty, and it is often compared to a person or a country that is considered to be strong and powerful, and that other people respect or fear. So the lion is regarded as the “king of animals” instead of the place of tiger in Chinese culture. This can be seen in an idiom even like “虎口拔牙”.The English would say “beard the lion in his den”. (白靖宇,2000,p.69)
Dissimilarities in the connotation
of animal words in the two languages should be paid more attention. The following
animals stand for very different images. For instance, in western culture
the eagle stands for bravery and powerfulness, and it is also the national
bird of
The most glaring examples of dissimilarities in the two languages are dog and dragon. The dog has very close relation with people in both cultures. Though in many places of China dogs have become people’s pet animals, in Chinese the word “狗”still contain derogatory connotation. Such as“狗仗人势”，“狼心狗肺”，“狗胆包天”，“狗急跳墙”，“狗眼看人底”，etc. In English, some connotations of this word also contain derogatory meaning. For example, “dirty dog” means “坏蛋，畜牲”，and the phrase “dog eat dog” represents cruel competition. But in most cases, the word “dog” is neutral in its connotation. It is all right to refer to certain people as big dog, top dog, lucky dog, etc. Because in English, when the word is used to refer to a person, it is equivalent with “fellow”. Such usage does not contain derogatory sense, but in contrary it enlivens the talking atmosphere. In western countries, dog is not only the most favorite pet to people, but also the best friend to human beings. So westerners extremely dislike eating dog’s meat.
The dragon in English and 龙 in Chinese are both imaginary animals but have very different connotations. To Chinese, 龙is something sacred and has been referred to as the ancestor of the Chinese nation--that’s why the Chinese call themselves 龙的传人，龙子龙孙。In feudal society, the dragon symbolizes emperor and sovereign authority, which influenced politics and culture of ancient Chinese greatly. But to the English speaking people, dragon is some evil monster which can spit fire and sometimes possesses three to nine heads (郭建中,1999,p.353). In medieval times, the dragon was a symbol of crime. Now, it also means “a ferocious person”. For example, the sentence “She’s a bit of a dragon around this place.” can be translated as “她在这里是很拔扈的人。” (张安德、杨元刚,2002,p.97)
From the similar and dissimilar examples above, we can easily draw a conclusion that between Chinese and English, there are some common grounds as well as their unique individualities caused by different cultures. Thus, on the aspect of cross-cultural communication and translation, we should strive to find in English and Chinese “cultural equivalents” as to make the language using properly rather than translate the animal words directly. There are some similar saying in the two languages, such as “a wolf in a sheep’s clothes”披着羊皮的狼, “as fat as a pig”肥的像猪, “sly as a fox”像狐狸一样狡猾, “as happy as a lark”像白灵鸟一样快乐, “as busy as bees”像蜜蜂一样忙碌。(郭建中,1999,p.351) (包惠南,2001,p.226,213)
But for most cases the matter is not simple as it seems. Here are some opposite examples which contained different images of animals in Chinese and English:
虎穴 the lion’s mouth
虎头蛇尾 in like a lion, out like a lamb
狐假虎威 donkey in a lion’s hide
初生牛犊不怕虎 a cat may look at a king
猫哭耗子假慈悲 crocodile tears
夜猫子 a night owl
胆小如鼠 chicken-hearted
牛饮 drink like a horse
老牛拉破车 put the horse before the cart
牛不喝水强按头 you can pull a horse to a river, but you can not make him drink
热锅上的蚂蚁 like a cat on hot bricks
杀鸡取卵 to kill the goose that the golden egg
露马脚 let the cat out of bag
过着牛马般的生活 lead a dog’s life
人靠衣裳马靠鞍 fine feather makes fine birds
害群之马 a black sheep
落汤鸡 a drowned rat
瓮中之鳖 rat in a hole
鱼翅熊掌二者不可兼得 you can not sell the cow and drink the milk
亚洲四小龙 the four tiger of Asia (张安德、杨元刚,2002,p.143,145) (郭建中,1999,p.354,355)
The use of images of animals is not only in translation but also in other fields. For example, many exportation goods have the brand names of 金龙(gold dragon), 大白兔 (rabbit--To English speaking people the rabbit stands for insecurity), 海燕 (petrel--it is thought to be an omen for disaster and a person who gossips about person about their back), 白熊 (polar bear--it is easy to misunderstand for it has special meaning in today’s international political language), 五羊 (five rams--because the English word “ram” refers to heavy strike), 凤凰 (phoenix), 金鸡 (golden cock).They may not be welcomed by the English speaking people and hence affect selling of sellers if just translate them directly. (包惠南,2001,p.275,276) (郭建中,1999,p.355,356)
Different connotations of animal words reflect different national mentalities, thus the different cultures have come into being. The similarities and the dissimilarities on animal words are not only interesting but have practical guidance in cross-cultural communication and translation. This paper just makes a superficial comparison of this kind of cultural connotation; the subject on animal words needs further and further exploration.
References
1. 白靖宇. (2000).《文化与翻译》. 北京：中国社会出版社.
2. 包惠南. (2001). 《文化语境与语言翻译》. 北京：中国对外翻译出版公司.
3. 郭建中. (1999).《文化与翻译》. 北京：中国对外翻译出版公司.
4. 张安德、杨元刚. (2002).《英汉词语文化对比》. 武汉：湖北教育出版社.