A Comparative Analysis of Animal Metaphors in English and Chinese

Language is the carrier of culture. In different languages and cultures, every word has denotations as well as plenty of cultural connotations. The cultural differences have great effects on the cultural connotation of animal words. This article tries to discuss the cultural connotation of animal words both in English and Chinese from the following aspects: the same animal vehicles with the same or different figurative senses, different animal vehicles with the same figurative sense, and the absence of figurative senses in one language.