英汉习语中动物词意义的跨文化研究摘 要习语在任何语言中都是精华。它是在不同的历史，地理环境和文化背景下形成的； 承载着一定的民族文化特色和文化信息。英汉两种语言历史悠久，包含着大量的动物习语，由于历史，社会生活等方面因素的影响，英汉动物习语体现了中西文化的相同和差异。 国内外多数学者已对习语做了研究。本论文从一些动物习语入手，通过比较其在中西文化中所具有的不同文化内涵，向读者展示中西文化的差异，以便人们更好地理解动物习语，在跨文化交际中恰当运用。 关键词 : 动物习语 文化差异 原因 Intercultural Study on the Animal Word Meaning in English andChinese IdiomsAbstractIdiom is the cream of any language. The formation of idiom is achieved under different history, geographical environment And cultural background, which is a symbol of one nationals unique culture and culture information. English and Chinese languages both have a long history and they contain many animal idioms. Because of the history, social life and some other influences, English and Chinese animal idioms reflect the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western cultures. Many scholars and linguists at home and abroad have done researches about idioms. This thesis starts its discussion from animal idioms to show the differences between Chinese and Western culture by contrasting the different connotation in different areas. To get people to know the function that animal idioms are used in multi-cultural communication, can make people use it proficiently. Key words: animal idiom cultural difference reason Introduction Nowadays, with the economic globalization and the regional economic integration strengthening, the cultural exchanges between China and the West have become more and more important. Idioms are fixed and unique expression, which are formed in the process of using a language. Idioms are the sediment of the history and culture, the essences of culture derived from the process of recognizing and transforming the nature, the substantial corpus of information, and a vivid reflection of national culture. Both English and Chinese languages have a long history, and they contain many idioms which are implicitly, humorous, serious, elegant, concise and vivid image. These idioms are closely linked with the cultural traditions, which reflect the cultural characteristics and cultural information of the nation. Therefore, the idioms of English and Chinese, especially the animal idioms, reflect sharp differences of national culture. Deeply understanding animal idioms makes cross -cultural communications go smoothly. Animal idioms have been emphasized and studied at home and abroad. A contrastive method will be taken to analyze the difference of animal idioms between English and Chinese to help people have a good understanding of the different cultures. It contains five parts. Introduction, the first part, states the significance, method, framework and modern researches of the thesis. The second part of this thesis is a brief review of animal idioms such as definition, features, the relationship between culture and animal idioms. Cultural differences between English and Chinese from animal idioms are illustrated in the third part. The fourth part of this thesis lists the reasons for the differences between English and Chinese animal idioms. The last part is a summary of the whole paper. 1A Brief Review of Animal Idioms1.1 Definition and Features of Animal IdiomsAnimal idiom, just as its name implies, is one type of idioms which are combined by animal words, therefore it is Essential to define idiom first of all. Idiom is a phrase or sentence whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual and which must be learnt as a whole unit, in Oxford Advanced Learners English-Chinese Dictionary. Firstly, idioms are usually forceful, concise, vivid and comprehensive, and some idioms such as animal idioms, often contain images and figures of speech, so they have acquired a figurative meaning. Secondly, many idioms do not follow any standard rules, for they often violate conventional grammatical rules, and sometimes are wrong in logic. They seem arbitrary and it cannot be explained how or why a particular idiomatic phrase has assumes its present form. They are the brief statement of English and Chinese idioms. Knowing the definitions and features of idioms will help people understand their cultures better.1.2 Relationship between Culture and Animal Idioms Animals are friends of human beings. Languages of all nations contain a lot of words denoting animals, and so do Chinese and English. With the development and progress of human society, many animals were tamed to become domestic ones serving people, and many others have become peoples pets. So, animals have become part of peoples life. As science develops, people learn more and more about animals. Zoological gardens are now necessary scenes in many major cities all over the world. Hundreds of thousands of books on animal have been published. Many animals have become a kind of symbolism in peoples thinking and this symbolism is reflected in the language. However, because of different history and culture, the connotations of animal idioms in one language do not necessarily coincide with those