A Cultural Analysis Of Metaphors About Chinese "牛" And English "cow/bull"

Language is influenced and shaped by culture. Language reflects culture. Through the cultural analysis of language we can better understand linguistic expressions and know more about cultures. Cattle, as domestic animals kept by human beings for working, hunting or guarding, play an important role in the languages and cultures of both Chinese and English people.This thesis makes a comparative study on metaphors about"牛"in Chinese and"cow/bull"in English from the cultural perspective with a large number of linguistic data. Chinese and English cattle metaphors are classified respectively in terms of features of cattle that people use to describe persons.With a systematic and specific analysis I find out that both Chinese and English people share four kinds of similar metaphors where cattle are used to describe strong, sluggish and clumsy, stubborn and unpleasant persons. Meanwhile, Chinese and English have their own unique metaphors of cattle."牛"is used to describe humble, industrious and arrogant persons in Chinese while"bull"in a lot of English idioms is used to describe irritable and aggressive persons.Reasons for the similarities lie in the similar structure of our human brain and similar bodily experience. Three aspects of culture, geography, customs and literary works, are found accounting for the differences.I hope this study will be helpful for further cross-cultural study on metaphors and be useful for cross-cultural understanding and language learning.