A Contrastive Study On Images Of Animal In Chinese And Thai Idioms

Nowadays’Metaphor Study’ has become one of the popular research topics among cultural and language academia circulars. Metaphor is formed by individual’s cognitive association such as perception, experience, imagination, comprehension, discussion of linguistic and cultural behavior. Various ethnic groups have different psychology perspectives as they grow up in different environment, culture, society, customs and practices, religion and belief. There is a direct relationship between the above factors of diversity and a person’s cognitive association, which influences the way individual conceives of different things. As a result, a person’s use of metaphoric expression can be alike or different.Through the course of human civilization, human’s activities are closely interrelated to ’Animal’. They have been our natural enemies, our prey and our food since the ancient times. They have been tamed for using in cultivation, communication and transportation. It can be said that animals have accompanied human development in all ages and the human-companion animal bond has become stronger over time. As a result of this intimate relationship, animals unavoidably contribute to the development of human’s culture, civilization and language. In addition, idiom is a core characteristic of each country’s language, Chinese and Thai are no exception. There are a large numbers of animal-related idioms and expressions in Chinese and Thai languages whereby metaphor is used to convey meanings and reflect profound cultural contents. We can understand both countries’distinctive cultural characteristics through these animal idioms.This paper will focus on the contrastive study of images of animals that are frequently used in Chinese and Thai idioms. The research will analyze the underlying factor, meaning and usage of animal metaphors reflected in both languages, examining the differences and similarities of their animal idioms through environmental, psychological, cultural and religious perspective. The research area is limited to semantic analysis and does not include grammatical analysis. I hope this paper will be useful for readers who study in Chinese and Thai languages as well as using in their work.