Comparative Analysis on Cattle-related Proverbs between Chinese and Japanese

Animal proverbs, an important part of language, are the summary of life experience among countries, which were fully endowed with national and cultural features. The differences in history, culture and national characters between China and Japan could be exposed by comparing the proverbs related to cattle. This study, employing a spectral list which reflects the actual use of proverbs, aims to analyze the reasons for the differences in the acquisition of Chinese and Japanese cattle-related proverbs and explore the connotation of metaphors from a sociocultural perspective. The study found that Chinese cattle-related proverbs have higher popularity and are larger in the quantity, richer in the genre and form than that of Japanese, which is related to the different cultural and historical contexts in which these proverbs emerged. The study also found that common metaphors in Chinese and Japanese cattle proverbs show a negative image when describing other persons. Although cattle have made great contributions to the social and economic development in ancient China and Japan, their metaphors are mainly used to criticize human behavior with a negative image, such as being stubborn or stupid. This study provides a comparative analysis of Chinese and Japanese cattle proverbs from a sociocultural perspective and hope to improve the study of animal proverbs and promote cross-cultural communication

Physics · Spectral analysis · Linguistics and Cultural Studies

• A Cross-Cultural Study of Animal Metaphors

  Mohammad Reza Talebinejad, Hossein Vahid Dastjerdi•Metaphor and Symbol•2005

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