CONTRASTING CULTURAL SEMATIC COMPONENT OF THE WORD ‘HORSE’ IN CHINESE AND VIETNAMESE IDIOMS

Abstract

Some types of animals make useful contribution to people’s lives, including their language. After taming them and being aware of their fundamental natural habitats, human aggregate the knowledge of animals into idioms. In Chinese and Vietnamese, as a result, there are a lot of idioms related to animals, including ‘horse’. However, due to the discrepancies in cultural background, ways of thinking, geographical environment and traditonal customs between China and Vietnam, their association and acquisition differ. Thus, there are differences in the conceptural meaning and cultural meaning of Chinese and Vietanmese idioms related to animals, reflecting the distinctive features of each language. Vietnamese students easily make errors when they study Chinese animal idioms because of the influcence of their mother tongue. To help them tackle the problem, the author collects idioms related to ‘horse’ then analyzes and compares their cultural meanings.