A SEMANTIC AND CULTURAL STUDY OF ANIMAL EXPRESSIONS IN ENGLISH AND PERSIAN

摘要

The aim of this paper is to study the meanings and applications of the animal names in English and prison proverbs. Most of the animal expressions reveal the way of thinking and the cultural particularities of each society, so translation of some animal expressions from one language to another one may cause many cultural or communicational misunderstandings. In other words, animal expressions fulfill semantic and sociolinguistic functions in human languages. Most of the animal expressions developed from the culture, society, human relations, and their thoughts. So animal expressions have different positive or negative values and usages in each lingual society. In this research we will deal with the names of some animals that may make cultural or communicational misunderstandings.