Abstract: Language and culture has close relationship. Animal glossaries, as one important part of language, also have close links with culture. Animals are our friends, more often than not, human beings have drawing inspiration from them, so they have given animal glossaries rich cultural connotations. There are many animal glossaries in English and Chinese. We shall not only know their semantic meaning, but their connotative meaning. There are many reasons causing such differences, such as people’s aesthetic psychology and the concept of value. This thesis starts with the different cultural connotations of animal glossaries in Chinese and English, then discusses the causes of these differences from the angle of geography, religion and beliefs, customs and habits, history, etc.

Key words: animal glossaries , culture connotations,culture differences and reasons

摘要: 语言和文化有着密切的联系。动物词汇作为语言的一个重要组成部分与文化也有着密切的联系。动物是人类的朋友，人类生活也从动物身上得到灵感启发，因而也就赋予动物词汇丰富的内涵意义。英汉语言中动物的名称有很多，人们不仅要观察它们本身的基本字面意义更要留心它们所特有的内涵意义。引起这些中西文化之间动物词汇内涵意义的差异有很多，包括人们的审美心理和价值观念等等。本文从动物词汇在中西文化中不同内涵差异着手，探究了引起这些差异的中西文化中特定的地域差异，宗教信仰，风俗习惯以及历史背景。

关键词: 动物词汇，文化内涵，文化差异及原因