A Comparative Study of the Deep Structure of Culture Reflected in English and Chinese Social Proverbs

Abstract

Social proverbs contain life philosophies and experience as well as moral standards; aspects of social life are reflected in the mirror of social proverbs. Social proverbs are of both language and culture. Because of their abundant cultural information, social proverbs have been studied from the point of culture in many researches. Although many researches have been done to reveal the cultural similarities and differences between English and Chinese proverbs, they hardly focus on the deep structure of culture reflected or refracted in them. A comparative study on English and Chinese social proverbs, by illustrating their connection with the deep structures, is provided. The differences between the deep structures of Western and Chinese culture can be therefore revealed.