Russian zoosemisms in the mirror of the Russian-Chinese dictionary

This research explores Russian zoosemisms as they are presented in the Russian Semantic Dictionary and the Dictionary of Offensive Words by L. V. Dulichenko and studies differences in the assortment of these words in the dictionaries. By comparing Russian zoosemisms with how they are rendered in the newest Large Russian-Chinese Explanatory Dictionary of the New Era, the author reveals inconsistencies between the original Russian interpretations and their Chinese translations. Only one-fourth of Russian zoosemisms are translated precisely in the Russian-Chinese dictionary. As for the rest of Russian zoosemisms, zoosemic meanings provided in Russian dictionaries are either not presented or their Chinese translations do not match the original interpretations. The research describes in detail the methods of interpreting Russian metaphorical meaning in the bilingual Russian-Chinese dictionary in a lexicographic perspective. It has been revealed that when translating Russian zoosemisms scholars mainly apply the description method, without using the respective Chinese metaphors; differences in interpretations provided by Russian and Russian-Chinese dictionaries are discussed in the article. The first method of translating Russian zoosemisms into Chinese is based on using Chinese zoosemisms stemming from the same zoonyms, having similar meanings. The second method is to use Chinese zoosemisms stemming from other zoonyms. The third one is to use comparisons, metonymy or metaphors not based on zoonyms. Various translation methods used demonstrate the difficulty in adapting Russian zoosemisms for Chinese learners and also reveal the common and distinguishing features of Russian and Chinese linguistic cultures.