「牛」這一種動物，遠在西班牙以及我們身處的台灣都具有特殊的文化意涵，然而卻也大不相同。在西班牙文化中，「牛」令人聯想到鬥牛（toro），它蘊含了兇猛、野蠻、原始等特質。而西班牙廣為人知的「鬥牛比賽」（las corridas de toros）更象徵著人類挑戰兇猛的牛隻，對大自然、對死亡發出戰帖此種英勇的壯舉；在台灣文化中，「牛」卻蘊含了憨厚、勤勞、有耐力、認真等特質，「與牛耕田」這一個常見於農間的行為更體現出人類與牛互為搭檔、相知相惜的合作關係。「牛」——同一個意象，在兩個文化中卻有如此天差地遠的象徵意涵。何以有如此的差距呢？
筆者試圖比較西語及華語中有關牛的諺語。在西語諺語方面選用有關鬥牛（toro）、公牛（buey）及乳牛（vaca）的三類諺語，在華語諺語方面，主要針對在台通用的國語諺語以及閩南語諺語，從中選用可對應供討論的諺語。分析架構採用概念隱喻理論（Lakoff & Johnson, 1980），藉由比照西語及華語中有關「牛」的諺語，探討「牛」作為譬喻性載具（metaphorical vehicle）的使用，及其如何體現兩地不同的風土民情與價值觀。

Cattle, significant animals in both Spain and Taiwan, though are equally important but have different representations in both cultures. In Spanish cultural, when speaking of cattle, one may first think of bull (toro), an animal related with fierce and wild. Not to mention the renowned activity of bullfighting in Spain (las corridas de toros), in which humans fight against bulls, fighting for their life and conquering the death. In Taiwanese culture, however, cattle remind people of humble, diligence, patience, and hard-working. Here, people do not see cattle as opponents, but rather collaborate with them to plow the fields, work together as partners. It seems that “cattle” have a quite different cultural meaning in these two cultures, but how?
The author intends to compare the cultural meanings between cattle-related Spanish proverbs and their correspondent Chinese ones. The former involves Spanish proverbs of bull (toro), ox (buey), and cow (vaca), while the later focuses on cattle-related Chinese proverbs frequently used in Taiwan, and may also include Taiwanese ones. The analysis is based on Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). By comparing these proverbs, the author discusses how “cattle” is used as a metaphorical vehicle and how it represented these two different cultures.

Alves, A. (2011). The animals of Spain: an introduction to imperial perceptions and human interaction with other animals, 1492-1826 (Vol. 13). Brill.

Aristotle. (1984). History of Animals. Complete Works of Aristotle, Vol. 1 (J. Barnes Ed.). Princeton University Press; Bollingen Series Ed. (Original work written 4 BC).

Aristotle. (2004). Rhetoric (W. Rhys. Robert, Trans.). Dover Publications. (Original work published ca. 350 B.C.E)

Az Animals. (2022, Apr. 14). Ox: Bos Taurus. Az Animals. https://a-z-animals.com/animals/ox/

Barratt, S. (2017, Sep. 22). 4 things you need to know about the history of ploughing. CountryLiving. countryliving.com/uk/wildlife/farming/a2535/short-history-of-ploughing/

Beiras, A., Cantera, L. M., & de Alencar-Rodrigues, R. (2015). I am a bull! The construction of masculinity in a group of men perpetrators of violence against women in Spain. Universitas Psychologica, 14, 1525-1538.

Bennahum, N. D. (2021, Oct. 27). Flamenco. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/flamenco

Bereday, G. Z. (1964). Comparative method in education. Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Boers, F. (2003). Applied linguistics perspectives on cross-cultural variation in conceptual metaphor. Metaphor and Symbol, 18, 231238.

Bradshaw Foundation. (2022, Oct. 26). The cave of Altamira: faith and science, discovery and dogma. Bradshaw Foundation. https://www.bradshawfoundation.com/spain/altamira/index.php

Brislin, R. W. (1976). Comparative research methodology: Cross-cultural studies. International journal of psychology, 11(3), 215-229.

Bryant, T. (2021, June 4). 4 June 1917: Birth of the 'greatest bullfighter of all time'. SUR in English. https://www.surinenglish.com/lifestyle/202106/04/june-1917birth-greatest-bullfighter-20210604102405-v.html

Chen, S. F., & Chen, L. L. C. (2011). What animals reveal about grammar and culture: A study of animal metaphors in Mandarin Chinese and English. 師大學報: 語言與文學類, 56(2), 121-152.

Clifford, G. C. (2021, Oct. 25). Owl Symbolism & Meaning (+Totem, Spirit & Omens). World Birds. https://worldbirds.com/owl-symbolism/#symbolism

Cohen, Y. (2013). Wisdom from the Late Bronze Age (Vol. 34). Society of Biblical Lit.

Collins English dictionary. (2021, Oct 25). Language Lovers: Words of Endearment. Collins language lovers blog. https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-lovers/words-of-endearment/

Community of Madrid. (2022, Oct. 16). Manolete the man, the myth. Comunicad de Madrid. https://www.comunidad.madrid/en/cultura/oferta-cultural-ocio/manolete-hombre-mito

Conrad, B. (2019, Feb. 10). bullfighting. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/sports/bullfighting

Cumming, E. (2015, Oct. 11). Raising the steaks: meet the elderly Spanish cows destined for dinner plates. The Guardian. theguardian.com/global/2015/oct/11/raising-the-steaks-meet-the-elderly-spanish-cows-destined-for-dinner-plates

DAŞKIN, N. C., & Hatipoğlu, Ç. (2019). A proverb learned is a proverb earned: Proverb instruction in EFL classrooms. Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 5(1), 57-88.

Deignan, A. (2003). Metaphorical expressions and culture: An indirect link. Metaphor and symbol, 18(4), 255-271.

Douglass, C. B. (1999). Bulls, bullfighting, and Spanish identities. University of Arizona Press.

Dunlop, D. (2016, July 15). Ronda – Where Modern Bullfighting Began. The Martime Explorer. https://themaritimeexplorer.ca/2016/07/15/ronda/

Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2020, March 26). proverb. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/proverb

Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2022, Sep. 8). paella. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/paella

Ejaz, S. (2022, Oct. 30). Why Do Cows Moo? 7 Reasons to Know. FARMING BASE. https://farmingbase.com/why-do-cows-moo/

El Palacio Andaluz. (2019, Oct. 28). Origin of Flamenco in Andalusia: Seville, Granada and Jerez de la Frontera. El palacio Andaluz. https://elflamencoensevilla.com/en/origin-of-flamenco-in-andalusia/

Fagan, B. M. (1979). Return To Babylon: travelers, archaeologists, and monuments in Mesopotamia. Little, Brown.

Fahmi, M. E. E. (2016). A cross-cultural study of some selected Arabic proverbs and their English translation equivalents: A contrastive approach. International Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies, 4(2), 51-57.

Fatema, K., Rashed, K. N., & Sultan, A. S. (2020). A Cross-Cultural Study of the Usage of Proverbs and Idioms in Chinese and Bengali. Bayan: A Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, 1(3), 1-22.

Ficek, R. E. (2019). Cattle, capital, colonization: tracking creatures of the Anthropocene in and out of human projects. Current Anthropology, 60(S20), S260-S271.

Firth, R. (1926). Proverbs in native life, with special reference to those of the Maori, I. Folklore, 37(2), 134-153.

Gaeng, J. (2022, June 8). The Complete History Of Bullfighting. AZ Animals. https://a-z-animals.com/blog/the-complete-history-of-bullfighting/

Gil Cabrera, F. (2013). Variables neuroendocrinas y su relación con el comportamiento durante la lidia del toro bravo (" Bos taurus", L.). Ene, 16, 37.

Haslam, N. (2006). Dehumanization: An integrative review. Personality and social psychology review, 10(3), 252-264.

Haslam, N., Loughnan, S., & Sun, P. (2011). Beastly: What makes animal metaphors offensive?. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 30(3), 311-325.

Honeck, R. P. (2013). A proverb in mind: The cognitive science of proverbial wit and wisdom. Psychology Press.

Hrisztova-Gotthardt, H., & Varga, M. A. (Eds.). (2014). Introduction to paremiology: A comprehensive guide to proverb studies. De Gruyter Open.

Hsieh, S. C. Y. (2006). A corpus-based study on animal expressions in Mandarin Chinese and German. Journal of Pragmatics, 38(12), 2206-2222.

Husted, K. (2016, May 25). What Is The Meaning Behind The Moo?. NPR. npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/05/25/477476210/what-is-the-meaning-behind-the-moo

Johnson, C., & Leatherman, A. (2005). El Toro de Osborne: advertising, community, and myth. The Social Science Journal, 42(1), 135-140.

Jones, J. (2017, July 29). A Spanish Icon: The Untold Story of Spain's Osborne Bulls. The Culture Trip. https://theculturetrip.com/europe/spain/articles/a-spanish-icon-the-untold-story-of-spains-osborne-bulls/

Jones, S. (2020, Mar. 14). Spain orders nationwide lockdown to battle coronavirus. The Guardian. theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/14/spain-government-set-to-order-nationwide-coronavirus-lockdown

Kilyeni, A., & Silaški, N. (2014). Beauty and the beast from a cognitive linguistic perspective: Animal metaphors for women in Serbian and Romanian. Gender Studies, 13(1), 163-178.

King, G. (2011, Nov. 11). OLD COW. Salter & King: craft butcher. salterandking.co.uk/blogs/news/56196545-old-cow

Kinther, H. & Gillies, J. L. (2021, Oct. 26). Cross-Cultural Analysis. The University of Alabama. https://anthropology.ua.edu/theory/cross-cultural-analysis/

Krikmann, A. (2007). The great chain of being as the background of personificatory and depersonificatory metaphors in proverbs and elsewhere. Kertas kerja dalam 1st Interdisciplinary colloquium on proverbs: Tavira (Algarve), Portugal, 5-12.

La Vanguardia. (2021, Oct. 28). COMUNICADO: Buscapalabra.com incorpora la antología poética de los poetas y poetisas más importantes en lengua española. La Vanguardia. https://www.lavanguardia.com/vida/20190701/463197268145/comunicado-buscapalabracom-incorpora-la-antologia-poetica-de-los-poetas-y-poetisas-mas-importantes-en-lengua-espanola.html

Lacan, J. (2006). Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English (B. Fink, Trans.). W. W. Norton & Company. (Original work published 1977).

Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago press.

Lakoff, G., & Turner, M. (1989). More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor. University of Chicago press.

Linde, P. (2022, Apr. 20). After two years, Spain ends indoor face mask rule. EL PAÍS. https://english.elpais.com/society/2022-04-20/after-two-years-spain-ends-indoor-face-mask-rule.html

Lomotey, B. A., & Chachu, S. (2020). Gender ideologies and power relations in proverbs: A cross-cultural study. Journal of Pragmatics, 168, 69-80.

Lomotey, B. A., & Csajbok-Twerefou, I. (2021). A pragmatic and sociolinguistic analysis of proverbs across languages and cultures. Journal of Pragmatics, 182, 86-91.

Maalej, Z. (2004). Figurative language in anger expressions in Tunisian Arabic: An extended view of embodiment. Metaphor and symbol, 19(1), 51-75.

Marni, S., Aliman, M., Septia, E., & Alfianika, N. (2020). Minangkabau proverb: Stimulating high school students' critical thinking and spatial thinking. Jakarta: Scitepress.

Merriam-Webster dictionary. (2021, Oct 22) Culture. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture

Mieder, W. (1993). Proverbs are never out of season: Popular wisdom in the modern age. Oxford University Press.

Mieder, W. (2004). Proverbs: A handbook. Greenwood Publishing Group.

Mieder, W. (2005). Proverbs are the best policy. Utah State University Press.

Mieder, W. (2008). " Proverbs speak louder than words": folk wisdom in art, culture, folklore, history, literature and mass media. Peter Lang.

Mitchel, P. (2021, Nov. 19). Rubia Gallega: Australia Has a New Premium Beef That’s More Tender Than Wagyu, Extremely Rare, and Available In Only One Restaurant. Food & Drink. Broadsheet. broadsheet.com.au/national/food-and-drink/article/explainer-rubia-gallega-premium-beef-s-more-tender-wagyu-and-menu-only-one-restaurant-country

Mooallem, J. (2022, May 3). The Matador and Me: Coming to Terms with My Famously Ugly Lookalike. The New York Times Magazine. nytimes.com/2022/05/03/magazine/manolete-matador-face.html

Moon, Rosamund. (1998.) Fixed Expressions and Idioms in English. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Moreno, A. I. (2005). An analysis of the cognitive dimension of proverbs in English and Spanish: The conceptual power of language reflecting popular believes. SKASE Journal of theoretical linguistics, 2(1), 42-54.

Muhammad, N. N., & Rashid, S. M. (2014). Cat metaphors in Malay and English proverbs. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 118, 335-342.

Paczolay, G. (2009). The Chinese sources of common far-eastern proverbs. The Proverbial "Pied Piper", 127-140.

Pallarez, M. (2016, Mar. 28). Así es el ciclo de vida productivo y reproductivo de una hembra bovina. Contexto Ganadero. https://www.contextoganadero.com/reportaje/asi-es-el-ciclo-de-vida-productivo-y-reproductivo-de-una-hembra-bovina

Pilcher, H. (2022, Oct. 30). What are cows communicating when they moo?. BBC Science Focus. sciencefocus.com/nature/what-are-cows-communicating-when-they-moo/

Rashid, S. M., Hajimaming, P., & Muhammad, N. N. (2012). "Farm" Animal Metaphors in Malay and Arabic Figurative Expressions: Implications for Language Learning. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 1(7), 33-39.

Real Academia Española. (2021, Oct. 28). https://www.rae.es/

Talebinejad, M. R., & Dastjerdi, H. V. (2005). A cross-cultural study of animal metaphors: When owls are not wise!. Metaphor and Symbol, 20(2), 133-150.

Taylor, A. (1931). The proverb (No. 113). Harvard University Press.

Thomas Joseph Butchery. (2022, May 20). Is Galician Beef the Best in the World? What is It and Why Should It Be on Your Plate?. Thomas Joseph Butchery. https://thomasjosephbutchery.co.uk/blogs/blog/galician-beef-what-is-it-and-why-should-it-be-on-your-plate

Tufts University. (2022, Sep. 26). πάροιμος. The Perseus Digital Library Project. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dpa%2Froimos&highlight=road

Turismo de Cordoba. (2022, Oct. 15). Manolete: Biography. Turismo de Cordoba. turismodecordoba.org/manolete-biography

Wine-Searcher editorial. (2022, Aug. 24). Rioja Wine. Wine-searcher. wine-searcher.com/regions-rioja

Euro surveillance (2020). The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain: characterisation of cases and risk factors for severe outcomes, as at 27 April 2020. Euro surveillance: bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin, 25(50), 2001431. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.50.2001431

Yu, R. (2019). Study on Origin of English and Chinese Proverb. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 10(4), 782-790.

Zhao, W. (2013). A Comparative Study of the Deep Structure of Culture Reflected in English and Chinese Social Proverbs. Journal of Language Teaching & Research, 4(2).

Zhong, C. (2008). Application of proverbs in psychotherapy for the Chinese. World Cultural Psychiatry Research Review, 3(1), 16-19.

小博士信箱。(2021年10月25日)。你知道「馬虎」的由來嗎？。台北市立圖書館。http://kids.tpml.edu.tw/sp.asp?xdurl=DR/library03_1.asp&id=8869&mp=100

中華民國教育部。（2021年11月15日）。臺灣閩南語常用詞辭典。中華民國教育部。https://twblg.dict.edu.tw/holodict_new/

王梅玲。（2021年10月25日）。比較研究。國家教育研究院：雙語詞彙、學術名詞暨辭書資訊網。https://terms.naer.edu.tw/detail/1679273/

交通部觀光局（Tourism Bureau）。（2021年11月1日）。110年1月至10月中華民國國民出國目的地統計。 交通部觀光局。https://admin.taiwan.net.tw/FileUploadCategoryListC003330.aspx?CategoryID=5d16abba-e4d6-4498-8928-d391c7c7e28a&appname=FileUploadCategoryListC003330

吳坤明。（2008年6月）。臺灣閩南語之淵源與正名。臺灣學研究，5，54-73。

周祝瑛。（2008年3月）。《比較教育研究：方法與途徑》之評介。當代教育研究，16（1），155-165。

食尚玩家。（2021年11月2日）。 HOLA HOLA熱情奔放西班牙。食尚玩家。https://supertaste.tvbs.com.tw/review/323469

國家教育研究院。（2021年11月15日）。重編國語辭典修訂本。國家教育研究院。https://dict.revised.moe.edu.tw/index.jsp

國家教育研究院。(2021年11月15日)。教育部成語典。國家教育研究院。https://dict.idioms.moe.edu.tw/search.jsp

國家教育研究院。（2021年11月1日）。國語辭典簡編本。國家教育研究院。https://dict.concised.moe.edu.tw/

國際及兩岸教育司（Department of International and Cross-strait Education）。（2021年11月1日）。 各年度世界各主要國家之我國留學生人數統計。 國際及兩岸教育司https://depart.moe.edu.tw/ed2500/News_Content.aspx?n=2D25F01E87D6EE17&sms=4061A6357922F45A&s=2C55D0443FFC4A79

游安妮（2021年10月3日）。從唐吉軻德諺語看西班牙與台灣之文化。輔仁大學西班牙語文學系碩士班碩士論文，新北市。https://hdl.handle.net/11296/c9e778

游崇瑋。（2019年3月28日）。【自然寫真】牛轉乾坤 重新認識台灣牛。經典雜誌。http://www.rhythmsmonthly.com/?p=40586

雅痞書店。（2021年10月2日）。《奔放西班牙》節慶與拉美特色服飾。雅痞書店。 https://online.yup.com.tw/20210413

愛料理（Icook）。（2021年10月2日）。【MyPlate健康吃】熱情奔放的西班牙料理。愛料理。https://blog.icook.tw/posts/96037

楊永健。（2017年01月）。嚴重燒燙傷之處置。臺大醫院健康電子報，110。https://epaper.ntuh.gov.tw/health/201701/project_2.html