The cultural meaning of animal words comes from human cognitive mechanisms. Through frequent contact with animals, humans have recognized the categorical attributes of animals. By means of rhetorical devices, such as metaphor and metonymy, these attributes of the animal category are mapped into other categories by their relevance or similarity. Metaphorical meanings are gradually established through frequent association and become conventionalized, conceptualized, and lexicalized. Then the cultural meaning of animal words comes into being. (LLBA 2002, vol. 36, n. 3)