英汉红色词义对比研究英语.docx

英汉红色词义对比研究英语.docx

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英汉红色词义对比研究英语

河北师范大学

本科毕业论文（设计）

题目（中文）：

英汉红色词义对比研究

（英文）：

AComparativeStudyontheSenseofRedinEnglishandChinese

学院外国语

年级专业10级英语

学生姓名

学号

指导教师

完成日期2012年4月

AComparativeStudyontheSenseofRedinEnglishandChinese

Writtenby

YangJing

Supervisedby

ProfessorHaoHuizhen

AThesisSubmittedto

ShanghaiNormalUniversity

inPartialFulfillmentoftheRequirementsfor

theDegreeofBachelorofArts

inEnglishEducation

ForeignLanguagesCollege,ShanghaiNormalUniversity

April2008

Acknowledgements

Thisthesisisdedicatedtoalltheteacherswhohavetaughtmealot,especiallytomysupervisor,whohashelpedtoworkouttheoutline,givingmeenlighteningadvicethroughoutthewholeprocessofthepresentthesis.Toher,Ioweaprofounddebtofgratitude.

Theworkwouldnothavebeenpossiblewithoutthehelpofmyroommatesandfriends,whogavemealotofencouragementwhenIwasataloss.Wediscussedalotandmovedforward.

Iamparticularlyindebtedtomyfatherandmother,whoencouragedmetopersistandgavemethebesttheycouldoffer.

Withoutallthesupport,Icouldnothavecompletedthistoughwork.

Abstract

ColourtermsareabundantinbothEnglishandChinese，suchasred,yellow,andblue.Inthisthesis,IhaveattemptedtomakeacomparisonbetweenthesenseofredinEnglishandthatinChinesebystudyingtheexamplescollectedfromallthematerialsavailable.

Thethesisisdividedintothreeparts.InChapterOne,IrelatecolourtermswithcognitionandcultureinEnglishandChinese.InChapterTwo,IlistalotofexamplesrelatedtoredinEnglishandChineseandanalysethemfromthreeaspectsintermsoftheirsense:

exactequivalence,partialequivalence,noequivalence.InChapterThree,Ifindoutthefactorsthatcausethesesemanticsimilaritiesanddifferencesofredfromtheperspectiveofcognitionandculture.

ThroughacomparativestudyofthesenseofredinEnglishandChinese,IshedlightonthethreekindsofequivalentrelationshipofredtermsinEnglishandChinese.ThethreekindsofequivalentrelationshipindicatethatthereexistsimilarityanddifferenceinredtermsbetweenEnglishandChinese.Bothsimilarityanddifferenceareattributedtocognitivebasisandculturalinfluence.Ifpeopleknowthemwell,theycanachievebettercross-culturecommunication.

Keywords:

thesenseofred;semanticequivalence;similarity;difference;cognition;culture

摘要

在英语和汉语中,存在着丰富的颜色词,如红色，黄色，蓝色。

在这篇文章中，通过研究所获材料中的例子，我尝试着对英汉红色词义进行了对比分析。

本文分为三个部分。

在第一章中，我谈到了颜色词与认知和文化的关系。

在第二章中，我列举了中英文里有关红色词语的许多例子，并且结合三种语义对等关系对它们进行了分析：

英汉语义的完全对应，部分对应和不完全对应。

在第三章中，我从认知以及文化的角度，阐释了导致这些红色词语在中英文里语义相似和不同的原因。

通过对中英文中红色词义的对比研究，我揭示出红色词语在中英文里的三种对应关系。

这三种对应关系表明在英汉两种语言里，红色词语的语义确实存在着相似性和差异性，而这些相似性和差异性都源于认知的基础和文化的影响。

关键词：

红色语义；语义对应；相似；差异；认知；文化

Contents

Acknowledgements…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….….

i

Abstract…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….………….…

ii

摘要……………………………………………………………………………….

iii

1.Introduction………………………………………………………..

1

2.ThegeneralviewofcolourtermsinEnglishandChinese……...

2

2.1ColourtermswithcognitioninEnglishandChinese……………………..

2

2.2ColourtermswithcultureinEnglishandChinese…………………………

3

3.SemanticequivalenceofredinEnglishandChinese…………….

5

3.1Exactequivalence………………………………………………………….

5

3.2Partialequivalence………………………………………………………...

6

3.3Noequivalence…………………………………………………………….

8

4.ReasonsforthesemanticsimilaritiesanddifferencesofredinEnglishandChinese………………………………………………….

11

4.1ReasonsforthesemanticsimilaritiesofredinEnglishandChinese……..

11

4.2ReasonsforthesemanticdifferencesofredinEnglishandChinese………

13

4.2.1Differenceinaesthetichabit……………………………….…………

14

4.2.2Differenceinhistoricalbackground….…………………….………...

15

5.Conclusion……………………………....................……………...

17

Bibliography…………………………………………………….……

18

1.Introduction

AccordingtoGeoffreyLeech（1981:

9）,“Thereareseventypesofmeanings:

conceptualmeaning,connotativemeaning,socialmeaning,affectivemeaning,reflectedmeaning,collocativemeaning,andthematicmeaning.”Andhecombinedconnotativemeaning,socialmeaning,affectivemeaning,reflectedmeaning,collocativemeaninginto“associativemeaning”.Sobesidestheliteralmeaning,colourwordshaveaffluentassociativemeanings.Differentnationsendowthemwithdifferentculturalconnotations.ThecomparativestudyofthesenseofredinbothEnglishandChinesewillbeabridgeforbothEnglishandChineselearnerstounderstandthesimilaritiesanddisparities;otherwise,thesedisparitiescancauseambiguityandleadtomisunderstanding.

“Obviously,connotationsareapttovaryfromagetoageandfromsocietytosociety”（Ibid:

12）.Comparedwithconceptualmeaning,associativemeaningisunstablebecauseassociationsvaryconsiderablyaccordingtoculture,historicalperiod,andtheexperienceofindividuals.SoitisquitenecessarytomakeacomparisonbetweenassociativemeaningofredinEnglishandthatinChinese.

Therehavebeenalotofstudiesaboutthemeaningsofdifferentcolours,thewaytotranslatesomephraseswithcolourterms,andtherelationshipbetweencolourandculture.Manyofthemfocusonseveralcolours,andsomefocusingononecolourtermonlylistlotsofexampleswithoutcomparingthemindifferentlanguages,soit’smeaningfultomakeacomparisonbetweenthesenseofredinEnglishandthatinChinese.Ifweknowthesimilaritiesanddifferencesinthesensebetweenthesetwolanguages,wecanlearnthesecondlanguagebetter,thusachievingthecross-culturecommunication.

ThethesisisabouttoanalyzesomeexamplesofredtermsinbothEnglishandChinese,trytofindthesimilaritiesanddissimilaritiesbetweenthemintermsofsemantics,andfindoutthefactorsthatcausethesesemanticsimilaritiesanddissimilaritiesfromtheperspectiveofcognitionandculture.

2.ThegeneralviewofcolourtermsinEnglishandChinese

Coloursarecloselyrelatedtopeople’slife.Colourisanimportantfieldfromwhichpeoplecanrecognizetheworld.Letusseethefollowingexample:

（1）菩萨蛮·大柏地

赤橙黄绿青蓝紫，谁持彩练当空舞？

雨后复斜阳，关山阵阵苍。

Red,orange,yellow,green,blue,indigo,violet.

Whoisdancing,wavingthiscolouredribbonagainstthesky?

Thesunreturnsslantingaftertherain.

Andhillandpassgrowadeeperblue.（包惠南2003:

128）

InExample

（1）,ChairmanMaousessevencolourtermstodescribethecoloursofarainbowintheskyafterasummerstorm.TheyareidenticalwiththesevencoloursthatareusedtodescribetherainbowinEnglishEncyclopedia.

Withoutcolours,therewillbenocolourfullife.Natureprovidesuswithmanybeauties,suchastherisingsun,thewhitemoonlight,thebluesea,andthegreenwheatwave.Theyareallthatweshouldcherish.

2.1ColourtermswithcognitioninEnglishandChinese

Languagehastwomeanings.Oneisitsconceptualmeaningwhiletheotherisitsassociativemeaning.Whenweusecolourtermstodescribethecolourofacertainsubject,theirconceptualmeaningisapplied.Whenweassociatecolourtermswithabstractconcepts,theirassociativemeaningisapplied.“TheoryofSemanticFeature-cancellation”（王寅2001:

308）makesitpossibleforustousewordswhicharesupposedtodescribeconcretethingstoexpressabstractconcepts.

Cognitivesemanticsviewsmeaningsasamentalphenomenonwhichisbasedonbodyexperience.Theyaretheresultofinteractionbetweenhumanbeingandtherealworld.Theprocessoftheformingofmeaningsistheprocessofconceptualization.Andtheprocessofconceptualizationisacognitiveonewhichisbasedonbodyexperience.（Ibid:

181）Thecognitiveprocessisaverycomplexone.Thecognitionofcoloursisavisualcognitiveprocess.Allthevisualinformationiscarriedtothecortexoverthemajorvisualpathway.Thediscussionofcolourtermswilltakeoneonajourneyfromtheeyetothecortex.One’sbrainservesasacolourprocessor.

Thecognitionofcoloursalsoinvolvesone’ssubjectivity.Thus,onecolourreflectsnotonlyobjectivefeaturebutsubjectivefeatureaswell.Thesubjectivefeatureisusuallyformedthroughsynesthesia,whichmeanswhetherthecolourmakesyoufeelwarmorfeelcold.

AsGeoffreyLeech（1981:

235-26）putit,“Therelativeuniformityofcoloursemanticsindifferentlanguageshasmuchtodowiththeuniformityofthehumanapparatusofvisualperception.”Whateverlanguageapersonspeaks,heisapttoregard“certainfocalcolourstimuli”asmoreimportantthanothers.Amongmanycolours,redistheeasiesttoperceive.

2.2ColourtermswithcultureinEnglishandChinese

“Cultureisanintegralwholewhichembracesknowledge,beliefs,moralities,laws,customsandotherabilitiesandhabitsamanhasacquiredasamemberofsociety.”（quotedin陶丽2006:

17）

Languageisapartofculture.Languageisamirror,infrontofwhichcultureisreflected.Thedifferenceofthe“innercontentofthenation”（解海江and章黎平2004:

263）isafundamentalfactorcausingdifferentunderstandingofculturalconnotationsofcolours.Peopleindifferentculturesmayhavetotallydifferentunderstandingoftheassociativemeaningwhichthesamecolourconveys.

Culturalassociativemeaningisdeterminedbyonenation’scustom,geography,andreligion.Thesamecolourmaygiverisetodifferentassociationinone’smind.Thisiscausedbyculturaldifference.Thesimilarityistheresultofculturalcommensurabilityandmutualpenetrationofculture.Inmostcultures,redisrelatedtoenthusiasmandunrestraint.Butthereexistgreatdifferencesincustom,geography,andreligionbetweendifferentnations.First,colourtermsinChineseembodyfeudalhierarchicalculture.Inmanydynasties