study on cultural connotations of basic color terms between english and chinese英语专业.docx

study on cultural connotations of basic color terms between english and chinese英语专业.docx

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studyonculturalconnotationsofbasiccolortermsbetweenenglishandchinese英语专业

ThesisforBachelor’sDegree

AContrastiveStudyonCulturalConnotationsofBasicColorTermsbetweenEnglishandChinese

Abstract

Weliveinacolorfulworld.Thereareagreatvarietyofcolorwords,oralargenumberofexpressionsdenotingthesensationofcolorsusedtodescribethecolorfulthingsintheworld.Althoughdifferingintheirquantitiesinthecolorinventoryofdifferentlanguages,basiccolortermsareimportantcomponentsofalmostallthehumanlanguages.Asagroupofcultural-loadedwords,basiccolortermsreflectculturaldiversitiesintheaspectssuchasminds,customaryhabitsaswellascolororientations.

EnglishandChinese,aslanguageswithalonghistory,arebothabundantinbasiccolorterms,andalmostallthebasiccolortermscarrytheirownpeculiarconnotationsresultingfromdifferentsocialcultures,historicalprocessesandgeographicconditions.Withthedeepeningofthecross-culturalcommunicationbetweenChinaandthewesternworld,ithasbeenrealizedthatbasiccolortermsformanareainwhichmisunderstandingincross-culturalcommunicationseemsinevitablebecauseofthediversitiesoftheirculturalconnotations.Therefore,acontrastivestudyonculturalconnotationsofbasiccolortermsbetweenEnglishandChineseisofsignificance.

Languageisthecarrierandreflectionofculture,andcolortermsisonepartoflanguage.BythecontrastivestudyofculturalconnotationsofbasiccolortermsbetweenEnglishandChinese,wecanknowmoreaboutwhatisgoingoninpeople’smind,intheirlanguageandculture.

Thisthesisconsistsoffourparts.Partoneisthegeneralintroductioninwhichitpointsoutwhatisdiscussedinthethesis.Parttwodefine“basiccolorterms”andintroducetherelationshipbetweencolortermsandculture;besides,italsodiscussesthenecessityofwritingthisthesisPartthreeservesasthemainbodyofthisthesis,inwhichitgivessomeexamplesaboutcolor.Partfouristheconclusionofthewholethesis.

Keywords:

contrastivestudy,culturalconnotations,basiccolorterms

摘要

在人类生活的这个神奇的彩色世界里，颜色渗透着我们生活的各个领域。

用来表示这些颜色的颜色词数不胜数，基本颜色词是本篇论文探讨的重点。

虽然不同语言中基本颜色词的数量不同，但他们几乎是所有语言的词汇组成部分。

作为具有文化伴随意义的词汇，基本颜色词反映着社会心理、风俗习惯、颜色取向等文化因素方面的差异。

英语和汉语同为源远流长的语言，都有丰富的基本颜色词。

但是，由于不同的社会、历史、地理等原因，英语和汉语的许多基本颜色词都反映了各自民族的文化特点。

随着中西文化交流的不断深入，人们已经认识到具有深刻文化内涵的基本颜色词不可避免地成为跨文化交际中的一个障碍。

因此研究英语和汉语基本颜色词的文化内涵具有一定的现实意义。

语言是文化的载体与映射。

颜色词是语言中的一部分。

通过对比英语和汉语基本颜色词的文化内涵，我们可以了解到民族的社会价值观、道德观以及文化的民族性和共同性。

本文共分四部分。

第一部分对全文进行了简要介绍，它指出了本篇论文所讨论的重点。

第二部分对基本颜色词进行了定义以及介绍了颜色词和文化之间的关系，并且讨论了写这篇论文的和必要性。

第三章是本文的主体，其中列出了一些颜色词的例子。

第四章是整篇论文的结论。

关键词：

对比研究,文化内涵,基本颜色词

Contents

AbstractinEnglish

AbstractinChinese

Preface1

1.Introduction2

2.BasicColorTermsandCulture3

2.1DefinitionofBasicColorTerms3

2.2ColorTermsandCulture3

2.3NecessityoftheContrastiveStudyonCultureConnotationsofBasicColorTerms4

3.AContrastiveStudyonCultureConnotationsofBasicColorTermsbetweenEnglishandChinese4

3.1Red5

3.2White7

3.3Yellow9

3.4Blue11

3.5Black13

3.6Green14

4.Conclusion17

References19

Acknowledgements20

Preface

Ithasbeenrealizedthatbasiccolorterms,asagroupofcultural-loadedwords,formanareawithfrequentoccurrenceofcommunicativemisunderstanding,therootofwhichliesinculturaldifferences.

Torealizethetruevalueofcommunication,decodingthemessageonlyinitsliteralmeaningisfarfrombeingenough.Miscommunicationandmisunderstandingresultfromthefactthattheconnotativemeaningreflectsthesubjectiveattitudeofthespeakersandvariesfromonepersontoanother.Asaresult,thedecodingandproperappraisalofwhatissaidisbasednotonlyonthehearer’slinguisticknowledgeaboutthelanguage,butmoreimportantly,onhisknowledgeabouttheculturalbackgroundembodiedinthelanguage.

Itmaybeanextremestandthatthemisuseoflanguageisamajorcauseofhumanconflicts,butitisthecase,toacertainextent,thatsomeclashesincommunicationresultfromsemanticandpragmaticfailure,sopeopleareoftensuggestedtochooserightwordstomeanwhattheysay.Thechoiceoftherightwordsisalsobasedupontheirunderstandingoftheconnotativemeaningsofthewordstheyareusing.

ThestudiesonconnotationsofcolortermscannotonlyhelptolearnEnglish,butalsoenlightenEnglishlanguagelearningandteaching.Inaddition,theyalsoplayimportantrolesinthefieldoftranslationandcross-culturalcommunication.

1.Introduction

“Mr.Brownisaverywhiteman.Hewaslookingrathergreentheotherday.Hehasbeenfeelingbluelately.WhenIsawhim,hewasinabrownmood.Ihopehe’llsoonbeinthepinkagain.”Whenreadingthissentence,peoplemightbeataloss.Thestructureandvocabularyarequitesimple,butthemeaningofthecolortermsmaypuzzlepeople.

Ithasbeenrealizedthatbasiccolorterms,asagroupofcultural-loadedwords,formanareawithfrequentoccurrenceofcommunicativemisunderstanding,therootofwhichliesinculturaldifferences.

Manyascholarhascarriedoutresearchesoncolorperceptionandcolortermfromdifferentangles.Generallyspeaking,therehavebeenroughlythreeapproachesinthestudyofcolorlexicon:

oneislanguage-systemrelated,asecondispsychologicallyoriented,andathirdisculturallyorsociolinguisticallydriven.

TheschoolofresearchinitiatedbyBerlinandKay（1969）belongstothefirstapproach.Itismoreinterestedinestablishinguniversalrulesandevolutionarystagesofcolorlexiconacrosslanguages.Theypaidtoomuchattentiontothelanguagesystemattheexpenseoflanguageuse,andthebasicorrestrictedcolorlexiconhasbecometheprimaryfocusoftheiracademicinterestwiththe“fancy”（Lakoff1973）orelaboratedcolorlexiconbeingcompletelyignored.

ThesecondapproachisdevelopedbyHeider（1971）,whoindicatesanacademicinfluencefromcognitivepsychology.Thisschooltriestorevealthementalrepresentationofcolorlexicon,throughthecategorizationorprototypemechanismsofhumanbeings.Whathasbeenignoredinthisschoolissimilartotheuniversalandevolutionarystudyofcolorlexicon:

colorwordsotherthanbasiconesandtheusageofcolorlexiconhavebecomeasecondaryconcern.

Thethirdschoolcanbedividedintotwocategories:

macro-sociolinguisticalandmicro-sociolinguistical.Theformerstudiesthespecificusageofcolortermsininterculturalcommunication,thatis,theculturalcontrastofcolorterms.Thelatterresearchesthedifferencesincolorcodabilityinadefinitecommunitywithrelationtoage,genderandothersocial-relatedfactors.Manyaresearchhasbeengiventothemicro-sociolinguisticalresearchbothhomeandabroad.Thediscussionofthisthesisfallsintothefirstcategory,tostudytheculturalconnotationsofcolortermsbetweenEnglishandChinese.

Thisthesisconsistsoffourparts.Partoneisthegeneralintroductioninwhichitpointsoutwhatisdiscussedinthethesis.Parttwodefine“basiccolorterms”andintroducetherelationshipbetweencolortermsandculture;besides,italsodiscussesthenecessityofwritingthisthesisPartthreeservesasthemainbodyofthisthesis,inwhichitgivessomeexamplesaboutcolor;includingred,white,yellow,blue,blackandgreen.Partfouristheconclusionofthewholethesis.

2.BasicColorTermsandCulture

2.1DefinitionofBasicColorTerms

Weliveinacolorfulworld.Tosatisfyourdailynecessities,peopleuseagreatnumberofcolortermstorepresentcolors.Forinstance,itisestimatedthatthereareoverthreethousandcolorwordsinEnglish.Morerevealingly,oureyesarecapableofdistinguishingsevenmilliondifferentcolors,formostofwhichwedonothaveanylinguisticexpressionsavailableatall.What’smore,duetothecontinuousnatureofspectrumit’sdifficulttocategorizethecolors,thusthecategoriesofcolortermsarevague.

Generallyspeaking,thecolorwordsinEnglishcanbedividedintotwocategories:

basiccolortermsandobjectcolorterms,thecounterpartsofwhichcanalsobefoundinChinese.TherearesomanycolortermsinEnglishandChinesethatwecannotdiscussallofthem,thusinthisthesis,thediscussionwillfocusonthefieldofbasiccolorterms.

Beforethediscussion,weshouldhaveaclearconceptofbasiccolorterms.However,it’sdifficulttogiveadefiniteandaccuratedefinitiontobasiccolorterms.Therearemanyversionsofdefinitiontobasiccolorterms,amongwhichthemostacceptableisgivenbyBerlinandKay.IntheirBasicColorTerms:

TheirUniversalityandEvolution,BerlinandKaylayoutfourbasiccriteriatojudgewhetheracolorwordisbasicornot（cf.3.1.2.）.Accordingtothiscriterion,theelevenbasiccolorcategoriesarewhite,black,red,green,yellow,blue,brown,purple,pink,orangeandgray,Iwilldiscusssixoftheminthethesis.

2.2ColorTermsandCulture

Indifferentcultures,therearedifferentperceptionsofcolorterms.SapirandWhorfhadmadecross-culturalcomparisonsofcolortermsasevidence.Whenpeopleperceivecolorwiththeireyes,forinstance,theyaresensingthatportionofelectromagneticradiationthatisvisiblelight.Thespectrumofvisiblelightisacontinuumoflightwaveswithfrequenciesthatincreaseatacontinuousratefromoneendtotheother.Inotherwords,therearenodistinctcolorslike“red”and“green”innature.Culture,throughlanguage,guidespeopleinseeingthespectrumintermsofthearbitraryestablishedcategoriesthattheycallcolors.Differentculturesmaydivideupthespectrumindifferentways.Inotherwords,thecolorstheyseearepredeterminedbywhattheircultureprepares