英汉词汇文化对比及对英语教学的启示.docx

1、英汉词汇文化对比及对英语教学的启示英汉词汇文化对比及对英语教学的启示Abstract Language is closely related with culture. One kind of language is influenced by its national culture and represents for its special cultural connotations. This article points out that vocabulary, as one of the three elements of a language, is the most activ

2、e factor in language learning, which is obviously seen if there appear some changes in culture and language. The significance of studying the cultural connotations of vocabulary is realized. The connotations belong to one aspect of the meanings of vocabulary, and the meanings are divided into seven

3、styles. Besides the conceptual meaning, the rest of other meanings pertain to the connotations. From the connotations, the article analyzes the three corresponding relationships between English and Chinese vocabulary that show the cultural connotations: complete parallelism, incomplete parallelism a

4、nd no parallelism and gives some examples to demonstrate them. While in the English teaching nowadays, the cultural connotations of vocabulary are often ignored by many English educators, which leads to much danger. Many problems always occur so that students interests will be lowered and that stude

5、nts do not have scientific methods of learning, or have bad competence of using language. In this way, the article gives some enlightenment of English teaching, including the constitution of syllabus, the choosing and composing of the teaching material, teaching activities in-class and activities af

6、ter-class. Therefore, language can be used freely when integrating the cultural connotations of English and Chinese vocabulary with English teaching.Key Words English and Chinese vocabulary; cultural connotation; contrast; teaching 摘 要 语言与文化密不可分。一种语言会在一定程度上受本民族文化的影响，反映其独特的文化内涵。词汇作为语意的三要素之一，是语言最活跃的环节

7、，文化与语言的任何一点变化在词汇这一环节上都是显而易见的，从而明确了研究词汇文化内涵的意义。词汇文化内涵是属于词汇意义中的其中一部分，除了概念意义外其余的意义均属于内涵这一方面。就这个词汇的文化内涵意义，文章简单分析了体现英汉语词汇文化内涵的三种对应关系：完全对应型、不完全对应型及完全不对应型，并给出了一些词汇实例证明这三种关系。由于这些对应关系所反映的英汉语词汇的文化内涵常常被许多英语教育工作者所忽视，以至于在现今的英语教学中产生了一定的危害。普遍存在着学生学习兴趣不高，没有科学的学习方法及英语学习能力差等弊病。这些给我们的英语教学带来了极大的启发，本文分别从教学大纲、教材的选编、课堂教学活

8、动、课后活动这些方面导入英汉语词汇的文化因素，能帮助学生更好地运用语言，把英汉语词汇的文化内涵与教学真正结合起来。关键词 中英词汇；文化内涵；对比；教学1.IntroductionLanguage is related closely with culture. Language is the carrier and container of culture. English is part of English culture and the Chinese language is part of Chinese culture. Human experience and life styl

9、e are described and stored in language. Customs, habits and behavioural patterns can be described and analyzed in language. Even the visual arts like painting, sculpture, movie and dance and the auditory arts such as music and singing can be described and evaluated in language. To be sure, culture c

10、an exist in the form of materials.1 As a mirror of culture language is strongly influenced and shaped by culture. 2 Familial relation is very important to the Chinese people, so there are many kinship terms in Chinese. For example:(1) 叔侄- uncle and nephew (2) 爷孙- grandfather and grandson(3) 婆媳- gran

11、dmother and wife (4) 夫妻- husband and wifeTherefore if you want to learn and master one kind of language, learners should know the cultural background of the country that the language belongs to. If a learner just pays attention to the language itself but ignores the cultural background that the lang

12、uage represents, he will not master it correctly and use it properly.Meanwhile language also reflects its influence on culture. “White” means “immaculate and sinless” in English, so westerners call “the auspicious day of marrying” as “white day”. Then in China, “white” is not good for lovers who wil

13、l marry. Vocabulary is the basic factor of all language and a key element in language learning. A well-known English linguist D.A.Wilkins said: “No language, people cant express many things; while no vocabulary, people can express none.”3 Vocabulary is the most active and flexible component of langu

14、age. By this token, vocabulary can be reflected by culture. In other words, the discrepancies between different cultures can also be reflected by vocabulary.This article is trying to focus on the cultural connotations of English and Chinese vocabulary and give some suggestions to English teaching. 2

15、. The classification of vocabulary meaningEnglish linguist Geoffrey Leach divides the semantics into seven styles: 1) Conceptual Meaning; 2) Connotative Meaning; 3) Stylistic Meaning; 4) Affective Meaning; 5) Reflected Meaning; 6) Collocative Meaning; 7) Thematic Meaning 4 Conceptual meaning is the

16、basic meaning, the central factor in linguistic communication, which is the word meaning used to express an object in the real world or a concept in our mind. It is also the denotative meaning of words. Then the rest of other meanings pertain to the connotation, which is the associative matters and

17、feelings when using the words. The cultural connotation of vocabulary refers to the meaning of the culture of one nation that words imply, or the meanings except for the conceptual meaning of one word or a phrase.So in the following paper, the meanings except the conceptual meaning of vocabulary wil

18、l be discussed.3. Analysis of the corresponding relationships of the cultural connotations of vocabulary between Chinese and EnglishDifferent nationalities have their own thinking ways, social background, customs, habits, ethic moralities and conventional taboo words, which lead to various kinds of

19、national culture. The meanings of vocabulary must be stigmatized as a brand of national culture. Through analyzing and contrasting, the three kinds of corresponding relationships of the cultural connotations between English and Chinese vocabulary are as follows:3.1 Complete corresponding relationshi

20、pIt means “Two kinds of languages have same literal meanings and similar cultural connotations on the whole.” 5 It consists of 3 kinds:3.1.1 Fixed theory wordsThere are some words that have been established by using rules to express the same theory or the same object. For examples:(1) capitalism-资本主

21、义 (2) socialism-社会主义(3) Marxism-马克思主义 (4) man-made secondary planet-人造卫星(5) science-科学 (6) society-社会3.1.2 Body wordsThere are some words that are used to describe our human body (1) “heart” mean “hollow muscular organ that pumps blood through the body”6. It has the same literal meaning with “心” in

22、Chinese. They also mean a persons thoughts and emotions, esp of love, ability to feel emotion.“heart of stone” means “铁石心肠”, “sweet heart” means “爱人”, “from ones heart” means “衷心” in Chinese, “to have ones heart in ones mouth” means “提心吊胆”, “heart to heart” means “心对心”. (2)“die” and “死” have the sam

23、e literal meaning and connotative meaning. Chinese and westerners both use other euphemistic words to express the meaning of “death” instead of using the two words directly. “pass away”- “去世”, “go to heaven”- “升天”, “go to west”- “上西天”, “pay ones debt to nature”- “返归自然”, “meet ones death”- “丧命”, “end

24、 up”- “死”3.1.3 Metaphor words There are some words that have the same connotations to make the metaphor. It can be clearly seen in the examples below:(1) eat like a wolf- eat quickly and a large sum of food while hungry 狼吞虎咽 (2) pure as the driven snow- very white 洁白如雪(3) hard as iron- very firm 坚如钢

25、铁(4) light as feather- very light 轻如鸿毛(5) foxy- as cunning as fox 狡猾的In conclusion, because of the complete parallelism relationship between Chinese and English words, these words are understood well by students. So these words are easy to master for students, and teachers should take advantage of t

26、he relationship of complete parallelism. When meeting these words, teachers should ask students to find out the relating Chinese or English meaning so that students could remember them quickly and correctly. For example:(1) How to teach “as busy as a bee 7”? Let students imagine “How do bees work? T

27、hey keep working busily without stop.” So we could understand “as busy as a bee” as “忙得不可开交”.(2) eagle-eyedHere “eagle” is one kind of animal whose character is that it has very good discernment. Therefore “eagle-eyed” is to express that one person can penetrate the phenomenon of things to study the

28、ir essence and has very keen sight. In Chinese it means “眼力敏锐的”. If teachers could relate Chinese with English, it will get half the effort with twice the result.3.2 Half corresponding relationship It means that the words have the same literal meaning but only have a part of the same cultural connot

29、ations or opposite cultural meanings.3.2.1 A part of the same cultural connotations There are some words that have the same literal meaning but only a part of the same cultural connotations. For example: (1)In Chinese，“鼠” is in the derogatory sense. Therefore there exist many Chinese idioms which ar

30、e to express some negative meaning. For example:贼眉鼠眼-shifty-eyed 抱头鼠窜-scurry off like a frightened rat 鼠目寸光-see only what is under ones noseBut in English, “mouse” can be used to refer to “women”, and “girls”. For example:as quiet as a mouse-very quiet, silent8 文静如鼠mouse and man-all living creatures

31、 众生Such kind of meaning is not included in Chinese connotative meanings of “鼠”.(2)In Chinese and English, “rose” and “玫瑰” both refer to “love”. When a man falls in love with a woman, he would send red roses to her to express his love. In Chinese, we often explain “带刺的玫瑰” as “a beauty who is difficul

32、t to approach”. While in English, “There is no rose without a thorn.” It really means “complete happiness or perfection cant be found.9 事事无完美。” And “under the rose” means “privately10 在私底下”, which originates from an old convention: roses that hang under the council board imply that all attendees should keep secrets. (3)“family” means “a group consisting of parents, their children and close relatives.”and “group members consisting of parents, the