毕业论文-英汉基本颜色词的文化内涵对比分析A Contrastive Study of Basic Color Word’s Cultural Connotation in English and Ch.doc

本科毕业论文（设计）英汉基本颜色词的文化内涵对比分析A Contrastive Study of Basic Color Words Cultural Connotation in English and Chinese学 院：贵州大学人民武装学院 专 业： 英语 班 级： 13级英语班 学 号： 学生姓名： 指导教师： 2015年 4 月 3日A Contrastive Study of Basic Color Words Cultural Connotation in English and Chinese By XiaoChunmei Submitted for the Degree of Bachelor of ArtsCollege of Peoples Armed Forces Guizhou UniversityGuiyang, China April, 2015 ContentsAcknowledgments. Abstract（English） Abstract(Chinese) Chapter 1 Introduction1.1The origin and significance of the topic1.2 The variety of colors1.3Necessity of the contrastive analysis1.4Limitations of the research at home and abroad1.5 Writing ideas and methods of the thesis Chapter 2 Literature Review2.1 Studies on English and Chinese Basic Color Words at Home and Abroad 2.1.1 Studies on English Basic Color Words Abroad Studies on Basic Color Words from the General Studies on Basic Color Words about the Sequential Hypothesis Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis 2.1.2 Studies on Chinese Basic Color at Home2.2 Summary Chapter 3 Contrastive Study on Cultural Connotations of English and Chinese Basic Color Words3.1 Introduction3.2 Contrast of Cultural Connotations of English and Chinese Basic Color Words 3.2.1 “red”和“红色” 3.2.2 “yellow”和 “黄色” 3.2.3 “white”和 “白色” 3.2.4 “black” 和 “黑色” 3.2.5 “blue” 和 “蓝色” 3.2.6 “green” 和 “绿色”3.3 Causes of Dissimilarities of Cultural Connotations of English and Chinese Basic Color Words 3.3.1 Analysis of the causes of the cultural connotation differences Differences from natural environment Differences in religious belief Differences in historical culture Chapter 4 ConclusionReferences 贵 贵州大学本科毕业论文（设计） 第 i 页AcknowledgementsI would like to express my sincere gratitude to my tutor Xiaoju,who has given me tender loving and guidance.The seriousness of her teaching attitude, rigorous scholarship spirit and precise work style deeply infect and inspire me.From the topic selection to the final version,Miss Xiao are always careful to give me guidance and indefatigable support .I would like to extend my sincere thanks and respect to my tutorI would also like thank my teacher Mr.Zhou, who has spare no effect to find information about my thesis and provide some useful suggestions for me ,which is very helpful to my writing. Besides, I also can not forget my classmates,without your patient supervision and constant encouragement,I can not finish my thesis in those days. 贵 贵州大学本科毕业论文（设计） 第 ii 页AbstractThe world we live in is a resplendent with variegated color and rich resources territory. When facing of nature, people will see the world with a riot of colors and catch the eye of people is the nature of their own color; Only such more colors,can we make the world look extraordinary vivid.Because of the color words ,our human beings can convey our true feelings for the world in the whole social life so splendid.Despite the color of the visual impression is not much difference, language is the product of culture and the color words are closely linked with national cultural characteristics. Although the fact that different ethnic color values are not the same,there are the same basic colors in the the two languages of English and Chinese; such as red/红，yellow/黄，white/白，green/绿，blue/蓝，black/黑，purple/紫，grey/灰 and so on.All of these basic color words are not only often closely related with the culture of various nationalities,but also reflect the different living habits. From ancient times to the present, the English and Chinese color words are constantly improving and developing.Five thousand years of Chinese splendid culture endowed with rich cultural connotations of Chinese color words.The increasingly frequent cross-cultural communication between English and Chinese adds some new meanings for the basic color words; however,owning to the color words between English and Chinese have many different cultural connotations and often lead to misunderstanding in cross-cultural communication ,so it has great significance and effect to study the cultural connotations of basic color terms for this thesis.This thesis study on the cultural connotations of basic color terms are divided into four parts to discuss. The first chapter is the literature review,in this chapter, I will review the domestic and foreign scholars study for the color words and their achievements.The second chapter will elaborate the functions which is used to analysis the different cultural connotations of the basic color in English and Chinese. In the third chapter, I will contrast and analysis the causes of dissimilarities of cultural connotations in English and Chinese basic color words. The fourth chapter will further expound the significance of analysising the different cultural connotations of color terms,and the enlightenment that brings from the cultural connotations of color terms in the cross-cultural communication, second language learning .As a result,this thesis will further emphasize the close relationship between language and culture.Key Words: basic color words, cultural connotation,contrastive research 贵 贵州大学本科毕业论文（设计） 第 ii 页摘 要我们所生活的世界是个五光十色、丰富多彩的世界。当人面对自然，看见这个五彩缤纷的世界时，首先映入人们眼帘的就是大自然自身的色彩；正是因为有了色彩，我们的世界才会显得这么的格外生动；因为有了颜色词，我们人类才能够在整个社会生活中如此美妙细致地传达自己对缤纷世界的真实感受。尽管我们对颜色的视觉印象并无太大的差异，但是，同时语言也是文化的产物，颜色词是与民族文化特点联系极为密切的一类词。尽管说不同的民族之间的颜色观念不尽相同，但是在英汉这两种语言当中却有着相同的基本颜色词，诸如red/红，yellow/黄，white/白，green/绿，blue/蓝，black/黑，purple/紫，grey/灰，这些基本颜色词经常与各个民族的文化紧密相关，也是各民族文化的反映。从古至今，英汉颜色词在不断的丰富和发展，中华民族五千年灿烂的文明赋予了汉语颜色词丰富的文化内涵，当代日益频繁的跨文化交流又为英汉颜色词增添了新的含义，但是，由于英汉间的颜色词存在诸多不同的文化内涵，在跨文化交际中常常会引起误读，故本论文以研究中英基本颜色词文化内涵为内容具有非常大的意义与作用。本文对基本颜色词文化内涵的研究分四个部分进行讨论。第一章首先是文献回顾，在这一章当中，我将回顾国内外学者对颜色词所做出的研究及其研究成果。第二章阐述中英基本颜色词文化内涵对比分析所采用的功能。第三章中我将对英汉基本颜色词文化内涵差异所形成的原因进行对比分析。第四章进一步阐述了不同颜色词文化内涵对比分析的重要意义，以及颜色词文化内涵对比出的结果对跨文化交际、第二语言的学习所带来的启示，进一步强调了语言和文化之间的密不可分的关系。关键词：基本颜色词；文化内涵；对比研究 贵 贵州大学本科毕业论文（设计） 第 1 页Chapter 1 Introduction1.1The origin and significance of the topic All of us live in a colorful world ,There are a great number of color expressions and a great deal of color words used to describe the different colorful things in the world .Our world has a necessarily close connection with color ,so colors are indispensable to our daily life and social communication .Following sentences will be taken as an appreciation :“Mr.Brown is a very white man.He was looking rather green the other day.He was in a brown mood,when I saw him.I hope hell soon be in a pink mood again.”When you read this sentence,you may feel that the the structure is so simple and we the vocabulary is very easy for us,however it is difficult for us to understand or translate this sentence.The reason lies on that we dont know what these words would imply in this sentence.There are different cultural backgrounds respectively in English and Chinese,this phenomenon can bring about different cultural connotation of the same basic color words.Although both languages have something in common in color words,the same words also can express different meanings.For the reason that language is result from life and influenced by culture.Just as French linguist Sapir Wolf said:“There is something behind language and language cannot exist without culture.”(Linguitism:89)Hence we can say that language is the reflection of culture,our recognition and social organization will be directly influenced by culture at the same time 1.2 The variety of colors The world is full of colors,we can see :blue shy,white clouds,red sun,green trees,yellow soil and so on.According to incomplete statistics,there are more than 3,000 color words in English and 2,300 in Chinese.At the same time,some scientific researchers pointed out:we are able to distinguish at least 7,000,000 different colors from humans eyes.So,colors play a crucial role in our daily life.1.3Necessity of the contrastive analysis Chinese and English color words are the best material for the study of cultural connotation .Through many years ago,many scientific researchers make the study and come to a conclusion that colors can be divided into two categories:basic color and object color.owing to both countries have so many kinds of colors,it is necessary for us to find out the common basic color words to contrast.1.4Limitations of the research at home and abroad Domestic and foreign scholars have done some researches on the application of color words,but the study is relatively seldom seen for the difference of color words in English and Chinese culture connotation and the formation cause of comparison.Many studies are only limited to the colors of the culture surface and they often stay in the phenomenon of list and description , analyses and interpretative level is relatively weak.This paper mainly compares and analyzes the basic color words cultural connotation through a lot of examples to explore the root of the differences of color words cultural connotation in English and Chinese,so that we can understand and use these basic color words better to convey the cultural information of the crossing cultural communication.1.5 Writing ideas and methods of the thesis We will discuss the contrast of the cultural connotation of basic colors in English and Chinese in this thesis.This thesis includes four chapters.Chapter one is literature review,in this chapter,we will review the research which have done for color words and their achievements at home and abroad.Chapter two is the main body of the thesis, I will state and list the function used to analysis the cultural connotations of basic color terms in English and Chinese and compare their different points.In chapter three,I will comparative analysis the reason that the differences between English and Chinese cultural connotations of basic color terms,including religions,traditions,natural environment,customs and philosophy.Chapter four expounds the importance of cultural connotations of color terms and the enlightenment which is brought to intercultural communication,second language learning and translation field from comparison of cultural connotations of color terms,this thesis emphasizes the relationship between language and culture further. 贵 贵州大学本科毕业论文（设计） 第 2 页Chapter 2 Literature Review2.1. Studies on English and Chinese Basic Color Words at Home and Abroad2.1.1 Studies on English Basic Color Words AbroadThe studies on color words abroad mainly from three perspectives which will be introduced in details as follows.Studies on Basic Color Words from the General Linguistics Perspective Foreign color words have a long history,the British philosophy Bertrand Russell departures from the perspective of generalized linguistics and explains the relationship between human color perception of uncertainty and semantic ambiguity which is associated with the language of color words.From the point of view of linguistics,he thought that any thought can be accurately expressed in the practice of “red”from semantic connotations ,which is overconfident and hard to trust .British scholar W.Gladstone compares “the Iliad” and “the Odyssey” in some sentences in his book “in Homer and Homer era research”after the description of color and pointed out that there are a few abstract color words in the era of ancient Greece of Homer,the meaning of these words are often vague Studies on Basic Color Words about the Sequential HypothesisW.Gladstones found and speculation caused the German linguists interest.He also believes that the lack of color words and the meaning of color words of uncertainty is a reflection of the low color vision,with the improvement of color vision,people will be able to distinguish a growing number of color and nominate them.He was the first to put forward the common order of color word hypothesis and pointed out that the color words have six stages at least (1) The first stage,there is only one color word which named black and red hybrid concepts(2) The second stage,the concept of red and black can be divided(3) The third stage,the name of yellow appears and may also named green at the same time(4) The fourth stage,the name of white appears(5) The fifth stage,the name of green appears and may also call blue (6) The sixth stage,the name of blue appears Sapir-Whorf HypothesisWith the rise of human language,the studies of color words start to use the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis as the background in the first half of the 20th century.Sapir and Whorf believe that language filters peoples perception and the way they categorize their experiences.The relationship between language and culture is incomplete without touching on that between language and thought.Now there are mainly two different interpretations about the hypothesis:a strong version and a weak version (1) The strong version believes that language patterns determine peoples thinking and behavior(2) The weak version holds that language patterns influences peoples thinking and behaviorSo far,many researches and experiments conducted in various disciplines have provided support to the weak version.These studies have shed new light on our understanding of the hypothesis:people tend to sort out and distinguish experiences differently according to the semantic categories provided by their different codes in their culture.2.1.2 Studies on Chinese Basic Color at HomeIn recent years,the domestic scholars research focuses on the discussion of Chinese color words,such as:WuTiepings “on color words and its fuzzy nature”is the study of vague meaning of color words.ZhangWangxis“Color Association Theory”is the study of associative meaning of color words,this book reveals the deep reason of the complex meaning in the color words.LiuYunquans “The color word form antithesis way function and expression”draw the outline of a basic color terms in Chinese development framework and so on.Comparison of Chinese and English color words can help language learners to master language.Therefore,many teaching language workers are also involved in the comparative study of English and Chinese color words.ZhanPeiji gives a brief account of the English color words mainly in English.“the Literature of Basic Color Words Translation Methods”written by LiuXiaohui interprets five skills for the correct translation of color words in Chinese and English2.2 SummaryThrough continuous research of scholars at home and abroad,we can find that the basic color terms in Chinese and English have appeared a fusion development situation in vocabulary rapidly.W.Gladstones sequential hypothesis enriches peoples perception in color field and made human beings life more colorful,Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states the relationship between language and culture,which offers theoretical basis for this thesis .All of those are in favor of next chapter. 贵 贵州大学本科毕业论文（设计） 第 3 页Chapter 3 Contrastive Study on Cultural Connotations of English and Chinese Basic Color Words3.1 IntroductionFrom the last two chapters,we not only learn the history of studies of color words but also get across some theories about development of color words.Based on these studies and theories,it is not difficult for us to make a conclusion that there are nine kinds of color words in common in two languages.They are red/红,yellow/黄,white/白,green/绿,blue/蓝,purple/紫,brown/棕,black/黑and gray/灰,but in those color words ,“brown”is used rarely and cannot express some cultural connotation meaning in English.As a result,we will just discuss six color words which is seen in our daily life in this chapter from its metaphorical meaning,associative meaning,emotional meaning or other extended meanings,which influences on cultural connotation in English and Chinese.3.2 Contrast of Cultural Connotations of English and Chinese Basic Color Words3.2.1 “red”和“红色”The red color term expressed in Chinese ancient is mainly “chi”(赤),“zhu”(朱）,“dan”(丹) and “hong”(红).When mentioned “hong”（红）,people often think of happiness,auspicious,prosperity,lucky and warm etc.“Hong”（红）color is also often linked to ward off evil spirits and drive the epidemic disease in Chinese traditional custom.Many official affairs and government activities in Chinese ancient had a close relationship with the “hong”（红） color.In the past ,the emperor read over paper with “zhushahong”(朱砂红).The officials named of “zhupi”(朱批)at that time,which refers to the paper written by the emperor in “zhusha”(朱砂).“Hong”(红)color is a kind of warm and fire,which make people more exciting easily. When opening a business or anniversary,the businessmen always decorates their shop with happiness an wild peoplel send their blessing words of “honghonghuohuo”(红红火火),“xingwangfada”(兴旺发达)at the same time.Besides,“hong”(红)color can express symbolic sense of revolution in Chinese history.For instance“,hongsegeming”(红色革命），“hongsezhengquan”(红色政权)and so on .In western countries,red mainly refers to the color of blood,once the blood loss,the flower of life will wither.Therefore,“red”is a kind of derogatory color in most cases in English.For instance,“in the red”(亏损),“red-tape”(官僚作风),“red-neck”(乡巴佬),“red light district”(红灯区)and so on.In addition,red also contains the meaning of celebration.For instance,“red-letter days”refers to holidays,such days are pr