从社会语言学分析汉英颜色词义

1、.社会语言学导论课程论文学 号： 222010310011183姓 名： _王艳兵 _学 院： 外国语学院 专 业： 2010级英语（师范）班 级： 七班 任课教师： 刘承宇 Analysis Color Word between China and English from SociolinguisticsColor is closely connected with human life. It contains both essential attribute and rich cultural connation. There are so many color vocabularie

2、s in the world. Language is closely connected with culture, so is color word.Key words: color word, English-spoken, cultural, The cultural difference of color word Between China and English-spoken countries.1. Express the politic stations or ideological tendencies by means of the likes and dislikes

3、to the color word.At first take red for instance. Most people in China like red color very much, so there are some positive words like “hong niang”, it means the person helping the others marriage; “hong yun” means good luck; “hong ren” means a favorite with somebody in power;”kai men hong” means ge

4、t success at the very beginning, “hongshi” means wedding or marriage, and so on.However, there are also some words stands for bad things or aversion. For example: “hong lian” which means get angry. In the 60 century, China was in the period of The Great Cultural Revolution, people were crazy about t

5、he red, like Red Guard, Red Revolution, Red Regime, and so on. At that time, red means the proletariat policy tendencies. Its not hard to see that the color of red was widely used by Chinese, which related to the traditional preference or some specific background of policy. Although the word “red” i

6、n English has positive meanings, such as “red letter day” means a commemoration day, because people used to mark the important days with the color “red”. “Red ball” means fast train. But westerners not as adore as Chinese, to the contrary, the word “red” always related to blood, violence, fire, dang

7、er, crime, and bureaucracy etc. For example: “Red battle”, which means people are fight ruthless or sparing no effort to kill the enemy. “Red-hand”, it refers to the person who had killed someone or is just do the crime. “Red tape” has meaning of some official rules that seem more complicated than n

8、ecessary and prevent things from being done quickly, it can trace back to a custom of tying up official documents with red or pink tape. “Red alert”, its a situation in which people have to prepare for something dangerous to happen, or the bad thing had happened, its a warning to take action. “Red I

9、ndian”, also called “Red skin”, its an old-fashioned word, now is taboo, because its a very offensive word for Native American. The color word here has discrimination meaning to some special people, it also related to the history culture in America. The early settle came to the new land, they treat

10、the native settles as enemy, also look down on them. Theres a famous play in China “The Red Lantern”, Chinese know it very well. Nevertheless, the westerner will misunderstand the meaning as the red light districts, a part of town where there are many prostitutes. The difference cultural background

11、makes the word “red” have a difference meaning. 2, The differences color in clothing between east and west. The deep meaning in color often hide in the general things, the clothing is the common things in our daily life. In ancient China, the color records the real grade of government official. We c

12、an see the difference structures of the government in feudalism society from the officials clothing. The color you wear can stand what state you are, so the color is symbolize of peoples society sates or power.“Yellow”, which is always stand for the emperor in ancient China. Because the yellow is th

13、e unchangeable color in the nature, which means the emperors power cannot be change at any time. The emperor is the son of heaven, who stands for the highest power, so he is the only person who can use the color of yellow, what he dressed is called “huang pao”, a yellow robe, and the common people a

14、re not allowed to wear yellow. However, in the England, the purple stand for the monarch power. For example, “raise someone to the purple” means make someone to be the emperor. “To be born in the purple” refers to the new child was born in the imperial family. “Purple airway” is not the airway was p

15、rinted in purple, but the special airway only for the imperial familys airplane. Now with the improvement of the society, the phenomenon of “green” stands for the lowly state in the ancient China has fade away. But the “red” stand for the dignity is still exists. Today, we use “hong ren” to describe

16、 a very popular person in the public. Theres something to know that the “hong ren” has an obvious way of spoken language. It conceals a attitude of scorn and ridicule.In the English-spoken country, they didnt use the difference color in clothing to indicate the grades. Nevertheless, they use it to s

17、ignify the profession, army services, religions, party groupings.“White collar” means the kind of people works through their knowledge. It comes to the people always wear suits in the company, the shirt they wear is white collar.“Blue collar” means the kind of people works with physical strength. “P

18、ink collar” stands for the secretary and sellers. Those words are used in east and west. But the “red hat” cant be seen in China. In the western, it means the bishop who wears a red robe, “black coat” means the minister in the church, so it relate to the religions in the west. Theres another “red ca

19、p” which also means a red hat in Chinese, which is different in English language, it means the laborer who works in the train station or airport.In the army, the sailor is called blue jacket because of the military uniform is blue; they also called them “blues”. The “redcoat” was appeared in the Ind

20、ependence War of America, as the soldier of England was in red.Go so far as to the party groupings, “whitecap” stands for violent organization of racism in America. “blue” can instead the Conservative party; “white” stands for the Anti-revolution party; “red” means the Communist Party, which has a n

21、egative meaning in English-spoken countries. Even so, China still borrowed the word from western in the warfare time, to use red stand for a positive meaning.3, The color stands for some emotions.Languages have an emotional feeling, so as the color words. In China, people usually have a good feeling

22、 to “blue” word. It stands for the heavens color, which make people look forward to the better future. However, in English, “blue” always means the melancholy and depressed. Just like some phrases: in the blues, which means people have a bad emotion or unhappy. Blue Monday means a busy day with heav

23、y work begins. In China, people say “yan hong”, is not a real red eyes, but describe a guy who is very envy others or someone. But in English, we can translate it to “green”, which have a meaning of envy.Scientists have studied that the “red” can irritate peoples nervous system, so people always use

24、 red to mark “forbid, stop, fireproofing, and so on. The color “yellow” is very bright, so it was used as a warning signal, like the safety helmet, signal lamp, etc. Besides, the “green” seems more comfortable and safe, so it can be seen in the safety exit and traffic lights.4, some collocation with

25、 people, or body part, even some animals. Theres a poisonous spider called “black widow”, it use a humans title describe an insect. “Blue William” is a slung meaning fifty dollars in America, because William is printed on the dollar. Besides the color words can match with part of body, as “black eye

26、” refers to some shameful things, and the “green-eyed” in English equal to the “red eye” in China. There are so many color words used in the slung or spoken-language. Thought more rational, we have to admit the influence from the speakers situation.Summarize: culture is a complicated team, which includes knowledge, belief, art, morality, customs, and so on. The language comes from the culture; its not born, but c