英语专业毕业论文浅谈英语颜色词及其汉语翻译

1、论文题目广东外语外贸大学 英语本科学位论文on english color words and their translation（英文）into chinese论文题目（中文）on english color words and their translation into chinesezhu chuikeabstract: english color words are the treasures of english vocabulary, and they are the connection between colors and english, the color vocabul

2、ary in english language not only can reflect human perception in colors, but also embody english peculiarities- in this thesis, we analyses english color words from three perspectives. firstly, we conduct a detailed analysis of the various ways of expressions. secondly, we analyze the functions of t

3、he color words at a deeper level and concludes that english color words and their habitual terms are often used to indicate the behavioral features and emotional states, and social and political values. thirdly, this paper goes on to discuss some translation standards to be followed and the translat

4、ion skills to be adopted in the translation of colors from english to chinese based on the features and functions analysed previously. this is well supported to the analyses of the relevant examples.key words: english color words; expression; function； translation;浅谈英语颜色词及其汉语翻译摘要:英语颜色词是英语词汇中的一笔财富，他们

5、是色彩与英语语言的结合，既反映 了人类对色彩的感知，又体现了英语语言的独特性。本文从三个方面分析了英语颜色 词：首先，对英语颜色词灵活多样的表达方式做了详细的分析。然后进一步深层次地 分析了英语颜色词的功能。英语颜色词及其习惯常用于表达人们的行为特征和状态、 评价人们的社会政治活动。最后，论文继续探讨可遵循的翻译标准以及根据论文前部 分所分析颜色词的功能和特点颜色词在汉译过程中可采用的翻译技巧。这将很好地支 持了对相关例子的分析。关键词：英语颜色词；表达方式；功能；翻译contents1 introduction12. different ways of expressing color in

6、 english12.1 expressing basic color words12.2 expressing more than one colors22.3 expressing color words with the help of material objects23. functions of english color words43.1 indicating behavioural features and emotional states43.2 indicating social or political nature64. translation from englis

7、h color words into chinese74.1 translation principles to be observed74.2 translation skills to be adopted95. conclusion10works cited11on english color words and their translation into chineseguangdong university of foreign studies zhu chuiketutor: professor zhou ruiqi4.2.1 introduction"color is

8、 a kind of visible quality that objects have, produced by rays of light of different wavelengths being reflected by them(oxford 267). it could be found in every corner of human environment. it is the component of totality of human beings perceptional experience to the external world, so naturally it

9、 forms the eternal topic of each nation. in fact, color was originally a kind of abstract concept and sense perception, and with the development of civilization, human beings break such visual images into many segments and add marks to them, and these marks are called language. thus color becomes th

10、e concrete thing made up with the separate links. the connection between color and language is a great progress in the human history. it has deepened the culture of the whole world, helped to promote the communication among different nations and strengthened the magic of language. english color word

11、s are one of the treasures of english language. they have the universals with the color words of other languages, while maintaining their own peculiarities. in this paper, we will discuss english color words from three aspects: different expressions, habitual usages and functions, and their translat

12、ion into chinese.4.2.2 different ways of expressing color in englishnature bestows on us the magnificent seven-color spectrum including red, orange, yellow, green, black, blue and purple. with the creation of human wisdom, such seven colors have expanded into many colors whose number is not clear no

13、w. so it is necessary for english learners to pay attention to the ways of expressing color in english. but first how many types of color words are there in english?there are two kinds of english color words: basic color words and material color words. the former was originally used to express the c

14、olors of things, such as white, black, and gray, etc. the latter are large in number, coming from the names of some material objects or natural phenomena, such as raven (black), olive (light green), amber (light yellow), and so on. both kinds of color terms are important in expressing colors in engl

15、ish.2 expressing basic color wordsthere are four ways of expressing of light colors. one of the way of expressin light colors is made up of only a word, for example, azure, cerulean, glaucous, tan, hazel, filemot, maple, opaline, sulphureous, rose, viridity, etc. light color can also be expressed by

16、 a combination of an adjective and a color word, for example, light yellow, light blue, pale gray, etc. in the third way to express light color, the combination of a color word and the suffixes such as 一 ish , -y, or -scent is adopted, for example: blueish (bluish), yellowish, greenish, reddish, pur

17、plish, violescent, viridescent, iridescent, etc. while one or two words appear pale in expressing color, phrases are adopted, for example, with a tincture of red (with a little red), vivid green.besides the above light color words, there are some dark color words. some of them are expressed by only

18、one word, for example: crimson, petunia, mulberry, mauve, luteous, puce, etc. sometimes "deepor "dark'，can be added to indicate dark colors with another color word, for example, deep red, deep green, dark brown, etc. dark colors can also be expressed by combining two color words to ind

19、icate only a kind of color, for example, blue-green, blue-black, indigo-blue, etc.besides the above expressions, color words can express other complex color concepts with many other adjectives, for example, in order to express the vulgar and gaudy color the basic color words can be placed after &quo

20、t;staring'； thus "staring red5' is formed. in order to suggest that there is a kind of changeable light, the word "iridescent is added before color words. for example, english people always use "iridescent blue" to describe the color of peacock feather. the sea also has s

21、uch a changeable light, so "iridescent blue" can be used to describe the color of the surface of the sea. similarly, the word "lush" is usually used together with the color word "green"5 to suggest "bright greenm;'drab with "yellow" to indicate the me

22、aning of "dark yellow匕 or "flaming" or "burning with "rectto indicate “bright red", etc.2 expressing more than one colorsone way to express more than one colors is by using only one word, for example: motley，multicoloured.a second way is by putting the word “anct betwee

23、n two color words to indicate two colors, for example: black and white, black and blue, white and red.the third way to express two or more than two colors is by the use of prepositions, for example: white colico with red, in amazing colors, in all the tinctures of the rainbow, red of (with) a blue t

24、int, in all tints of green2 expressing color words with the help of material objectspeople always name the concrete surface colors with the help of color sources. this process is formed by the symbolic concepts from people's perceptional experience given by colors- it not only changes the abstra

25、ct into what is called the universal phenomenon ofthe color language. naming colors with materials is one of the most direct and effective ways of expression, because symbol is no better than the material with a concrete color to take the place of that color. in english, there are many materials whi

26、ch directly express different kinds of colors, for example, using alabaster, eggshell, ivory, pearl, silver to express "white”：(zhang 80)(zhang 82)(zhang 83)1) her skin was white as alabaster.(她的皮肤光洁雪白).her room was painted soft eggshell.（她的房间刷成了乳口色的）.my shirt is more ivory color than white.（我的

27、衬衣与其说是白色的，不如说是象牙白）.in example 1), white as alabaster means snow-white skin or white as snow. in example, eggshell refers to milk white , as everybody know, the milk color is white. in example, ivory means white as elephant teeth. these three examples all involve the description of the color of "

28、;white蔦 and obviously they refer to "white" in different degrees. this difference can hardly be felt if described in words. however, by associating them with the materials in our life, we can tell this difference quite easily based on our perception of the world besides "white”，other

29、color words can also be expressed by combining them with different material words, for example,red: rose red, carnation red, poppy red, ruby red, strawberry red.orange: apricot orange, copper orange, marigold orange, pumpkin orange.yellow: amber yellow, butter yellow, canary yellow, peach yellow, sa

30、nd yellow, honey yellow.green: jade green, fir green, olive green, emerald green.brown: chestnut brown, cocoa brown, fox brown, leather brown, toast brown, biscuit brown.blue: cornflower blue, malt blue, cyan blue, pelican blue.gray: bat gray, gun gray, metal gray, moleskin gray.purple: lilac purple

31、, pansy purple, mallow purple, orchid purple.materials and color words can together indicate some concrete colors. material as mentioned above is called color source, and color word is usually a kind of color generic, restricted or modified by the material world. color word becomes a concrete color

32、symbol, for example, in "fire red 二 and "firemodifies “rect, suggesting that “red" is a color name. "fire red" is also a kind of metaphor, and in fact it is equal to "red is like fire' because it is impossible to invent so many abstract and special nouns to indicate

33、 all the varieties of a kind of color, this metaphor is an important way. for example :red: copper red, flame red, fuchsia red, iron red, peach red.yellow: acid yellow, apricot yellow, lemon yellow, oil yellow.green: citron green, duck green, grass green, moss greem.blue: daylight blue, peacock blue

34、, water blue, powder blue.brown: bone brown, ivory brown, mineral brown, otter brown, liver brown.sometimes, we can add -y or -ey to the material words to indicate corresponding color, for example: snowy, silvery, ashy(milky), bloody, skyey, bronzy.3 functions of english color wordsthe english color

35、 words and the word groups are dynamic and used very often. most of them with other words can form many compound words which are used in many areas ranging from politics to economy, culture, sanitary, history, geography and so on.nature is a colourful world, in which every material object has its ow

36、n special colors different from others. during the process of human's recognizing nature, they often decide and recognize the material with the help of their colors at first, which makes colors become the important peculiarities of materials. colors have effect on people's sense organ and in

37、itiate peopled emotional color. we often use color words and their habitual terms to express kinds of feelings and ideas to make language vivid and colourful. they are often used to indicate the behavioural features and emotional states, and evaluate people's social activities. they have widespr

38、ead rhetoric functions and great significance in literature works.indicating behavioural features and emotional statescolor words and the habitual terms made up with them are often used to describe peopled kinds of behavioural features and emotional states, making language more vivid and picturesque

39、. in order to make it clear, we will analyse it from three speeches: adjective, noun and verb.(1 ) adjectivemost of the color words used to express behavioural features or emotional states are adjectives. there are many example to illustrate this, for instance:“mr. brown is a very white man. he was

40、looking rather green the other day. he has been feeling blue lately. when i saw him, he was in a brown study. 1 hope he will soon be in the pink again. ”( chen hong 109).in this short passage, several different color adjectives are used, each suggesting different emotional state. “white" means

41、loyal and faithful; "green，' stands for unhealthy; “blue” means melancholy; “in a brown study ” means pondering; and "in the pink” means strong body. so according to the hidden meaning indicated by these color words, we can understand the sentence in this way:n "mr. brown is a ver

42、y loyal and faithful man. he was looking rather ill the otherday. he has been feeling maleancholy lately. when i saw him, he was deep in thinking. i hope he will recover soon.other examples are:george has been in his uncle's black book(s) ever since he forgot the old man's birthday. ( "

43、black book" refers to losing other's care and love.)flying saucers are still in the gray area of space phenomenon.i will have to write out my exercise again. the teacher will have a blue fit if i handit in like this.pull yourself together, do you want to show the white feather in front of t

44、hese people?in example 5), "black book" refers to losing other care and love. in example 6), "gray area " refers to remaining in suspense. in example 7), “white feather "is the foolish behaviour or stupid appearance.finally in example 8) "blue fit " refers to the s

45、tate of being angry.color words directly acts on people's sense organ, thus, color words are also called sense words. when such kind of words is used to express the emotional state, they always produce vivid effect and correct and concrete sense reaction, for example :my father went black in the

46、 face when i told him i had clashed his car.(chen hong 136)when i asked robert to pay me what he owed, he became purple with rage.(chen hong 145)this company had been facing gray prospects of success since it was establisheda year ago.(chen hong 155)here in example 9), “ black " refers to the m

47、ood of unhappy or sad or overcasted with sadness. in example 10), “ purple " means very angry or anger as people's faces tend to turn purple if they are very angry or in fury. in example 11),“ gray " refers to unpromising or uncertain future which is associated with the uncertain weath

48、er condition before a storm or rain.(2 ) nounalthough not as widely used as adjectives, noun color words also can be find here and there in indicating behaviors an emotional states. for example,i ask him to put his promise down in black and white. (wang lei 22)the manager was warned not to hire any

49、greens as clerk. (wang lei 22)marich ran his farm in the red last year.(wang lei 22)here in example 12) "black and white” refers to being recorded in written form. in example 13) "greert refers to people who are new and unskillful for the job in question. and in example 14) “in the red ” r

50、efers to deficit or losing money.(3 ) verbanother speech of word to indicate behavioural acts and emotional states are verbs. color words used as verbs are not so common a phenomenon, but they have their role to play too. for example,he's browned off with his job.(wang lei 40)karl went on holida

51、y to monte carlo and blued all his money. (wang lei 42)in example 15), the verbal phrase “ browned off " refers to the emotional state of being bored. while in example 16) the verb “blue” refers to the behaviour of spending without restraint.indicating social or political naturesome word groups

52、 made up with color words also have strong political nature, usually in the news and the press. most of them have become the fixed phrases and technical word groups, for example: black comedy, red army, black humor, black friday, black september, black hand, etc.some words express occupations and ar

53、med forces, etc. for example: blue-collar workers, white-collar workers, gray-collar workers, pink-collar workers, blue coat (american policeman ), blue helmet (members of peace-keeping forces of the un, their helmets are blue), brown shirt (nazi german assaulting members), green berets (special uni

54、ts of american ground force).some technical terms indicate party or organization, for example: black panther (american black people，s party which asserts that gaining their rights should resort to force), gray panther (an american radical organization of the old). red brigades (an ultra-left organiz

55、ation of italian teitorists).some word groups use colors to indicate species in order to show different purposes and emphasize their special purposes. these words mostly appear in the government documents and reports of european and american countries. now here are some examples:black paper ( the au

56、thoritative document which criticizes the extant policy, deed and law).green paper ( british government document which is a suggestion or proposal printed in the green paper for discussion).white paper ( a report which british or other countries' governments propose to congress on some problems.

57、 american governments does not use this term formally, but some government documents are included in white pape).blue book ( the official report which british government or parliament issues, with the blue cover).brown book ( the official report which british source department issues on the conditio

58、ns of english oil reserve, prospecting, and demand, etc. since 1974).green book ( the open documents on politics, diplomacy, finance, etc. of the governments of some countries, such as germany, japan, etc).4>translation from english color words into chineselanguage is the culture carrier. as ment

59、ioned in the first paragraph, color words are from the abstract concept and sense perception of human beings. they are modified words by culture and can reflect the national or social cultural backgrounds and characteristics. english and chinese belong to two different nations. there are universals

60、and peculiarities between them. so when we translate english color words into chinese, we must pay attention to their cultural connotations and usages.translation principles to be observedthe various sets of principles or rules about how to translate can be helpfully discussed in terms of historical developments, which snell-hornby (1988) has done very effectively. or