英汉词汇文化对比及对英语教学的启示

1、英汉词汇文化对比及对英语教学的启示         08-05-21 14:08:00     作者：江志彦    编辑：studa0714Abstract Language is closely related with culture. One kind of language is influenced by its national culture and represents for its special cultural

2、connotations. This article points out that vocabulary, as one of the three elements of a language, is the most active 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 rea

3、lized. The connotations belong to one aspect of the meanings of vocabulary, and the meanings are divided into seven styles. Besides the conceptual meaning, the rest of other meanings pertain to the connotations. From the connotations, the article analyzes the three corresponding relationships betwee

4、n English and Chinese vocabulary that show the cultural connotations: complete parallelism, incomplete parallelism and 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 educato

5、rs, which leads to much danger. Many problems always occur so that students interests will be lowered and that students 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 constitut

6、ion of syllabus, the choosing and composing of the teaching material, teaching activities in-class and activities after-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 vocab

7、ulary; 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，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

8、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. En

9、glish is part of English culture and the Chinese language is part of Chinese culture. Human experience and life style 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 dan

10、ce and the auditory arts such as music and singing can be described and evaluated in language. To be sure, culture can 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

11、are many kinship terms in Chinese. For example:(1) 叔侄- uncle and nephew      (2) 爷孙- grandfather and grandson(3) 婆媳- grandmother and wife   (4) 夫妻- husband and wifeTherefore if you want to learn and master one kind of language, learners should know the cultural bac

12、kground 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 language represents, he will not master it correctly and use it properly.Meanwhile language also reflects its influence on culture. “White” means

13、“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 will marry. Vocabulary is the basic factor of all language and a key element in language learning. A well-known English linguist D.A.Wilkin

14、s 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 language. By this token, vocabulary can be reflected by culture. In other words, the discrepancies between different cultures can also

15、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. The classification of vocabulary meaningEnglish linguist Geoffrey Leach divides the semantics into seven styles: 1) Conceptual M

16、eaning; 2) Connotative Meaning; 3) Stylistic Meaning; 4) Affective Meaning; 5) Reflected Meaning; 6) Collocative Meaning; 7) Thematic Meaning 4 Conceptual meaning is the basic meaning, the central factor in linguistic communication, which is the word meaning used to express an object in the real wor

17、ld 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 feelings when using the words. The cultural connotation of vocabulary refers to the meaning of the culture of one nation that word

18、s 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 will be discussed.3. Analysis of the corresponding relationships of the cultural connotations of vocabulary between Chinese and Engli

19、shDifferent nationalities have their own thinking ways, social background, customs, habits, ethic moralities and conventional taboo words, which lead to various kinds of national culture. The meanings of vocabulary must be stigmatized as a brand of national culture. Through analyzing and contrasting

20、, the three kinds of corresponding relationships of the cultural connotations between English and Chinese vocabulary are as follows:3.1 Complete corresponding relationshipIt means “Two kinds of languages have same literal meanings and similar cultural connotations on the whole.” 5  It consists

21、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   &#

22、160;     (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 Chinese. They also mean a persons thoughts and emotions, e

23、sp 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 same literal meaning and connotative meaning. Chinese a

24、nd 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 up”- “死”3.1.3 Metaphor words There are some words t

25、hat 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 坚如钢铁(4) light as feather-  very light 轻如鸿毛(5

26、) 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 the relationship of complete parallelism.

27、 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? They keep working busily without stop.” S

28、o 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 their essence and has very keen sight. In C

29、hinese 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 connotations or opposite cultural meanin

30、gs.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 are to express some negative meaning

31、. 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 creatur

32、es 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 diffic

33、ult 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 s

34、hould keep secrets. (3)“family” means “a group consisting of parents, their children and close relatives.”and “group members consisting of parents, their children and close relatives”.11 Then “家庭” only means “以婚姻和血统关系为基础的社会单位，包括父母、子女和其他共同生活的亲属在内。”12 There are some other similar examples :“aunt”, “un

35、cle”, “childs play” and so on.3.2.2 The opposite cultural meanings This kind of words are apparently shown in some animal words. For example: (1) Although Chinese and westerners have the habits of breeding dogs, they separately have different opinions about “dogs”. Under Chinese cultural background,

36、 “dog” always has the derogatory sense. 狗急跳墙- a cornered beast will do something desperate 狗仗人势-be a bully under the protection of a powerful person 狗胆包天- monstrous audacity 狗拿耗子，多管闲事- a dog trying to catch mice-poke ones nose into other peoples business 狗腿子- hired thug But westerners consider dogs

37、as good pets and mans best friends. Dogs are very loyal and faithful to men and they all like dogs very much, which reflects greatly in their languages. a lucky dog-a lucky person 幸运儿 top dog-the most important person 重要人物Every dog has his day.”-Every man will be happy at some time. 凡人皆有得意时。Love me,

38、 love my dog. -You will have to accept my friends as well if you want me to be your friend. 爱屋及乌If you are in America, people often call a skillful worker as “an old dog”. But if you are in China, someone that is given such appellation will be in a short temper. (2)“dragon” and “龙” In western mythol

39、ogy, dragon is considered as a gigantic creature called lizard, usually represented as having a reptilian body. People think they must kill the monster-dragon. The most famous story of killing dragon happened in about 700 AD, the Anglo-Saxon hero-Beowulf killed the dragon-like monsterGrendel. At tha

40、t time, Grendel visits the Danes hall from night to night and carries the warriors away. So the hall is deserted. On hearing the news, Beowulf sails for Denmark with 14 companions and offers to fight the monster. After a terrible hand-to-hand combat, Grendel retreats mortally wounded. At last, Beowu

41、lf perishes together with Grendel. 13 By this token, westerners dont like dragon very much. And because of this, we couldnt make “dragon” as the symbol of the Olympic Games in 2008. On the contrary, in China, “龙”is considered as a wonderful animal which can make clouds and rain. It has the capabilit

42、y of 8 animals, including snakes, birds, horses, deers, fishes, eagles and so on. And it also can fly in the sky, swim in the river, walk on the land, which is symbolized as the spirit of braveness and adamancy. We are also proud of being “Descendants of the Loong”. As imagined by the Chinese, the d

43、ragon has the head of a camel, the horns of a deer, fiery eyes and a long beard. Its ears are like those of a cow, its paws like the tigers and its sharp claws like an eagles. Its neck is serpentine; it has the belly of a frog and the scales of a carp. When the dragon first appeared in the sky, afte

44、r an heir was born, and the country was blessed with peace and prosperity for many generations thereafter. Thus, dragon also served as a symbol of good fortune. As time went by, in ancient time, the emperor of each dynasty was thought as the “the Real Loong” and the top dog in the world. In this way

45、, a variety of the words and phrases about “龙”mean “auspicious”. lively and vigorous in calligraphy-like dragons flying and phoenixes dancing 龙飞凤舞 make the finishing point-画龙点睛the dragon and the phoenix bringing prosperity-excellent good fortune-龙凤呈祥a scene of bustling activity-龙腾虎跃full of vim and v

46、igor-生龙活虎(3) “individualism” and “个人主义”In Chinese dictionary, “个人主义” means “一切从个人出发，把个人利益放在集体利益之上，只顾自己，不顾别人的错误思想。”14 In traditional ideas, it is another name of “self-concern”, which belongs to a word of derogatory sense. While in English, “individualism” means “theory that favors free action and co

47、mplete liberty of belief for each individual person.(contrasted with the theory that favors the supremacy of the state).”15 This is the synonym of “hard-working”, which belongs to a word of commendatory sense. These words are difficult to master for students. They often ignore the discrepancies

48、 of the cultural connotations of two languages and misuse the words. Many students translate “拦路虎”into “a tiger in the way”, but in fact it should be “a lion in the way”. While facing the first kindthe same literal meaning, a part of the same connotation, teachers should relate the same literal mean

49、ings together, and then draw the derivations of different cultural connotations so that make students active in remembering the word meanings, also improve the interests of learning. To deal with the second kindthe same literal meaning, the opposite cultural connotations, teachers should focus on th

50、e opposite point and introduce the different cultural background of the countries to make students understand the real reasons which lead to the different cultural connotations. In this way, students can have these words at their finger tips.3.3 No corresponding relationship One language has no corr

51、esponding words and cultural connotations in another language. Besides the similar or the same objects and phenomenon in different countries, there are many kinds of special things in their own countries. Some unique objects are produced by their particular culture. For example:(1) a very well-known

52、 judge in the Chinese history “包公”,if we translate it into “Judge Bao”, foreigners can not understand it. So we have to add some explanations to it, “Judge Bao (the just and impartial judge in Chinese history16”.(2)There are some other words only appearing in Chinese produced by Chinese traditional culture. For example: 阴 lunar &#