颜色东西方差异(中英文)

1、注：下划线斜字体不在ppt上展示！part 1:before we start our presentation today, first lets try some interesting translation.“you look blue today. whats wrong with you?”“你今天看起来闷闷不乐，你怎么了”means “你今天看起来闷闷不乐，你怎么了”。blue表面上是蓝色的意思，但这里却作“忧郁的”解。then lets move on to another case：“the smoke made him cough. he coughed harshly,

2、his face lit like a tomato.”“烟使他呛起来。他难受地咳着，脸胀得像番茄一样红”which means“烟使他呛起来。他难受地咳着，脸胀得像番茄一样红”如果按字面翻译的话，最后一句的意思应为“他的脸像番茄一样”，但是要使翻译达到信达雅的效果的话，应该译为“脸胀得像番茄一样红”。在英文表达中这个颜色词”红”是用tomato这个实物指代的。可见，颜色词在中英文中的含义用法有诸多的不同，而这正是我们今天presentation的主题：part2:the cultural differences of color words in chinese and english(单独

3、作一页ppt，也可以在这里加上小组成员，分工等)from the scientific definition, color is a visual phenomenon launched, reflected or caused through certain light wave by the object; it is one kind of visual essential features of human eye. while on the basic color words, there is not so much difference in english and in chi

4、nese, in chinese, there are 赤(chi)、橙(cheng)、黄(huang)、绿(lv)、青(qing)、蓝(lan)、紫(zi)、黑、白，and in english there are red,orange, yellow, green,cyan,blue and purple, black and white, color words in each nations language differ from one anther in the world.可见在对视觉上对颜色的描述，中英文是不存在什么差异的but now the color words not

5、 only express the color, but also imply the cultural factors of each country, different cultures can reflect one countrys history, aesthetic taste and national psychology. it is the bright and colorful nature which provides the place for life and the foundation for developing. therefore, it is of gr

6、eat importance to study color words to find out how they reflect cultural differences in both the original and target language and why they can influence our daily life.然而在象征意义和文化含义上，中英文对颜色的理解就十分明显了，并且了解这种差异对于我们学习英语来说是非常有必要的in specific. the main colors of english and chinese are same or similar，but

7、some color words in one language can refer to more one color in other language so the english and chinese color words are not always corresponding word. take the colors of red, black, white, yellow, green and blue for examples as showed below.redboth in china and english speaking countries, red alwa

8、ys be connected with joyous and celebrate events. for example, “red-letter days” in english means memorial day, often refers to christmas day. ”to paint the town red” means binge, quaff, or even monkey business（狂欢痛饮胡闹）“roll out the red carpet for sb.” （铺展红地毯隆重地欢迎某人） . red also used to express some s

9、orts of emotion. for instance, “become red-faced” or “sbs face turned red” has the same meaning with “脸红” in chinese. and “to see red ” along with “wave a red flag” equals to “为难、发怒” in chinese.in chinese particularly, the word “ hong ” represents luck, happiness, success, celebration and festival.

10、in traditional chinese weddings, not only the decorations are full of red color, including red candle, red quilts, red words “喜”and so on, but also the clothing of the bride and groom, as well as the red veil of the bride（新娘的红盖头）, thus bringing a wedding atmosphere and implying the prosperous future

11、 of the newlyweds. furthermore, the word “红火”represents exuberant and lively. the word “红利” , describes the enterprise division of profits to shareholders or bonuses to staff. the word “红颜” refers to a young and beautiful woman. but in english, the word “ red ” represents danger, violence and debauc

12、hery（放荡；沉湎酒色） with strong derogatory（贬义的） meaning. when talking about the word red, people always imagine the fire and blood. for instance, “ red-faced ” represents embarrassed or angry; “ red alert ” is a warning that something very dangerous is likely to happen; “ the red rules of tooth and claws

13、” （残杀和暴力统治）means tyranny or a cruel, harsh, and unfair control over other people. with the cultural exchange, the word “ red ” in english comes to have some complimentary sense, such as “ red carpet ” used to welcome very important visitors as the special treatment when they arrive. however, in engl

14、ish “ red ” has different meanings in economy, such as “ in the red ” “ get into the red ” both mean somebody is in debt. so “ red ” is really the word making people happy at some time, but upset at other time.blacknomatterinchinaorwesterncountries,asadarkercolor,“黑”or“black”oftenhassomethingtodowit

15、hdirtiness,illegality,death,mourning,sadness,despair,angerandjustice. “vicious” “bad” are common meanings of black in both chinese and english.in china, “乌黑的手” is what we call dirty hands. “黑市” implies the listed commodities trading allowed without governments approval, “黑车” means the illegal taxi w

16、ith a higher charge. in the funeral, chinese will tie a black band around one arm to show the sad feeling. if people get angry, we see the expression “他黑着个脸”. sometimes “黑 ” symbolizes the justice, because in ancient china, we had a famous righteous officer called “ 包拯 ”, who had black complexion.in

17、 western country, “ a black sweet ” “ black water ” mean dirty. “ black money ” indicates the income earned in an illegal way. black is also a color for mourning dress (丧服)in western countries. “ a black dog ” and “ black mood ” both refer to the low spirit of people. when people get angry, they loo

18、k “ black-browed ” or “ black in the face ” or “ as black as thunder ”, and they also have “ black passion ”.whitesimilarities:the color white gives both chinese and english the similar imagination to some extent. take “pure” and ”innocent” for example , which means “纯洁，清白无辜的”. in chinese, the word

19、“ 白 ” is the symbol of death, depression and failure. in the funerals, traditional chinese people always wear white mourning dress to express condolences to the dead. the funeral can also be called “白事” in chinese. also, the word “白” has the meaning of the civilian, such as “白丁” represents the illit

20、erate people or the uneducated common people. in traditional drama, the implications of the word “白” is treachery. that is why the famous ancient politician,曹操, was described as “白脸奸臣 ”. on the contrary, the word “ white ” refers to the chastity, hope, happiness, joy and naivety in english. “ a whit

21、e lie ” means a lie that you tell someone in order to protect them or avoid hurting their feelings. if someone is said to be “ white-handed ”, it means he or she is honest or innocent. in the bible, the angels are always with a pair of white wings and a silver-white halo overhead. white is the incar

22、nation（具象化） of being smart, kind and beautiful. the bride always dresses in a white wedding dress as a symbol of pure and beautiful.yellowin ancient china, the word “黄 ” is a kind of noble color because it signifies the color of the skin of the chinese people. when it came to “黄”, the majority of ch

23、inese people will be reminded of the yellow clothes which the emperor wore. so, there are a lot of words with “黄”, such as “黄道吉日” with the meaning of the lucky day suitable to do things and “黄袍加身” with the meaning of acclaiming emperor. nowadays, this word is associated with sex in chinese. the word

24、 “扫黄” is the symbol of the elimination of the pornography and prostitution(淫秽制品以及卖淫嫖娼). as the color of gold and the sun, “ yellow ” is the symbol of wealth, honor and power in english. its a holy color in christianity. the father wears golden crucifix（十字架）, and the holy cup used by jesus in his las

25、t supper is also yellow. in english, there is a phrase “ a yellow ribbon ”, used as a symbol of welcome for those people who will return home. so “ to hang yellow ribbons for somebody ” is to give a warm welcome for ones return. “ yellow ” sometimes implies warning. “ a yellow card ” is a card held

26、up by a football referee to show that a player has done something wrong. later it is used generally throughout the world as a symbol of warning. greengreen is a sort of color full of vigor and energy underlying life, youth, hope, peace and energy both in chinese and english. in chinese, there is ano

27、ther saying of “ 绿 ”, that is “ 青 ”, so there exists such phrases as “青春年华”, “常青树”. at present, the color “ 绿 ” also means environmental protection, such as in the phrase: “ the green party ”, “ green revolution ”, “ green food ”, “ green consumerism ” and so forth. but comparatively speaking, green

28、 has more associative indications in english such as “ green hands ” and “ be in the green ”, which mean being inexperienced. whats more, the implications of green can also be envious and jealous, such as “ green with envy ”, “ green as jealousy ” and “ green-eyed monster ”. in britain as well as in

29、 the united states, the color green is one of the favorite colors, and there are many places decorated with green color and even us dollars are green. thus the color term “ green ” is often used to refer to money or fortune.blue in chinese, the word “ 蓝 ” represents the color of the sky and water, s

30、ymbolizing calm, reflection, modesty and the intellect. in fact, the implications of chinese word “ 蓝 ” is less. to chinese people, blue is the color of the dress worn by confucian scholars in ancient times, and “蓝衫”was once used to refer to “秀才”, who passed the imperial examination at the county le

31、vel in ming and qing dynasties. in english, the word “ blue ” commonly is a metaphor of depression, frustration, sorrow and anguish. if somebody is “ in a blue mood ”, he or she may feel sad, gloomy and depressed. similar in meaning is “ a blue monday ”, indicating the first day of work or school af

32、ter a pleasant, happy weekend. moreover, blue denotes high social position or being aristocratic（贵族的）. for instance, “ blue-blooded ” describes someone who have been born into a family which belongs to a royal or noble family or the highest social class. in contrast, another meaning of “ blue ” in e

33、nglish is connected with sex. “ blue movie ” means a movie showing a lot of sexual activity, and “ blue talk ” means a talk which is coarse（粗俗的）.part3:the reasons for different culture connotation between english and chinese color words1、natural environmentswe know the weather of england is always w

34、arm and the wool spinning industry has developed rapidly in england from early timethereby，english people often use sheep or wool as analogue. for example，there is wool so white but a dyer call make it black(羊毛虽白，染之则黑)as rice is the main food in china, chinese is accustomed to using “米黄色” to describ

35、e the yellow just like the color of rice, while in western countries, butter and cream is the daily food, so “cream ” or “ butter- yellow” is often used in english. but in english yellow also has meanings of vulgar and despicable which has nothing to do with pornographic as yellow means in chinese.

36、this kind of usage began in 1895new york world published picture story caricature yellow kids that was printed in yellowyellow journalisms and yellow covered literatures are just some vulgar publications2、historical backgroundsin chinese, “绿帽子” (lv mao zi) is a metaphor, which means to be a cuckold.

37、 this kind of usage appropriately began in tang dynasty. at that time, the male in brothel should wear a green hat to represent their identity. chinese ancients viewed green as an impure color and represents low class. therefore, the one whose wife has a paramour is called “戴绿帽子”. while western coun

38、tries have no similar historic background, they dont understand the meaning inside. in translation, it can not be simply translated into “he wears a green hat”, but “a cuckold husband”。 自唐朝时期起，中国娼妓的男性家人都要戴绿色帽子已证明身份，所以“绿帽子”这个形容词就此产生了。3、religious beliefsthere is a phrase “black friday” in english. “fr

39、iday” in religion refers to the friday before the easter, in which day jesus was in crucifixion. according to the national and cultural background and traditions, the english-speaking countries use the “black friday” to refer to a catastrophic disaster, dangerous, ominous day, which is unique in the

40、 english culture.colors have been used to stand for political groups or social status from ancient timestaoism（道教） is one of the major religions of china. chinese ancients, deeply affected by the taoist, often corresponds the position and four seasons to color. therefore, there is a saying that blue

41、, red, yellow, white and black are the five directions. the color yellow, located in the center of the five colors, is a symbol of emperor for its nobility. yellow is the color of the dignitaries, representatives of noble and solemn, and the supreme, sacred and inviolable. so far, yellow is still the symbol of old china. for instance, “黄袍” is the emperors dress, “黄榜” is th