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1、学年论文 外语学院1001班刘绿绿The contrast of Color Words in English and Chinese中英文中颜色词比拟研究 Abstract: There are lots of words which stand for color in English and Chinese. But the meaning of color words in these languages has a huge difference. We not only need to pay attention to their basic connotation, but al
2、so observe their profound symbolized meaning. Peoples actual life is closely related to color. There are many color expressions, which reflect different culture psychologies and emotional colorings both in Chinese and English. Because the mankind has the same physiological mechanism and vision nerve
3、, the color words are no different in essence, theoretically. However, because of various language culture, historical background, religious belief, mode of thinking, etc. in different nationality, peoples impression of color and expression are different, and the associative meaning produced by the
4、color has nothing in common with each other. There are different and various color words and expressions in English and Chinese. Sometimes it is difficult to find equivalent expression in one language. We need to know these differences; it is good for overcoming the cultural conflict and fostering t
5、he communication between the nations. 中英有许多代表颜色词，但颜色词意思又大不一样。我们不仅仅要注意它们根本含义，还要观察它们深刻象征意思。在中英语中，有很多颜色表达，反映着不同文化心理和情感色彩。颜色是一种视觉影响，因为人类有同样心理机制和视觉神经，理论上讲，颜色词在本质上没有区别。但因为不同文化，历史背景，宗教信仰，思维方式等，不同国家，人们对颜色认知和表达也不同，颜色联想意义也不同。中英语中有大量不同颜色词和表达，有时很难找到对应表达。我们必须了解这些区别，它有助于我们克制文化冲突，促进国家间交流。Key words: comparison, col
6、or, English, Chinese, different，meaningIntroductionThe color is a kind of human beings aesthesia in the objective world. Various colors exist in the nature or in social life. A colorful nature offers human beings a more interesting living place, otherwise a dull world. Due to different geographical
7、location, cultural and tradition, different nations have different feelings and ideas about colors although they may share some common points on colors. In my view, culture connotation of colorful words reflects to a certain extent the culture and psychology of a certain nation. In different languag
8、es, color words have different meanings. Since English and Chinese belong to different families of language, as to the same color words, they have some similarities and differences. Affected by specific feature of language and culture, people have different reflections to colors and consequently the
9、 words of colors in both languages carry the different meanings, to the same color words, there are different understanding and usages between Chinese and English culture. Even though Chinese and English nations have a nearly same understanding to natural colors, their distinguished cultural backgro
10、unds cause them to have different feeling about the associative meaning, implication. People have different emotion to color, in commendation or derogatory sense. All these factors form different colorful connotation with their own characteristic. Therefore, to have a contrast study on colorful word
11、s is necessary. when getting touching with the color words, we should pay more attention to the symbolic significance of color words, avoid misinterpret words through taking them too literally. In this paper, I just talk about black and white in details, by the way, refer to the difference of other
12、color words.A. black and white I. The similarity of color words between Chinese and English Because the Chinese and English people are under different historical and cultural background, color words are of different connotations:1. English part In western culture, black and white symbolizes darkness
13、 and brightness. In the Bible, black symbolizes the evils, devils, pain and misfortunes. So black color is also called “dead color. White is the symbol of God, angel, happiness, joy and virtue. There is a saying goes, “White symbolizes happiness, joy and purity, but black symbolizes sadness and deat
14、h.(Gu Jiazu, 90) Another famous saying by Ralph Waldo Emerson is: “The grey past, the white future. (Bal tin 1982) In the classic ballet “The Swan Lake, black swan represents evil, cheat and hatred; white swan represents kind heart, purity and beauty. When it comes to a metaphor of black color, peop
15、le feel a feeling of something scared and even devil, like: “a black villain a bastard, a ruffian; “black death the famous plague over Europe; “black flag a pirate flag, death sentence flag; “talk black into white doing sophistry; “black band underworld, secret crime group; “a black letter day an in
16、auspicious day, misfortune day; “blackmail detrude extort; “black money money that not being declared its duty. All these phrases and words show that “black is closely related to things that are bad, devil and angry.As the opposite of black, white has the connotations in western culture as beauty, h
17、ope, happiness and joy. In the Bible stories, angels have always a pair of pure white wings, with a silver white aureole suspending above their heads; in John Milton s “Paradise Lost, Satan like other angles has white wings, but when he fall into the hell, he becomes black; Christmas is the grandest
18、 festival for the western people in the whole year which is equal to Chinese spring festivals. “A white X mas a Christmas day all covered with white snow; “white lie a lie said meant to avoid man from being embarrassed; “a white day an auspicious day; “days marked with a white stone days that people
19、 are happy. In famous western childrens stories, it had its heroine as “Snow White which had gained the universal empathy and affection by children all over the world. She is the embodiment of person who is smart, beautiful and kind. The “White House in Washington, US is the symbol of its nations po
20、wer. The street which concentrated British government offices in London, UK is called the “White Hall. Western governments official documents are “whitepaper. From the examples above, it is not hard to find in western culture, there is a tradition that “white is attached to importance while “black i
21、s avoid as a taboo. 2. Chinese partIn Chinese culture, both black and white are inauspicious. In ancient articles when referring to black, it means the underclass. In modern times, the derivates of black in Chinese are always with something bad, misfortune, disastrous, evil, like: “黑帮“黑话“黑货“黑心“黑名单“背
22、黑锅 “黑匣子“黑市seems to be a neutral word but it only be opened and checked after an airplane disaster, so black here symbolizes disaster.In Chinese, whites derivates are always of derogatory connotations of doing thing in vain, looking people down and worthless, like:“白搭“白费“白送“白眼“吃白食“一穷二白“白干“白痴 and so o
23、n. In traditional opera, “白脸is the symbol of betrayal and cheat. Cao Cao is one role of this kind. Both “黑 and “白 are the opposite side of “红 in contemporary political concept, meaning reactionary, backward and diehard, like: “白区 “白匪 “白军“白据点 “白色恐惧“白色政权and son on.II. The different meaning in the same
24、 country 1. in EnglishAs I said above, black symbolizes death, crime and disaster; meanwhile it also has the meaning of grandeur, dignity and honor. “Black suit and “Black dress are the most favorable dress in western tradition. In grand occasion, rich and powerful people are always in black. In ser
25、vice industry such as hotel and restaurant, black is the color for higher managing workers. Black men brought to America were called “Negro. Along with the success against racial discrimination in resent dozens of years, black men are against being called “Negro; they are against being together call
26、ed with other minorities “colored people as well. They chose “ Black to represent themselves. “Black is beautiful黑就是美. This was a fashionable slogan at that time. In black mens culture, they call everything with “Black. “Black-English 黑人英语； “Black studies 黑人文化研究; “black terror 黑人拳击选手. More interesti
27、ng, in Business English, “be in the black has the good meaning, which means the business goes well.(有赢余) ；black figure / in the black盈利、赚钱、顺差; black figure nation国际收支顺差国。 So, “black isnt equivalent with “黑. Such as, black sheep“败类;black eye“丢脸;black tea“红茶;black swan“稀有罕见东西;black leg“工贼;in ones blac
28、k books“被某人嫌恶;black coffee不加牛奶咖啡; 黑心evil mind ; 黑手evil back stage manipulator; 黑幕inside story; 黑线a sinister line ; 黑话 argot、黑暗 dark，黑面包 brown bread.Surely, in some occasion, “white has derogatory meaning, representing angry, timid and weak. white-hot愤怒;white feather懦弱；white -faced由于生病脸色苍白;“White fla
29、g give up fighting; “White-handed no working but living in comfort; “White-Terror 白色恐惧；“white trash 穷苦白人；“white-wash 零分惨败.2. in ChineseBlack is the royal color in Han dynasty. In modern Chinese language, we praise our fertile earth with “黑油油土地；“乌黑发亮眼睛“黑里透红皮肤 for praising peoples appearance. Apart fr
30、om its derogatory meaning, white can be pure and innocent in Chinese. “清白 Innocent; “白璧无瑕 pure. Sometime white symbolizes justice, kind and brightness; it is the same with Englishs white.So, even though the color words come from the same country, they are not totally the same. Owe to the period they
31、 come, the understandings are various.BOther wordsRed stands for blood and fire. In the west, red is always derogatory, representing cruel, mad, disaster and bloody, like: “red hands murderer, killer Red is also being commendatory in English. In Chinese peoples mind red is symbol for auspicious, suc
32、cess, honest and prosperous. In Beijing opera, Guan Yus facial makeup is red, which symbolizes his straight and loyal characteristic. Yellow is the emperors color. This indicates the worship to earth from ancient times. We see yellow is legally recognized as the color of honor in feudal times. It sy
33、mbolizes the emperors power, glory and grandeur. But in the west, yellow cannot be treated like this. In English culture, yellow symbolizes always the connotations of sickness, sorrow, coward and disgusting. Conclusion From above we can see, the color words between English and Chinese culture have d
34、ifferent reasons of being different. The connotations of color words of different languages have great differences. Basically speaking, in Chinese culture, what color words symbolize is based on the ancient feudal domination, superstition, primitive and backward science. So the Chinese color words h
35、ave a strong trend to politics and apotheosis. And the colors symbolism in western color is easier to be traced on its meaning and connotation. Colors in different cultures develop along with the development of society and the accumulation of history. It is an everlasting cultural phenomenon. That t
36、he color words in language make language more vivid, interesting, humorous and gracious should arouse our enough attention. However, both of them have some degree of common in some certain aspects. As the main reason to the similarities and dissimilarities of color words between Chinese and English,
37、 culture should get more attention of ours. During cross-culture exchange, color words as a code system have differed uses, cultural background. This asks us for a real and deep dig in English and Chinese cultural background if we want our knowledge to be better.Reference1简易民汉语和英语颜色词文化分析大理学院学报，20032唐振华：?符号学与颜色词在跨文化交际中运用?，深圳大学学报，1996年8月。3万兴盛：?色彩困惑翻译札记?，?中国翻译?，1991年3月。4孙雪波英汉语颜色词使用与翻译宁波播送电视大学学报，第2期2004年6月5张慧军英汉文化习俗差异与翻译陕西教育学院学报，20006?英汉语言文化比照研究? 李瑞华主编 上海外语教育出版社 1997.3 7 Gu Jiazu , Lu Sheng, Language and culture ,Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 1990.6.