cultural-connotations-of-basic-color-terms-between-english-and-chinese--英语专业学位论文.doc

Thesis for Bachelors DegreeA Contrastive Study on Cultural Connotations of Basic Color Terms between English and ChineseAbstractWe live in a colorful world. There are a great variety of color words, or a large number of expressions denoting the sensation of colors used to describe the colorful things in the world. Although differing in their quantities in the color inventory of different languages, basic color terms are important components of almost all the human languages. As a group of cultural-loaded words, basic color terms reflect cultural diversities in the aspects such as minds, customary habits as well as color orientations.English and Chinese, as languages with a long history, are both abundant in basic color terms, and almost all the basic color terms carry their own peculiar connotations resulting from different social cultures, historical processes and geographic conditions. With the deepening of the cross-cultural communication between China and the western world, it has been realized that basic color terms form an area in which misunderstanding in cross-cultural communication seems inevitable because of the diversities of their cultural connotations. Therefore, a contrastive study on cultural connotations of basic color terms between English and Chinese is of significance.Language is the carrier and reflection of culture, and color terms is one part of language. By the contrastive study of cultural connotations of basic color terms between English and Chinese, we can know more about what is going on in peoples mind, in their language and culture. This thesis consists of four parts. Part one is the general introduction in which it points out what is discussed in the thesis. Part two define “basic color terms” and introduce the relationship between color terms and culture; besides, it also discusses the necessity of writing this thesis Part three serves as the main body of this thesis, in which it gives some examples about color. Part four is the conclusion of the whole thesis.Key words: contrastive study, cultural connotations, basic color terms摘 要在人类生活的这个神奇的彩色世界里，颜色渗透着我们生活的各个领域。用来表示这些颜色的颜色词数不胜数，基本颜色词是本篇论文探讨的重点。虽然不同语言中基本颜色词的数量不同，但他们几乎是所有语言的词汇组成部分。作为具有文化伴随意义的词汇，基本颜色词反映着社会心理、风俗习惯、颜色取向等文化因素方面的差异。英语和汉语同为源远流长的语言，都有丰富的基本颜色词。但是，由于不同的社会、历史、地理等原因，英语和汉语的许多基本颜色词都反映了各自民族的文化特点。随着中西文化交流的不断深入，人们已经认识到具有深刻文化内涵的基本颜色词不可避免地成为跨文化交际中的一个障碍。因此研究英语和汉语基本颜色词的文化内涵具有一定的现实意义。语言是文化的载体与映射。颜色词是语言中的一部分。通过对比英语和汉语基本颜色词的文化内涵，我们可以了解到民族的社会价值观、道德观以及文化的民族性和共同性。本文共分四部分。第一部分对全文进行了简要介绍，它指出了本篇论文所讨论的重点。第二部分对基本颜色词进行了定义以及介绍了颜色词和文化之间的关系，并且讨论了写这篇论文的和必要性。第三章是本文的主体，其中列出了一些颜色词的例子。第四章是整篇论文的结论。关键词：对比研究, 文化内涵,基本颜色词- 19 -ContentsAbstract in EnglishAbstract in ChinesePreface11. Introduction22. Basic Color Terms and Culture32.1 Definition of Basic Color Terms32.2 Color Terms and Culture32.3 Necessity of the Contrastive Study on Culture Connotations of Basic Color Terms43. A Contrastive Study on Culture Connotations of Basic Color Terms between English and Chinese43.1 Red53.2 White73.3 Yellow93.4 Blue113.5 Black133.6 Green144. Conclusion17References19Acknowledgements20PrefaceIt has been realized that basic color terms, as a group of cultural-loaded words, form an area with frequent occurrence of communicative misunderstanding, the root of which lies in cultural differences.To realize the true value of communication, decoding the message only in its literal meaning is far from being enough. Miscommunication and misunderstanding result from the fact that the connotative meaning reflects the subjective attitude of the speakers and varies from one person to another. As a result, the decoding and proper appraisal of what is said is based not only on the hearers linguistic knowledge about the language, but more importantly, on his knowledge about the cultural background embodied in the language. It may be an extreme stand that the misuse of language is a major cause of human conflicts, but it is the case, to a certain extent, that some clashes in communication result from semantic and pragmatic failure, so people are often suggested to choose right words to mean what they say. The choice of the right words is also based upon their understanding of the connotative meanings of the words they are using. The studies on connotations of color terms can not only help to learn English, but also enlighten English language learning and teaching. In addition, they also play important roles in the field of translation and cross-cultural communication. 1. Introduction “Mr. Brown is a very white man. He was looking rather green the other day. He has been feeling blue lately. When I saw him, he was in a brown mood. I hope hell soon be in the pink again.” When reading this sentence, people might be at a loss. The structure and vocabulary are quite simple, but the meaning of the color terms may puzzle people.It has been realized that basic color terms, as a group of cultural-loaded words, form an area with frequent occurrence of communicative misunderstanding, the root of which lies in cultural differences. Many a scholar has carried out researches on color perception and color term from different angles. Generally speaking, there have been roughly three approaches in the study of color lexicon: one is language-system related, a second is psychologically oriented, and a third is culturally or sociolinguistically driven. The school of research initiated by Berlin and Kay (1969) belongs to the first approach. It is more interested in establishing universal rules and evolutionary stages of color lexicon across languages. They paid too much attention to the language system at the expense of language use,and the basic or restricted color lexicon has become the primary focus of their academic interest with the “fancy” (Lakoff 1973) or elaborated color lexicon being completely ignored. The second approach is developed by Heider(1971), who indicates an academic influence from cognitive psychology. This school tries to reveal the mental representation of color lexicon, through the categorization or prototype mechanisms of human beings. What has been ignored in this school is similar to the universal and evolutionary study of color lexicon: color words other than basic ones and the usage of color lexicon have become a secondary concern. The third school can be divided into two categories: macro-sociolinguistical and micro-sociolinguistical. The former studies the specific usage of color terms in intercultural communication, that is, the cultural contrast of color terms. The latter researches the differences in color codability in a definite community with relation to age, gender and other social-related factors. Many a research has been given to the micro-sociolinguistical research both home and abroad. The discussion of this thesis falls into the first category, to study the cultural connotations of color terms between English and Chinese.This thesis consists of four parts. Part one is the general introduction in which it points out what is discussed in the thesis. Part two define “basic color terms” and introduce the relationship between color terms and culture; besides, it also discusses the necessity of writing this thesis Part three serves as the main body of this thesis, in which it gives some examples about color; including red, white, yellow, blue, black and green. Part four is the conclusion of the whole thesis.2. Basic Color Terms and Culture2.1 Definition of Basic Color TermsWe live in a colorful world. To satisfy our daily necessities, people use a great number of color terms to represent colors. For instance, it is estimated that there are over three thousand color words in English. More revealingly, our eyes are capable of distinguishing seven million different colors, for most of which we do not have any linguistic expressions available at all. Whats more, due to the continuous nature of spectrum its difficult to categorize the colors, thus the categories of color terms are vague. Generally speaking, the color words in English can be divided into two categories: basic color terms and object color terms, the counter parts of which can also be found in Chinese. There are so many color terms in English and Chinese that we can not discuss all of them, thus in this thesis, the discussion will focus on the field of basic color terms. Before the discussion, we should have a clear concept of basic color terms. However, its difficult to give a definite and accurate definition to basic color terms. There are many versions of definition to basic color terms, among which the most acceptable is given by Berlin and Kay. In their Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution, Berlin and Kay lay out four basic criteria to judge whether a color word is basic or not (cf.3.1.2.). According to this criterion, the eleven basic color categories are white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange and gray, I will discuss six of them in the thesis.2.2 Color Terms and CultureIn different cultures, there are different perceptions of color terms. Sapir and Whorf had made cross-cultural comparisons of color terms as evidence. When people perceive color with their eyes, for instance, they are sensing that portion of electromagnetic radiation that is visible light. The spectrum of visible light is a continuum of light waves with frequencies that increase at a continuous rate from one end to the other. In other words, there are no distinct colors like “red” and “green” in nature. Culture, through language, guides people in seeing the spectrum in terms of the arbitrary established categories that they call colors. Different cultures may divide up the spectrum in different ways. In other words, the colors they see are predetermined by what their culture prepares them to see (Chang Zonglin, 2004).Human beings share similar sense perceptions of color despite differences in color terminology from one language to another. The physiology of human eyes is essentially the same. People all over the world can see subtle gradations of color and can comprehend other ways of dividing up the spectrum of visible light. However, as a societys, economy and technology increase in complexity , the number of color terms usually also increases. That is to say the spectrum of visible light gets subdivided into more categories. As the environment changes, culture and language typically respond by creating new terminology to describe it. It is now clear that the terminology used by a culture reflects that cultures interests and concerns, such as in English basic color terms are eleven(Berlin and Kay,1969), in Chinese basic color terms are six (Saeed,2000), while in Russian basic color terms are twelve (Goddard, 1998).2.3 Necessity of the Contrastive Study on Culture Connotations of Basic Color TermsTo realize the true value of communication, decoding the message only in its literal meaning is far from being enough. Miscommunication and misunderstanding result from the fact that the connotative meaning reflects the subjective attitude of the speakers and varies from one person to another. As a result, the decoding and proper appraisal of what is said is based not only on the hearers linguistic knowledge about the language, but more importantly, on his knowledge about the cultural background embodied in the language. It may be an extreme stand that the misuse of language is a major cause of human conflicts, but it is the case, to a certain extent, that some clashes in communication result from semantic and pragmatic failure, so people are often suggested to choose right words to mean what they say. The choice of the right words is also based upon their understanding of the connotative meanings of the words they are using. 3. A Contrastive Study on Culture Connotations of Basic Color Terms between English and ChineseAll cultures have generalities and specialties, color words as a part of language, which as a carrier of culture, also have their own characters. In Chinese culture, red, orange, yellow, green greenish black, blue, purple, the seven color terms in the rainbow, are thought to be the basic colors. However, in English culture, it is usually considered the eleven basic colors are white, black, grey, brown, yellow, blue, purple, orange, pink, red and green. Although there are some similarities on the applications of color words between Chinese and English culture, there are also lots of differences, because of the different ways of thinking, cultural background, historical background, geographic reasons and traditional customs between the two cultures. People can not have more perfect command of the two languages and make better cultural communication unless tell the differences between them. In China, lots of people like drinking “红茶”, but in English, they call them “black tea”; brown sugar is “红糖”.From our views, we observe them from the color of water, but from their views, they pay more attention to the color of tea and the sugar.(张安德,2003:74)In English culture, black means “death” and “condolence”. In the funeral of English-speaking countries, people wear black clothes due to the custom. For example: “wear black for ones father”. While in Chinese culture, peoples mourning apparel is always white. As in Chinese custom, white is often connected with funeral arrangements.3.1 RedRed is the earliest color used by peoples in the world. It is the color of blood, as well as the sun and fire. In the early period of human history, it is the sun and fire that made life easier. Thus, in both English and Chinese, “red” and“红”are associated with“dignity”,“love”,“beauty”,“happiness”,and so on.So in English one may find, for example, “red-letter days”, which refers to holidays such as Christmas and other special days. Such days are printed in red on calendars, rather than in black for ordinary days. Another example is“to paint the town red”, meaning to celebrate, go out for drinking and have a good time. “Roll out the red carpet for someone” or “give the red carpet treatment” means giving a lavish welcome.As the representative color of China,“红”is the favorite color to most Chinese. It is often used in a positive sense. The positive meanings of the Chinese color term“红”may originate from its association by ancient Chinese people with the sun and fire. According to ancient Chinese legends and mythologies, there was not such a powerful dominator of the universe as the Christian God, so it may be that the ancient Chinese people had been inclined to think of themselves as the product of the nature, in which they got direct benefits from the warmth of the sun and fire. So they associated the sun with warmth and brightness and then associated the color of the sun with anything happy, l