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1、从颜色词看中西方文化Culture in Color Terms between China and the WestAbstract: Both in Chinese and English, there are many color words, which express mentality and emotions of people under different culture backgrounds. By making a comparison of these words, people can understand their culture implications. A
2、s an unusual group of the lexical system, color terms, compared with other word categories, have their outstanding peculiarities. Studying the culture implications of the words is of great importance for successful communication. Focusing on the different cultural connotations of color words in Chin
3、ese and English, this paper presents a comparative analysis of their structural characteristics, semantic evolution, and grammatical functions, etc. The author is trying to make an analysis on basic color terms in English and Chinese by comparing their semantic meanings and culture backgrounds. In t
4、hese contrast study, we can know that the implication of colors in Chinese and English is based on the national cultural psychology and the natural reaction. The words of color play an important role in national communication, we can excavate the mutual affection of Chinese and English, its importan
5、t for our study.Key words: color words; cultural implications; translation; comparison摘 要：在中文和英文中，有许多表达来自不同文化背景下人们的感情和思想的颜色词。通过对这些颜色词的比较，我们就会明白隐藏在这些词之后的含义。作为词汇学里一个不寻常的群组，与其他词类相比，颜色词有他自己重要的特色。学习这些含义对我们的交际有很大的帮助。这篇论文对比分析了这些颜色词及短语在中西方的发展史，语法和其含义。作者通过在语义和文化背景两方面的对比对中西方的基本颜色词做了详细分析。在这些对比中，我们可以得知在民族心理和自然反
6、应下中西方的不同颜色词的含义。颜色词在国际交际中扮演着重要的角色，我们可以发掘出中西方的互相作用力，这对我们的学习有很大帮助。关键词：颜色词，文化寓意，翻译，对比ContentsI. Introduction .1II. Review of Basic Color Terms in English and Chinese.1A. Historical review of color1B. Peoples scientific view on color.2C. Theoretic review of basic color terms in English and Chinese.2III.
7、Semantic Comparison and Contrast of Color Terms in English andChinese.2A. Semantic comparison of color terms in English and Chinese .21. Black.32. White.43. Red.54. Blue.65. Yellow .7B. Comparison of the associative meanings.8IV. Cultural Comparison and Contrast of Color Terms in English and Chinese
8、.8A. Color terms and religions8B. Color terms and taboos9V. Conclusion.9Works Cited.11I. Introduction People are living in a beautiful, wonderful, and colorful world: there is blue sky, white clouds, red flowers, green grass and so on. It is obvious that the life is so closely connected with colors
9、that colors are playing a very important role in the life. For centuries, peoples research on colors has never been stopped. On the contrary, peoples utilization of them has become more and more efficient. Color is a natural broad spectrum to certain situations, conditions and presence of the certai
10、n moments. Everything has its own color. As we know, the development of human cognition and language can not be separated from apperceive and experience which we get from the external source. Different languages make different culture.What does “green with envy” mean? Do people turn green when they
11、have feelings of envy? If Paul is in a blue mood, in what kind of mood he is? Is he joyful, excited, or sad. In the expressions above, green and blue obviously do not mean just the color. Each has additional meanings certain cultural association that are not evidence from the words alone. This paper
12、 holds that among various definitions of culture, our concern should be its anthropological sense the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, actions, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and artifacts (tools, pot
13、tery, houses, machines, works of art) acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving. In this paper, the cultural association of certain colors will be discussed, with “colorful” phrases and expressions in both China and the West used as illustration
14、. II. Review of Basic Color Terms in English and Chinese A. Historical review of colorAt the very time when human beings appeared, they found themselves in the world which was full of colors. However, peoples recognition on color went through a fairly hard and long process. In ancient time, color was regarded as a kind of magic. Thus, it was common for people of that time to paint the dead people with darker color. Moreover, that funerary custom can still be found in many races of Asia and South America now. Peop
