浅析英语中基本颜色词的文化内涵
毕业论文关键词：基本颜色词; 英语; 文化内涵
Abstract As an indispensable and important part of human language, the basic color terms are closely related to our life. Color words also exist in English, just like in Chinese. These color words make the English language richer and more colorful and reflect different English ethnic characteristics and cultural connotations of the English-speaking countries. This paper aims to briefly analyze the six basic color words in English: red, black, yellow, green, blue and white, and through contrast and illustrations method to explore cultural connotations from politics, economy and social customs in English. Understanding and mastering English basic color words will help us know western culture and promote the cultural exchanges between China and the West.
Key words: basic color words; English; cultural connotations
An Analysis of Cultural Connotations of the English Basic Color Words
Contents
摘 要.....i
Abstract...ii
I. Introduction....1
II. Color Words and Culture................2
2.1 Definition of Color Words .......2
2.2 Culture...3
2.3 Relationship Between Culture and Color Words.............3
III. Cultural Connotations of Basic Color Words in English....5
3.1 Red..5
3.2 Yellow.7
3.3 White. ........7
3.4 Black...8
3.5 Blue...10
3.6 Green.11
IV. Causes for Culture Connotations of English Basic Color Words.....13
4.1 Living Environment..13
4.2 Traditions and Customs13
4.3 Religions .14
4.4 Way of Thinking14
V. Conclusion.15
Bibliography...17
Acknowledgements.18
I. Introduction
Language and culture are interdependent (Bassnett 22). In other words, culture contains language; on the contrary, language can reflect culture. As an important part of language, color words play an immeasurable role in people’s daily life. Basic color words can reflect a nation’s cultural characteristics because of different cultures.
During the long process of the development and use of language, we have given many cultural connotations to the color words. Moreover, different nations have given their unique connotations of their own nations to their color words. Color words as the subject has been studied by quite a few scholars and linguists abroad as well as at home. Earlier pursuits of color vision and perception can be traced back to ancient times. For example, in China, Yao Xiaoping’s article On the Theories of Basic Color Terms: The Evolution of Chinese Basic Color Terms was a summary of the theories of basic color terms, giving a clear-cut review of the development of basic color terms. In America, linguistic anthropologist Berlin and cultural anthropologist Kay thought that any language has eleven basic color words after the investigation and analysis of the color words in about one hundred languages. The basic color words are black, red, white, yellow, green, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange and grey (176). With the development of society and the frequent communication of culture, basic color words’ influence will be more and more profound. In this case, it is necessary to find a more scientific and complete way to analyze and study the cultural connotations of color words in order to enrich our understanding of relationship between language and culture, to help understand and translate the languages in different cultural background. Since color words have their basic meanings and different connotations, we should adopt different ways to translate the passage according to various situations. Only in this way, we can improve our English level.
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