摘要东西方由于社会历史、宗教信仰及价值观念等方面的差异，逐渐塑造出各自不同的文化。以当前的地名为例，中美两国在地名上存在着明显差异，这也具体体现了东西方文化的差异。本论文旨在对中美地名加以比较，从社会历史文化的角度分析造成这种差异的主要原因，探讨中美两国文化的差异。因此，本文将从中美文化的角度来揭示东方和西方的地域名称，以避免跨文化交际中的文化冲突，克服文化障碍，实现更好的沟通。49824

毕业论文关键词：地名；文化；差异

Abstract Owing to the pergence of religions and values in history, persity of cultures between the east and the west exists at all levels of cultural life. Taking the geographical names as an example, it is obvious that Chinese and Americans have differences in geographical names, whereas these discrepancies incarnate the heterogeneity of the eastern and western cultures. The paper tends to compare different geographic names between Chinese and the Americans and discover causes for this phenomenon from social, historical and cultural perspectives, which will lead to the analysis of the Chinese and American cultural differences. Therefore, this paper reveals the cultural differences between geographical names of the east and the west, which aims at avoiding cultural conflicts in cross-cultural communication, overcoming cultural barriers, and achieving better communication.

Key words: geographical names; culture; differences

 The Differences Between Chinese and American Cultures Through Geographical Names

Contents

摘要 i

Abstract ii

I. Introduction 1

II. The Sources of Geographical Names 2

2.1 Chinese Geographical Names 2

2.2 American Geographical Names 4

III. Cultural Differences of Chinese and American Geographical Names 7

3.1 The Different Historical Documents Culture 8

3.1.1 TheNatural Scenery Prose of Travels of Chinese Tang Dynasty in Geographical Culture 8

3.1.2 The Bible, Ancient Greek and Roman Culture in Geographical Name 9

3.2 The Different Immigrant Culture 10

3.2.1 Chinese Immigrant Culture in Geographical Name 10

3.2.2 American Immigration Culture in Geographical Name 11

3.3 The Different Culture Values 12

IV. Conclusion 14

Bibliography 15

Acknowledgements 16

I. Introduction

Language is a social product of the reality, and it is like a mirror to reflect the culture of a nationality. Human’ cultural activities emerge and develop in certain regional spaces, and have a close relationship with the geographical location, social history and reality. To master a language, the students have to grasp the culture characteristics of language of the nationality, have to distinguish the similarities and differences of different nationality cultures, so as to learn well.  “The language always conceals legends which attracts people into the myths and history and makes people well known of the great persons and important events”(Funk 62). Word is like a small window through which people can get familiar with the past of a nationality. Geographical names, as a part of the vocabulary, can directly reflect the regional differences of nationality culture.