英汉颜色词“Yellow ”与“ 黄”文化内涵对比研究（小编推荐）
英汉颜色词“Yellow ”与“ 黄”文化内涵对比研究（小编推荐）由刀豆文库小编整理，希望给你工作、学习、生活带来方便”。
《英汉语言与文化》课程论文 2016
英汉颜色词“yellow”与“黄”
文化内涵对比研究
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名 专业班级 院
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《英汉语言与文化》课程论文 2016
thus make contribution to the cro-cultural communication, translation and foreign language teachings..1.Cultural Connotations of Words Many scholars point out that words not only have denotative meanings but also have connotative meanings.For example, Palmer(1983)suggests that there are some other meanings besides its “literal” meaning in a word.Geoffrey Leech(1978)proposes that a word may have seven types of meaning: conceptual meaning, thematic meaning, connotative meaning, stylistic meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning, and collocative meaning.Zhu Guangqian(1984)also points out that besides its dictionary meaning, a word may have aociative meaning and contextual meaning.Based on these arguments, this paper uses the term “cultural connotation” to refer to the implied meaning of words originated from culture, including metaphorical meaning, aociative meaning, symbolic meaning, emotional meaning as well as other extended meanings.Words in one language can reflect the social and cultural features of a nation because the meaning of a word is determined by a group of people in the same society with the same culture.In terms of color words, we often take it for granted that color words are used to refer to the physical features of color systems, but we should keep in mind that the color system is partially determined by the culture instead of being solely based upon their physical features.For instance, in Hanunoo, a language of Philippines, all living things are described as green, while dead things as red.So, the dead bamboo is described as red, even though its real color is not red.The meaning of red in this occasion is its cultural connotation.2.Cultural Connotations of “Yellow” and “黄”
The color word “yellow(黄)” in both Chinese and English is the typical cultural words with abundant cultural connotations which can be either commendatory or derogatory.However, the cultural connotations of “yellow” and “黄” are not completely correspond with each other.There are similarities and differences between “yellow” and “黄”.2.1 Similarities between “Yellow” and “黄”
(1)Both imply warning.For example, in sports, “a yellow card(黄牌)” is a card held up by a football referee to show that a player has wrong behavior;in traffic control, “a yellow line(黄线)” is a line painted yellow to alert people on streets.《英汉语言与文化》课程论文 2016
(5)Honor “Yellow” is also aociated with honors in sport competitions.For example, a “yellow jersey” is an award to the winner of cycle race, especially the tour de France.2.2.2 Exclusive Cultural Connotations of “黄”
(1)Imperial Power There are many expreions with “黄” related to imperial power.Imperial dre is called “黄袍”；the palace where emperors live is “黄宫”；an imperial edict is called “黄榜”.(In the expreions mentioned above, “黄” can be replaced by “皇”.)What’s more, the idiom “黄袍加身” comes from a historical story, saying that in the late period of the Five Dynasties, Zhao Kuangyin, an army commander of Zhou, grasped the military power and launched the mutiny.His subordinates dreed him up in imperial yellow dre and supported him as their emperor.(2)Luck “黄” is regarded as a lucky color in China.For example, “黄道吉日（a lucky day）” is a suitable day for Chinese to held some important events such as funerals and weddings.“黄星” is regarded as a propitious portent.(3)Preciousne “黄” is often used together with “金（golden）” to expre preciousne.For example, “黄金周(golden week)” means a period of time that is good for something, such as tourism.“黄金时间(prime time)” often refers to the period of time from 7 pm to 10 pm which is the best time for TV series or TV advertisements.“黄金岁月（the best age）” refers to the most memorable age for people.(4)Children and Old People “黄” is often used to describe children, such as “黄毛丫头”，“黄童白叟”and“黄口小儿”.However, “黄” also shows old age，such as “黄发垂髫”
(5)Pornography “黄” appears in such Chinese expreions as “黄色电影”，“黄色书刊”，“黄色书刊”.In these expreions, “黄” is aociated with pornography，filth, and obscenity.(6)Unhealthy Complexion “黄” implies illne and hunger, which is resulted from a unhealthy complexion.There are expreions like “面黄肌瘦” and “黄皮寡瘦” 2.3 Summery
《英汉语言与文化》课程论文 2016
countries use “yellow(黄)” to expre depreion.3.2 Cultural Causes for the differences Although “yellow” and “黄” share some cultural connotations, they are still very different from each other.In Chinese, “黄” is mostly aociated with commendatory meanings, such as imperial power, luck and preciousne.In contrast, “yellow” is nearly a derogatory word in English, which always implies betrayal, cowardline and jealousy.Their contradictory connotations originate in the different environments and religions of ancient China and Britain.What’s more, although “黄” is noble in China，it is aociated with pornography in modern Chinese.Similarly, although “yellow” is negative in English, it still can imply honor.Actually，these two connotative meanings is resulted in the cultural diffusion.3.2.1 Environment Differences
Yellow River basin is the cradle of Chinese civilization.With temperate climate, fertilized land and abundant fresh water resource, Chinese people developed great agriculture civilization.Thus, land is of great importance for generations of Chinese people for they rely on it to live.Chinese people’s respect to earth can be shown in ancient Chinese legends in which Chinese people were created with the earth.Yellow, as the color of the earth and the Yellow River, obtained people’s worship.The first emperor who united the tribes along Yellow River was addreed the Yellow Emperor.Since then, yellow has become the symbol of imperial power.Different from China, Britain is an island country that is surrounded by sea.The land in Britain is limited and le fertile, so ancient British people more emphasize on the sea where they greatly developed the maritime industry and fishery industry.Consequently, British people worship the color blue instead of yellow.In English, there are many expreions related to “blue” that show nobility and dignity.For example, a royal family is called “a blue-blooded family”;a medal is decorated with “blue ribbon”;the report that is released by British government is called “Blue Book”.3.2.2 Religions Differences Taoism and Buddhism are two big religions in China.Both of these two religions regard yellow as a holy color.Taoist priests and Buddhist monks dre yellow cloths.“黄符” is a yellow paper with Taoist incantations，which is believed to have magical power of expelling evils.Thus, yellow is regarded as an auspicious color.Christianity is the dominant religion in western countries.Yellow is regarded as a derogatory
《英汉语言与文化》课程论文 2016
and “黄” have many more differences: “yellow” is mostly aociated with people’s bad characters, such as jealousy, cowardline and betrayal;however, when “黄”used to describe people, it usually implies the age and bad health conditions.What’s more, “黄”, which is mostly aociated with imperial power, luck and preciousne, is mostly a commendatory word, while “yellow” is usually used as a derogatory word.The reasons for these differences deeply rooted in the disparate environments and different religions of ancient Chinese people and British people: China is a country with vast land where people respect “yellow earth”, while Britain is an island country where people worship “blue sea”;“黄” is awed in Taoism and Buddhism, two big religions in China, while “黄” is distained in Christianity, the dominant religion in western countries.In addition, the diffusion of culture also plays an important role in determining the cultural connotations of “yellow” and “黄”: the pornographic meaning of “黄” originated from the English phrase “yellow journalism” and gradually changed the original meaning in Chinese culture;the positive meaning of “yellow” is resulted from the America’s absorption of other cultures such as French and Japanese culture.From above, we can find that culture greatly influenced the connotative meanings of “yellow” and “黄”.Consequently, we should understand the cultural differences in cro-cultural communication, emphasize on cultural adaption in translation and explain cultural backgrounds in foreign language teachings.References
[1] Yu Guofang.A Comparison of Cultural Connotations between English and Chinese Color Words and Phrases [J].Science Information，2007，(10)：116-117.[2] Zhang Li, Shen Zhenzhen.Study on the connotations of “Yellow” and “Blue” in Chinese and English Culture [J].2013 International Conference on Psychology, Management and Social Science，2013：401-405.[3] 程文宣.关于颜色词“黄”的语义研究[D].吉林大学，2010 [4] 邓炎昌，刘润清.语言与文化——英汉语言文化对比[M].北京:外语教学与研究出版社，1989.[5] 樊华.英汉基本颜色词文化内涵对比研究[D].吉林大学，2005 [6] 黄宏.英汉“黄”“蓝”颜色词文化内涵的不对等性[J].湖南科技学院学报，2007，(8)：17-18.-
