AComparisonOfColorWordBeweenChineseAndEnglishCulure_开题报告

A comparison of color words between Chinese and English culture

Literature Review 

Wang Lin(2009) studied that due to different cultural、historical and geographical reasons, the color words of English and Chinese respectively reflect their national color orientation and social psychology and customs and religious beliefs and other cultural characteristics.The author firstly introduces language contact and cultural contact and cultural borrowing concepts, that is to say as long as there is culture borrowing, all languages are equal, and they have the same chance to be known by people.Liu Ning(2016) studied the grammar and rhetoric and semantic expression and semantic structure and cultural connotation of basic color words.And said that white is the color of milk or fresh snow and it means very innocent and untainted.Red represents fire and it is used for a person,it means the man is flushed or rosy, especially with anger embarrassment, or a healthy glow.Blue means melancholy and sad and depressed.Yellow denote a warming of danger which is thought to be near but actually imminent.Fan Hua (2005) said that the vocabulary has cultural concomitant, the basic color words reflect the differences of social psychology、customs and habits、color orientation and other cultural factors.English and Chinese are both ancient languages with rich basic color words.However, due to different social、historical and geographical reasons, many basic color words of English and Chinese reflect the cultural characteristics of their ethnic groups.With the Chinese and western cultural exchanges, people have realized that basic color words with profound cultural connotations inevitably become an obstacle in cross-cultural communication.Xu Z(2009) said that with the difference in culture the implication is different in English and Chinese culture.Zhang W F(2016)said that in different culture, color words represents different implication and people have different understanding for it.

Lou Yanxue(2008) in English, there are a lot of color words, these color words express the original ideas and also they can express many special meaning gave by the long social culture background.Those kind of color words are used to describe people's mood, such as happiness and anger and sorrow and joy, to reveal people's emotional state or psychological characteristics, or used to express the tag or profession or social activities referred to a certain color.Bai Guirong(2007) said that In the human language, there is a large number of words that denote color referred to as color words.Because of different cultures and regions, the color words has different meanings, some of the color words in the English-speaking countries have been praised or depreciated.Some are respected, others are taboo.Color is human perception of the objective world, and there are all kinds of colors in nature and the social life.Cui Junyuan(2008) mentioned it is necessary to understand the deep meaning of these color words so that we can use them flexibly in life, study and work, it is also a starting point for us to understand some western culture.Shao Zhihong(1994) pointed out that there are differences in the words meaning of English and Chinese languages.English words meaning is flexible and Chinese words meaning is more fixed.Because of cultural factors including customs and cultural background, different languages can not be consistent in the use of color words, it is necessary to pay special attention to the differences and expressions of national culture when using color words.Jia Qiong(2008) said that in Chinese, blue is often presented as a positive form, it is full of feelings of praise and joy for the beautiful scenery of nature.But in English culture, blue expresses the unhappy mood, for example,a blue Sunday and blue-sky and a bolt from the blue.Red is the symbol of happiness in China, but it has its cultural connotation in English, for example, “like a red rag to a bull” and “red-eye” and “paint the town red”.In English, white means purity, such as “white Christmas”, in Chinese white means fear and disaster.In addition to its own lexical meaning, the English color words also has tropes and exaggerations and personification and symbolism, etc.From the perspective of rhetoric and translation, to understand and master the usage of English color words it can better use it in cross-cultural communication.Li Ying(2015) pointed out that Colors play an important role in people's cognition of the world, the development of color words reflects the development of the history and culture and the society, and in business English basic color words has richer meaning, through the study of metaphor, it can gain a better understanding of human culture.Under the trend of economic integration, the basic color words of English and Chinese are gradually becoming more and more consistent in economic activities.Ou Guanglian(1997) said that in English, the color words of objects is very rich, which makes it more accurate and specific and vivid and flexible in expressing things.At the same time, the color  of objects can give article description a kind of rhetorical exaggeration and thinking effect, and it also can express the certain feelings and attitudes and views of things from the author.

Outline

 1. The comparison of cultural connotations of English and Chinese color words

 2.The comparison of six basic colors

2.1 Color of Red

2.2 Color of White

2.3 Color of Black

2.4 Color of Green

2.5 Color of Yellow

2.6 Color of Blue

3  The cultural influence of English color words and Chinese color words

3.1 Historical influence

3.2 Social influence

4  Conclusion

References

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