中英颜色词的文化差异摘要我们生活的世界充满色彩，一切事物都有颜色。
颜色是一种对光的视觉效应,它是我们的眼睛、大脑和生活经验对客观世界的反应。
颜色词是对这种视觉效应的描述。
我们用颜色词描述这个世界。
颜色词可以帮助我们更快的在头脑中描绘一个事物的大体形象。
而且在语言中，颜色词可以反映一个人要表达的感情色彩并影响整个句子的意思。
颜色词在语言表达中是非常重要的一个部分，在中英语言中都必不可少。
由于中英双方在政治制度，宗教，历史文化，民间传说，风俗习惯，民族思维方式和认知方式上有很大差异，所以颜色词在中英文化中的具体体现也不尽相同。
本文主要讨论颜色词在中英文化中产生差异的原因和差异的具体表现。
本文首先从颜色词的基本概念和构词法切入，提出颜色词在中英文化中的差异这一主题。
而后分析了颜色词在中文和英语文化中出现差异的原因，并从三个方面来比较这些差异。
最后通过举例等方法对比了一些具体颜色词在中英文化生活和翻译中差异的具体表现。
本文由导论、正文和结论三部分组成。
主要内容如下：第一部分是导论。
导论部分主要介绍了颜色词和文化差异的主要概念，从颜色词入手进行中英文化差异探讨的原因，并就国内外学者对颜色词在中英文化中的差异进行讨论的现状进行总结。
第二部分是正文，由三部分组成：第一章简介了颜色词的基本概念和颜色词在中英文中基本的构词法。
我们在这一章中可以对颜色词有一个清晰的定义。
第二章探究了颜色词在中英两种不同文化中出现差异的原因。
从中英在政治制度，宗教，历史文化，民间传说，风俗习惯，民族思维方式和认知方式上的差异这些角度，探讨颜色词在中文和英文中存在差异的原因。
第三章以“白，黑，红，黄，绿”五个基本颜色为例，详细阐述了颜色词在中英文化生活中差异的具体表现并总结了颜色词在中英翻译中差异的具体表现。
关键词：颜色词；思维方式；认知方式AbstractThe world which we live in is full of color, everything is colorful. Color is a visual effect of light through our eyes, brains and experiences in life. Color word is the description of these visual effects. We use color words to describe this world. Color words can help us to depict the general image of a thing in our mind. As well as in language, the color words can reflect the person’s emotional color in expression and change the meaning of the whole sentence. As a necessary part of language expression, color words are essential both inEnglish and Chinese. There is a great difference in the political system, religion, history, culture, folklore, habits, ethnic thinking and cognitive style, so the specific forms of color words are different in Chinese and English cultures.This thesis mainly discusses the color words’ causes and differences between Chinese and English culture. Firstly, this thesis put forward the theme “cultural differences between Chinese and English color words” through the basic concepts of color words and word-building. Then it analyzes the color words’ causes of differences in Chinese andEnglish culture, and compares these differences from three perspectives. Finally, by means of the examples and other methods, we compare the differences between some specific color words in our life and translation between Chinese and English culture.This thesis include three parts: an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. Its basic form are as follows:The introduction mainly introduces the background of the study on color words in Chinese and English culture and give a simple introduce of “color” and “cultural differences”. This part told us why I chose this proposition.The second part is the main body, which is made up of three chapters:Chapter One briefly introduces the color words’ basic concept and the word-building in Chinese and English. In this chapter, we can have a overall understanding of color words. Chapter Two focuses on the reasons of the differences of color words between Chinese and English culture from the angles of political system, religion, folklore, customs, habits, culture, ethnic thinking and cognitive style.Chapter Three takes “white, black, red, yellow and green” these five basic color words as the example, and expounds the specific expression of the color words’ differences in Chinese and English life, and summarizes the specific expression ofdifferences incolor words in translationbetween Chinese and English culture.Key Words: color word; ethnic thinking; cognitive styleContentsIntroduction 1Chapter IThe basic concept of color words 31. The basic concept of color words 32. The Word-Building of Color 3Chapter II The Causes of the Differences of Color Words in Chinese and English Cultures71. Political System, History,Culture and Religion 82. Folklore and Customs 103. Ethnic Thinking and Cognitive Style 11Chapter III The Specific Expression of Color Words in Chinese and English Culture 141. Color Words’ Differences Between Chinese and English Culture in Life 142. Color Words’Differences Between Chinese andEnglish Culture in Translation 18 Conclusion 20Bibliography 22Acknowledgements 23IntroductionColor is the reaction of the objective world for people, everything is colorful.Color is closely linked with people’s life.People is living in color. The founder of modern abstract art, Wassily Kandinsky, said in his book On Spiritual in Art, “Color directly affects thespirit” (Kandinsky, 1987). People product a lot of color words to express their feeling. These color words have many cultural connotations. We should pay attention to that in international communication, people’s perception to color symbols is different because they belong to different countries, different cultural backgrounds or belong to the same country and the same cultural background, but the members belong to different social groups or social classes. This kind of difference has a positive meaning in linguistics, which makes the color words have many associative meanings.Cultural difference refers to the differences between various regions’ people due to regional differences. There is a definition of culture that the “culture” is a common psychological process for the people who live in the same environment. This common psychological procedure will be diverse because people from different countries or regions are always influenced by different educations, different social and jobs which will have different ways of thinking.As a part of culture, language bears the important functions of noting and communication. Any human society can not exist without culture. Different cultures will present different cultural forms, and these differences which are reflected in the linguistic level is the language differences. Therefore, the color words rooted in the social culture because of their different growth of the soil, whose meaning contained in the information is not the same, thus forming a cultural difference. Cultural differences are the obstruction in international communication and translation, so it is very important for language learners to realize the causes and specific forms of cultural differences.Since 2008, there have been more and more researches on the differences between Chinese and English cultures areembodied in color words, and about twenty-five thousand papers have been published. There are a group of scholars such as Liu Hongquan and TianChuanmao to study this topic, they promote and lead the development and progress of the discipline.Chapter I The basic concept of color words1. The basic concept of color wordsColor is a kind of natural phenomenon. As the color of natural phenomena, it means “the impression which the light emits, reflects, or transmits through the object”(Jin Funian, 2003: 11). Describe this natural phenomenon’s words is color words.Color words can be divided into two types: descriptive color words and abstract color words in language. The words which only representsone color is abstract color words. For example, “red”, “green”, “yellow”,“blue”, “white” and “black”. And these words also exactly to be basic color words in English. But in Chinese, these five colors also belong to the “basic color words”. Although there are many differences between English and Chinese, and these two languages also have different cultural backgrounds. The number of basic color words in these two languages is roughly equal. Through the language, we can see the different cultural psychology and aesthetic taste of the English and Chinese peoples.American anthropologist Sapir in the Language said, “There are something behind the language, and the language can not leave without the culture. The existence of the culture is thesum of the legacy and the faith of society which can decide our life organization”(Sapir, 2002). It can be seen that the cultural practices of a socialgroup determine the way of life of a language group or nation, the way of cognition, the way of thinking and the value orientation. Therefore, there are significant differences between these two languages in color words.2. The Word-Building of Color“Both in English and Chinese, words are all composed of one or several morphemes. Morpheme is the smallest unit of language that carries information about meaning or function. Morphemes can be divided into two kinds: One is root,the root constitutes the core of the word and carries the major component of its meaning. The other is affix,affixes don’t belong to a lexical category and are always bound morphemes.”(Dai Weidong, He Zhaoxiong, 2002)According to the word-building, we can divide the English color words into three categories: One, simple color words are formed by a single root; Two, derived color words which consist of one root and one or several affixes; Three, synthetic color words which consist of more than two roots. Among them, the method of word-building of derived color words can be divided into four categories: adding method, overlapping method, mutation method and decremented method. According to the word-building, we can divide Chinese color words into two categories: One, simple color words which are formedby single morpheme;The other, synthetic color words consist of more than two morphemes. Amo ng them, the synthetic word’s word-building is divided into additional form, combined form and eclipsed form. In English, the add compose method and then add the prefix, infix or suffix to form a new word. Then in Chinese, the additional form is to attach the affix to the root to form a new word. From this point of view, the English affix method and the Chinese additional form is still similar in the actual vocabulary structure.We can compare the contrast of color words between English and Chinesein the w ord-building method through the English affix method and the Chinese additional form.A. English color word affix method: physical noun + adjectival suffix-y → adjectival color wordsWe take “snow” as an example. “Snow” is a noun, its basic meaning is “soft white pieces of frozen water that fall from the sky in cold weather and cover the ground”(Zheng Rongcheng, 1997).Take the sentence “the city was buried under four centimeters of snow” for example. In English, the suffix-y can be combined with the noun to form an adjective, then is also called the adjectival suffix. It often means “abound”. With the further understanding and expansion of human’s understanding of the world, people need a new kind of color word to describe something more image, more vivid description which has the same color and shiny as the snow. So people add the suffix-y after the physical term to constitute a new word “snowy” to describe this color. Because it adds the adjectival suffix-y after the physical term “snow”, “snowy” is defined as a adjective. The basic meaning of “snowy” is marked by the presence of snow. For example, “that is a snowy cat”. By adding th e suffix -y, the English word“snow”becomes “snowy”.This change is not only a change inform, but also a change in the part of category and the meaning of the word. So that the original representation of the physical object into the adjectival color words which describe the color of objects.B. English color word affix method: the adjective for color + adjectival suffix -ish →adjectival color wordsWe can take “pink” for example. “Pink” is defined as an adjective. Its basic meaning is “a light shade of red”. For example,“this flower is pink”. In English, the suffix -ish can be bounded with the adjective to form a new adjective. So it is also called the adjectival affix, which means somewhat or approximately. Because the basic color words are can only used to describe the color which is more pure and strong, it is difficult to describe some light colors and traces. Then people add the adjectival suffix -ish behind these basic color words , a new color word “pinkish” is formed to describe the physical object. Because it adds the adjectival suffix -ish after the physical term “pink”, “pinkish” is defined as an adjective. In English, pinkish means“hot pink”. For example,“that flower is pinkish”. By adding the suffix -ish, the basic English color word “pink” becomes “pinkish”. Although adding the adjectival suffix -ish changed the basic category of the color word, it did not bring great changes to the meaning of basic color words. It only change the depth of describing things’ color slightly.C. Chinese additional form:the adjective with color words’character(的) + adjectival suffixIn Chinese, adjectives can be used to describe the nature and state of things, so they can be divided into two types: qualitative adjective and state adjective. The words “赤”, “橙”, “黄”, “绿”, “青”, “蓝”, “紫” and “黑”, “白” can be used to describe the color attribute of things, so it is defined as the color word adjectives. For example, the basic meaning of “白” refers to “the color of cream or snow”. For example, “她穿着一身白色连衣裙”. According to the Chinese additional form, that is the rule of word-building which add an affix on a root, we can add suffix after the qualitative adjective “赤”, “橙”, “黄”, “绿”, “青”, “蓝”, “紫” and “黑”, “白” which describe the object’s color attributedirectly. We can form two kinds of state adjectives like “ABB(的)” or “A不BC(的)”. For example, “红彤彤(的)”,“绿油油(的)”,“蓝洼洼(的)”,and“黑不溜秋(的)” to describe situation and form of the objects’ color. In Chinese, “红彤彤(的)” basic meaning is“dazzlingly beautiful red”. The basic meaning of “绿油油(的)” is“dark and glossy green”, the basic meaning of “蓝洼洼(的)”is“shiny blue”, the basic meaning of “黑不溜秋(的)” is “black(containing malice)”. It describes ugly black. For example,“这里有绿油油的草，蓝洼洼的天，天上还有一个红彤彤的太阳” or “他穿着一身黑不溜秋的衣服”.The color qualitative adjective are transformed into the color state adjective by adding the suffix. This change first changed the form of the color words, but did not change the adjectival category of the color words, and also did not change the meaning of color words. There are not muchdifferences between “蓝” and “蓝洼洼的” in the description of the color of the objective things “sky”. They all express “the color like shiny sky”. There are also not much differences between “黑” and “黑不溜秋的” in the description of the color of the objective things “clothes”. They all express “the most darkest color,total absence of light”, just latter two add more color words in the fundamental meaning of the word. In Chinese, color meaning of the word contains emotional coloring (commendatory term and derogatory term) and stylistic coloring(written language and oral) and image coloring (shape, color, sound, dynamic). Because it contains more color meaning, compare with the “蓝”, “蓝洼洼的” can be more vivid to describe this “shiny blue” color pattern to the people, and show the author’s favorite to the object. Compare with the “黑”, “黑不溜秋的” is to be more vivid describe the “ugly, no level of black”color effects, and the disgust contempt of the object is self-evident.Chapter II The Causes of the Differences of ColorWords in Chinese and English Cultures Every society treat all the world have their own views, and on this premise, they cultivate a set of inherent norms. Each society tends to be blind to its own way of life, and to reject the lives of others as heretical objects. To a great extent, culture is exhibited by the language. It is specifically manifested in people’s diet, clothing, architecture, artifacts, etiquette, customs, religion, politics, economy, law and other aspects. People’s response to color, appreciation and imagination is the result of the long-term cultivation and cultivation of cultural tradition. There is a consistency between the color words and their referential meaning, but theyhave many differences after all. The color words has the content that the referential meaning can not be completely covered. Once the color word obtains the connotative meaning or the cultural significance, it is no longer only refers to the objective or some concrete thing in the imaginary world, but a established thought method. The color word itself contains connotative meaning or cultural meaning, which can reflect the very important social meaning and cultural connotation. V ocabulary as an important embodiment of culture, contains a lot of original cultural information and reflecting the characteristics of the original culture, including customs, lifestyle, interpersonal relationships, social beliefs, religious faith, and so on. There is an environment for language in which the people who speak the language belong to the race (or many races). That is, it is used in a group which is separated from other groups because of its own different characteristics. Moreover, the language can not exist without culture, can not be separated from the various practices and information inherited by the existence of society. The cultural and social differences between English and Chinese result both English language and Chinese language has its own distinguishing features. So that the color words, as a portion of vocabulary, will inevitably contain different cultural connotations.1. Political System, History, Culture and ReligionIn Chinese, the color words are mainly influenced by history, culture and political systems. In historical and cultural aspects, the advocate of color since ancient in China is come from our forefathers’ worship of nature and the conception of Yin-Y ang and five elements. The inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang Dynasty from Y in Dynasty ruins have proved that there is worship for Chinese god of four quartets in Shang Dynasty. To Zhou Dynasty, peoplematch the god in four quartets with the four seasons. To the Spring and Autumn period, the god in four quartets turn into the four emperors, and add a God in the central, so that there are Five Emperors. The Five Emperors is Y ellow Emperor, a legendary ruler, Zhuan, Emperor Xu, Ku, Y ao and Shun.They are regarded as the ancestors in the Chinese nation and are respected and adored. To the end of the Warring States period, the Five Emperors are attached to the Y in-Yang and five elements theory, which constitutes the Five Emperors with five assistance system. Our forefathers’ understanding of the Five Emperors with five assistance system give us clues of the Chinese nation’s advocate of color. Since ancient times, red and yellow are noble for Chinese, with white and black are humble. Chinese regard red as noble because of the ancient worship of the sun. The red color, the high temperature and the South place, make the ancients feel mysterious. In the Five Emperors with five assistance system, Emperor Y an guides the summer in south with Zhu Rong’s assistance. Its color is red. In Chinese, Emperor Y an and Zhu Rong’s name all contain “fire”. It is the symbol of the hottest sun. In this view, both Emperor Y an and Zhu Rong are all converted from the Sun. The ancients believed that the blue in the eastern symbolizes the growth of all things, and the red in the south symbolizes the flourish of all things. So the Chinese advocate blue and red. In Chinese culture, people regard yellow as the statue because of the worship of the earth since ancient times. And in the Five Emperors with five assistance system, the ground is in the center so the yellow is the center color. Its emperor is Emperor Huang. Emperor Huang is the legendary Chinese ancestors. Therefore, this self cantered cultural system, conform to the needs of the feudal rulers, so the emperor monopolizes yellow since ancient times. And yellow means noble and supreme. But white and black often contain uncomplimentary meaning in Chinese traditional culture. This is mainly because the direction and color have other meanings more than color for Chinese people. In the Five Emperors with five assistance system, the west is white, belongs to the fall, and the north is black, belongs to the winter. And for the ancients, people should harvest in autumn and store of grain in winter. Lives fade and draw to a close in autumn and winter. It brings lament and sorrow for people. The ancients feel sad in autumn, so the white means not quite clear. For example, Chinese people wear white clothes when their relatives pass away. And according to the theory of YIN, Y ANG and five elements, water is belong to the winter on season, black on color.the water belongs to YIN, and guides punishment and kill. So black represents the not quite clear, murder and other cultural connotations. In ancient times, people is facing black north when they call back the spirit of the dead. Therefore, Chinese regard the white and black means not quite clear since ancient times. This forms the color sequence and grade with Chinese characteristics: yellow, red, green, black and white. This sequence is also the color sequence of ancient Chinese clothing. In political system aspect, the feudal ruling class make the color as the distinction instrumentin social hierarchies to maintain the feudal hierarchy in period of Chinese feudal society, so that the color has cultural characteristics of noble or humble. It is mainly showed on the color of clothes which are wore by people in all kinds of social classes and their home furnishing and so on. As in the Tang Dynasty, official is divided into nine ranks, their official clothes’ color is different. The official clothes which above the third ranks is purple. The official clothes which belong to the fourth ranks and fifth ranks is red. The official clothes which belong to the sixth ranks and seventh ranks is green. There are ornamentation on the official clothes but not on the civilian clothes. So the civilian clothes is called “白衣” and the civilian is called “白丁”. “Red” symbolizes revolution, proletariat and socialism in Chinese modern societywhich influenced by modern history. For example, red political power, and the Chinese Workers’and Peasants’ Red Army. These Chinese color wordsall reveal the cultural connotation in Chinese culture.In English culture, color words are mainly influenced by religion. Christianity is the principle religion in western culture.So its culture is mainly influenced by the Bible. In the Bible, the black symbolizes the devil and wicked, harm and misfortune. So the black means the dead color. Such as the symbolic meaning of black Friday and Christianity are closely linked, which Friday refers to the day when Jesus suffers calamities or disasters. For many western people, white represents God, angel, happiness, noble and morality. In the Bible, Judah, the man who betrayed Jesus, wore the yellow clothes, so yellow was given a sense of timidity and impudicity. Derived by black, white and yellow, these phrases contained the cultural significance, such as black flag(the jolly Roger), black- hearted (malicious and evil), a white lie(a well-meaning lie), a white day (a lucky day), a yellow dog (a skunk person). Therefore, the western culture has a tradition that like white and dislike yellow.2. Folklore and customsLiterary allusions and folk legends containa lot of cultural connotations. Some quotations, historical figures and folk legends which become the language in the ethnic groups which spread and establish with a strong folk culture language then become a part of their life. People use them to express their perspectives, opinions and consciousness.There is a verse “the red bean is born in the south land” in the poet Wang Wei’s poem in Tang Dynasty Love sickness. The “red bean” also means the “jequirity”. If the British and the United States did not read the poem, they will not understand the the message conveyed by “red bean”. Some scholars translated it into “love pea”, its meaning is similar, but it doesn’t have the meaning “red”. As the Chinese word “红娘”, this allusions comes from the Chinese masterpiece The Romance of West Chamber. “红娘” is the maid of the leading character Cui Yingying in this book. She helpedthe other leading character Zhang to contact with Cui Yingying. So she is known as “a nonprofit making woman go-between for lovers” among the people. If Westerners don’tknow this special Chinese national culture, take it for granted that “红娘” is the “red lady”, he will make a foolish figure. That is, “红娘” can not be translated as “a lady in red” but “a matchmaker”.The English word “green - eyed” is comes from the third acts and third scenes in the plays of Shakespeare Othello. Iago said,“O !beware ,my lord,of jealousy;It is green - eyed monster which doth mock1;The meat deeds on I...”(Shakespeare, Zhu Shenghao, 2014)The English word “green” has a associative meaning “envy”. Withthe similar meaning of Chinese words “红眼病” and “眼红” is a typical Chinese pun from the dialect, and is used in many sentences. This pun rhetoric, “红眼病” refers to the disease both on eyes and psychology. It is revealing the cynical and humorous in Chinese culture. Black ox originated in ancient Greece and Rome myth, is used to express the meaning of “oldness” or“bad luck”. It is always used in the following sentence “the black ox has trod on somebody’s foot”. In ancient times, the goatherd felt a black sheep mixes in the flock is bad, so the black sheep is regarded as “the embodiment of the devil”. “Black sheep” referred to “a shame to a group”. Chinese has a same word “害群之马”(an evil member of the herd), it also refers to “a spendthrift in a family”. These colors’ differences between English and Chinese color words reflects the rich folk culture and historical origin of the two languages. And further proves that language is a mirror of the national culture.3. Ethnic Thinking and Cognitive StyleWhen talk about the relationship and the mode of thinking between Chinese and English cultures, we often agree that the differences between English and Chinese reflect the differences in the mode of thinkingbetween English and Chinese. People in English culture is used to think in formal analysis from small to large, and pay attention to the subjective role and make the subject as the center. But people in Chinese culture is used to think in overall view and think from large to small, starting from reality and focus on the combine of subject and object. We can find this character in Chinese translation of two English words “greenhouse” and “snakehead”. “Greenhouse” is “green” add “house”, but we translate “温室” in Chinese. Because Englishwant to express the inherent function of the houses, that the house can make plants in the “green” state in cold weather conditions. And Chinese want to express its overall impression to people, that is the “warmer” feeling than other house. And another example, snakefish is the fishes which have large mouths and have black heads. Westerners think that the fish’s head shape is distinguished from other fish, so this kind of fish is named as “snakehead”. But Chinese name it is based on the external characteristics of the color of the fish, so it is named as “黑鱼”(black fish).In addition, Chinese and western philosophy also provides us some clues to research the cognitive styles of Chinese and Western people. Chinese philosophy pay attention to “ideology” and Chinese culture pay attention to the “spirit”. Chinese paintersoftenwant to express their own spirit and thinking by theirpaintings. While the western philosophies pay attention to the “actuality”. Western culture lays emphasis on scientific and exactness. And the western painting also take care of the accurate description for the proportion of the object to express true feelings. This cultural character is also reflected in the color words. For example, red gives Chinese people a feeling of happy and successful visual effects. So Chinese like red, and like to call many things which color is close to the red as “red”. Such as the crimson sugar which can enrich the blood is known as “红糖” (red sugar). In fact, the sugar’s colo r closes to brown. English named it as “brown sugar” and it is more accurate. Similarly, the Chinese word “红茶”(red tea) is not really red. If you consider it together with “green tea”, the “red” and“green” in the words not only reflects the Chinese。
