A Comparative Study on English and Chinese Color Terms_英语论文

摘要

人类生活在一个被各种色彩所环绕的世界，颜色深深根植于人类的生活起居。然而不同国家的人们对于颜色的认知有所异同。因此，本篇论文将集中分析英语和汉语中基本颜色词内涵的异同。

前人对于基本颜色词的研究由来已久。众多学者从不同角度研究颜色，如哲学，语言学和心理学。随着时代的快速发展，从跨文化交际角度研究颜色变得越来越流行。本篇论文将从这一角度出发来研究基本颜色词。

地球上有数不胜数的颜色，因此我们不具备仔细分析每一种颜色的能力，在本篇论文中，我将集中讨论八种基本颜色，分别是黑，白，红，黄，绿，蓝，紫，灰。每种颜色都有对应的英汉互译和相应的内涵，这些内涵或同或异。分析异同过后，本文将继续分析造成这些异同的原因。造成这些相同之处的原因，主要是人类生活在同一个星球上，古时，人们必须劳作以求生存，而劳动有共性。这些不同之处，主要由两点原因造成，第一点是环境（地理）因素，第二点是文化因素。我们可以从造成这些异同的原因来推断，文化是社会实践的产物。

在做过研究后，本篇论文有一些发现。颜色词的内涵与人们的社会文化经历紧密相关。这些社会文化经历是某个社会团体所独有。人们使用有关颜色词的表达能够反映他们的社会背景。就文化差异而言，本篇论文对于英语教育者和学习者将有所帮助。

关键词: 基本颜色词，相同点，不同点，内涵

Abstract

We live in a world that is surrounded by all kinds of colors, and color has been deeply rooted in humans’ life. However, different people from different countries have various, as well as similar opinions about the same colors. So this thesis aims at analyzing the similar and different connotations of basic color terms in English and Chinese color terms.

The study of color terms has been doing for a long history by thousands of scholars. Those scholars study color terms from different perspectives, such as philosophical perspective, linguistic perspective and psychological perspective. As the world develops fast, cross-cultural study on color terms is gaining more and more attention. This thesis studies color terms from cross-cultural perspective.

There are so many colors in the world that we cannot analyze all of them, so in thesis, eight basic color will be discussed, they are black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, purple, gray. Each color term has its interpretation in Chinese and corresponding connotations. Those connotations can be similar or different. After analyzing the similarities and differences, we will come to see the causes of them. The causes of similarities are mainly because we human beings live on the same planet, and humans had to work to survive back in ancient days. The differences are caused by two main reasons, the first one is environmental (geographic) reason and the second one is cultural reason. We can conclude from the causes of similarities and differences that culture is a product of social practice.

This thesis has made some findings after painstaking study. It is found that the connotations of a color is directly related to people’s social and cultural experience, which is unique to a certain group of people. People’s expressions of colors reflect their social and cultural backgrounds. This study can be helpful to English teachers and learners in terms of cultural differences.

Key words: Basic color term, Similarities, Differences, Connotations

Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction 5

1.1 Intellectual Background 5

1.2 Color and Culture 6

Chapter 2 Literature Review 7

2.1 Relationship between Language and Culture 7

2.2 Basic Color Terms 8

2.3 Study on Color Terms 8

2.3.1 Philosophical Perspective 9

2.3.2 Linguistic Perspective 9

2.3.3 Physical Perspective 9

2.4 Study Based on Cross-cultural Communication Perspective 10

Chapter 3 Comparison of Cultural Connotations of Basic Color Terms between English and Chinese 11

3.1 Similarity 11

3.1.1 Black 11

3.1.2 White 12

3.1.3 Red 13

3.1.4 Yellow 14

3.1.5 Green 14

3.1.6 Blue 15

3.1.7 Purple 16

3.1.8 Gray 16

3.2 Cause of Similarities 17

3.3 Differences 17

3.3.1 Black 17

3.3.2 White 17

3.3.3 Red 18

3.3.4 Yellow 18

3.3.5 Green 19

3.3.6 Blue 19

3.3.7 Purple 20

3.3.8 Gray 20

3.4 Cause of Differences 20

Chapter 4 Conclusion 22

4.1 Findings of the Study 22

4.2 Possible Applications of the Findings on Cross-cultural Communication 22

4.3 Limitations of the Study 23

Bibliography 23

Acknowledgement 25