商务英语中色彩词汇的文化内涵研究
The Study on the Cultural Connotation of Color Words in Business English
摘要
随着中国与许多国家建立了业务关系且商业来往日益频繁,商务英语变得越来越重要。因为有不同的文化背景，所以大部分单词除了他们本身的意思,还有许多其他的隐含意义或比喻意义。颜色词虽然只是商务英语中的一小部分,但它在国际贸易中发挥着很大的作用。它们有很多跟商务方面有关的引申意义,这些很多都是与它们的字面含义没有任何关系的。这篇论文中采用了定量分析的方法，通过对大量已发文章的分析研究了颜色词的文化内涵以及其在商务英语中的应用。本文更深地研究了几个基本的，频繁使用的颜色词在商务英语中的文化内涵及其在商务中的应用。在这方面有一定的了解可以有效的帮助业务者获取重要信息，缓解不当理解造成的尴尬。
关键词：色彩词汇；商务英语；内涵
Abstract
With increasingly frequent business relations between China and many foreign countries, business English is becoming more and more important. Therefore many researchers study on all kinds of topics about business English. Apart from the literal meanings, most of the words possess many other implicit meanings and metaphorical meanings because of different cultural backgrounds. Color word is a small part of business English, but it plays a great role in international trade. They have many extended meanings about business, which may have no relation with their literal meanings. In this paper, the connotations and the application of color words in business are quantitatively analyzed by a lot of published articles. Regrettably, there are only a small number of studies closely related to color words in business English. Most of the studies are only about color words or just other aspects in business English. There are many similar topics and results of business English. This paper is to go into a deeper aspect, the applications of color terms in business English. Some basic and common color words are frequently used in business, both in written English and oral form. Since color words are given so many cultural connotations, a well understanding on the meanings of color words in business can help negotiators correctly take in important information of the other side. Besides, it can also avoid the embarrassment of unknowing others’ meanings or misunderstandings. All in all, having a fair knowledge of this aspect is useful in business negotiations and building better business ties.
Key words: color words; business English; connotation