摘要

词汇是语言中最活跃的，尤其是颜色词。语言中的颜色词不仅指自然的颜色，还具有丰富的感情色彩和文化含义。颜色是一种视觉效果，由于人类拥有着相同的视觉神经和生理机能，由颜色产生的物质是相似的。然而，因为不同的民族风俗、地理位置、环境、信仰、民族心理、政治以及经济状况，人们对于颜色的感觉和表达是不同的。在英汉语言中，颜色词的实质性意义有时候是可以被调节的。因此，了解并掌握颜色词语义及引申意义的不同对于促进中西文化交流是非常重要的。

关键词：颜色词，中国文化，西方文化，意义

Abstract

Vocabulary is the most active one in language, especially color words. Color words in language are not only used to describe the nature color but also have rich emotional and cultural connotations. Color is a kind of visual effects. Because of the same optic nerve and physiological mechanisms that people have, the color words’ material factors are similar. However, due to the background of the national customs, geographical environment, religions, national psychology, political and economic differences, the feelings and expressions of people of the color words is different. The pragmatic meaning of color words in both English and Chinese language sometimes can be coordinate. Therefore, to understand and master the differences of semantics and extended meanings of color words is the key of promoting Chinese and Western culture exchange.

Key words: color words, Chinese culture, English culture, meaning

1. Introduction
We live in a colorful world. The multifarious color results in the multifarious color words. Except the basic meaning, color words reflect people’s aesthetic standard and sense of worth. In this case, color words were given other meanings. However, people with different culture background have different aesthetic standard and sense to color. This paper chooses some typical color words to analyze the differences between English and Chinese.

1.1 Background
Color as an objective existence has a variety of words and expressions. Each word has its unique physical attribute. These color words are not fabricated by linguists, they come from our daily life, and they are used to meet the needs of our expression. There are a large number of color words in both English and Chinese language. Human’s cognition of color is an important part of learning about the external world. Color has no borders, it is closely related to our life, and we deal with it everyday.