英语基本颜色词的隐喻研究

宁波大学科学技术学院本科毕业设计（论文）
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题目：英语基本颜色词的隐喻研究
A Metaphorical Study on the
English Basic Color Terms
摘要
【摘要】隐喻是词义的主要来源。

颜色词中蕴含了很多隐喻含义。

本文主要研究英语基本颜色词的隐喻。

本文在隐喻投射理论的框架下，借助“黑”，“白”，“红”三个英语基本颜色词作为研究对象就颜色词隐喻根据以及隐喻机制之间的关系等两个方面展开研究。

研究发现英语基本颜色词的隐喻机制主要有三种，分别是从具体源域投射到抽象目的域，从具体源域投射到具体目的域以及从抽象源域投射到抽象目的域。

同时，本文还发现构词结构相似的颜色词具有相似的隐喻机制，构词结构相似而颜色词词义相反的词，隐喻含义相反。

【关键词】基本颜色词；隐喻；隐喻机制
宁波大学科学技术学院本科毕业设计（论文）
A Metaphorical Study on the English Basic Color Terms
Abstract
【ABSTRACT】Metaphor is the main way to develop new meanings of words. English basic color terms embody various metaphorical meaning. So this thesis studies metaphors of English basic color terms. Based on the theory of metaphorical mappings, this thesis cites black, white and red as examples to analyze the groundings of metaphors and metaphorical mechanisms of basic color terms. In terms of physical and emotional experiences, metaphorical mechanisms of English basic color terms are classified into three types: 1) mappings between concrete source domains and abstract target domains; 2) mappings between concrete source domains and concrete target domains; 3) mappings between abstract source domains and abstract target domains. Besides, this thesis also finds color terms in similar structures share similar metaphorical mechanisms and phrases with opposite color terms have opposite metaphorical meanings.
【KEYWORDS】English basic color terms; metaphor; metaphorical mechanisms
Contents
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摘要 . (II)
A Metaphorical Study on the English Basic Color Terms ...................................................................... I II Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... I II Contents . (IV)
1Introduction (1)
1.1Background & Significance (1)
1.2Theoretic Framework (1)
1.3Subject & Data Collection (2)
2Literature Review (3)
2.1Previous Studies on Color Terms in Foreign Countries (3)
2.2Previous Studies on Color Terms in China (3)
3Metaphors of English Color Terms (5)
3.1Metaphors Based on Physical Experiences (5)
3.2Metaphors based on Emotional Experiences (9)
4Implication and Conclusion (13)
4.1Implication (13)
4.2Conclusion (14)
References (15)
Acknowledgements (16)
宁波大学科学技术学院本科毕业设计（论文）
1Introduction
1.1Background & Significance
The subject of color terms has attracted many researches in many fields. On the one hand, it directly reflects different cognitions and cultures with different languages; on the other hand, it has a practical meaning for understanding and translation of cultures (Xie Haipin & Zhang Lipin, 2004). The research areas of color terms include philosophy, linguistics, anthology, cognitive, psychology, biology, ethnology and so on.
Based on linguistics, there are two research lines: one is about cognitive psychology which is color codabiltity and development of color terms; the other is on the perspective of applied linguistics covering translation, cross-cultural communication, linguistic education and dictionary compilation. Y et, this thesis focuses on metaphor of color terms.
According to CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), from 1979 to 2008, there are 52 items with the key words of “basic color terms”. There are 28 essays discussing comparisons between Chinese and English color terms in terms of translation, culture, semantics and so on. 16 essays study the basic color terms of other languages, like Chinese, Japanese, Vietnam and so on. One is about the color terms learning of deaf mute children. The rest of the essays focus on English basic color terms from the respect of trade English, translation and development.
By the above materials, we can find that few people investigate the metaphor of basic color terms. So this thesis will study on this aspect—how metaphorical mechanisms work on English color terms. It will enrich linguistic research and benefit linguistic studies that make people better understand metaphors of color terms. On the one hand, they can analogize unknown meaning of other words by applying the rules; on the other hand, people can predict the meaning of some color terms because the different color terms also have inner connection.
1.2Theoretic Framework
Among theories of metaphor, metaphorical mechanism is the most attractive subject for the reason that it is an essence of metaphor. By looking into metaphorical mechanism, people will better understand metaphor, like its essence, functions, ect (Shu Dingfang 2000: 152). Metaphorical mechanism, for short, is to study how to create metaphorical meaning.
According to Lakoff and Johnson’s book Metaphors We Live By (1980:5), the essence of metaphor
is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. Therefore, there is a set of systematic correspondences between the source and the target in the sense that constituent conceptual elements of concept B correspond to constituent elements of concept A. Technically, these conceptual correspondences are often referred to as mappings (Zoltán Köveces, 2002). The two concepts (A and B) may be a concrete entity and an abstract concept. There are four types of mappings. Firstly, a concrete entity project to an abstract concept. Secondly, a concrete entity projects to another concrete entity. Thirdly, an abstract concept projects to another abstract concept. Fourthly, an abstract concept projects to a concept entity (Lin Bo & Wang Wenbin 2003).
1.3Subject & Data Collection
As a matter of fact, color terms can be divided into two types: one is basic color terms which are frequently used, like black, blue; another is specific color terms which origins from concrete or natural phenomenon, like raven, violet (Bai Zhimin & Zhu Chengpeng, 1992). As for English basic color terms, they have already reached a common view, they are white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange, and grey (Berlin & Kay 1969).
This thesis would cite the first three color terms as examples and try to find their common metaphorical mechanisms. They are black, white and red. This thesis will divide metaphorical mechanisms in terms of experiences. The data of English basic color terms have collected from internet and Oxford Advanced Learner’s English – Chinese Dictionary.
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2Literature Review
Color can be seen everywhere. It is a natural phenomenon that every nation acknowledges them and gives different meaning to color with its cultural features. It is said that there are 4000 kinds of color in the world. But as a matter of fact, it is a continuity of color which is difficult to distinguish the line for red or orange, etc. Though color is an abstract concept, it is named—it is language, so color becomes concerted and dependent from each other (Y an Xinxia, 2003).
2.1Previous Studies on Color T erms in Foreign Countries
With the development of human civilization, color research also expands step by step. In the 17th century, the improvement of natural science promoted the color research in the aspect of physics and optics; in the 18th century, the boom of philosophy initiated aesthetic studies of color; in the 19th century, the rise of cultural anthropology laid foundation for cross-cultural of color studies. By the 20th century, linguists joined in and made a lot of contributions (Y ang Y oulin, 2003). So now the areas of color terms touch upon philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, cognitive psychology, biology, ethnology and so on.
The color study of science is begun by Newton. He proved the existence of the miscellaneous colors with the help of the prism. It helps to further development of the cognitive linguistic interpretation of color terms (Xu Y anli 2006). Later people were interested in the numbers of color terms in different cultures. Most people consider the more advanced civilization would have more color terms than backward one. As a result of linguistic studies on color terms, Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis advanced that the natural linguistic system can affect people’s world view. This Hypothesis also proved that the number of color terms was influenced by culture which determined their different semantic. It was not challenged until at the end of the 1960s. In 1969, an ethnographer, Brent Berlin and a linguistic Paul Kay published an influential book Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution which concluded eleven basic color terms in the world.
2.2Previous Studies on Color T erms in China
In China, studies on color terms are not as fast as western countries. But Chinese scholars have been working hard on this issue and have achieved many conspicuous results.
Most essays study basic color terms on the perspective of contrastive research between English and Chinese. Some discuss the comparisons of different color terms in terms of cultural impact. Such as Cultural Information of Color Lexicon in Chinese and English was proposed by Zhang Y an (2004). She
found that in different cultural backgrounds, the basic color terms matching other phrases may be different in associative meaning. Some would prefer to study translation of basic color terms. The number of English-Chinese color terms is approximately the same, but they belong to different language system with different culture system, so they have different connotations. Like Na Chengcang (2005) had Tentative Study on Causes of Cultural Inequality in English and Chinese Color words and Their Translation Techniques,and he found ways for translation: adding color terms, abandoning color terms, and substituting color terms. Some study on the cognitive approach. The metaphor is an important tool for human beings to understand the world. Many scholars would investigate into metaphorical theory. For example, Y u Y uping’s (2007) A Cognitive Approach to Studying English –Chinese Basic Color Terms explains the cognitive prototypes of colors from the perception of people’ s vision, the living environment and the social culture. Moreover, it does some detailed research into metaphor which color terms may produce in Chinese and English.
However, few people focus on the English basic color terms. In CNKI, only three papers research on this respect. One is interpreted the basic color terms development written by B. Berlin & P. Kay: Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Another is On the Morphological Structure and Semantic Features of the Basic Color Words by Niu Xiaoling (2000). This article gives an introduction of color terms and analysis of their morphological structure and semantic features in detail. She concludes that color terms can be used to symbolize the abstract things, express people’ s emotions and sentiments and stand for the characteristics of people and things. The third thesis is Study on Basic Color Terms by Y uan Mingzhong (2002). This paper begins with the fundamental research on color terms such as color categorization, relations between color meanings and scientific knowledge; then focuses on the detailed analysis of semantic content of basic color terms; and discusses the semantic change of color terms in “colorful” expression; finally finds out sex-related difference in color vocabulary.
Some of theses study on one specific color term. Most researchers will focus on one or two color terms in detail by comparing the similarities and differences between English and Chinese. For instance, Analyzing Semantics of the Basic Color “White” in Chinese and English from the Perspective of Cognitive Linguistics studied by Zhu Zhimin and Zhang Zhe (2008). They investigate “white” from the perspective of cognitive linguistics and applying prototype theory, the theory of metaphor and metonymy.
Based on the previous researches, this thesis would analyze the metaphorical mechanisms of basic color terms in detail, and try to find rules beneath various meaning of color terms.
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3Metaphors of English Color T erms According to the lecture by Paul Kay, professor Lakoff finds out that color use we can see is not an objective property, but an interactive property which is based on human physiology. In general, color is not just a matter of wavelengths that are reflected. Color has to do with the way that the wavelengths hitting our color cones and the neural circuity in our eyes give rise to an experience that we internally have. For example, it is not true that grass is green in itself. The greenness has to do with the relation between us and the world. Namely, color is the result of interaction between human beings and the objective world.
On the other hand, Eleaner Rosch has concluded that basic level categories are defined by our bodily interactions with the world. That is the ability to have gestalt perception, from a mental image and interact physically with our body. They are interactive categories and as such, the basic level which is cognitively real and part of our mental structure, is not real in the world. And it means that semantics has to be embodied, just as we see in the case of color (Lakoff, 2007). In other words, color semantics are closely related to human physiology and human physical and mental experiences. Through human cognitive means (such as metaphor, or metonymy), word meanings would develop from its primary meaning to many other meanings. Generally speaking, boundless meanings of words are the outcome of metaphor (Zhao Y anfang 2000). And experiences with physical and emotional concepts provide the basis for metaphor and metonymy. In other words, the developments of color semantics largely depend on metaphor in terms of human physical and emotional experiences.
As a matter of fact, by looking into color meanings which are listed in the dictionary, metaphors can be found everywhere. The ways of metaphorical mechanisms can be divided into three kinds in terms of physical and emotional experiences. Besides, a metaphor is composed of a set of mappings between the source and the target domain. And only a part of concept B is mapped onto target A and only a part of target A is involved in the mappings from B (Zoltán Köveces, 2002: 79).
3.1Metaphors Based on Physical Experiences
The classification of the first type of metaphor is based on target domain which is projected to physical entities or physiological appearance. Generally speaking, these three color terms—black, white and red can be classified into two kinds in terms of different grounds of color metaphors in application.
Table 1: Mapping from concrete source domain to abstract target domain
Table 1 shows that metaphor creations are based on human physical experiences. In Example 1, “black and blue” is used to express injuries on somebody. As we all know, the primary meaning of black is very darkest color, like night or coal. When somebody is beaten or falls down, the surface of one’s skin would be covered with bruises that appear as a blue, brown or purple mark. The literal meaning of “black and blue”is the color of something that is black and blue. With the cognitive understanding, we have metaphorical mapping from concrete domain (the color of something) to abstract domain (a symbol of being beaten). Therefore, the metaphor of “black and blue” is created on the basis of physical experiences.
The metaphorical mechanisms of Example 2 and 6 are the same as the Example 1. The source domain of “be in the black”is to write something with black ink, while the target domain of it means that one company makes profits. Similarly, the source domain of “be in the red” is to write something with red ink, while the target domain of it means that one company loses money. These two metaphors project the black color ink to having money and the red color ink to owing money in terms of the appearance of records. Obviously, these metaphors originate from social observation. Namely, people usually use ink to record gains and use red ink to record losses. As time goes, people would like to map the concrete impression (black or red record) onto the abstract meanings (having or owing money).
In Example 3, the metaphor “white livered” is developed from human physiological experiences. For one thing, human liver is by no means white. For another, when people feel afraid, the body reaction of human would turn pale. This is a natural response to the scared things. For this personal experience of
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abnormal expression to crowd reaction. The source of domain is a concrete object (an unusual color of liver). And through the interaction of physiological experience and cognitive understanding, the target domain is given the meaning (timid). The appearance of white skin is a crucial factor for this metaphor.
As for “white feature” has a similar metaphorical meaning as “white-livered”. It should date back to the cockfight. People always consider that the cook with white tail would be more timid. Thus, being white symbolizes being timid. That is to say, “white” is the key point in creating the metaphorical meaning of “white feature”. It is based on its physical appearance, then “white”would be endowed the particular metaphorical meaning. This metaphor is more lively when it is mapped from a concrete entity (a feature which is white) to an abstract feeling (timid). The grounding of this metaphor is physical appearance as well.
The metaphor of “red-eye”projects to a flight in a plane at night, on which we cannot get enough sleep. When people mention “red-eye”, eyes which are red would arise in human brain. Then people would consider someone who suffer from aute conjunctivitis or have not enough sleep or just have a cry. Here it focuses on lacking sleep. Human eyeballs are congested when people do not sleep well. This is a normal physiological reaction. Therefore, “red-eye” is a lively phenomenon to express such specific situation that has a plane at night. Generally speaking, the metaphor of “red-eye” is based on physical appearance.
From all the six examples above, we can find that this type of metaphorical meanings come into being by mapping a concrete domain to an abstract domain on the basis of physical experiences. By this means, people can better understand the metaphorical meaning. However, this type of metaphors not only exists in black, white and red, but also can be found in other color terms. For examples, I have lived long enough; My way of life is falling into the sear, the yellow leaf. As we all know, usually “yellow leaf” appears in autumn which shows leafs are going to wither away. The leaf turns into yellow is the result of physical change in autumn, while here the color yellow is mapped to old age or even withered skins which means human being stepping into autumn of life. The metaphor works according to their similar physical looking. As well as the color terms “grey area”, exactly what can be called an offensive weapon is still a grey area. The source domain of this color terms is the place which is grey. The color of grey is the mixture of black and white, so it is difficult to distinguish these black and white. And the target domain of “grey area”means an area of a subject or situation that is not clear or not fit into a particular group and is therefore difficult to define or deal with. That is to say, the metaphor “gray area”is developed from the physical world. All in all, metaphorical meanings of other color terms are partly based on physical experiences.
Metaphor involves two concepts that are “distant” from each other in our conceptual system (although
they are similar). The “distance”largely arises from the fact that one concept or domain is typically an abstract one, while the other is typically a concrete one (Zoltán Köveces, 2002). However, in terms of physical experiences there is another kind metaphor which have two elements, or entities, that are closely related to each other in conceptual space. The function of color in the this type is mainly to define a category.
Table 2: Mapping from concrete domain to concrete target domain
Example 1 “a black coat”stands for an office worker. If someone has no idea of its metaphorical meaning, it is obvious that they would catch its literal meaning. “A black coat” is an ordinary coat and its color is black. But by metonymy, it has projected to the kind of staff who work in office and always wear black suit. Therefore, “a black coat”would be used to refer to this kind of worker. All in all, this metaphorical concept emerges from correlations in our social experience between black coat and profession.
Example 2 “a blacksmith” is a person who creates objects from iron or steel by forging the metal. This term can be divided into two parts: the front part is “black, and the latter one “smith”. The latter part stands for human being, while the first part refers to the color of these irons. Here the function of “black”is to classify the type of one’s profession. Similar terms like “goldsmith”, “silversmith”depend on the color to distinguish their professions.
Example 3 “white collar”refers to a salaried professional or an educated worker who performs semi-professional office, administrative, and sales coordination tasks, as opposed to a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor. Without knowing the metaphorical concept of this term, people would regard it as a part of a shirt. But after it was first advanced by Upton Sinclair during the 1930s, “white collar” became a specific name for a person’s occupation. Therefore different colors stand for different
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“A white paper” is an expression that a piece of paper is white by its literal meaning. But since the early 1990s, the term “white paper”has come to refer to an authoritative report or guide that often addresses problems and how to solve them. This metaphorical meaning originates from the color of document’s cover. The same as above color terms, color “white” is used to signify one kind of book. By contrast, “a green paper”is a tentative government report of a proposal without any commitment to action.
The term “red-brick” is made of two parts; the front part is color---red, the other part brick. A brick is a block of ceramic material used in masonry construction, usually laid using mortar. Red color brick is one of the results of firing. From the color of brick, we can know how old of the wall in a school. “R ed brick” is a term used to refer to the six civic British University founded in the major industrial cities of England that achieved university status before the World War One. This metaphor is based on the wall material of university mapping to the general name of school. It conforms to economical principle.
The last example of the Table 2, “red-neck” refers to a man who lives in a country area of the US, having little education and having strong conservative political opinion. Its literal meaning means human neck is red. This is caused by the long time working under the sun. And only poor people or low-status people have to do in such bad situation. Thus, by the physical looking and history affect, “red-neck”represents for a person who is of low socio-economic status.
From above six examples, we can acknowledge that most metaphors in this kind emerge from in our physical experience between two physical entities (e.g. part for whole, object user) or between a physical entity and something metaphorically conceptualized as a physical entity (e.g. the place for the event, the institution for the person responsible). Compared with their full name, metonymy makes them more concise and lively.
3.2Metaphors based on Emotional Experiences
When we refer to one color term, we will easily get its correlative meanings, such as black corresponding to evil, white associated with pure and red relating to blood, ect. These correlative meanings of color terms are based on our emotional experiences which are results of interaction of our brain and world. As a matter of fact, metaphors are in our minds and mappings are in our minds as well. These associative meanings are not really existing, but the way people understand them (John Taylor, 2007). On the other hand, metaphors are based on various human experiences, including correlation in experience, various kinds of nonobjective similarity, biological and culture roots shared by two concepts, and possibly others (Zoltán Köveces, 2002). Given the above reasons, different color terms would be
embodied different associative meanings.
Table 3：Mapping from abstract source domain to abstract target domain
From the front thesis, we can figure out the color semantics are the result of experiences and color vision. By the first glance of black things, we would feel not good. According to the data collected, metaphorical meanings of “black” can be classified into three types on the basis of emotional experiences.
Example 1 “a black look” means an angry look. The impression of “black” is angry, depressed. As we all know, environment will affect our moods, and human emotion will reflect the environment. When we get angry or depressed, the vision of the world is by no means beautiful. “Black” may be the only color that angry man can figuratively see. Thus, by the emotional experiences, one metaphorical meaning of “black” is related to anger or unhappiness. This term projects the color vision to abstract feeling. Given this metaphorical meaning, phrases with “black”, such as “go black in the face”, “black mood”, “black-browed” etc. will not be hard to be understood.
When people refer to black, another associative meaning would come into our mind. That is being evil and bad. Just like in the “Swan Lake”, the black swan represents evil, deceit and hatred, while the white swan acts as pure, kind person and love. Like Example 2, the metaphorical meaning of “black sheep”is a person who is different from the rest of their family or another group, and who is considered bad or embarrassing. However, “white sheep” means a person who gives up evil and return to virtue. These two terms are made of two parts. The front part is color, and the second part of the term is an animal which is
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projected to human beings. Color plays an important role in this metaphorical meaning. “Black”has mapped to abstract sentiment of evil. This kind of metaphor is based on emotional experience.
The metaphorical concept of “black”gives negative impression. Therefore, death, misfortune and disaster are connected to “black”. Example 3 “black news” can confirm it. We have good news and bad news. “The news is black” obviously is a confusing saying. News can not be black, but the content of news is bad. “Black”labels as misfortune in this term. Similar metaphorical meanings of color terms have “a black letter day”, “black ball” and so on. That is to say, metaphorical concept of “black” can be mapped to death, misfortune, and disaster, ect. The metaphor creates from human understanding.
Metaphorical concept of “white” can be classified into four types in terms of emotional experiences. The first associative meaning of “white”is purity, innocence and frankness. Seeing white, we will feel clean and spotless. Example 4 “a white war” shows this meaning. War is surely related to blood, death and other evil things. But when it adds color “white”, the war becomes less bloody. The white projects whiteness to pure. These metaphorical concepts are embodied in many other phrases, like “white hands”, “a white girl”, “mark one’s name white”, ect. It is not the entities (hands, girls, and name) are white, but the nature of these is “white”.
“A white lie”is a metaphor which is familiar to people. It means a harmless or small lie, especially one that you tell to avoid hurting others. “White”here places an important place in this term. Its metaphorical meaning is being kind which conforms to the general impression of the color of white.
By contrast to “black”, “white” is regarded lucky, good and happy given the western culture. Ancient Greek and Romans would offer white things as a sacrifice. Therefore, other words followed to “white” will be given good meanings. Example 6 “a white day” proves it. The metaphorical meaning of the term is an auspicious day. “White spirit”, “white alert” and “a white stone” have similar metaphorical meanings.
Most metaphorical concepts of “white” are good. However, “white” also gets a negative meaning. The vision of “white” will be connected to being pale and lacking blood. Example 7 “a white flag” is a sign that people accept defeat and wish to stop fighting. If people do nothing, things shall be blank which is described as white. That the flag is white may mean nothing at all, but “a white flag” is given the meaning of surrender. This metaphor projects a concrete object to an abstract action. This is the result of human correlative thinking.
The metaphorical concepts of “red” can be divided into three types in terms of emotional experiences.
By the sight of red, it is not easy to avoid thinking of blood. In human minds, blood would relate to vigor, cruelty and blood. So the metaphorical meaning of “a red battle” is opposite to “a white war”. “A red。