颜色词的翻译方法总结

A Comparative Study of English and Chinese Colour Terms and

Translation Techniques

Abstract: With the development of globalization and the intensified international contacts, it is more and more necessary to learn cultures of different countries. Colour terms in Chinese and English are influenced by the cultural development in their societies. Because of the complexity and variety of both vocabularies, the disposition of colour terms in translation from Chinese into English and vice versa is undoubtedly a matter of great importance. Moreover, mastering colour terms’ translation improves the abilities of translation practice and promotes cross-cultural communication. This thesis, targeting at improving translation proficiency and promoting cross-cultural communication, makes a careful analysis of colour terms, including its definition, history in English and Chinese, translation difficulties and translation techniques.

Key Words: culture differences; translation techniques; colour terms

Ⅰ.Introduction

Color is an important area for people to understand the world. Colour has not only the physical attributes, but has cultural connotations. Language is a product of culture, while colour terms are closely related to the characteristics of the national culture. Different ethnic groups in the development of a long historical evolution formed different national customs, social psychology, thinking and behavior habits, and so on, which lead to the cultural differences. Therefore, different nationalities have their own colour preferences, their feelings of the colour are not entirely consistent, and their use and expression of the colours also have some certain differences. Sometimes, the same colour has different meaning because of special surroundings and different cultures. This paper attempts to make a comparative study of the translation of the colour terms in Chinese and English. Only by deepening the understanding of the differences of the colour terms expression between Chinese and English, can the accurate translation be reached.

―Colour term‖ indicates the word which is used to stand for a kind of colour. This definition is well known throughout the word, but ―colour terms do not necessarily mean the same thing as colourful terms. Colourful English may appear as idioms or in figurative expressions, while colour terms are words which simply show different colours. Like the onomatopoeic word, a colour term has little merit in itself. Only when it suggests the image of the original, or fortifie s the sense in the version, it has value in translation.‖. (Xiao Junshi, 1982, 173) Obviously, as a part of words, colour terms are used in writing to transmit information. In physics, it stands for the colour reflected by objects. There are two main kinds of colour terms: basic colour terms and object colour terms. Basic colour terms mean ―words used to describe the colour of objects when they appear‖. (Lu Hongmei, 2006, 135) Basic colour terms come from the language of Anglo-Saxon, including seven kinds o f colours. In Chinese, they are ―赤、橙、黄、绿、青、蓝、紫‖. In English, they are ―red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet‖. Although basic colour terms contain only a few words, they can be used with other words to indicate more colours. They are very active. Object colour terms mean ―te rms used to