中英颜色词的文化内涵及翻译

OUTLINEAbstractKey WordsI.Introduction1.1 Definition of Basic Color Terms and Cultural Connotations1.2 Background of Research on Color Terms1.2.1 Research on Basic Color Terms in Foreign Countries1.2.2 Research on Basic Color Terms in ChinaII. Basic Color Terms2.1 Chinese Basic Color Terms2.2. English Basic Color TermIII. Cultural Connotations of Basic Color Terms in English and Chinese3.1Black3.2White3.3Red3.4Yellow3.5Green3.6Blue3.7Purple3.8GrayIV. The Translation of Color Terms4.1Translation and Culture4.2Literal Translation4.3Annotation and Contextual Amplification4.4Free Translation4.5Zero TranslationV. ConclusionBibliography中文标题、摘要、关键词The Cultural Connotations and the Translation of Color Termsin Chinese and EnglishAuthor：Number：Tutor：Abstract: We live in a colorful world. There are many color words in the world. Color words have rich cultural connotations. Resulting from different social cultures, historical processes and geographic conditions, English and Chinese color terms reflect the difference in the cultural aspects such as social values, customs, color preference etc. Therefore, it is of significance to have a study on the cultural connotations of basic color terms between English and Chinese. The thesis deals with cultural connotations of basic color words in English and Chinese and introduces several translation methods by several examples. By the contrastive study of cultural connotations of basic color terms between English and Chinese, we can know more about what is going on in people's mind, in their language and culture. Therefore, in translation practice, what is important is to break the cultural barriers and convey the source cultural faithfully and effectively.Keywords: color terms; cultural connotations; translationI. Introduction1.1 Definition of Basic Color Terms and Cultural ConnotationsWe live in a colorful world. To satisfy our daily necessities, people use a great number of color terms to represent colors. For instance, it is seemed that there are over three thousand color words in English. Moreover, our eyes can be able to distinguish seven million colors, for most of which we do not have any expressions available at all.Generally speaking, the color words in English can be divided into two categories: basic color terms and object color terms. There are so many color terms in English and Chinese that we cannot discuss all of them, thus in this thesis, the discussion will focus on the field of basic color terms.However, it’s difficult to give a accur ate definition to basic color terms. There are many versions of definition to basic color terms, among which the most acceptable is given by Berlin and Kay. In their Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution, Berlin and Kay lay out four basic criteria to judge whether a color word is basic or not.In the case of basic color terms, we often take it for granted that the color terms are originally used to refer to the physical features of color categories, but we should keep in mind that the color system is partially determined by the cultural needs instead of being solely based upon their physical features.1.2 Background of Research on Color TermsColor terms are common linguistic phenomenon in all cultures. The study of color terms has caused great interest for many scholars abroad or at home, and they have studied the phenomenon of color terns from different perspectives. This section aims to summarize and briefly comment on the previous research.1.2.1Research on Basic Color Terms in Foreign CountriesPlato holds that the process of perceiving colors of human beings should satisfy three basic conditions: 1) a light source; 2) a reflector or an object which can reflect light; and 3) a functional eye that can receive the reflected light. (Sloane, 1991: 54).Aristotle pays much attention to the typology of color ingredients. According to him, simple-colors are related to some basic elements in the physical world and are mixtures of “black” and “white”.Brent Berlin and Paul Kay wrote a book Basic Color Terms:Their Universality and Evolution, the basic color terms are the prototypes in the different color categories for they best show the color of their own category.1.2.2 Research on Basic Color Terms in ChinaColor terms appear in ancient China. In mordent times, more and more Chinese scholars study on color terms.English Words of Color Arid Sound and Their Translation by Zhang Peiji was published in 1964. He makes a detailed description of the usages of almost all the color terms in English. Since the 1980s, the study on color terms goes further. Liu Yunquan published his The Beauty of Language in Colors, in which he gave a systematic introduction of the categories and functions of the Chinese color terms.In the recent 18 years, more works focusing on basic color terms between English and Chinese have appeared. Wu Dongping pointed out a cultural semantic field hypothesis, aiming at seeking the cultural vacancy, equivalence, difference and similarity from the perspective of cultural semantic field (吴东平, 2000:12).II.Basic Color TermsIn my opinion, color terms of different languages also have a lot of traits in common. The two world-famous linguists Brent Berlin and Paul Kay, after a thorough and careful study, drew the conclusion that in our world there are eleven color categories, which are known as “Basic Color Terms”.2.1 Chinese Basic Color TermsNowadays Chinese basic colors include white, black, red, greed, yellow, blue, brown, purple and gray. It seems that Chinese color terms are fewer than English ones, but as a matter of fact, Chinese is one of the richest and most colorful languages in the world.2.2English Basic Color TermsAs Brent Berlin and Paul Kay pointed out, different nations have different numbers of color terms. English has the eleven basic color terms, that is, white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, brown, purple, pink, orange and gray.III. Cultural Connotations of Basic Color Terms in English and Chinese3.1 BlackBlack is the color of night and therefore is associated with darkness. In Chinese, we have“黑暗”,“黑漆漆”and so on. While in English such expressions as “blackout” and “black future” are also connected with “darkness”. “Blackout” refers to a period of darkness caused by a failure of the electricity supply. And “Black future” refers to the slim hope in the future.In the Western countries, black is the color of mourning dress, so to wear it at a festival is ill mannered and unlucky. In addition, Western people believe that “black” has some connection with the evil spirit.B lack is often connected with anger. We have such Chinese expressions as“气得脸铁青(意指黑)”,and in English there is a similar expression “turn black with rage”. “black-browed” is a kind of facial expression showing anger and “to look at someone black” is to look a t someone angrily.Black also implies misfortune and disaster. “Black Friday” refers to an unlucky day because to Christians this is the day of Crucifixion. There is a computer virus called “BlackFriday”, which will flare up on Friday, deleting all data i n computers. This is an unlucky day to the users of computers. “Black” and“黑”also indicate “secret” and “illegality”. “black market” refers to the illicit buying and selling of goods. “Black economy” is the business activity that takes place unofficially without observing legal requirements, especially in order to evade tax. The counterparts of the expressions above in Chinese are“黑钱”,“黑市”,“黑市经营” respectively. Moreover,“黑”in“黑道”,“黑店”,“黑车”,“黑户”also express the connotations of “secret” and “illegality”.Sometimes black also has good meanings both in English and Chinese. People use black in a positive sense to mean dignity and justice. Black suit and black dress are traditional clothes mostly upheld by westerners. In business English, “in the black” and “black figure” has a good meaning of running a business profitably.3.2WhiteWhite is the opposite of black. In western culture, white is the symbol of brightness, which represents beauty, hope, and merry. Westerners think “white” is pure and elegant, so th ey adore white, e.g. “a white soul”. In western countries, babies are dressed in white for their christening. Brides wear white in traditional church weddings because white represents purity and virginity. In the fairy tales the girl “Snow White” is the em bodiment of wisdom, kindness and beauty. In Chinese, the connotation of purity can be shown in some expressions, such as“洁白”,and“白璧无瑕” People often mention “the White House” and “Whitehall” on TV. The White House is the official residence of the US preside nt, which is the symbol of power. “Whitehall” is a street in London where there are many government offices, and sometimes it refers to the British government.In a word, “white” in English mostly has positive associative meanings. In addition，“white” and“白”also have derogatory sense. White is the color of death in the West and the color of vampires. “白” in Chinese has also some association with death, the birth and death of a person are like the sunrise and sunset. Thus, white as the symbol of west also becomes a sign of death. And Chinese expression“白事”is used to mean “funeral affairs”. In Chinese funeral, people wear white hats, white mourning apparels and white shoes, with a white rope tied in the waists. “White” and“白” also means “failure”. In a war, t he yielding party will hang“白旗”or a “white flag” as a sign of accepting its failure.3.3RedIn English “red” is fire, and this is supported by the existence of set phrases like “red-hot” and “fiery red”, and by the association of “red” with danger. “red” and“红”are connected with “violence” and “shyness”. For example, “Red battle” refers to the battle in which blood is shed. “Red activities” means violent activities. “Red rules of tooth” is the law of the jungle, in which the strong lives on the weak. Red in both English and Chinese has the connotation of “ardor”. “Red” and“红”are also associated with physical state.“满面红光”shows that the person is enjoying good health.“Red” is usually associated with celebrations and joyful occasions. This is true in English-sp eaking countries as well as in China. In Chinese “red” is the favorite color, for example, “red-letter days”— holidays such as Christmas and other special days. Such days are printed in red on calendars, rather than in black for ordinary days.While in we stern culture “red” seems to be not liked as Chinese, because in Christian tales, the devil Satan appears in red. “Red” is associated with blood, war, horror, anger and danger in English. “Red” in English has more derogatory meanings, while in Chinese it h as more positive meanings.3.4YellowFor “yellow”, in Chinese, it was the color of the land on which the Chinese people have being living generation after generation. In addition, yellow is also the color of the precious metal and gold. People call the most precious time as“黄金口”,“黄金周”,“黄金月”,“黄金季节” and the youth of one’ s life“黄金时代”, as it is the most valuable period in one's life. In English culture “yellow” is associated with the yellow clothes of Judas, who betrayed Jesus, so “yellow” often represents derogatory meaning, such as “treachery, unfaithful”. Besides yellow also has the meanings of melancholy, sick and disgusting, By contrast, “yellow” in Chinese was chosen thousands of years ago as the royal color for imperial households.However, “yellow” and “黄” are both used negatively on some occasions. They can be used to imply warning. “A yellow card” or“黄牌” is a card used generally as a symbol of warning. “A yellow line” is a line of yellow paint along the edge of a street in Britain which means one can o nly park the car for a short time or in particular time; while “double yellow lines” are two lines of yellow paint that mean one cannot park there. No matter how holy a color“黄”was in ancient China, it is in modern times often used to mean “pornographic”,“obscene”, “filthy” or “vulgar” as in“黄色书籍”,“黄色电影”,“黄色录像”,“扫黄”, etc.“黄” in Chinese is sometimes also associated with “things visional or out of date”. For example,“昨口黄花” ,“年黄历”and“黄粱美梦” are used to mean things in the past, out-of-date dogmas and unrealisti c imagination respectively. In colloquial Chinese, “黄”can also be used to indicate “failure”.“我和他黄了”means that “we have failed to maintain our relationship”, and we have similar expressions such as“买卖黄了”,“这宗生意黄了”,etc.3.5 GreenBoth English and Chinese believe that the color green is not only a symbol of life and vigor, but also a sign of peace and hope. The olive branch, which is symbolic of world peace, is green. “green” and“绿”are connected with the environment. green peace(绿色和平组织):an international organization with the aim of protecting environment. green consumerism(绿色消费):the consumerism harmless to the environment.The green color is also a symbol of passing, “green light” and“绿灯”which means a traffic light allowing vehicles and pedestrians to go forwa rd. “Give somebody the green light” or“开绿灯”means giving official permission for something to be started. “Green card” or“绿卡” is a document that a foreigner must have in order to work or live legally in America. “Green” still has the meanings of flourishing, full of vigor and fresh. In English, “green” is often used to indicate lacking in experience, training or knowledge, Interestingly, in the old days, the Chinese expression“戴绿帽子”meant to be a cuckold, while green in English has no such meaning.3.6 BlueThe color blue both in English and Chinese is the color of sky and sea, and often arouses the feelings of distance, calmness and justice. In Chinese, the blue sky and sea often stir people's longing and imagination for the future, thus “蓝” is also called “t he color of inspiration”. In some cases, the color term“蓝”can be replaced by“青”.Thus the blue sky is often called“青天”and “青云”in Chinese. Because of the brightness and clearness caused by the cloudless blue sky,”青天”in Chinese often refers to a just judge or an upright magistrate. Meanwhile, blue sky is usually high and extensive, far beyond the reach of ordinary people, thus“青云”is extended to mean a high official position as in “步青云”in English, blue is often used to indicate “unhappiness”, “sadness” or “low spirit”. Ifsomebody is “in a blue mood” or “has the blues”, he or she may feel sad, gloomy and depressed. Blue is also regarded as a holy color representing sacredness, truth and loyalty, as it is the color of the robes covered on gods and holy bodies. Meanwhile, blue is also the color of Virgin Mother Mary’s robe, hence a symbol of purity. Besides, blue in English is often associated with “noble”, “power” and “wisdom”. “Blue blood” refers to a person of aristocrat origins. “blue book”, which is a parliame ntary or Privy Council report in Britain. In American English, it is a book with the names of well-known persons, especially government officials.Besides all meanings mentioned above, “blue” is also used in some other senses. For instance, “blue law” is a law to control sexual morals, the drinking of alcohol, and working on Sundays; “Blue-collar” workers are those who do hard or dirty work with their hands compared with “white-collar” workers; a “blue-chip” company or investment is profitable and safe; “blue button” refers to the broker who are permitted to do stocking transaction. “Once in a blue moon” refers to a very rare opportunity and “do something till one is blue in the face” means “work as hard and as long as one possibly can, usually without succe ss.3.7 Purple“Purple” is the color mixed by blue and red. China and English share the same opinion of the purple. “Purple” is often associated with high rank or station in general or imperial or regal rank or power in particular. In western world, purple is the color of nobility, elegance and the symbol of power. In English, “be born in the purple” means born in the family of an emperor or a noble, “raise somebody to the purple” refers to set somebody the emperor or the bishop, “marry into the purple” ref ers to marry to the noble.In China, “purple” is more often adopted by the feudal emperors and the Taoism. They called the auspicious air“紫气”, the Taoist books are“紫书”, the place which the deity living in is“紫台”, the emperor's palace is“紫禁城”,and popular to the extreme is “红得发紫”.3.8 GrayGenerally speaking, gray is the color of sky when it is cloudy, which is called “a gray day” in English and“灰蒙蒙的天空”,“灰暗的天空”or“灰色的天空” in Chinese. Since a cloudy day always makes people feel depressed and oppressed, both the English basic color term “gray” and its Chinese counterpart“灰”are used to mean “dismal”, “gloomy”,“indeterminate in character”, etc. The English expressions such as “gray prospect” and “gray compromise” and Chinese expressions such as“灰心丧气”,“心灰意懒”,“灰头土脸”,“灰色的心情”can be used to indicate the state of being discouraged. But the associations of “gray” are more than that in English, especially when it is related to old people. For those people, gray hair becomes a conspicuous sign standing for experience and wis dom, so the color term “gray” can be used to mean “experienced”, “intelligent” and even a person “who enjoys a universal respect” indicated in “gray wisdom” and “gray matter”. While in Chinese“灰溜溜” and“灰不溜丢”suggesting “being dejected”, show that many expre ssions with the word”灰”are usually used to indicate bad mood of the speakers. Besides, in English, “gray area” refers to an aspect or topic that does not fit into a particular category and therefore it is difficult to deal with. It also means the area of unemployment.IV. The Translation of Color Terms4.1Translation and CultureThe fact that translating one language into another is necessarily involved in the conversion of two cultures results in the close relationship between culture and translation. In the first place, culture places constraints on the activity of translating. As we all know, culture is to some extent the identity of a country, which determines its diversity nature from one country to another. Both English and Chinese languages have their own groups of words and expressions excluded in the other culture, which make it impossible to find an equivalent in the target language except by way of creating a new word.In the second place, translation has exerted a great influence on the target language culture. The most important roles translation plays is to enrich the target culture and to promote the development of the target language culture.All in all, language, culture and translation cannot be separated from each other. They act on each other, too. The development of culture would inevitably promote the translation. Thus a translator should possess not only bilingual knowledge but also bicultural knowledge.4.2 Literal TranslationIn the perspective on content and form of translation, literal translation is a direct way to keep the agreement between the source language and the target one. In the translation ofEnglish and Chinese words and phrases containing colors, this approach can usually match them perfectly in both form and content, which is what all translators try their best to achieve. Naturally, literal translation is the most acceptable way used here. For instance: black humor黑色幽默red light district红灯区Black humor is an amusing way of looking at or treating something that is serious or absurd, and red light district is a part in a city where there are many people and business selling sex. By literal translation, these two terms with their cultural connotations have successfully made their way into Chinese.Through literal translation, some expressions of English have now been accepted by the Chinese people, such as:黑马dark horse亮红牌be shown red card蓝领blue collarBesides, in many linguistic facts, we have found that some expressions both in English and Chinese adopt the same color symbols and carry the same cultural connotations, thus literal translation becomes the only appropriate strategy. For example:the white terror 白色恐怖give sb. Green light 给某人开绿灯4.3 Annotation and Contextual AmplificationWhen there are striking differences between the cultures, the translator will find it necessary to offer some supplementary information of the cultural symbols for better understanding. The method of annotation, that is, a literal translation or transliteration plus a note, is often employed to maintain the original cultural color, which makes the text suitable to be read and enhance the effectiveness of transferring cultural message. For example:景泰蓝Jingtai LanJingtai Lan is of course well known to the Chinese people, but a completely strange thing to people in English-speaking countries. Therefore a note should be added as follows: a special craftwork in China. It began to be made during the years of “Jing Tai” and was mostly blue(蓝)，hence it got the name of “Jingtai Lan”.blue book一刊载知名人士、高级官员名字的蓝皮书Blue book in American English is a book with blue cover in which the names of celebrities are kept. Chinese readers will probably understand it as a book of blue color. Thus amplification is feasible in this situation as it tran slates clearly the meaning of “blue book”.4.4 Zero of EquivalentZero of equivalent color word here means that the color words in source language have no “equivalent words” or “matched words” in meanings including both surface and deep meanings in the target language. Sometimes, there are zero equivalents between source language and target language on account of different concepts or unique cultural pragmatic meanings of color words. For example:“白卷”(literally white examination paper) means unanswered examination paper. It is impossible to find a semantic or pragmatic equivalent in English since it is a conventional way of expressing emptiness for the Chinese. Take“白开水”(literally white water) as another example. This Chinese phrase can be translated as boiled water. In China, people just want to make a difference between boiled water and tea that is a Chinese traditional favorite drink. “白”in this Chinese phrase means plain or empty and is used to emphasis the boiled water without any tea put in.“红人” (white-haired boy/ blue-eyed boy) in Chinese does not mean a person who is red in skin color, but is equivalent in meaning to “a favorite with somebody in power”.“黄” has the meanings of being filthy, obscene, vulgar, etc. In modern Chinese, which can not be directly translated into “yellow”, as “blue” is the very word in English to mean obscene and pornography, as in “blue films“黄色电影”,etc. More examples:white rage:震怒bolt from the blue:晴天霹雳once in a blue moon:千载难逢的机会brown sugar红糖红颜the bloom of youth白做get small thanks for something紫禁城Forbidden City黑桦red birch紫竹black bamboo黄道吉口white daysThis is because Chinese and English People tend to adopt different views in observing things and phenomena, and grasps the characteristics of things. In this situation, free translating is apparently an appropriate translating strategy.The method of translating is employed only when literal translation, annotation and contextual amplification cannot provide enough information for target readers to catch the exact meaning of the original.4.5 TransliterationTransliteration is the way in which, instead of rendering the meaning, only the pronunciation is transferred. As the most fundamental method, this technique is most often used in translating words with absence of designative meanings such as proper nouns, especially names of person, place or geographical features, brand names and corporation names, or some objects, things. For instance:小红(person's name) Xiao Hong(name of place) Tsinghai女儿红(name of wine) Nv’er HongBlues Williams(name of person)布鲁斯·威廉姆斯Through transliteration, the translation is concise and easy to remember, such a method may sometimes bring obstacles or barriers to the target readers. In such cases, transliteration is utilized and often combined with other compensation methods such as annotation and contextual amplification.V. ConclusionMy thesis analyzes the English and Chinese basic color terms by their cultural connotations and several translation methods by examples. From what have been discussed above，We can draw some conclusions: Firstly, both English and Chinese basic color terms are greatly influenced by their own cultures, and on the other hand, different meanings of the same color term in the two languages reflect the difference between two cultures. That is why the color red, which Chinese people love and use for weddings, is always in a derogatory sense in western countries.Then since culture influences language and language in turn reflects culture, thetransmission of cultural elements in cross-cultural translation is an obligatory task. However, confronted with two different language-culture systems like English and Chinese, the translator is expected to translate by narrowing the cultural gaps. He has to bear in mind the translator's dual role as a bilinguist and a biculturalist and the cultural functions of translation.However, there are some limitations in this thesis. Firstly, the colors in the world are limitless and this thesis only focuses on the basic color terms. Secondly, there are so many expressions with color terms in both Chinese and English that cannot write them all, but the examples given in this thesis are enough because the more important point is to understand the similarities and differences between cultures, thus finding out a more appropriate translation method is very important.Bibliography[1]Berlin, Kay. Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution [M]. Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1969.[2]Paul Kay, McDaniel C.K. 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