英汉基本颜色词寓意对比研究

A Comparative Study on the Different Implications of Basic

Color Words in English and Chinese

英汉基本颜色词寓意对比研究

Abstract

We live in a world full of colors and the colors play an important role in our life. This paper will highlight the different implications of color words both in English and Chinese, and will carry out a comparative study from several aspects.

Mainly, the paper will classify the basic English and Chinese colors. With several methods, such as black and blue are cool colors while red and yellow are warm colors. Besides, the paper will analyze the different implications of basic English and Chinese color words. Some examples of basic color words will be given, such as black and hei, white and bai, red and hong, green and lv, blue and lan, yellow and huang, to find out the different implications of these color words in English and Chinese.

So, from this study, we will get to know that the basic English and Chinese color words have different implications, which is hoped to be beneficial for translation, our cross cultural communication and international development.

Key words:comparative study; English color words; Chinese color words; implications

摘要

我们生活在一个有着丰富多彩的颜色的世界里，颜色在我们的生活中扮演着很重要的角色。本文将从若干个方面来完成英汉基本颜色词的寓意对比研究。

论文将以多种方法将英汉基本颜色词进行分类，例如黑色和蓝色是冷色系的词语，红色和黄色是暖色系的词语。同时会通过列举几个英汉基本颜色词来分析它们的不同寓意，比如黑和black，白和white，红和red，绿和green，蓝和blue，黄和yellow。

综上所述，通过此文的研究将会了解英汉基本颜色词语具有不同的寓意，并且希望有助于翻译，跨文化交际以及国际发展。

关键词：对比研究；英语颜色词；汉语颜色词；寓意

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction (1)

2. Literature review (1)

3. Classifications of the color words (2)

3.1 Methods of classification (2)

3.2 Results of classifications (2)

4. Comparison of the different implications of basic English and Chinese color words (3)

4.1 Hei and black (3)

4.2 Bai and white (4)

4.3 Hong and red (5)

4.4 lv and Green (5)

4.5 Lan and blue (5)

4.6 Huang and yellow (7)

5. Conclusion (7)

References (9)

1. Introduction

Since ancient time, people from China and west all have been using a variety of color words to describe the real world, such as Hei and Black, Bai and White, Hong and Red, Lv and Green, Lan and Blue, Huang and Yellow.

In fact, words of color are very abundant in both English and Chinese. On account of different customs, cultures, environments, religious beliefs and other factors, the meanings of color words in Chinese and English are distinct from each other. Different color words in different nations express and reflect different contents. Although people all have sound knowledge of color words and the color is related to everyone’s life, there is still doubt about what the different implications of English and Chinese color words are.

Language is the carrier and reflection of culture, and color term is a part of language (Paul, 2004, P. 126). By the comparative study on different implications of basic color words in English and Chinese, we can know more about what is going on in people’s mind, in their language and culture. At the same time it is expected that this paper may be beneficial for translation, our cross cultural communication and international development.

2. Literature review

The comparison of basic English and Chinese color words is such a hot issue that there are a great number of literatures and materials about the comparison of basic English and Chinese color words.

The early perception of color can be traced back to ancient Greece (Harry, 1980, P. 129). The great philosophers, Plato and Aristotle were the forerunners who initially presented their options on color following the principles of philosophy and aesthetics (Marc, 1974, P. 225). Since Berlin and Kay published the Basic Color Terms: Their