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Abstract：Owing to the differences in cultural background such as national customs, geological environment, mode of thinking, religious faith and national psychology, the associative, symbolic and implied meaning of color terms are different, though the visual and psychological perception of colors by Chinese and English people are the same. Therefore, understanding and mastering the differences of color terms in their primary meaning and extended meaning has practical significance in promoting international cultural exchange and guiding translation practice.
Key words：color terms；primary meaning；extended meaning；semantic contrastive analysis；cultural differences
一、Introduction
According to cognitive linguistics, the development of human cognition and language is closely related with the perception and experience of the things in the outside world with our organs. Therefore, colors is closely related with human life and has no national boundaries. Moreover, colors, which objectively exists, has varieties of words to express It’s hue and categories. In the two languages, Chinese and English, which contrast sharply with each other and have their own characteristics, there are some differences in the mode of expression,culture and customs,which enable color terms to display their own distinctive characters. Therefore, when we deal with their basic meaning, more attention should be paid to their profound associative meaning. Owing to the cultural differences between the west and the east, the diction and the way people express colors are not completely the same and there are also some differences in the interpretation and use of color terms. Furthermore, with the constant development of human civilization, color terms become increasingly rich accordingly and many new meanings are derived from the original pure colors, thus making human language more vivid and diversified. Therefore, only by understanding the background knowledge of English and Chinese culture and mastering the deep meaning of color terms in the two languages, can we perform more effective and smooth communication.In the following parts, the paper will take “black” as an example to exemplify and analyze its differences and similarities in the English and Chinese culture.
二、Similarities in the Meaning of English and Chinese Color Terms
There are similarities in the extended meaning of English and Chinese color terms.
1.The Meaning of Dirtiness, Secrecy, Irregularity, Unlawfulness and Disrepute
In Chinese both“泼某人一身黑水”and“背黑锅”have the meaning of dirtiness and insult.“黑社会”is compared to the unlawful social organization doing some illegal activities as their jobs. There are also words like“黑货”( the unlawful carrying or selling goods), “黑店”( an inn run by brigands),“黑户口”(family without residence registration)“黑车”(taxi without driving license and taxes paid),“黑话”(bandits’argot or thieves’cant ), “黑道”(dark road or outlaws). Similarly, westerners refer to black money as the mammon of unrighteousness and black market as illegally operated markets. Blackguard is referred to rascals and people who speak nasty words. There are also words like black deeds (evil deeds), blackmail, black leg (people who cheat in playing area), black lie (unforgivable mistake).
2.The Meaning of Misfortune, Dismay
Black is the color of night, symbolizing death, misery and grief. Chinese people wear black armbands to show grief for a death and old people wear black shrouds and lie in black coffins after death. Similarly, in western countries, wear black means living people mourn for dead people and black here refers to the livery of woe. Black is a tattoo color in western culture, which embodies discard and averseness of the spirit of westerners. A black letter day means unlucky, inauspicious days on which one is down on one’s luck and in a black mood means being down in spirits. In Chinese there are words like“黑路上”(bad luck or be down on one’s luck).
3.The Meaning of Sobriety
Black symbolizes stateliness and honor both in the west and in the east. On grand occasions, government officials, great wits, swells in business community and well- known scholars all wear black clothes. Judges wear black robes to show dignity of law. Actors in symphony orchestra all wear black suits to show stateliness and solemnity. Black suits refer to full dress of sobriety and highest tone. In China, before the Sui and Tang dynasties, feudal emperors all wore black dragon robes to show the venerableness of the royalty. In English there are words like black ball in which people dress up in contrast with disco ball in which people wear casual clothes.
4.The Meaning of Dark, Dim and Obscuration
In English, black also have the extended meaning of dark color and gray. Therefore, black tea is the equivalent of“红茶”rather than“黑茶”and black coffee refers to espresso without milk or syrup. There are also words like a black stranger(a complete stranger)，a black art (enchantment), black despair and a black mark. In Chinese there are words like“黑处”( dark place, obscure corner, place with dusty light),“黑狱”(prison house with dim light),“黑天黑地”heaven and earth is dark as pitch,“黑塔窟”(obscuration),“黑压压”(a dense or dark mass of) and“黑糊糊”(blackened).
三、Differences in the Meaning of English and Chinese Color Terms
Black in English has extended meanings that don’t exist in Chinese. For instance, as in Man the writer has written one of his blackest records as a destroyer on the oceanic islands, blackest records means most disgraceful.Since he was made manager, the company has been running in the black.In the black and black figure all mean making profits and making money. There are also similar words like black ink figure nation, interest in black and black market price.
Black also has the extended meaning of melancholy, and grey. In English there are words like black future (dim expectations), be black in the face (be mad), black spot (place where traffic accidents and crimes happen frequently), black dog (disheartened person), black tidings (bad news), be in someone’s black books (fall into disfavor), a black voice (a deep voice), black memory (sad facts of one’s past).
Black in Chinese also has extended meanings that don’t exist in English. In Chinese language, since antiquity,people have been using black to symbolize selflessness, righteousness and fortitude. For instance, in the art of opera masks, black is usually used to symbolize noble characters and morals of historical characters like selflessness and fortitude.
In Chinese,black also has the meaning of sudden and violence.For instance,“黑风”( hurricane or storm wind)，“黑浪”( violent billow or storm wave).Because of its unique attribute of substance, black reminds people of evil, ponderosity and horror. In China, since antiquity,unfavorable situation and cruel ruling have been compared to“乌云，黑暗，黑夜”, and so on.“颠倒黑白”is used to express the situation that people don’t tell right from wrong and good-natured people are wronged.
四、The Cultural Root of the Differences between English and Chinese Color Terms
There are both similarities and differences between English and Chinese color terms, whereas differences take the upwind side, which is closely related with the differences of theses two nations in historical background, cultural psychology, cultural signs, cultural customs, cultural preference as well as mode of thinking.
1.Difference in cultural psychology
From the perspective of psychological linguistics, English and Chinese words can arouse people’s sensation and memory to the things referred to and enable them to produce association of cultural equivalents of its own nation. Chinese people use yellow so often to symbolize works of low taste that on seeing such words as yellow book and yellow press, people interpret them as pornographic books and periodicals. As a matter of fact, the former refers to the report presented by national governments of countries like France while the latter refers to classified telephone directory in English, which forms a sharp contrast with the accompanying meanings of yellow in Chinese. These differences are，to a large extent，conditioned by different cultural psychology of these two nations.
2.Differences in historical background and cultural customs
Differences in historical background and cultural customs can have a direct influence on people’s judgment and viewpoint of objective beings. For instance,“黄袍”in Chinese is interpreted as purple robe rather than yellow robe in English. Because in western history, the robes，kings and cardinal conclavists wore，is close to aubergine, therefore, purple has been the symbol of loyalty and honor for a long time.While in ancient China, emperors and men in powerful in fanes wore yellow robes, therefore,“黄”reminds people of majesty and control as this cultural customs is reflected in language, for instance,“黄榜”refers exclusively to feudal official proclamation and“黄袍加身”means ascending the throne through intrigues and coup d’etat. These different historical backgrounds and cultural customs enable purple and“黄”to establish a coequal semantic relationship.
3.Difference in value orientation
Language reflects national characteristics and contains a nation’s values of life. On the other hand, values appear as lasting and stable beliefs that accord with social culture and are universally accepted by members of a community; they are part of social culture and the result of long-term penetration and accumulation of social culture in people’s heart; they have a lasting influence on people’s attitudes, needs and modes of conducts. All of these are incisively and vividly embodied in language. For instance,“黑”in Chinese is used for negative meanings while in English，black is for positive meanings as in “New production methods put the company in the black”, because people usually use red letters to denote deficit and black letters payoff in accounts.
五、Conclusion
In sum, in the intercultural exchange, color terms as a symbol system have different uses, cultural value and connotations in the two languages. There is a lasting influence of social culture on color terms. The association and use of color terms in different nations have striking features of national culture, as different nations display their own culture and value in different ways. Therefore, a better understanding and mastery of the cultural background, historical and geological background and traditional customs with regard to color terms in two languages has some significance in promoting cultural exchange and bilingual translation between the west and east. Moreover, contrastive research into color terms enables us to have a more striking, truthful and vivid cognition of some things and promotes and strengthens the exchange and hybrid of the western and eastern culture.
参考文献：
[1] 蒋栋元. 论颜色及颜色词的文化差异[J].四川外语学院学报，2002（2）.
[2] 李瑞华. 英汉语言文化对比[M]. 上海：上海外语教育出版社，1996.
[3] 张安德，杨元刚. 英语词汇文化对比[M]. 湖北：湖北教育出版社，2003.
Key words：color terms；primary meaning；extended meaning；semantic contrastive analysis；cultural differences
一、Introduction
According to cognitive linguistics, the development of human cognition and language is closely related with the perception and experience of the things in the outside world with our organs. Therefore, colors is closely related with human life and has no national boundaries. Moreover, colors, which objectively exists, has varieties of words to express It’s hue and categories. In the two languages, Chinese and English, which contrast sharply with each other and have their own characteristics, there are some differences in the mode of expression,culture and customs,which enable color terms to display their own distinctive characters. Therefore, when we deal with their basic meaning, more attention should be paid to their profound associative meaning. Owing to the cultural differences between the west and the east, the diction and the way people express colors are not completely the same and there are also some differences in the interpretation and use of color terms. Furthermore, with the constant development of human civilization, color terms become increasingly rich accordingly and many new meanings are derived from the original pure colors, thus making human language more vivid and diversified. Therefore, only by understanding the background knowledge of English and Chinese culture and mastering the deep meaning of color terms in the two languages, can we perform more effective and smooth communication.In the following parts, the paper will take “black” as an example to exemplify and analyze its differences and similarities in the English and Chinese culture.
二、Similarities in the Meaning of English and Chinese Color Terms
There are similarities in the extended meaning of English and Chinese color terms.
1.The Meaning of Dirtiness, Secrecy, Irregularity, Unlawfulness and Disrepute
In Chinese both“泼某人一身黑水”and“背黑锅”have the meaning of dirtiness and insult.“黑社会”is compared to the unlawful social organization doing some illegal activities as their jobs. There are also words like“黑货”( the unlawful carrying or selling goods), “黑店”( an inn run by brigands),“黑户口”(family without residence registration)“黑车”(taxi without driving license and taxes paid),“黑话”(bandits’argot or thieves’cant ), “黑道”(dark road or outlaws). Similarly, westerners refer to black money as the mammon of unrighteousness and black market as illegally operated markets. Blackguard is referred to rascals and people who speak nasty words. There are also words like black deeds (evil deeds), blackmail, black leg (people who cheat in playing area), black lie (unforgivable mistake).
2.The Meaning of Misfortune, Dismay
Black is the color of night, symbolizing death, misery and grief. Chinese people wear black armbands to show grief for a death and old people wear black shrouds and lie in black coffins after death. Similarly, in western countries, wear black means living people mourn for dead people and black here refers to the livery of woe. Black is a tattoo color in western culture, which embodies discard and averseness of the spirit of westerners. A black letter day means unlucky, inauspicious days on which one is down on one’s luck and in a black mood means being down in spirits. In Chinese there are words like“黑路上”(bad luck or be down on one’s luck).
3.The Meaning of Sobriety
Black symbolizes stateliness and honor both in the west and in the east. On grand occasions, government officials, great wits, swells in business community and well- known scholars all wear black clothes. Judges wear black robes to show dignity of law. Actors in symphony orchestra all wear black suits to show stateliness and solemnity. Black suits refer to full dress of sobriety and highest tone. In China, before the Sui and Tang dynasties, feudal emperors all wore black dragon robes to show the venerableness of the royalty. In English there are words like black ball in which people dress up in contrast with disco ball in which people wear casual clothes.
4.The Meaning of Dark, Dim and Obscuration
In English, black also have the extended meaning of dark color and gray. Therefore, black tea is the equivalent of“红茶”rather than“黑茶”and black coffee refers to espresso without milk or syrup. There are also words like a black stranger(a complete stranger)，a black art (enchantment), black despair and a black mark. In Chinese there are words like“黑处”( dark place, obscure corner, place with dusty light),“黑狱”(prison house with dim light),“黑天黑地”heaven and earth is dark as pitch,“黑塔窟”(obscuration),“黑压压”(a dense or dark mass of) and“黑糊糊”(blackened).
三、Differences in the Meaning of English and Chinese Color Terms
Black in English has extended meanings that don’t exist in Chinese. For instance, as in Man the writer has written one of his blackest records as a destroyer on the oceanic islands, blackest records means most disgraceful.Since he was made manager, the company has been running in the black.In the black and black figure all mean making profits and making money. There are also similar words like black ink figure nation, interest in black and black market price.
Black also has the extended meaning of melancholy, and grey. In English there are words like black future (dim expectations), be black in the face (be mad), black spot (place where traffic accidents and crimes happen frequently), black dog (disheartened person), black tidings (bad news), be in someone’s black books (fall into disfavor), a black voice (a deep voice), black memory (sad facts of one’s past).
Black in Chinese also has extended meanings that don’t exist in English. In Chinese language, since antiquity,people have been using black to symbolize selflessness, righteousness and fortitude. For instance, in the art of opera masks, black is usually used to symbolize noble characters and morals of historical characters like selflessness and fortitude.
In Chinese,black also has the meaning of sudden and violence.For instance,“黑风”( hurricane or storm wind)，“黑浪”( violent billow or storm wave).Because of its unique attribute of substance, black reminds people of evil, ponderosity and horror. In China, since antiquity,unfavorable situation and cruel ruling have been compared to“乌云，黑暗，黑夜”, and so on.“颠倒黑白”is used to express the situation that people don’t tell right from wrong and good-natured people are wronged.
四、The Cultural Root of the Differences between English and Chinese Color Terms
There are both similarities and differences between English and Chinese color terms, whereas differences take the upwind side, which is closely related with the differences of theses two nations in historical background, cultural psychology, cultural signs, cultural customs, cultural preference as well as mode of thinking.
1.Difference in cultural psychology
From the perspective of psychological linguistics, English and Chinese words can arouse people’s sensation and memory to the things referred to and enable them to produce association of cultural equivalents of its own nation. Chinese people use yellow so often to symbolize works of low taste that on seeing such words as yellow book and yellow press, people interpret them as pornographic books and periodicals. As a matter of fact, the former refers to the report presented by national governments of countries like France while the latter refers to classified telephone directory in English, which forms a sharp contrast with the accompanying meanings of yellow in Chinese. These differences are，to a large extent，conditioned by different cultural psychology of these two nations.
2.Differences in historical background and cultural customs
Differences in historical background and cultural customs can have a direct influence on people’s judgment and viewpoint of objective beings. For instance,“黄袍”in Chinese is interpreted as purple robe rather than yellow robe in English. Because in western history, the robes，kings and cardinal conclavists wore，is close to aubergine, therefore, purple has been the symbol of loyalty and honor for a long time.While in ancient China, emperors and men in powerful in fanes wore yellow robes, therefore,“黄”reminds people of majesty and control as this cultural customs is reflected in language, for instance,“黄榜”refers exclusively to feudal official proclamation and“黄袍加身”means ascending the throne through intrigues and coup d’etat. These different historical backgrounds and cultural customs enable purple and“黄”to establish a coequal semantic relationship.
3.Difference in value orientation
Language reflects national characteristics and contains a nation’s values of life. On the other hand, values appear as lasting and stable beliefs that accord with social culture and are universally accepted by members of a community; they are part of social culture and the result of long-term penetration and accumulation of social culture in people’s heart; they have a lasting influence on people’s attitudes, needs and modes of conducts. All of these are incisively and vividly embodied in language. For instance,“黑”in Chinese is used for negative meanings while in English，black is for positive meanings as in “New production methods put the company in the black”, because people usually use red letters to denote deficit and black letters payoff in accounts.
五、Conclusion
In sum, in the intercultural exchange, color terms as a symbol system have different uses, cultural value and connotations in the two languages. There is a lasting influence of social culture on color terms. The association and use of color terms in different nations have striking features of national culture, as different nations display their own culture and value in different ways. Therefore, a better understanding and mastery of the cultural background, historical and geological background and traditional customs with regard to color terms in two languages has some significance in promoting cultural exchange and bilingual translation between the west and east. Moreover, contrastive research into color terms enables us to have a more striking, truthful and vivid cognition of some things and promotes and strengthens the exchange and hybrid of the western and eastern culture.
参考文献：
[1] 蒋栋元. 论颜色及颜色词的文化差异[J].四川外语学院学报，2002（2）.
[2] 李瑞华. 英汉语言文化对比[M]. 上海：上海外语教育出版社，1996.
[3] 张安德，杨元刚. 英语词汇文化对比[M]. 湖北：湖北教育出版社，2003.