A Comparison on Using Colors between English and Chinese 英语专业毕业论文.doc

A Comparison on Using Colors between English and Chinese中英文中颜色词用法的对比C o n t e n t s I.Introduction.1II.Differences on white and black.22.1The meaning of white and black in Chinese.2.2 The meaning of white and black in English.III. Differences on Yellow and red.3I V.Differences on green.4V. Differences on bule5 V I.Conclusion.6Bibliography.A Comparison on Using Colors betweenEnglish and ChineseI.IntroductionIn English and Chinese language color words mean different ideas, and they play a very important role in national customs and cultural psychology.Nature is colorful. Color have a specific meaning in people's minds, cause specific thoughts and special reaction. Many Chinese and English color words reflect different cultural attitudes and emotions. Especially in Chinese, since ancient times there have been many color words. Similarly, in English, there are a lot of color words that reflect western culture. Since the natural environment, social systems, customs, and cultural backgrounds are different in England and China, the connotation of color words in English and Chinese have both the similaritity and differencesII.Differences on white and black2.1The meaning of white and black in ChineseSuch as black and white, they symbolize darkness and light in Western culture. In the Bible, the black is the symbol of devil, evil, suffering and misfortune, therefore, black is also called "the color of death." White is the God, angels, happiness, joy and is the symbol of virtue. Kandinsky said: "The white symbolizes joy, pleasure, pureness and perfectness, while black is the symbol of sorrow and death . ." Ralph WaldoEmerson had a famous saying: "The grey past, the white future " In the classic ballet "Swan Lake", black swan is in behalf of the evil, fraud and hatred; the white swan represents the goodness, pureness and beauty. Black is always used in giving a horrible metaphor, or even the feeling of evil.Such as: "a blackvillian" "black death" (plague); "blackflag" (pirate flag, the death penalty flag); "black ingratitude" (extreme ingratitude); "black words" (unlucky words); "talk black into white" (confound right and wrong, sophistry); "B-hand" (the Mafia, a secret criminal group); "ablack letter day" (inauspicious days, bad days); "Black mail" (blackmail); "black money" (the money someone get not in normal ways or in illegal ways, not tax money); "black-hearted" (evil,cruel); "black art" (witchcraft) . . All of these words indicate that "Black" (black) and the bad, evil, anger linked characteristics. And "Black" is relative to evil, anger,compared to”black”, white means beauty, hope, happiness, happy,joy in western culture.In Bible story, the angel is always with a pair of white wings, and a silver and white halo floating over the head; Christmas is the most important festival of the year in Western countries, like the Lunar New Year in China . "A white X'mas" (means "Christmas day is snowy"); "white hands" (fair and honest); "white knight" (white knight means the political reformers or the winners in career) ; "white lit" (little lies, lies that we say in order to not to embarrass people); "a white day" (auspicious day,lucky day); "days marked with a white stone" (happy days). A western fairy tale is popular with the children from all the world,its heroine is called "Snow White", she is avatar of intelligence, kindness and beauty. Washington's "White House" is a symbol of state power; "Whitehall" is the London streets filled with the central government agencies; Western official document issued by the State is called the "White Paper" From the examples cited above,it is not difficult for us to see there is a tradition that western people like white,dislike black in their culture.2.2 The meaning of white and black in EnglishIn Chinese traditional culture, black and white are both cemtral colors, Ancients believed that the East green is a symbol of all living things growing, the South red symbolizes all living things are lush , the West white is relative to autumn, the northern black is relative to winter. In Chinese feudal society ,"白"（white）was "the color of the civilian". Ancient civilian 's clothes can not be colorful because the rules of kingdom, so they are called "白衣"（white clothes）. A man without fame in ancient times is called "白丁"（white man）; the room a man without fame live and study in is known as the “白屋”(white room),which is a house made of couch grass.In traditional theater, the "白脸”(white face) is the symbol of treachery and betrayal, Caocao(a famous sucessful politician in Chinese history) on thestage is a big white face. "White" and "black" in the contemporary political concepts are considered as the opposite of red,on behalf of the reactionary, going backward stubbornness, such as: "白区" (white ares), "白匪"(white bandits), "白军" (white army), "白色恐怖" (white terror), "白色政权" (white power).Today, in a Chinese funeral, the deceased's relatives and friends usually wear black gauze around the arm, the white flowers on their chest as a way to express condolences and respect to the dead. We can see from that, in considerable number of occasions, it is to black and white that Chinese people show disgust and even fear, and even dodge them. Chinese cultures attitude to the black was similar with Western culture's, but to white they are really different.III. Differences on Yellow and redYellow is the color of harwest. Farmers harvest crops in autnmn and store the crops.Although the Farmers have kept the crops, the climate is becoming colder and worse, plants are gradually turning yellow, the area of the peoples activity is getting smaller and smaller, which has an effect on people's emotion of sadness and grief. The feeling that the ancients think position,seasons are in relative to colors, has passed to nowadays.Because even now farmers in the vast rural areas of china have not been able to completely get rid of small-scale manual agcultural production.In traditional Chinese culture,yellow is one of the major five colors and it is the most important color amongthem,which is considered as “the color of king." Yellow is the color of the nature, which never change. This color represents the beauty neutralisation, so it is concidered as worshipful color.in the Chinese feudal society, the emperor dressed yellow robe,and common people could not in yellow.It is visible, in the Chinese feudal society yellow is the legal worshipful color,is a symbol of imperial power, glory and noble and so on. So far, the yellow is still the symbol of ancient China. In Chinese the words relative to "Yellow"includes"黄屋（Yellow House）" (the emperors car in ancient time); "皇榜(yellow list)" (the emperor's statement).Yellow is also a symbol of sunshine. In modern Chinese, such as "黄灿灿"(yellow is shining),"黄花闺女" (a virgin as pure as a yellow flower)、"黄道吉日”(yellow and auspicious days), all these words reflect the "yellow" is noble in Chinese minds. Yellow in the West was unable to enjoy such privileges compared in China.In English culture, yellow, often means melancholy, morbid, nasty, cowardly. Genghis Khan and the Boxer Rebellion expedition appalled the white people, they falsely called the yellow people "yellow-dog" (contemptible person); "yello w-livered" (timid); "yellow looks" (dark suspicious look); "yellow back" (popular fiction in 19 century); "yellowjournalism" (yellow press style, that means attracting readers by fair means or foul) . Some people might say, "yellow" in Chinese is also used as a pejorative, such as "黄色书刊"（yellow books andmagazines, erotica）"扫黄"（clean-out pornography）and so on. This derogatory usage of the "yellow" is the result of Western culture influence. In traditional Chinese culture, nowadays so called the "黄色" （yellow） commonly referred to as "桃色"（peach）, such as "绯闻"（scandal）is a case in point. In the feudal society ruled by the king, only the emperor can use ,so yellow will never has the meaning of dirty, nasty.This point will be also discussed below. Red is the color of blood and fire. In the West, red is often used as pejorative, that means cruel, fanatical, evil, and bloody. Such as: "red hands" (bloody hands,the hand killing other people); "be caught red-handed" (being arrested on the ground); "red-headed" (furious); "red-light district" (sex service zone ); "red-neck" (rustic southern U.S. farmers); "red-ruin" (war); "red skin" (derogatory name for the North American Indians); "red-typism" (red tape, bureaucracy).Chinese think red is a symbol of happiness, success, luck, loyalty and prosperity. This stems from the ancient people worship the god of sun. In ancient time dignitaries朱门”(red door) ;what they dress is"朱衣"(red clothes); In the traditional Peking Opera,Guan Yu(a famous general in ancient China)s red face symbolizes he is upright and loyal. In the traditional wedding the wedding hall is posted on red words, the scarf covering brides face is red, the bride wears a big red coat, the groom wear a large red floweron his chest. These red wedding dress not only to bring thewedding an atmosphere of happiness, but also implies that the married couple will have happy days in the future.待添加的隐藏文字内容3I V.Differences on green In English green with envy, green-eyed monster and green-eyed, all express "envy." However, we often use “眼红”（eyes turn red） to express "jealous" in Chinese, if translate it directly to red-eyed in English,which is just the opposite of green-eyed in English. Interestingly, it is in the past in Chinese there used to be the "戴绿帽" ( wear a green hat), or "戴红领巾" (wear a green head ban) ,for example saying "a person wearing a green hat"means the man's wife is a adulterer. In Eglish green is also commonly used to express lack of experience, lack of training or knowledge and so on.For example: You are expecting too much of him. He's still green, you know. And the term “greenhorn” means "inexperienced" or " the people who come from somewhere else do not understand the local custom." the term is often used to call immigrants with a slight derogatory. V. Differences on bule Blue usually expresses unhappiness in English. in a blue mood or having the blues that "not in the mood"and "depressed", and a blue Monday (bad Monday) also means something like that have had a happy weekend, but we must go to work or go to school on Monday, so we in a bad mood. For example: It was blue Monday and he just didn't feel like going back to work. (Bad luck comes on Monday, he must go to work, but he do not want to,really.) Blue is also used to indicate high social status, power or someone from a noble or royal family. He's a real blue blood. (He is truly noble.) In American English, blue books mean the ones publish the books of celebrities, especially senior government officials.显示对应的拉丁字符的拼音V I.ConclusionThe Comparison on Using Colors between English and Chinese just reflects a part of differences between Chinese culture and Western culture.So,we shuold pay attention to the differences in all parts between the tow cultures,which will make us easier to communicate with and understand what the Western people behave.And this is just the point why we learn the differences across cultures.Bibliography1Wang Fang. The Comparison and Translation on Color Words between English and Chinese,20022Wang Zhenya.English Language Culture,2004SW3Song Tianci.How To Translate New Concept English Words,20054 宋伟华.“汉英颜色词“红”和“RED”的语义对比”.中国英汉语比较研究会第七次全国学术研讨会论文集，20065 励雪萤.“试论英语中颜色词的象征意义”.黑龙江教育学院学报，2005（2）