从六个基本颜色词来看中西文化差异_英语论文

Chinese and Western Vultural Differences Reflected in the Six Basic Color Words

摘要

我们的生活中到处充满着各种各样的颜色，它和我们的生活息息相关，正因为有了这些颜色，我们的生活才变得更加丰富多彩。我们给所有的颜色取了各种各样的名字并以此来区分它们的差异。正如我们所知道的，在英语和汉语中存在着大量的颜色词，并且它们在我们生活中占有着重要的地位。这些颜色词除了表达本身的意义之外，还有着丰富的文化内涵和象征意义。本文探讨了六个基本颜色词在中文和英文中的文化内涵和象征意义的不同以及从历史文化背景,地理环境和宗教信仰方面来分析导致差异的原因。通过学习中英颜色词的差异来了解中西文化差异，促进中西文化交流减少理解误区。

关键词：颜色词;文化差异;象征意义;中西文化

Abstract

Our life is full of all kinds of colors everywhere, and becomes more fantastic due to these colors.We named these colors in order to distinguish them.As we all know, there are a number of color words in English and Chinese, and they play an important role in our life.These color words have abundant cultural connotation and symbolic meanings besides expressing their literal meanings.This thesis discusses differences of the six basic color words on cultural connotation and symbolic meanings in Chinese and Western countries, and analyzes these main reason resulting in differences from the backgrounds of history and culture, geographical environments and religious beliefs. It can help us to know the differences between Chinese and Western cultures, and promote the communication of Chinese and Western culture and reduce misunderstanding errors by studying the differences of basic words of Chinese and western.

Key words:color words;cultural differences; symbolic meaning ;Chinese and Western culture        

Contents

1.Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

3. Differences of color words between English and Chinese 2

3.1 Red 2

3.2 Yellow 3

3.3 Black 4

3.4 White 5

3.5 Blue 6

3.6 Green 7

4.The reasons for different meanings in the 2 cultures 8

4.1 The backgrounds of history and culture 8

4.2 Geographical environments 9

4.3 Religious reasons 9

5.Conclusion 10

Works Cited 12