Abstract

Language embodies its culture. Due to the differences between history, aesthetic psychology and language, the differences of Sino-West culture are the inevitable phenomenon. Every nation has its own language system, and color words are an essential part of the language system. The fact that color words are widely used in a language shows that they are functionally practical. This paper analyzes the reasons for the differences caused by all kinds of color words and all related rules should be noticed. In addition, the meanings of color words are not consistent from different people’s view and this will lead to many difficulties in cross-cultural communication especially for the workers engaged in the translation. So the successful bilingual workers should not only know the culture of mother tongue but also should perceive foreign culture.

Key Words：color words  cultural connotations  symbolistic meaning  cultural differences

摘 要

语言体现着当地的文化。由于文化、历史、审美心理与语言之间的差异，中西方文化的差异无法避免。每个民族都有自己的语言系统，在此系统中，颜色词是重要的组成部分。颜色词在语言表达中的广泛应用足以显示其具有极强的实用功能。基于此，本文对于造成颜色词差异的原因和需要注意的相关规则进行研究。在不同人眼中，颜色所代表的意思是不同的，这导致了许多跨文化交流的障碍，尤其是翻译工作者。因此，成功的双语翻译者不仅仅要熟识本国的文化，更要了解国外的文化。

关键词：颜色词 文化关联 象征意义 文化差异

1.Introduction
Color word refers to the language which is used to describe things in a certain color words circumstance (He, 2009). People live in a world with a variety of colors. Color words are frequently used both in Chinese and English. Terms of color form part of the vocabulary that are particularly rich in cultural associations. This means that they can be used either literally to refer to different colors or metaphorically to convey their associative meanings in different languages and cultures. Since English and Chinese belong to different families of language, the color words in these two languages have some similarities as well as differences. It is essential to grasp the differences and similarities of both the literal meaning and the cultural extended meaning of the color words.