摘要

颜色涉及到生活的方方面面，用来表示这些颜色的颜色词数不胜数。颜色词具有丰富的文化内涵。由于文化传统、风俗习惯、宗教信仰、价值观念等方面的不同，英汉颜色词蕴含着不同的意义。随着跨文化交际的日益频繁，颜色词的内涵在不同文化之间互相渗透。在社会的发展过程中，颜色与历史、政治、经济等方面的联系越来越紧密。本文对比了红、白、黑、绿四种主要颜色词的差异性和相似性，分析了英汉颜色词的不同文化内涵。在跨文化交际中，我们要充分理解颜色词的差异性，有效应用颜色词的相似性以便顺利地进行跨文化交际。

关键词：颜色词；文化内涵；对比

Abstract

Colors involve all aspects of life. There are a great variety of color words expressing these colors. Color words have rich cultural connotations. English and Chinese color words have different meanings because of different cultural traditions, custom habits, religious beliefs, values and so on. With the development of society, color words are closely related with history, politics and economy. This paper tries to explain different cultural connotations between English and Chinese color words by comparision and analysis of four main color words: red, black, white and green. In cross-cultural communication, differences of color words should be fully realized and similarities of color words should be effectively applied.

Key Words: color words; cultural connotations; comparison

1. Introduction

In our life there is a variety of colors. Colors are abundant in both Chinese and English cultures, such as black, white, red, yellow, green, blue and so on. The same color words have different symbolic meanings. If we don't know this, we will have communicational problems. It is humiliating to make fun of ourselves in communication. Fundamentally speaking, in Chinese culture, the symbolic meanings of color words are formed by feudal domination, feudal superstition, primitive science, and poor education. So the symbolic meanings of color words have quite strong political and mystical tendencies. However, in English-speaking countries, the symbolic meanings of color words are influenced by the Western nationality openness, science and education degree. The symbolic meanings have less mystery, more sense, which makes the meanings easier to be understood.