摘要

因为人类与植物有着直接和紧密的联系，所以英汉语言都出现了很多与植物有关的习语和表达，也产生出了相关的文化。在人们的语言中，一些植物成为了人们表达某种思想的特定标志。人们为那些美丽并赋有顽强生命力的植物所深深吸引，并引发了他们的共鸣。于是人们逐渐形成了特定的喜好观念、美学标准和宗教传统。这篇论文探讨了植物词汇所体现的中英文化内涵及它们所承载的文化背景。在此研究中，这篇论文列举了很多植物词汇用以分析中英两种语言的文化差异。
文化是赋予不同语言的植物词汇以各不相同内涵的因素。从另一方面说，植物词汇又是反映不同或相似文化的窗户。通过对植物词汇内涵的探讨和学习，可以对中英语言及文化有更深刻的理解，从而更顺利地进行跨文化交际。
这篇论文包括了中英植物词汇使用差异的三个主要方面：语义重合、语义差别、语义空白；另外还从思维模式差异、地理环境差异、不同的传统文化等几个方面探讨了引起这些差异的文化因素。

关键词：植物词汇，文化内涵，文化差异，中英语言

ABSTRACT

Human beings have direct and close relationship with plants, and many customs and idiomatic usages about plants have come into being, and so has such culture. Many plants have become a kind of symbol in people’s thinking, which is reflected in languages. People take interest in those beautiful or vigorous plants, which arouses their deep feeling. And they have gradually formed the ideology of likes and dislikes and aesthetic standards, moral standards and religious tradition. This thesis is about English and Chinese cultural connotation of plant words and their cultural backgrounds. In this study, many plant terms are collected for the analysis of different cultures between English and Chinese.
Culture is the very factor that endows diverse connotations to plant words. On the other hand, plant terms are a useful window to reflect the cultural differences and similarities. Further more, according to the study of the cultural connotation of plant words, we can have a deeper apprehension of the language and culture and thus go more smoothly when we do the intercultural communication.
This thesis includes the chief aspects of the using differences of the English and Chinese plant words in three associations: semantic similarity, semantic differences, and semantic vacancy; and puts forward the cultural factors bringing about these differences from several aspects.

Key words: plant words, connotation, cultural differences, English and Chinese