Abstract

Color terms are very expressive and they are often used in spoken and written English. Since we are living in a colorful world, there are a great variety of color terms or a large number of color expressions describing the things in the world. Therefore, the English basic color terms including black, white, red, yellow, green, blue and purple have an important role in our human languages. With the world economic integration and the frequent cultural communication between countries, the semantic characteristics of the English basic color terms have shown dynamic trends of changes. Due to the differences between eastern and western cultures, people have different understandings of color terms. This paper mainly analyzes symbolic meanings and associative meanings of the English basic color terms. English basic color terms have pervasive symbolic meanings. White can mean purity, majesty, honesty and cowardliness. Green can mean youth, safety and jealousy. Red can mean revolution warmth, happiness and enthusiasm. Black can mean sadness, fierceness and disrepute. Yellow can mean wisdom and charm. Blue can mean dignity, moodiness, immaturity and truth. Purple can mean nobility, splendor and wealth. What’s more, English basic color terms can influence people’s feelings and moods and represent a category of people and things. The paper also compares the associative meanings and usages of the color terms between English and Chinese through a large number of specific examples. The differences between the English and Chinese color terms are caused by such cultural factors as environment, perception and religion. This paper has a contrastive study on the cultural connotations of basic color terms between English and Chinese, in the hope of helping people understand cultural and historical backgrounds, customs and life styles between China and western countries and promote the intercultural communication awareness and ability of English learners.

Key words: color terms; semantic characteristics; cultural connotations; contrastive study

摘要

颜色词是极富表现力的语言，是英语口语和书面语中使用频率较高的一类词。在人类生活的这个神奇的彩色世界里，颜色渗透着我们生活的各个领域。用来表示这些颜色的颜色词数不胜数，六种英语基本颜色词(black, white, red, yellow, green, blue)是本篇论文探讨的重点。随着世界经济一体化和各民族间文化交流的日益频繁，英语基本颜色词的语义特征也呈现出了动态变化的趋势。由于文化差异，东西方对颜色词也持有不同的看法和见解。本文着重分析英语基本颜色词的引申意义和象征意义，基本颜色词除了表示各种不同的色彩,还具有广泛的象征意义。例如:白色表示纯洁、庄严、诚实、懦弱；绿色表示青春、安全、忌妒；红色是革命之色,表示热烈、喜庆、热情奔放；黑色表示悲哀、凶恶、不光彩；黄色表示表面的魅力,智慧、男性;蓝色表示尊严、忧郁、不成熟、真理；紫色表示高贵、华丽、财富；灰色表示消极、保守、黯淡等。除此以外，英语基本颜色词还能影响人的情绪和情感，代表一类人或一类事物的特征。本文还将通过一些具体的实例来说明英汉颜色词在语义和用法上的不同。这些不同点的产生和很多文化因素有关，比如环境、感知、宗教等。本文对英汉颜色词从文化内涵方面进行了比较研究，以期消除我们学习英语的文化理解障碍，从而有助于我们加深对英语颜色词以及对西方社会文化背景、传统习惯及生活方式等的理解，提高英语学习者跨文化交际的意识和能力。

关键词：英语基本颜色词；语义特征；文化内涵；对比研究