2016年优秀英语专业毕业论文范文-英语专业毕业论文范文
ariari-小学三年级数学上册教学计划
本 科 毕 业 论 文（设 计）
题目
（中文）：
英汉红色词义对比研究
（英文）：
A Comparative Study on the Sense
of Red in English
and Chinese
学 院 外国语
年级专业 04级英语师范
学生姓名 张
学 号 040168
指导教师 王
1
A Comparative Study on the Sense
of Red in
English and Chinese
Written by Zhang
Supervised
by
Professor
Wang
A Thesis
Submitted to
Shanghai Normal University
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of Bachelor of Arts
in English
Education
Foreign
Languages College, Shanghai Normal University
April 201X
2
Acknowledgements
This
thesis is dedicated to all the teachers who have
taught me a lot, especially to
my supervisor,
who has helped to work out the outline, giving me
enlightening advice
throughout the whole
process of the present thesis. To her, I owe a
profound debt of
gratitude.
The work
would not have been possible without the help of
my roommates and
friends, who gave me a lot of
encouragement when I was at a loss. We discussed a
lot
and moved forward.
I am particularly
indebted to my father and mother, who encouraged
me to
persist and gave me the best they could
offer.
Without all the support, I could not
have completed this tough work.
3
Abstract
Colour terms are abundant in
both English and Chinese，such as red, yellow, and
blue. In this thesis, I have attempted to make
a comparison between the sense of red in
English and that in Chinese by studying the
examples collected from all the materials
available.
The thesis is divided into
three parts. In Chapter One, I relate colour terms
with
cognition and culture in English and
Chinese. In Chapter Two, I list a lot of examples
related to red in English and Chinese and
analyse them from three aspects in terms of
their sense: exact equivalence, partial
equivalence, no equivalence. In Chapter Three,
I find out the factors that cause these
semantic similarities and differences of red from
the perspective of cognition and culture.
Through a comparative study of the sense of
red in English and Chinese, I shed
light on
the three kinds of equivalent relationship of red
terms in English and Chinese.
The three kinds
of equivalent relationship indicate that there
exist similarity and
difference in red terms
between English and Chinese. Both similarity and
difference
are attributed to cognitive basis
and cultural influence. If people know them well,
they
can achieve better cross-culture
communication.
Key words: the sense of
red; semantic equivalence; similarity; difference;
cognition;
culture
4
摘要
在英语和汉语中,
存在着丰富的颜色词, 如红色，黄色，蓝色。在这篇文章
中，通过研究所获材料中的例子，我尝试着对
英汉红色词义进行了对比分析。
本文分为三个部分。在第一章中，我谈到了颜色词与认知和文化的关系
。在
第二章中，我列举了中英文里有关红色词语的许多例子， 并且结合三种语义对
等关系对它
们进行了分析：英汉语义的完全对应，部分对应和不完全对应。在第
三章中，我从认知以及文化的角度，
阐释了导致这些红色词语在中英文里语义相
似和不同的原因。
通过对中英文中红色词义的对比
研究，我揭示出红色词语在中英文里的三种
对应关系。这三种对应关系表明在英汉两种语言里，红色词语
的语义确实存在着
相似性和差异性，而这些相似性和差异性都源于认知的基础和文化的影响。
关键词： 红色语义；语义对应；相似；差异；认知；文化
5
Contents
Acknowledgements
…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….….
Abstract
…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…….…………. …
摘要
……………………………………………………………………………….
1.
Introduction………………………………………………………..
2. The
general view of colour terms in English and
Chinese ……...
2.1 Colour terms with
cognition in English and Chinese……………………..
2.2
Colour terms with culture in English and
Chinese…………………………
3. Semantic equivalence of
red in English and Chinese…………….
3.1 Exact
equivalence………………………………………………………….
3.2 Partial
equivalence………………………………………………………...
3.3 No
equivalence…………………………………………………………….
4. Reasons
for the semantic similarities and differences of
red in
English and Chinese………………………………………………….
4.1 Reasons for the semantic similarities of
red in English and Chinese……..
4.2 Reasons for
the semantic differences of red in English and
Chinese………
4.2.1 Difference in aesthetic
habit……………………………….…………
4.2.2 Difference in
historical background….…………………….………...
5.
Conclusion
……………………………....................……………...
Bibliography …………………………………………………….……
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1. Introduction
According to Geoffrey Leech (1981: 9), ―There
are seven types of meanings:
conceptual
meaning, connotative meaning, social meaning,
affective meaning,
reflected meaning,
collocative meaning, and thematic meaning.‖ And he
combined
connotative meaning, social meaning,
affective meaning, reflected meaning,
collocative meaning into ―associative
meaning‖. So besides the literal meaning,
colour words have affluent associative
meanings. Different nations endow them with
different cultural connotations. The
comparative study of the sense of red in both
English and Chinese will be a bridge for both
English and Chinese learners to
understand the
similarities and disparities; otherwise, these
disparities can cause
ambiguity and lead to
misunderstanding.
―Obviously, connotations
are apt to vary from age to age and from society
to
society‖ (Ibid: 12). Compared with
conceptual meaning, associative meaning is
unstable because associations vary
considerably according to culture, historical
period,
and the experience of individuals. So
it is quite necessary to make a comparison
between associative meaning of red in English
and that in Chinese.
There have been a lot of
studies about the meanings of different colours,
the way
to translate some phrases with colour
terms, and the relationship between colour and
culture. Many of them focus on several
colours, and some focusing on one colour
term
only list lots of examples without comparing them
in different languages, so it‘s
meaningful to
make a comparison between the sense of red in
English and that in
Chinese. If we know the
similarities and differences in the sense between
these two
languages, we can learn the second
language better, thus achieving the cross-culture
communication.
The thesis is about to
analyze some examples of red terms in both English
and
Chinese, try to find the similarities and
dissimilarities between them in terms of
semantics, and find out the factors that cause
these semantic similarities and
7
dissimilarities from the
perspective of cognition and culture.
2.
The general view of colour terms in
English and Chinese
Colours are
closely related to people‘s life. Colour is an
important field from
which people can
recognize the world. Let us see the following
example:
(1)菩萨蛮·大柏地
赤橙黄绿青蓝紫，
谁持彩练当空舞
？
雨后复斜阳，关山阵阵苍
。
Red, orange, yellow,
green, blue, indigo, violet.
Who is dancing,
waving this coloured ribbon against the sky?
The sun returns slanting after the rain.
And hill and pass grow a deeper blue. (包惠南
2003: 128)
In Example(1), Chairman Mao uses
seven colour terms to describe the colours of
a rainbow in the sky after a summer storm.
They are identical with the seven colours
that
are used to describe the rainbow in English
Encyclopedia.
Without colours, there will be
no colourful life. Nature provides us with many
beauties, such as the rising sun, the white
moonlight, the blue sea, and the green wheat
wave. They are all that we should cherish.
2.1 Colour terms with cognition in
English and Chinese
Language has two meanings.
One is its conceptual meaning while the other is
its
associative meaning. When we use colour
terms to describe the colour of a certain
subject, their conceptual meaning is applied.
When we associate colour terms with
abstract
concepts, their associative meaning is applied.
―Theory of Semantic
Feature-cancellation‖ (王寅
2001: 308) makes it possible for us to use words
which
are supposed to describe concrete things
to express abstract concepts.
Cognitive
semantics views meanings as a mental phenomenon
which is based on
8
body
experience. They are the result of interaction
between human being and the real
world. The
process of the forming of meanings is the process
of conceptualization.
And the process of
conceptualization is a cognitive one which is
based on body
experience. (Ibid: 181) The
cognitive process is a very complex one. The
cognition of
colours is a visual cognitive
process. All the visual information is carried to
the cortex
over the major visual pathway. The
discussion of colour terms will take one on a
journey from the eye to the cortex. One‘s
brain serves as a colour processor.
The
cognition of colours also involves one‘s
subjectivity. Thus, one colour
reflects not
only objective feature but subjective feature as
well. The subjective
feature is usually formed
through synesthesia, which means whether the
colour makes
you feel warm or feel cold.
As Geoffrey Leech (1981: 235-26) put it, ―The
relative uniformity of colour
semantics in
different languages has much to do with the
uniformity of the human
apparatus of visual
perception.‖ Whatever language a person speaks, he
is apt to
regard ―certain focal colour
stimuli‖ as more important than others. Among many
colours, red is the easiest to perceive.
2.2 Colour terms with culture in English and
Chinese
―Culture is an integral whole which
embraces knowledge, beliefs, moralities,
laws,
customs and other abilities and habits a man has
acquired as a member of
society.‖ (quoted in陶丽
2006: 17)
Language is a part of culture.
Language is a mirror, in front of which culture is
reflected. The difference of the ―inner
content of the nation‖ (解海江and 章黎平
2004: 263)
is a fundamental factor causing different
understanding of cultural
connotations of
colours. People in different cultures may have
totally different
understanding of the
associative meaning which the same colour conveys.
9
Cultural
associative meaning is determined by one nation‘s
custom, geography,
and religion. The same
colour may give rise to different association in
one‘s mind.
This is caused by cultural
difference. The similarity is the result of
cultural
commensurability and mutual
penetration of culture. In most cultures, red is
related to
enthusiasm and unrestraint. But
there exist great differences in custom,
geography,
and religion between different
nations. First, colour terms in Chinese embody
feudal
hierarchical culture. In many
dynasties, certain colours were used by certain
people.
They represent different social
status. Second, colour terms embody western
religious
culture. As the symbol of purity,
white reveals the religious complex of the western
people. So a bride in western countries wears
a white dress instead of a red one. Third,
a
nation has a preference for certain colours. We
Chinese people consider red as a
beautiful
colour. A good case in point is that we use 红颜 to
describe a pretty girl.
While red is not so
popular among the English people, its positive
meaning is used
less than that in Chinese.
3. Semantic equivalence of red in
English and Chinese
3.1 Exact equivalence
The view of the world is ―a culture‘s
orientation toward God, humanity, nature,
the
universe, life, death, sickness, and other
philosophical issues concerning
existence‖
(quoted in陶丽 2006: 47). How one views the world
will affect his
perception toward the world---
the process by which he attaches meanings to
social
events he encounters in his
environment. It helps people interpret and
evaluate what is
right and wrong, what is good
and bad, what to do and not to do, and so on.
That‘s the same in colour perception.
Both in China and English-speaking countries,
red is usually associated with
celebrations
and joyful occasions. In China, people usually use
red things to create
happy atmosphere to a
wedding, a birthday and important festivals. Red
is prevalent
10
on a
traditional Chinese wedding. People stick red 喜喜
on windows and doors, use
red linens. The
bride is dressed in red from head to feet: red
dresses and red shoes.
That not only brings
happy ambience to the wedding, but also makes
people recall
their happy days after their
marriage. When their baby is one-month old, the
host
family will send red eggs to the
relatives, friends and neighbours to celebrate the
coming of the new life. Under festive
circumstances, the elder send to the young red
packets with money enclosed to pray for
happiness and health. Similarly, bosses send
to their employees red packets with money
enclosed to pray for prosperity. Besides,
We
have a very famous trademark for a cigarette, that
is, 红双喜 which is a symbol
of good fortune. On
calendars, we can find that holidays, such as the
Spring Festival,
are printed in red, while
ordinary days are in black.
In English, red
is also used for celebrating events. It has the
cultural associative
meaning of happiness,
such as in red letter day. Important days are
printed in red on
calendars rather than in
black for ordinary days. For western people, a red
letter day
means a day when a good event
happens.
In China, we have the custom to roll
out a red carpet to extend our warmth to
some
important guests, that is, to ―roll out the red
carpet to honor a visiting head of
state‖, or
―to give someone the red carpet treatment‖. For
example,
(2) A mother said, ‗It was a real red
letter day for me when my son came home
from
three years in the navy. We rolled out the red
carpet to welcome him home.‘ (我
儿子在海军服役三年了。他回家的
那天，对我来说真是一个大喜的日子。我们把
他当贵宾一样来欢迎。) (宋伟华 2006:
109)
From the case, we can find that ―to roll
out the red carpet‖ can also be applied to
an
ordinary person. Besides, ―to paint the town red‖
means ―to celebrate wildly, to
enjoy oneself
to one‘s heart‘s content‖.
Likewise, in the
west, on Christmas Day, Santa Claus comes to
dispatch presents
to innocent children. He is
in red, making the day full of mystery and
happiness.
What‘s more, there exists basic
similarity in conceptual meaning of red in
11
English and Chinese such as
blood-red (血红色), orange-red (橘红色), red wine
(红
葡萄酒).
3.2 Partial equivalence
But in the process of translating one source
language into another target language,
the
meaning may change, especially when colour terms
are involved, although the
translator tries
his or her best to be faithful. There exists a
close relationship between
colour and emotion.
This can be well illustrated by the following
example: Mr. Brown
has been feeling blue
lately.
The actual information this
sentence conveys is that Mr. Brown has been very
depressed lately. Only when we know its
connotations can we understand a colour
term
correctly; otherwise, we will feel very confused.
Like white, red is also associated with
certain emotions, anger and
embarrassment
included. These two kinds of emotion exist both in
English and
Chinese. Let‘s see an example. Her
face turned red when bombarded with such an
embarrassing question. We can easily guess the
meaning of red and the meaning of
this
sentence, for there is an Chinese equivalence for
it——脸红. There her face
turned red because she
felt embarrassed and she felt so because of the
embarrassing
question. In English, we can use
either turn red or become red-faced to show one‘s
embarrassment. But we must know that in
English there are many expressions to
describe
a person‘s face turning red: to blush, to flush,
to redden, to colour up, etc.
―Many objects
that would be labelled by the ‗red‘ term in one
language would not be
labelled by the ‗red‘
term in another: accordingly the ‗red‘ term in one
language would
not be infallibly translated by
the ‗red‘ term in another‖ (Geoffrey Leech 1981:
235).
Some things and objects have only one or
two ways of expression in one language,
while
in another language, they can be expressed in
several ways. That is to say, they
have more
subtle differences in another language. Let us see
where these differences
are from the examples
below.
12
(3)
“我有什么心事呢？”盛淑君满脸飞红地抵赖。（周立波：《山乡巨变》）
“What cares
have I got?‖ she blushed as she denied them.
(4)
他和甫两个虽然已经喝了半瓶黑葡萄酒，可是他们脸上一点也不红„„
（茅盾：《子夜》）
He and Wang Ho-fu had got through half a
bottle of port between them, but their
faces
were not flushed in the least.
(5)
周仲伟的脸上立刻通红了，真像一根“红头火柴”。（茅盾：《子夜》）
Chou Chung-
wei‘s face reddened like one of his own red-tipped
matches.
(quoted in宋伟华 2006: 109-10)
In
Example (3), we can know that to blush is used
when someone feels
embarrassed, to flush in
Example(4) is used in the exciting, happy, or
inebriated
situation. To redden and to color
up in Example (5) are commonly used in most cases.
So when we translate these phrases from
Chinese to English, we must consider
carefully
which word to use.
Those are all about
embarrassment. Then what about anger? In Chinese,
we say
气得脸红脖子粗. In English, we can use the
expression to see red, or to wave a red
flag.
They are partly equivalent to each other. Also, we
can‘t directly translate the to
see red into
见红，which may cause misunderstanding, because in
China, it implies a
woman‘s bleeding when she
is giving birth to a baby.
Neither can to wave a red flag be directly
translated into 挥动一面红旗. If it is
thus
translated, we will have difficulty in
understanding the whole meaning of a text
in
which it is used. Let us see the following
examples:
(6) He clenched his fist and went
very red.
(7) I found he was red with anger.
(8) When he criticized my work, I really saw
red.
(9) The mere mention of his enemy‘s name
is like waving a red flag to him.
If we are
not familiar with the phrase—to be red, we can
guess its meaning to
some extent because the
contexts have already been set here. We can know
red in both
13
Example
(6) and Example (7) implies anger. But what on
earth is the meaning of saw
red in Example (8)
and waving a red flag in Example (9)? Both of them
suggest anger.
The former means to become very
angry while the latter means to cause quick anger
in somebody by doing something offensive.
3.3 No equivalence
Besides these two
kinds of relationship I have mentioned above in
terms of red,
there also exists no equivalence
between English and Chinese. Let us see some
examples.
We Chinese say 红糖，but in English
it equals brown sugar. We Chinese say 红
茶，but
in English it equals black tea. 红榜 is translated
into honor roll; 红豆 is
translated into love
pea; 红运, good luck; 红利, dividend. Red ruin in
English refers
to 火灾 in Chinese；a red battle,
血战；red tape, 官僚作风. A blue sky refers to a
sky
whose colour is blue, but a red sky is not related
to a sky whose colour is red, but
refers to
colourful clouds in the sky. Let us see Example
(13):
(10)Red sky at night, shepherd‘s
delight,
Red sky in the morning, shepherd‘s
warning.
早霞不出门，晚霞行千里。(quoted in蒋林 2002: 26)
Red sky can‘t be directly translated into 红天.
If it is translated in such a way, we
Chinese
can‘t understand it clearly because we do not have
such an equivalence in
Chinese. To understand
it better, we have to translate it liberally. In
this way, the
liberal translation approach is
required when such semantic vacancy appears.
In Chinese, we use 红眼病 to express the feeling
of being jealous. But in
English, we use green
eye to express this meaning. If it only refers to
a kind of disease,
then it should be
translated into pink eyes. The colours are so
flexibly used here. If we
want to understand
them correctly, we must have a good command of
colour terms.
The different semantic meanings
of colour terms thus can be seen. It is because of
these disparities that translators are very
careful when dealing with colour terms. Take
14
David Hawker‘s translating
version of《红楼梦》as an example, to avoid the
negative
associative meaning of red, he
translated the name of this classical novel into
The
Story of the Stone. And 怡红院 was translated
into the House of Green Delights, and
怡红公子,
Green Boy. Jia Baoyu loves the red, but red here
symbolizes girls. He
sympathized with the
girls for their miseries. Jia Baoyu and Lin
Daiyu‘s tragedy was
the result of the feudal
society in which they lived and what they were
looking
forward to couldn‘t come true. So such
a name translated in this way is so ordinary
and can‘t be satisfactory, unable to convey
the author‘s intended meaning. And it is
very
inappropriate to translate the red into the green.
(Ibid: 26-7)
In Chinese, we have an idiom
红白喜事. Red is the principal colour of Chinese
traditional weddings and white is the
principal colour of funerals. But in western
weddings, brides always wear white dresses,
giving others a feeling of elegance and
holiness; while at funerals, people wear black
suits. So here care should be taken in
translating the phrase 红白喜事. To avoid
misunderstanding, we can put it simply as
weddings and funerals. When we talk about red
and white, there is an interesting
coincidence
in Chinese and English. In Chinese, those who are
popular and find
favour with their bosses are
called 红人. But Irish people call them the white-
headed
boy. Obviously, we two nations have
different cultures.
In addition, in ancient
times of China, 红颜 or 红粉 was used to call
beautiful
girls. It stems from the tradition
that women in old times commonly rouged their
cheeks. But in English, red does not have the
connotative meaning of girls, so when
translated, the red amid has to be avoided.
Then 红颜 can be translated into a
beautiful
girl or a pretty face. 红粉 can be translated into a
gaily dressed girl. 红楼
is a lady’s room. These
are all Chinese elements.
15
In Chinese, red is
also the symbol of socialism and revolution used
in a positive
sense. The typical words are the
red army, red flag, red star and so on. In the
revolutionary times, 红 symbolizes revolution
as in 红军, 红色政权 or 红色根据
地 while 白 implies
decadence and reaction as in 白区， 白色政权，白军，白匪 or
白色恐怖. The People‘s Liberation Army was called
红色长城. What‘s more, we
have 红代会, 红卫兵. The
phrase 又红又专 is often adopted to describe a person
who is not only loyal to the revolutionary
cause but also to his profession, that is, both
socially-minded and professionally qualified.
Whereas in English, red means
extremeness,
danger, indignation, and exigency, in such phrases
as red light district,
red alert and so on.
4. Reasons for the semantic
similarities and differences of
red in English
and Chinese
4.1 Reasons for the semantic
similarities of red in English and
Chinese
Language has two meanings. One is within the
language; while the other is
beyond the
language. The first level of meaning is what the
language possesses itself.
The second one is
endowed by people. ―Concepts in humans‘ mind
determine how
they perceive the world, what
they perceive, and how they relate to others‖ (常宗林
2005: 255-6). So when one perceives the
outside world, his knowledge, his experience,
etc. will affect his perception.
Meaning
originates from the interaction between human
being and the real world.
How people view the
world will affect the use of language, thus
affecting the meaning
of language. During the
process of the form of meanings, the external
stimuli are
conceptualized. This kind of
conceptualization is based on body experience.
16
The cognitive
process is very complicated. ―It‘s well known that
colour vision is
an important tool of human
cognition‖ (赵艳芳 2001: 41). What‘s more, the
researches on color and the physiology of
human color vision show that the
physiology of
human color vision is constant across all races.
It is generally the case
that regardless of
the number of color terms in a language, the focal
hue is remarkably
consistent across languages.
(quoted in李丽雪 2003: 24)
With this view in
mind, let us return to red.
Red is to the
human eye the most salient of color experiences.
At normal
light levels, red stands out in
relation to all other hues by virtue of a
reciprocal, heightening effect between
saturation and brightness…(Forley
2001: 163)
So red brings people strong visual shock. The
role of red as a warning sign is
related to
the colour‘s high visibility. People think of the
colour of fire as red. For
example, Birren
notes that ―The Jewish historian Josephus in the
first century AD
associated … red with fire‖.
In Chinese culture, ―We shall set down … red for
fire‖.
(quoted in陶丽 2006: 34) Fire brings
people warmth, so people think of red as a
warm colour. Fire is also dangerous, so red is
used as a symbol of danger. Flashing
red
lights denote danger or emergency. Stop signs and
stop lights are red to get the
driver‘s
attention and alert them to the dangers of the
intersection.
―Metaphors are sometimes used
without users‘ being conscious of their
metaphorical character‖ (常宗林 2005: 255). The
same phenomenon will appear
when we use colour
terms. Many associations are grounded so deeply in
common
human experience that we seldom pay
special attention to them when we use the
associative meaning of colour terms.
In
addition to the perceptual basis, color terms are
deeply rooted in their cultural
basis. This is
well summarized as follows:
In other words,
what we call “direct physical experience” is never
a
matter of having a body of a certain sort;
rather, every experience takes
17
place within a vast background of
cultural presuppositions… Cultural
assumptions, values, and attitudes are not a
conceptual overlay which we
may or may not
place upon experience as we choose. It would be
more
correct to say that all experience is
cultural through and through, that we
experience our “world” in such a way that our
culture is already present in
the very
experience itself. (Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 57)
It is known that bullfighters in Spain use a
piece of red rag to exasperate bulls to
wage a
war, for bullfighting is a tradition in western
countries and bulls are apt to get
angry when
they see something red. So people use like a red
rag to a bull to express
one‘s anger. It‘s
also a colour for danger. The western people
relate red to blood. They
associate red with
violence and danger.
On calendars, we can
find that holidays are printed in red, while
ordinary days
are in black. That‘s the same in
two countries.
Also according to Kovecses
(2002: 165), one language could borrow something
from another. Like 红灯区, 赤字, they are
translations from their English
equivalents
red-light district, in the red . And the use of
red in in the red comes from
the color of the
ink used in keeping accounts.
So due to the
influence of cognitive accordance of people and
the mutual
penetration of culture, we have
those similarities.
18
4.2 Reasons for the
semantic differences of red in English and
Chinese
On the other hand, people tend to
have different views and understanding of the
same object because of the diversity of
political rules, religious beliefs, ethics and
values of different nations. Every nation has
its own ethnic psychology. Culture has
been a
very important source for constructing connotative
meanings of colour terms in
English and
Chinese. Thus, it leads to cultural difference
between source language
and target language of
colour terms, that is to say, the non-equivalence
reflected in
their connotative meaning, social
meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning,
collocative meaning, and thematic meaning.
Chinese philosophy focuses on emptiness, while
western culture pursues entity.
Chinese
culture pays attention to likeness in nature,
while western culture is fastidious
about
science and preciseness. This kind of cultural
characteristic is also reflected in
the use of
colour terms. For example, Chinese colour term 碧
can be explained as 绿
or 蓝. Sometimes, people
of different nations use different colour terms to
describe
the colour of the same objects. For
example, brown sugar is translated into 红糖 in
Chinese. This exactly embodies the great
importance of red in Chinese culture. In
addition, brown sugar is good for one‘s
health, so it is commended as 红糖. In fact,
the
colour of this kind of sugar is closer to brown.
Its being called brown sugar in
English is
more precise. Black tea is translated into 红茶. In
fact, the colour of this
kind of tea is closer
to black. But we call it 红茶, matching it with
green tea. These
two tea names fully embody
the language tradition in which Chinese culture is
fastidious about symmetric beauty. Thus, we
can see that for Chinese, the use of
colour
terms is apt to be vague, to be opaque；however,
for English, the use of colour
terms is apt to
be precise, to be real. It is the result of
cultural difference.
19
4.2.1
Difference in aesthetic habit
Chinese people
prefer red, while English people prefer white.
This kind of
difference in aesthetic habit
causes the difference in pragmatic meaning. Red is
associated with happy occasions, harvest, etc.
Because of this, in China, men of letters
in
ancient times and today prefer to use red to
symbolize hospitality, warmth, energy
and
youth. It can be seen from the following examples:
(11)“霜叶
红
于二月花”——杜牧
(12)“
红
杏枝头春意闹”——宋祈
(13)“日出江花
红
胜火,春来江水
绿
如蓝。”——白居易
(1
4)“试问卷帘人——却道海棠依旧。知否，知否？应是
绿
肥
红
瘦！”
(15)“落
红
不是无情物，化作春泥更护花。”——龚自珍
In
Example(11) and Example(12), two poets use 红 to
describe the colour of
leaves and apricots
respectively. In Example(13), the poet uses 红 to
symbolize the
red flowers near the bank
reflected by the first rays of the morning sun. He
uses 绿
to symbolize a pool of green water
blown by the breeze in spring. Such a vivid
metaphor brings the spectacular scenery to us
readers.
绿
肥
红
瘦in Example(14)
means green leaves are fresh but the red
flowers are fading. 落红in Example(15)
refers to
fallen flowers.
The importance the colour
terms have in literary works can‘t be
underestimated.
The appropriate usage of
colour terms is for more efficient expression of
contexts. In
ancient Chinese literary works,
红男绿女 is often used to describe young and
beautiful women and handsome men, so what we
just need to do is to translate it into
gaily
dressed men and women.
Although red is also
used for celebrating events in English, there are
still many
phrases related to red that are
derogatory, such as red-handed (当场抓获), red-
tape(官
僚作风), red-blooded(狂热，固执), see red(怒不可遏),
into the red(每况愈下的经营
状况), in the red(负债累累). All
these Chinese equivalents have nothing to do with
the conceptual meaning of red at all. Red
flag, in China, is a revolutionary and
20
positive symbol, but in English,
it refers to something that will make you angry.
We
can see it in to wave a red flag, which I
have mentioned above.
The positive meaning of
red is abundant in Chinese. 红 in Chinese has the
meaning of happiness while in English people
prefer to use white to express this
meaning.
White in English is associated with beauty, hope,
bless and happiness. In the
Bible angels
always have a pair of white wings with a white
halo suspending over
their head. Christmas Day
is the most important day in western countries. A
white
Christmas refers to ―银装素裹的圣诞节‖; white
hands, ―公正廉洁的‖; a white day
― 吉日‖. While the
same colour in Chinese people‘s eye is the symbol
of death,
sadness and poorness. Besides the
white colour in funerals, there are many negative
phrases which are related to white in Chinese,
such as 白搭，白送，白眼，吃白食，
一穷二白.
4.2.2
Difference in historical background
―A
language carries a lot of culture and history‖
(常宗林 2005: 174). The
difference in the use of
colour can be traced back to different historical
backgrounds
of different nations. Many colour
terms are related to specific historical events
and
have their own allusions. In the eyes of
Chinese people, red is the symbol of success,
auspiciousness, loyalty and prosperity, etc.
This derives from the adoration for the
God of
Sun. In ancient times, the house of the rich and
officials are called 朱门. ―朱
门酒肉臭, 路有冻死骨‖
(杜甫《自京赴奉先县咏怀五百字》). The clothes they wear
are
called 朱衣 and their transportation tool is called
朱轩. In Chinese, 朱 equals
red when it refers to
a colour.
Take the well-known 红娘 for example.
There is a background for the
emergence of
this expression. 红娘 is originally the name of a
maid in the classical
play The West Chamber
(《西厢记》)，whose good demeanor helps bring about the
union of two lovers. Gradually, 红娘 is used to
denote the kind-hearted go-betweens.
In Qing
Dynasty, the book that was authorized by the
emperor was called red
book. It is different
from the red book in those English-speaking
countries, which only
21
means a book with a red cover. In China,
during the cultural revolution, everyone
should keep one book about Chairman Mao. At
that time, it was called red treasured
book.
Similarly, in English-speaking countries, words
related with history and
geography also have
their own special meanings, such as red lining,
red coat and red
brigade. The fact that the
American financial institution enclosed the poor
area with
red line and refused to provide
housing loans to this area made the area poorer.
This
was called red lining. During the
American Civil War, the British soldiers wore
scarlet
service uniform. So they were called
red coat. Red brigade is an Italian terror
organization, specializing in kidnapping,
murder, destruction, etc. The usage of red
between these two languages is largely
different.
5. Conclusion
This thesis focuses on a contrastive study of
meanings of red in both English and
Chinese.
At the very beginning, I cite a poem to arouse
readers‘ interest in colour
terms. Then I list
a lot of examples related to red in English and
Chinese and analyse
their sense relationship
from three aspects: exact equivalence, partial
equivalence, no
equivalence. Through so many
examples, readers may have a good understanding of
meanings of red. Some readers may have read
some of the examples somewhere, but
they do
not know how to exactly express those phrases
related to red. Some readers
may have
misunderstood some phrases, while after reading
the thesis, they will have a
better
understanding. If someone has never touched this
field, he or she will find how
interesting it
is. Next I try to explain the factors that cause
semantic similarities and
differences of red
in English and Chinese from the perspective of
cognition and
culture.
22
In the reason part, I also list
many examples, and sometimes compare red with
another colour term, such as white. This helps
to make clear the culture between
different
nations. From so many examples, I have found the
association of red with
happiness, success,
fortune, prosperity, as well as danger, anger,
etc. The examples are
more convincing in that
they cover many fields, including politics,
aesthetics, and
history. I can say that there
do exist many semantic similarities and
differences of red
in both Chinese and
English. Only when we understand them correctly
can we have a
good command of colour terms.
And only when we have a good command of colour
terms, can we achieve better cross-culture
communication.
23
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