中英颜色词汇的文化和语义差异.doc

Discussion about the Cultural and Semantic Difference of Color Words Between Chinese and English Introduction Language is a part of culture. The differences between the Chinese culture and the Western culture are inevitable because of the divergences among society, history, geography, nationality, literature art, religion, convention etc, which result in the divergence of the understanding and usage of color words between English and Chinese. However, everyone has his or her aesthetic sentiment .It could be a significant question to recognize these divergences of cultural language in order to study or grasp English language and facilitate the Sino-West understanding and communication. As we all know, different countries have different cultures. Culture is the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another. Color is considered one of the most useful and powerful design tools you have. People respond to different colors in different ways, and these responses take place on a subconscious, emotional level. In American culture, black has long been associated with death, while white is believed to signify life and purity. In the Orient, however, white?is the traditional color of mourning. In the United States, black has also come to suggest sophistication and formality. Americans generally associate trust a stability with the color blue, while?Koreans have this reaction to pink and other pastel colors. In a word, the same color may represent different meanings in both languages. Because the same color usually sets up different relationships in cross-cultural communication, requiring people in different backgrounds to decipher one kind of information in the other culture. And every language has a potential restricted meaning, which is beyond the language itself. So it is significant useful to know and study the differences, in order to promoting the cultural communication and translation practice. ?. A Brief Revie