A comparison of Cultural Connotation between English and Chinese certain Color Terms(英语论文).doc

A comparison of Cultural Connotation between English and Chinese certain Color Terms 1 Introduction Language is a kind of social phenomenon and it is the carrier of culture. At the same time, it is an important part of culture. Basically, language system includes vocabulary, sentence and texts. However, it is vocabulary that carries the cultural information most and reflects the human beings social and cultural life most obviously. As we know, almost every language has color vocabulary. Color is an essential part of nature and it plays an indispensable part in our life. Color words may show different cultural connotations of each language in some degree. Therefore, understanding and mastering the cultural connotations of color terms really are significant in promoting the international cultural exchange in todays muti-cultural society. According to the general study of Brent Berlin and Paul Kay, there are totally eleven basic color terms in English, which contain white, black, red, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, gray and orange. However, in Chinese, the basic color terms just include white, black, red, green, yellow, blue, purple, brown and gray. Though it seems that there are fewer Chinese basic color than English, in fact, Chinese is also one of the richest and most colorful languages in the world. In the following parts, this paper will make a simple comparison of the cultural connotations of several basic English and Chinese color terms. 2 The comparison of cultural of color terms 2.1Similarities of the cultural connotations 2.1.1 White White, to most Chinese and westerners, shares similar connotations: purity, innocence, honesty, goodness, etc. For instance, in Chinese, 洁白无瑕, 清白无辜, 白衣天使 and 白头偕老. In English, the color white usually contains such meaning. In the stories of Grimm Fairy Tales, the Snow White is described as the embodiment of goodness and in westerners wedding, the bride usually wears a white bridal gown, which is symbol of luck, purity and