The Emotional Meaning Reflected by Colour Words in English Language 英语语言中颜色词折射的情感意义.doc

The Emotional Meaning Reflected by Colour Words in English Language 英语语言中颜色词折射的情感意义 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Rationale In linguistics the study of meaning in language is defined as semantics. In this field, a quite important theory is Leech’s seven types of meaning, five of which are included in the associative meaning. These five meanings are connotative meaning, social meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning, and collective meaning. Among the five meanings the affective meaning also the emotional meaning threads a line among these. As one aspect of the study of meaning, enough knowledge on the emotional meaning is necessary， helping us have a knowledge of the other meanings for the connections between them. Affective meaning, as simply called the emotional meaning, is what is communicated of the feelings and attitudes of the speaker/writer towards the listener/reader’ and/or what he or she is talking about. We may address somebody as an idiot to convey our despise or describe something as marvelous to express our positive evaluation. Not just a whole sentence or a long passage can reveal a person’s attitude or his or her inner feelings, but a simple word can also do. In the real word, color is the most direct thing that we can easily receive. What it displays is not only its original meaning. According to Leech’s theory, the thesis begins with a simple introduction of color word’s two kinds of meanings –conceptual meaning and connotative meaning, to emphasize the later, especially the emotional meaning. Its sources in the real world and its practical functions will be generally illustrated in the following. 1.2 Literature Review Because of globalization, it is of necessity for us to get more knowledge about the world outside to make cross-cultural communications proceed successfully. And familiarity with their cultures through the color words is one of the good choices. The emotional meanings reflected by the words are worth studying in pa