摘 要:颜色词不仅表达了视觉和情感色彩，也具有丰富的文化内涵，但是由于不同的风俗习惯、思维差异、宗教信仰以及文化差异等原因，对颜色词的理解与表达也会有所不同。本文主要采取了对比研究的方法,对比分析英汉两种语言中主要颜色词的文化差异及翻译策略,了解西方国家与我们国家对主要颜色词的不同理解与运用,进一步深化对中外文化差异的了解,改善我们的语言能力,避免中西文化冲突,更好的为跨文化交际服务。

关键词：中英颜色词；文化差异； 翻译策略

Abstract:Color words not only express the visual and emotional color, but also have rich cultural connotations. However, due to different customs and habits, thinking model, religious belief, culture differences and so on, the understanding and expression of color words would be different. This paper compares the cultural differences and translation strategies of main color words in China and western countries by comparative method, which can further deepen the understanding of cultural differences and serve for cross cultural communication, as well as improving our language ability, and avoiding the conflict between Chinese and Western culture to some extent.

Key words: Chinese and English color words; cultural differences; translation strategies

Content

摘 要 i

Abstract ii

I. Introduction 1

II. The Embodiment of Cultural Differences in Chinese and English Color Words 3

2.1 Historical Differences 3

2.2 Custom Differences 4

2.3 Religion Differences 4

2.4 Differences in Emotional Color 5

III. The Meaning and Usage of the Main Color Words 6

3.1 The Meaning and Usage of Red 6

3.1.1 Red in Chinese 6

3.1.2 Red in English 6

3.2 The Meaning and Usage of White 6

3.2.1 White in Chinese 7

3.2.2 White in English 7

3.3 The Meaning and Usage of Black 7

3.3.1 Black in Chinese 7

3.3.2 Black in English 8

3.4 The Meaning and Usage of Green 8

3.4.1 Green in Chinese 8

3.4.2 Green in English 8

3.5 The Meaning and Usage of Yellow 9

3.5.1 Yellow in Chinese 9

3.5.2 Yellow in English 10

V. An Analysis of the Translation Strategies of Chinese and English Color Words . 10

4.1 The Translation Methods of Basic Color Words 10

4.1.1 The Equivalent Translation of Color Words 10

4.1.2 The Non-equivalent Translation of Color Words 11

4.2 The Translation Principles of the Basic Color Words 11

4.2.1 Literal Translation Method 11

4.2.2 Free Translation Method 12

4.2.3 The Combination of the Literal and Free Translation Method 12

V. Conclusion 13

Bibliography 14

Acknowledgements 15

Cultural Discrepancies Between Chinese and English Color Words and Corresponding Translation Strategies

I.Introduction

Color words is a very special member in the lexical system of a language, which are abundant in both Chinese and English lexical systems. Color words’ development and evolution reflects the process of human cognition and social development, whose rich cultural heritage index out of the different historical periods of social background, cultural customs in human society, reflecting different cultural connotations. This paper mainly focuses on cultural connotations and differences of basic color words in Chinese and English. Through the analysis and comparison of basic color words in English and Chinese, we will get to know the reasons for their cultural differences include environment, ways of thinking, religious beliefs, culture and customs. The deep understanding of the cultural connotations of basic color words in Chinese and English can deepen our understanding of different language and culture, broaden our horizon and expand our knowledge, which is conducive to the development of China and intercultural communication between China and western countries.

In 1858, British scholar Gladstone compared a few statements about color in the ancient Greek epic Iliad and Odyssey, put forward and discussed the problem of color words. In the late 1960s, Berlin and Kay studied basic color word systems in 98 different kinds of languages in the world and published the Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution, which pointed that out all languages’ color word systems were formed by 11 basic color words and their evolution sequence. These two achievements provided a strong support for “Language Common Says”. Then Kay and McDaniel revised the common order of the basic color words from the angle of physical structure and the fuzzy theory. He believed that humans’ neurophysiology Structure determines the six major color categories of language, including “red, yellow, green, blue, black and white ”. Other color categories are all derived from these six major color categories. Afterwards, Wierzbicka made a new explanation that the evolution stage of the basic color words were proposed by Berlin and Kay from the standpoint of cognitive linguistics, he thought that people’s feeling toward color is similar for human, but their understanding of the concept of color is different due to different culture background.