从特殊词汇的语义内涵看中西文化的差异

Differences between Chinese and western culture from the perspective of the semantic connotation of special words

语言是传播文化的载体,文化是语言的土壤,两者密不可分。一个民族的文化特征必然反映在其语言的各个层面上,尤其是在词汇层面上。语言中某些特殊词汇除本身固有的意义外,还蕴含着丰富的文化内涵。不同民族由于文化背景不同,所指事物的词汇的内涵未必相同。文章从社会学、语义学的角度出发,通过对英汉两种语言中特殊词语的文化内涵的对比,揭示了中西文化间的一些差异。

Language and culture are closely related to each other. Language is the carrier of culture and culture the soil of language. The cultural characteristics of a nation must be reflected at all levels of its language, at its word level in particular. Some special words in language, apart from their intrinsic meaning, carry profound cultural connotation. As cultural background varies from nation to nation, the connotation of words for particular objects are quite different. The paper, from the perspective of sociology and semantics, discloses the differences in Chinese and the western culture via a comparison of the cultural connotation of some special words in the English and the Chinese language.