跨文化背景下中英颜色词内涵差异的探究

An Exploration into Connotative Differences Between Chinese and English Colour Words Under the Intercultural Background

在外语的应用过程中,学习者经常因为不懂西方文化闹出笑话,或是望文生义,抑或是触犯文化禁忌。这是因为,学习一门外语其实就是在学习另一种文化。而颜色词在语言中所承载的文化信息不可忽视,因为来自不同文化的人们对于同一种颜色的感受不尽相同,同一种颜色在不同的文化中可能会引起人们不同的联想,因而用来描摹事物的颜色词就被赋予了不同的意义或看法。对颜色词内涵缺乏了解,就可能给人们造成跨文化交际的障碍,因此探究中英颜色词内涵的不同,可以从中窥见中西文化的差异,有助于对英语的掌握,及跨文化交际能力的提高。

It is common that language learners take the words literally or violate cultural taboos due to their lack of the new cultural background, for learning a foreign language is to know another culture. Colour words are shared by people from various cultures, but they usually imply different cultural connotations. Therefore, an exploration into connotative differences between Chinese and English colour words is helpful to give a glimpse of the differences between the two cultures, to master English and to communicate efficiently.