从《绝望的主妇》看英语姓名文化

The Culture of English Names in Desperate Housewives

美剧《绝望的主妇》为了解美国文化提供了不少直观材料。剧中的英语姓名颇具文化内涵,它们不但折射英语国家的历史文化,还寄寓着人们的情感和希望。本文通过对剧中四名主妇的英语姓名分析及剧中人物对姓名重要性的看法,讨论了英语姓名的结构特征、姓氏来源、昵称、称呼等问题,并认为中美姓名文化在这些方面存在诸多差异。

American sitcom Desperate Housewives can function as useful resources for understanding American culture.Names in the sitcom carry rich cultural connotation,because they not only reflect cultural history of English speaking countries but also embody human feelings and expectations.Through the analysis of the names in the sitcom and opinions of the protagonists concerning importance of naming,this paper discusses some issues such as the composition and origin of the names,addressing terms,and endearments,and argues that Chinese naming culture differs from the American one in many aspects.