中英文颜色词“红”与“黑”的文化内涵

On the Cultural Connotations of “Red” and “Black” in English and Chinese

颜色是人类对于客观物质世界的一种视觉感知。不同的文化群体,在风俗习惯、历史背景、思维方式、宗教信仰等方面均存在着差异,由此导致人们对颜色的感受及理解也存在着很大差别。在跨文化交往中,不了解这样的颜色文化差异,往往会造成人们沟通交流出现障碍。"红"与"黑"这两种颜色在中西方两种语境下存在一定程度的使用差异,了解这种因文化内涵不同而导致的使用差异对于人们进行有效的跨文化交流、避免产生文化冲突具有一定的意义。

Color is the visual perception of human beings on the objective material world.Groups of people from distinct cultural backgrounds are different in customs and conventions,historical backgrounds,ways of thinking,religious beliefs and so on.Therefore,people hold different views and thoughts towards color.In intercultural communication,having no knowledge of the cultural differences of colors will lead to difficulties in understanding each other.＂Red＂ and ＂black＂ are used differently in English and Chinese.Getting to know the discrepancies of their usage resulting from cultural significance will be an aid for people to communicate effectively and avoiding cultural conflicts.