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1、Literature Review On the Translation of English Colour WordsLanguage is a kind of tool for people to communicate with each other and is also a very important part of the culture. Different languages are restricted by various national culture, reflecting their own cultural content. Colour is closely
2、related to our daily life with abundant culture connotation, which is a crucial object for language, culture and translation. “Colour word” indicates the word which is used to stand for a kind of colour. This definition is well known throughout the word, but “colour words do not necessarily mean the
3、 same thing as colourful terms. Colourful English may appear as idioms or in figurative expressions, while colour words are words which simply show different colours. Like the onomatopoeic word, a colour word has little merit in itself. Only when it suggests the image of the original, or fortifies t
4、he sense in the version, it has value in translation.”. (Xiao Junshi, P173, 1982) Obviously, as a part of words, colour terms are used in writing to transmit information. In physics, it stands for the colour reflected by objects. Color words are used frequently in the translation of English and Chin
5、ese. We use some basic words to convey the meaning of the color words. Because of the differences of customs, culture, history, geography, etc, the personality becomes obvious.Color is a objective phenomena, so peoples awareness on color has something in common. People from different culture have th
6、eir own way to communicate, to think and to behave. The words to express the colors are allocated different features and cultural connotation, which show great cultural differences.My thesis will focus on the practice of the translation of English color words. In order to promote the development of
7、the multi-cultural society and cross-cultural communication, it is significant to understand and grasp colour terms and their functions in the cultural transfer. This thesis, targeting at improving translation proficiency and promoting cross-cultural communication, makes a careful analysis of colour
8、 terms, including the definition, the history in English and Chinese, the translation difficulties and the translation techniques.The study on the translation of English color words has a long history. Many scholars have made deep research on the color words and generally form their own theories whi
9、ch have been accepted by the translation field. These research includes the research on the basic color words, color words and color concepts, the translation and the pragmatic meaning of color words, the social and cultural connotation of color words, etc. These books or articles have given very de
10、tailed explanation on the color words. It is also mentioned in many books about translation. However, from all these books, most scholars emphize on the way of translating them. Given to most of the books on the translation of English colour words, the scholars have found out some common ways to tra
11、nslate these words.The first is literal translation. We use this way when we can find the equivalent words in both the Chinese and the English. White house, 白宫, red figure, 赤字.The second way is transliteration. That means when you want to translate, you have to understand the usage and its cultural
12、connotation and know clearly the real meaning, symbolic meaning and deeper meaning. Meanwhile, you have to ignore the original meaning of the color words and translate the words according to the text.You look blue today. Whats wrong with you?你今天看起来闷闷不乐，你怎么了！ （blue 在英语中有忧郁的，沮丧的意思）The third way is to
13、add or odd the words. To better translate the original text, sometimes we have to add or odd the color words to make the translation perfect.The smoke made him cough. He coughed harshly ,his face lit like a tomato.烟使他呛起来。他难受地咳着，脸胀得像番茄一样红The forth way is explanation.Different color words have their o
14、wn special meaning .Only if you explain them properly, can the reader truly grasp them. Everybody says she is the White Boned Demon an evil spirit who often took the guise of a charming woman in the novel Pilgrimage to the West.人人都说她是个白骨精.These are the four ways which we often use to translate the c
15、olor words. When we translate, we can use the ways accordingly to make the best translation. Through the forming of colour terms in China, colour terms originate from peoples daily lives. A lot of plants names are used as colour terms, especially after the improving of painting, dying and ceramics.
16、“Blue comes from a kind of plant called blue, and red comes from the plant called madder”. (Luo geng, P8, 2004) Many Chinese colour terms come from the name of plants or minerals. Although there is no theory about the forming of colour terms in Chinese history, it is possible to learn a lot of histo
17、rical things which have relationships with colours. Countless colour terms can be found in Chinese poems, essays and novels. The following instances are some typical examples.The English color words were embodied with abundant cultural connatation and obvious national features. Accordingly, their me
18、aning is spreaded. The eight basic color words have many matches. In certain back ground, the color words dont represent their original meaning any more.(zhang Lili, 2009)Nowadays, many scholars start to study the contrast meaning of the color words. The color words have completely different meaning
19、 in different cultural background. These theories give a lot help for translating color words. 红色(happiness, a festival day)Red (violence, anger, being short of money)黄色(filthy, filthy things)Yellow (timid, shy, mean)白色(wed, mourning, apparel or terror)White (wedding garment or elegance)黑色(death, ba
20、d, crime or evil)Black (dignity, depression, bad)蓝色(quiet, pleasant, lightheaded)Blue (heavy hearted, filthy)绿色(marriage failure)Green (jealous, short of knowledge)Culture is a very important factor in the translation for color words. There are many study at home and abroad. They study the phenomena
21、 in different ways and from different aspects. In west countries, colour terms are popular in fields like philosophy, physics, psychology, art and so on.The oldest theory in colour terms history is Aristotles Black and White Theory, in which colour is made up of hue, luminosity and saturation. At th
22、at period, all colors were thought as different degrees of mix of white and black. Black and White Theory was ended by Newton who saw seven colors of the sunlight through prism.Other theories appeared at the same time, such as Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and Cognitive Linguistics. In spite of the relatio
23、nship between these theories, they all admitted colour terms important position in English. “Different nations have different cultures and take the different colours as special”. (Lu Hogmei, P 134, 2006) A well-known legend, Wang An-shi, a great poet scholar of the Song Dynasty (A.D.960-1269), was o
24、nce traveling in a remote part of china and he saw a poem written by a young author. Wang An-shi understood one couple of the poem which reads:A moon is singing in the sky,And a yellow dog lies in the flower.He assumed that there must be a mistake in the poem, so he quickly took out his writing brus
25、h and corrected the lines as the following:The moon is shinning in the sky,And a yellow dog lies under the flowers.Wang An-shi corrected the lines so that they could be read more sensibly, and he then showed his corrections to his friends living in the locality. He soon found out, however, that his
26、“corrections” had been quite mistaken, for the word which he had interpreted as “The moon” did not really mean “moon” in the local language, but referred to a bird in the area. Similarly, the term for “yellow dog” in the original poem was really the name of a type of insect.Wang An-shi had made two
27、mistakes. Firstly, he did not check the meaning of such words in the local dialect; secondly, he was perhaps too anxious to make poetry completely logical and reasonable. But the fact is that poetry often does seem illogical and anomalous.As a part of vocabulary, colour terms have different cultural
28、 connotations in two different languages. It is certain that colour is related to the history. Chinese term “黄” has many symbolic meanings in traditional Chinese culture. “黄”, as the honorable color, can only be used in an imperial family.Above all, if we want to translate the color words accurately
29、, the most important thing we should keep in mind is to know more about the culture. Personally, the translation definitely do not development itself, instead, it is developing with the economy, culture, any aspect of the society. To translate the best article, we should put the theory into practice
30、. “people in different nations have the same association of the same objects colour”. (Zhang Peiji, P106, 1999) For example, “雪” and “snow” have the same meaning of purity. The relationship between countries is closer and they have more chances to communicate with each other. Different culture will
31、melt together and influence each other. Because of that, it is more easier for us to understand the meaning of color words in different culture.References:1Din Jin and Eugene A. Nida.On Translation M. 北京:中国对外翻译出版公司，1984 2Nida.A.Eugene. Dynamic Equivalence in TranslatingA.Sin-wai Chan and David E. Po
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