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1、颜色词在跨文化交际中的发展摘要: 在英汉语言中,表示各种颜色的词语都非常丰富.但是由于民族文化的不同,人们对于色彩的实际感受和赋予色彩的词汇意义的手段也不尽相同。所以，即使是同一个颜色词，它在中西方人眼中的意义也会有很大差异。色彩与其民族的文化传统密切相关,并时常影响着本民族人的思维习惯。这篇论文讨论了颜色词在中西方两个不同文化背景下的不同意义,以及其在跨文化交际中的发展与变化。目的是为了在跨文化交际中避免文化冲突，更好地进行各民族之间的文化交流，促进世界文化的大融合.关键词: 颜色词; 文化; 融合; 发展The Development of Color Words in Cross-Cul
2、tural CommunicationAbstracts: Both Chinese and English are rich in the words denoting different colors. But for the differences of the national cultures, peoples natural feeling of the color and the methods to define the color words will also be different. So even the same color, Chinese and English
3、 people will think of it and feel it differently. The color words have a close relationship with their national cultures, and always influence local peoples modes of thinking. This paper has discussed color words in two different cultural backgrounds，and also its development in cross-cultural commun
4、ication. The purpose of doing this is to avoid culture shock, promote cross-cultural communication, and advance the world cultural mixture.Key Words: color words; culture; mixture; development1. Introduction The colors we see are light waves absorbed or reflected by everything around us. In nature,
5、a rainbow is white light that is broken apart by the moisture in the air. The color of an object depends on how it absorbs and/or reflects light. If an object absorbs all of the light wavelengths, it will appear black. If it reflects all of them, it will appear white. If an object absorbs all wavele
6、ngths except red, for example, it will look red.Color is closely related to our life and it is a very important field for human being to recognize the world. The color in our life is rich in cultural connotations. It represents one of the few areas of study that is well defined as an area of multidi
7、sciplinary investigation, and is also a relevant domain of psychological inquiry across human culture. Therefore, research on color words is particularly important to the study of culture and cross-cultural comparison. Nowadays, with the development of cross-cultural communications, the meanings of
8、many color words have changed greatly. From this development of color words, we can find therere many things worth us thinking.2. Literature ReviewColor is a fun thing to look at and enjoy, but it is often difficult to express. Some scholars have done many researches on colors in different cultures.
9、 They found that Literary Welsh has no words that correspond with green, blue, gray or brown in English, but it uses others (including one that covers part of green, part of gray and the whole of our blue). Hungarian has two words for what we call red; Navajo, a single word for blue and green but tw
10、o words for black. In a series of classic studies conducted during the late 1960, Eleanor Rosch, compared color discrimination by Americans with that of the Danni people of Indonesia. English speakers typically use 11 separate elemental color words (including black, white and gray), whereas the Dann
11、i use only two. Rosch tested the color memory of the two groups membersfirst showing them a color, then (after a short delay) asking them to find it in a separate group of similar colors. Despite the groups big difference in nomenclature, she found that they perceived colors in the same way. Advocat
12、es of universality, who said terminology dont affect cognition, seized upon Roschs findings: color transcends culture. But recent studies conducted by Debit Roberson, Ian Davies and Jules Davidoff suggest otherwise. They examined the hunter-gatherer Berinmo tribe of Papua, New Guinea, people with fi
13、ve basic color terms who dont distinguish blue from green. After practice, both groups were able to improve their discernment of the distinction that they previously hadnt shared with their counterparts. Davidoff and his colleagues contended that those results indicated categorical perception occurs
14、, but only for speakers of the language that marks the categorical distinction, which is consistent with the linguistic relativity hypothesis. (The relativity of color naming is just one manifestation of this broader concept, for which the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy provides a formula: larg
15、e differences in language lead to large differences in thought.) But nowadays, the meanings of many color words have changed greatly. The reason for it is clear. With the rapid development of economy, science and technology and global cooperation in modern societies, cross-culture communication has
16、come to a reality. Cross-cultural communication has appeared as a major concern in our multicultural society. Many people were busy in searching a much better way to improve the cross-cultural communication. Alan Blackwell explored the potential of graphical communication for cross-cultural interact
17、ion in his paper. Results demonstrated that interactive graphical communication provides a useful cross-cultural communication tool (Springer-Verlag, 2004: 145-147). While in M. Hegartys paper, he presented a small survey of the use of drawing in cross-linguistic communication. The findings indicate
18、d that drawing is an infrequent but valuable element of cross-cultural interactions. It is used opportunistically, for a wide variety of functions, predominantly in dyadic interactions (Springer-Verlag, 2002: 120-126).Just from the development and change of the color terms, we can find the cultural
19、mixture all over the world. The cultural mixture is the theme to the world cultural development all the way. Standing on the history of world cultural development, we can find much power of literature and culture in western life was from Chinese. In the 1920s and 1930s, there had been a study of cro
20、ss-culture communication in the U.S.A. It focused on the problems arising from communication between people of different cultural backgrounds and the solutions to them. While in China, in the early 20th century, the “mind of cultural mixture” has been accepted by everyone in that day. Liang Qichao(梁
21、启超), Wang Guowei(王国维), Linshu(林纾), Luxun(鲁迅), and so on, nearly had one voice for “communication”, and “mixture” of Chinese and English in order to “adapt to the general trend of word culture”. The western scholars put forward the change of Chinese scholars traditional style to modern sense of acade
22、mic one (Liu Xianbiao、Liu Jiemin, 2001: 214). But with more and more cross-cultural communication, there are also many problems. Just as Le Daiyun indicated that several nations were constrained for a long time, and their cultures were discriminated and plundered, even on the edge of extinction. For
23、 the purpose of protecting their native culture, they would rather be cut off from the outside world. So they overemphasized protecting their “inherent culture”, then formed to be “cultural close doctrine” or called “cultural separate doctrine” (Le Daiyun, 2004: 46-60). In China more and more Chines
24、e people today prefer to celebrate western festival, invasion of these western festivals do have some influences on Chinese society. At least, we are accepting some western ways of celebration though we may be unaware of it. While some western festivals become more and more popular, the traditional
25、Chinese festivals are paid less attention to.In this paper, through a serious of contrasts on colors between two different cultures, Id like to show some personal opinions about those relative things.3. Color and CultureWe are living in the colors. Our life is just like the colored ribbon and it is
26、a mass of colors. Various colors adorn the nature and beautify the life. Color is closely related to our life and it is a very important field for human beings to recognize the world. Both Chinese and English abound with phrases containing color words. Colors may convey different messages to people
27、of different cultures. On many occasions, it is not the basic meaning of the color that functions, but the profound cultural associations related to the color that functions. That is to say, the differences in using color words between Chinese and English stand out when the color words themselves do
28、nt play an important part. Two factors may help to illustrate this. First is the language itself. There are many differences in the characteristics of both languages. English words are characterized by flexibility. One word is likely to have different meanings in different contexts (Meng Jiangang, 2
29、003: 90). Comparatively speaking, the meaning of Chinese words remains fixed. Chinese is featured in standard, rigor and preciseness in choosing the words. Lets take the word “green” for example. Green gains a certain new meaning when associated with the phrase green revolution and when it is used a
30、lone, it still carries that meaning. However, green in Chinese loses the meaning unless it is combined with revolution or other words in similarity. Second is the factor beyond the language, which includes the cultural factors such as different customs, traditions and cultural background. What does
31、“see red” mean? If he is in a blue mood, what kind of mood is he in? Is he happy, sad or what? Obviously, red and blue do not mean just the color. Each has additional meanings (certain cultural associations) that are hidden behind the word. So we can say that color words as a part of language is a p
32、roduct of culture, a vehicle of nature, and a crystallization of culture. It is just like a mirror, faithfully gives a representation of a nations love or anger and affirmation or negation. They have a close relationship with their mother cultures, and always influence peoples modes of thinking.Colo
33、r words can produce various associations of ideas, which greatly influence a persons emotion and mood. That is why people use color words to explain a persons moral character, mood and his opinion of things. Here are some typical examples: Mr. White is a very white (loyal) man. He was looking rather
34、 green (feel not good) the other day. He has been feeling blue (gloomy) today. When I saw him, he was in a brown mood (worried). I hope hell soon be in the pink (pull himself together) again.The influence of the social culture to the color words is deep-rooted. Every nation shows its own culture and
35、 value in different ways. A lot of color words are produced under special historical and geographical backgrounds, most of which are called “culture limited word”. If we dont understand these words and the social customs and culture background of it, it is even harder for us to communicate with each
36、 other. Therefore, it is significantly important for us to comprehend and grasp the color words in both English and Chinese.4. Different Meanings of the Same Color in Different Cultures For the differences of the national cultures, peoples natural feeling of the color and the methods to define the c
37、olor words will also be different. Just because the cultural backgrounds, social customs, living environments, religious histories and aesthetic interests between Chinese and English nations are different, so even the same color, Chinese and English people will think of it and feel it differently (X
38、u Yanhong, 2000: 46-48). The following part will be devoted to the discussion of the different usage of certain color words in their culturally loaded settings.4.1 The Color words, Commendatory in Chinese, Derogatory in English 4.1.1 Red Red is a color of fire. It is a tradition for Chinese people t
39、o use red to express happiness, luck, and prosperousness. In the Qing dynasty, the book that was authorized by the emperor was called “red book”. It is different from the “red book” in English-speaking countries, which means the book with red cover. In China, red is a color that always appears in fe
40、stive circumstances. For example, people use red paper to write Spring Festival scrolls. At a traditional Chinese wedding, the bride is often seen with a red veil on her head. It covers the brides face. And a red “喜字”(large Chinese character, Double Happiness on a red piece of paper) is always put w
41、here it must strike the eyes on a young couples wedding. Also red powder is always used to make up pretty girls in Chinese. And those dressed up girls are always depicted to be “红装”or “红妆” (clothed in red) by ancient Chinese people. In China, red is also a symbol of revolution and faithfulness. That
42、s very special. Because，it is closely related to Chinese history. For example, during the culture revolution, every one should keep one or two books about Chairman Mao. It was also called “red treasured book”. And in Beijing opera, Chinese people paint loyal man “关公”s face to be red.But in English r
43、ed can create an image of extremeness, danger, indignation, and exigency. The America financial institution encloses the poor area with a red line and refuses to provide loan for this area, which made the area poorer. This was called “red lining”. During the America Civil war, the British soldiers w
44、ore scarlet uniforms. They were called redcoat. Red brigade is an Italian terror organization. And red is also related to dissolution. For example, (1) “A red light district”, (2) “A red waste of his youth”, etc. 4.1.2 YellowYellow is a color of sun. In ancient China the emperor always wear yellow c
45、lothes. It has be a long time that the yellow is thought to be respectful. So at that time, except the emperor no one was allowed to use the color of “yellow”. Yellow has the meaning of elevation, dignity and power. It takes an important part in Chinese peoples mind. In nature, yellow is also a colo
46、r of autumn. It is a symbol of golden season and good crop. People always think that yellow is a color full of happiness and vitality. It is always related to blessedness.But in English yellow always makes people think of Judas, who had betrayed Jesus in the western religion. His cloth was yellow. S
47、o yellow is a low-down color in believers eyes. It means abjection, cowardice and suspicion. For example,(1) “Yellow press”, (2) “Yellow dog”, (3) “Yellow streak”, etc. And in English we have the phrase “yellow journalism”, which lays too much emphasis on scandals or exaggerates the ordinary news to
48、 a sensational degree, sometime even with distortion.4.1.3 Blue In Chinese blue is seldom used for expressing peoples mood. But blue is a favorable word to Chinese. The blue sky, as often as not, can arouse us to yearn for better future, the blue sea full of uncertainty induces boundless imagination
49、. Naturally, we take it for granted that the famous song Love is Blue refers to a romantic love story. In western culture, however, blue does not be associated with happiness and imagination, but unhappiness and gloom. For example, “It was blue (boring) Monday and John nodded sleepily over his books.” It can also be used to describe the nobles on the upper class in the western culture. For example, “He is a real blue blood.” (Means he is from an aristocratic family
