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摘 要

如果说语言是一幢摩天大厦，那么词汇就是大厦里最活跃和敏感的建材。一个国家的词汇体系能直接反映该国的文化价值取向。颜色词是人类语言庞大词汇体系中十分必要的一部分，在生活中可谓无处不在。从一个角度来看，颜色词可作为语言使用者对事物颜色的客观描述；从另一角度来看，语言使用者也能通过颜色词的内涵意义预测出对人、事物或者事件的情感和主观认识。

在语言学领域，颜色词受到了国内外语言学界的极大关注， 它是人类文化和文明的精髓，通过学习颜色词，我们可以了解人们的宗教信仰、当地的风土人情以及审美等。

正因为颜色词与人类生活紧密相连，颜色词本身用法特殊，所以它一直是学者们的研究热门之一。事实上，早从两千多年前起，国内外学者便展开这方面的研究，不同之处在于他们的研究角度或者研究目的有所差别。

本文以柏林与凯伊的基本色彩词理论为依据，对中英文化中共有的6个基本颜色词进行了系统对比，同时探究了展现出这些不同的根本原因。

关键词：基本颜色词；对比研究；文化内涵；文化差异

Table of Contents

Chapter One：Introduction 1

1.1 Background 1

1.2 Significance of the research 1

1.3 Layout of the thesis 2

Chapter Two: Literature Review 2

2.1 Previous Studies on Colour Words 2

2.1.1 Studies Abroad 2

2.1.2 Studies in China 2

Chapter Three: Contrastive Analysis and Discussion 3

3.1 Meanings of colour Words in Chinese and English Culture 3

3.1.1 Red and 红 (hong) 3

3.1.2 Yellow and 黄 (huang) 4

3.1.3 Black and 黑 (hei) 5

3.1.4 White and 白 (bai) 6

3.1.5 Green and 绿 (lv) 7

3.1.6 Blue and 蓝 (lan) 7

Chapter Four: Reasons for Different Meanings of colour Words 8

4.1 Different Geographical Environment 8

4.2 Different Religions 9

4.2.1 The Influence of Christianity 9

4.2.2 The Impact of Buddhism and Taoism 11

Chapter Five: Conclusion 12

5.1 Summary 12

5.2 Limitations and Advices for Further Research 13

Reference 14

Chapter One：Introduction

1.1 Background

Every day, people sense the colorful world with their eyes. Nobody can imagine the scene in a world with no colour. It seems to us as if colours had the magic for vitalizing white clouds, blue sky, red flowers and green grass. And how about colour words? The text below reveals how the deficient knowledge of colour words discourages the interaction between writers and readers.

Jim is a black man. He is a very white man and has been feeling blue today.

You may be at sea the first time you see the text. You don’t know what the writer wants to express. Doubtlessly, it is the insufficient comprehension of colour words “white” and “blue” that places a barrier for us to smoothly understand the writer’s attitude about Jim. On realizing that the colour words involved above are employed by the writer to indicate John’s personality and emotive state, you will wonder at the magic power exerted by colour words in our daily communication.

What is more, the usage of colour words inherently differs in different cultures. For one thing, people from different cultures may choose different colour words to describe the same object, such as the pair of 红茶 and black tea. For another thing, people from different cultures may select different colour words to express the same attitude towards entities or phenomena, such as the pair of 黄色影片 and blue video. Either of the two uses of colour words is involved with cultural factors, but only the latter one touches upon the interpersonal value of colour words. Up to now, a large quantity of studies on the cultural connotation of colour words have been done.

1.2 Significance of the research

The target of this research is colour word. By contrasting, hopefully, we may find out the reasons for different meanings of color words in Chinese and English culture. The contrastive study leads us to be well aware of the influences exerted by cultural differences. The study will devote a lot to our understanding of interpersonal value encoded in colour words under different social and situational contexts.

1.3 Layout of the thesis

This paper, after an introduction to the research backgrounds and the significance of the research, is going to discuss the previous studies in Chapter Two. The third chapter introduces cultural connotations of six basic colour words in Chinese and English. This part is going to be unfolded by means of a comparative analysis. The fourth chapter talks about reasons for the differences, including different geographical environments and different religions. The fifth chapter is the conclusion, focusing on the limitations of this study as well as suggestions for future research.

Chapter Two: Literature Review

2.1 Previous Studies on Colour Words

2.1.1 Studies Abroad

Many scholars have conducted research on colour words and generally formed their own theories which have been accepted by the field. Berlin and Kay (1969) highlighted the universality of cognitive abilities of human beings and co-worked out criteria to determine the basic colour words. Gleeson (1955) studied the characteristics of languages, and emphasized that people of different languages have various analyses and explanations for the same objective world. Gleeson proposed that language phenomena should be observed in the cultural context of the language users. After the works of Berlin and Kay, a large number of studies on basic colour words from the psychological perspective and cognitive perspective appeared.

2.1.2 Studies in China

In China, Zhang (1964) described the etymology, compositions, roles, etc. of the English colour words. Liu (1990) illustrated that the cultural connotations of colour words are mainly determined by a person’s cultural psychology. His study is an independent manifesto of the research on colour words. The contrastive study of colour words flourished in 1990s with some researchers achieving a great deal in this regard. Shao (1994) was the first person who began the study of Chinese and English colour words. According to Yao (1988), we know the differences between colour words in English and Chinese. In recent years, Li (2007) explores the meanings of modern Chinese colour words.

• 1. Summary

To sum up, the studies of colour words at home and abroad are conducted mainly in the following areas: 1) the number of colour words in different languages and general differences of natural colours; 2) the quantity of basic colour words and its order in different languages; 3) semantic study on colour words; 4) the study of grammar, rhetoric and cultural meaning on colour words; 5) the comparative study on semantic and cultural meanings of colour words.

Chapter Three: Contrastive Analysis and Discussion

3.1 Meanings of colour Words in Chinese and English Culture

3.1.1 Red and 红 (hong)

Red things，for example, red hair, red sun, red rose in the garden and red blood in our bodies, play an essential role in our life. Scientific researches (Peng, 2008) indicate that red is good for our health; it is eye-catching and can activate people’s nerves.

In Chinese culture, red represents festiveness, good fortune and happiness, It is the symbol of success, luck, popularity, as in expressions, such as红火, (literally meaning red fire, figuratively meaning prosperity) 开门红, (literally meaning seeing red as soon as you open the door, figuratively meaning a good start) 满堂红, (literally meaning a house is full of red things, figuratively meaning all-round victory) and 大红人 (literally meaning a red person, figuratively meaning a person who is very popular) etc. It is also the symbol of revolution, for instance: 红军, (literally meaning the Red Army, figuratively meaning the army led by Chinese communist party) 红旗, (literally meaning the red flag, figuratively meaning revolution, communism or danger), 红色根据地, (literally meaning the red base, figuratively meaning the revolutionary base) and so on. What is more, it is the symbol of loyalty, such as 丹心(red heart) in a Chinese poem: 人生自古谁无死，留取丹心照汗青. (Since olden days there’s never been a man but dies; I’d leave a loyalist’s name in history only. ) (Xv, 2014)

In English, red is a symbol of blood, cruelty and war. It is hard to find positive meaning of this word. Instead, it is often used in a negative sense, connected with insecurity, danger and riot in the minds of native speakers of English. Such words include: red hand, red battle, red activities, red-ruin and red revenge.

3.1.2 Yellow and 黄 (huang)

In Chinese, yellow is the representative of power and dignity. For instance, the clothes emperors wear was called 黄袍 (royal clothes); We are proud because we are炎黄子孙 (Chinese descendant). It is also the symbol of luck, such as 黄道吉日(lucky day) in Chinese lunar calendar. Sometimes it is linked with depression and failure, such as事情黄了(something failed).

Yellow is also linked to sex and pornography, such as黄书 (pornographic novel), 黄色电影 (pornographic film).

In English, yellow will lead to imaginations of something negative in most cases, such as betrayal, suspicion, jealousy, despicableness and cowardliness. These meanings have a religious background. As shown in the “Bible”, Judas, the man who betrayed Jesus Christ, always wore yellow clothes. So the colour yellow is linked to the meaning of being contemptible and cowardly. For example, yellow streak means a timid man, The sentence he is a yellow dog means that he is a despicable person. While yellow has so many negative meanings, it is also the representative of wealth. In some western countries, “yellow” is also used to represent wealth, for instance, in English, yellow boy means gold coin.

3.1.3 Black and 黑 (hei)

In Chinese, black is the symbol of darkness and reactionary, such as 黑材料(literally meaning black material, figuratively meaning a good start), 黑幕(literally meaning black shades, figuratively meaning a inside story of a plot). Contrast to “白”(white), “黑” represents the bad, evil things, such as 黑手(literally meaning black hands, figuratively meaning murderous scheme) and 黑心肠(literally meaning black heart, figuratively meaning evil heart). It is also the symbol of illegal and secret things, The shops and hotels without business license are called 黑店(literally meaning black shops, figuratively meaning illegal shops). The illegal organization is called 黑社会(literally meaning black society, figuratively meaning gangdom). Some secret language inside the illegal organization is called 黑话(black talk) and in some expressions such as 黑货(black goods), 黑市(black market), 黑枪(black gun), 黑钱(black money), the word 黑(black) means illegal. In addition, the Chinese 黑(black) also means angry, such as 黑脸(black face) and so on.

In English, black has rich meanings.

1) Symbols of depression and negativity. Such words include black mood, black dog, etc. Black-browed refers to frowning. A black day means a day of bad luck. A black-letter day means an unfortunate day. What’s more, black future refers to the bleak future.

2) Symbols of evil and immoral things

In English, black is also used to refer to people's inherent evilness. For instance, “black lie” refers to the awful lies; “black deed” refers to bad acts; “black sheep” means a man who ruins the whole thing in a group or family.

3) Symbols of earnings and balance

Opposite to the meaning of the word red, the word black means having positive net income in the following words: A business must stay in the black to keep on and black figure nation.

4) Symbols of secret and illegal things

In English “black” also means secret, illegal, unfair, for example, black mail refers to shakedown, black market means illegal business, black money is money earned illegally, especially through the international drug market.

5) Symbols of anger

With the same meaning in Chinese “black”, English word “black” can also mean angry, such as black browed, black in the face, to look black at someone, all of which describe angry facial expressions.

3.1.4 White and 白 (bai)

In Chinese tradition, the word 白(white) doesn’t have many negative meanings, it is often used to symbolize the “poor and humble”. So in the ancient China, poor people with no political status were called 白丁(white people). The people who don’t have much knowledge were also called白丁(white people). It is also the symbol of funeral, known as白事(white things). What’s more, it is the symbol of no effect, in vain or no rewarding. While white is the colour of clouds and snow, so it is used to represent something pure and innocent, such as 清白(clean and clear). In addition, the “白(white)” in Chinese also means clear, such as 真相大白(come out) and so on.

In English, the white colour is often associated with an omen of good luck, used as the colour of festival. It is always the synonym of auspiciousness and joy. In the weddings of western countries, the brides all wear white. The white is the symbol for purity and loyalty of love, linked with celebration and happiness. Other examples include white hope, white-haired boy , white knight and so on.

3.1.5 Green and 绿 (lv)

In Chinese, 绿 is the symbol of vigor and vitality, such words include绿洲，绿油油，绿地 and so on. Ironically, it is also the symbol of humbleness. The word green hat has spread to now. It is a most insulting word to describe a man whose wife has an affair with others.

In English, green is the symbol of life and full of vitality. The green years refers to the youth. It is also the symbol of money and wealth. In the English and American nations, the green colour is especially popular. As we can see, green is often linked with banknotes, because many countries, such as the US, select green as the color of their paper money. More examples are like green pound, green back, green power, green sheet and green stamp. It is also the representative of envy and jealousy, which origins from Shakespeare's famous play “Othello”. In that play, green-eyed monster and be green with envy are used to express jealousy. Moreover, it is the symbol of inexperience and freshness. The word green can also represent “inexperience”. It can be seen from the following expressions. For example, “keep a memory green” means that the memory is deep and clear. “A green wound” means new injury. “Green meat” means the meat is fresh. “Green hand” means a man who is new for a position or who lacks experience.

3.1.6 Blue and 蓝 (lan)

The connotative meaning of blue in Chinese is not rich. It is all related to the colour blue itself. For example, 蓝天(blue sky) and 蔚蓝(blue) are all to do with the colour of a cloudless, sunny sky. There are also some words like that which are introduced from English, belonging to loanwords.

In English, blue is the symbol of honor and nobleness. British people commonly use “blue” as a symbol of nobleness and honor. Blue blood means nobility, high social status and power. Blue ribbon is on behalf of an honor. However, “blue” is not always linked to high respect and dignity. It can also express the meaning of pornography, obscene and indecency, as does黄（yellow）in Chinese. This meaning of blue came from blue film which was used to refer to pornographic films. It is also the symbol of unhappiness and depression, mainly because blue is a cold colour, and it often gives people a feeling of loneness. As a result, blue is often used to express a low mood, such as sadness and frustration, etc., For example, “I’m feeling blue”.

Chapter Four: Reasons for Different Meanings of colour Words

The cultural connotations of the colour words in English and Chinese have been contrasted in above chapters. There’s no doubt that every cultural phenomenon has certain causes. Therefore, causes for the differences will be discussed in this chapter. The causes for differences of connotative meaning of colour words will be analyzed from two aspects including natural environment and religions. From these causes, the underlying reasons that lead to the different cultural connotations of basic colour words in English and Chinese will be found out.

4.1 Different Geographical Environment

Geographical environment is one of the most essential and foundational conditions of material life. It influences social development through materials, which is particularly remarkable in ancient society.

Conditioned by environment, people living in different geographical environments often choose suitable lifestyles. The ancient English people made their livings in the sea and were proud of this. Blue sea gives birth to and sustains marine life , and thus blue become one of the most liked colours among native speakers of English.

Geographically, the U.K is located in British Isles, northwest of the European Continent, surrounded by the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The U.K has an oceanic environment. People living on the seaside took the fisheries and transportation as major industries. So their major concern is with the ocean and the sky. The colour of the ocean and the sky is their most familiar colour, so that they have an endless love on the blue colour. They worshiped blue. Manifested in the language, the blue colour became the symbol of elegance and power, such as: blue blood, blue book, blue ribbon, blue-eyed, blue chip and blue moon.

4.2 Different Religions

Religion plays an important role both in human’s society and culture. When one makes researches on a nation’s culture, it is inevitable to study the religion of this nation. It may affect people's ideology, traditions and daily l lives in an all round way. We can even say that the history of religion equals the history of human culture. Chinese and English have different religions. And the impact on their culture is also deferent. In the course of development, most English-speaking countries are influenced by Christian culture.

In China, however, people are mainly influenced by two religions, Buddhism and Taoism. The religious culture mainly penetrates through the aspects of the philosophy, morality and ethics, law, education, etc. As Palmer, a British linguist once said: “Language faithfully reflects a nation's entire history, culture, and faithfully reflects its variety of games and entertainment, a variety of beliefs and prejudices.” (Palmer H.E, 1992). So as an essential component of the language system, colour words are always closely related with the Chinese and English religious beliefs.

4.2.1 The Influence of Christianity

In English-speaking countries, people mainly believe in Christianity, the doctrine of which can be summarized as one word “love”. It requires people to pay attention to their behavior and be friendly and tolerant of others and control their desire. People should be patient, and learn to forgive and forget, etc., and they believe that mankind has original sin. The Bible is a must-read classic book in Christian countries. It is the origin of western culture, so its influence is deep and far-reaching. As a necessary part of the language system and human culture, the colour words also have rich meanings in Christianity. For example, white symbolizes God. In the church, priests wear white robes, representing god and future. Angels and the resurgent were all dressed in white when appearing in front of God. In paintings, the resurrected Jesus is always dressed in white. The colour red symbolizes the blood of Christ and the love of God. What’s more, red symbolizes the sin of world. Blue symbolizes the sky, representing the divine and infinite. Green is linked to the earth, it is also the colour for hope and youth. Contrary to the color white, black is the colour of sadness. When a person dies, people will wear black to mourn for him or her.

In addition, colour words often represent different meanings in the works of Christianity. According to the Bible, Judas chose to betray Jesus just for 30 silvers. Because Judas was always dressed in yellow clothes, in western culture yellow is associated with the colour of the clothes Judas wore. So yellow carries a derogatory sense, symbolizing dirty and ugly objects. As in English, “turn yellow” means “fear up”, a “yellow dog” is a “coward” and so on. Black also has a great relationship with the Christian culture. People use “Black Friday” to represent a catastrophic disaster and ominous day in English-speaking countries. This is unique and only can be found in the English culture. So in English black is widely accepted as the color for funeral and misfortune. The cultural meaning of green symbolizing happiness and peace is also from Christian stories. Christian work “Bible：Genesis” recorded some legends. God felt very angry when he saw ugly crime committed in the world, so he decided to destroy the world with flood However, he wanted to spare Noah's family and some clean creatures. So they made a big ship to escape the floods. After seven days, the flood washed away all the ugly things. God remembered Noah and stopped the wind and the rain. Then floods slowly subsided. Noah released a crow to inquire about the news. But it never returned. Seven days later, he released a pigeon again and the pigeon came back safely. It brought back a green olive leaf. Thereby Noah inferred the flood has receded and peace has come. So the color green is considered a symbol of peace.

4.2.2 The Impact of Buddhism and Taoism

1) The impact of Buddhism

Though the birthplace of Buddhism is not China, it developed very fast and had become one of the three largest religions in China in the dynasty of Tang. Since then, Buddhism always plays the most important role in the area of Chinese religion. In Buddhism, Sakyamuni gained edification, six different colours emanated from his body: blue, yellow, red, white, orange and mixed light. The Buddha's hair emitted blue light, representing mercy and peace; the Buddha’s skin emitted yellow light, representing the morality and justice; the muscle of Buddha emitted red light, representing fortune; the Buddha's palm emitted orange light, representing the wisdom and essence of Dharma.

The international Buddhist flag is still composed of these six colours up till now. It can be seen that the robes the eminent monks wear are red. Red is the most sacred colour. It represents Buddhists' great faith to Buddhism. From the legend above, we can see that the relationship between Buddhism and the colour words is very close. Chinese people's admiration of yellow and red colours of Chinese people is also related to the influence of Buddhism.

2) Impact of Taoism

Taoism has a very long history. Its origin can be traced back to as early as Han Dynasty in ancient China. Till now, this religion is still active in some areas of China. Closely linked to Chinese culture, Taoism is deeply rooted in the fertile soil of Chinese culture, and had a profound impact on the various aspects of it. “Five Elements”, the most important part of Taoist culture, is the essence of classical natural philosophy in China. It is used to explain about how the universe generated at that time. It claimed that the material world is formed of the basic five elements, “gold, wood, water, fire and earth”. These five elements are linked to five different colours: “red - fire, yellow - earth, white - gold, green - wood, black - water”. In the Taoist classic “Tao Te Ching”, Lao Tzu said: “Five colours blind the eyes". So Taoism only uses the easiest colours like black, white and gray. A Taoist believes and respects the concept of Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang are diametrically opposed and are attributes of all things in the world. Yin is represented by black, and Yang by white. They are different poles. “颠倒黑白” means confusing and reversing correct things and errors. Taoism also believes that colour and health are closely related, and the food with bright colours is recommended to people. They claimed the colours have special help on people's health. For instance: Green foods are of benefit to our liver; red foods are of benefits to our heart; yellow foods are of benefits to our stomach while white foods are of benefits to our lungs.

To sum up, different ethnic religions and geographical environments are the major reasons why colour words are gifted with different meanings in English and Chinese.

Chapter Five: Conclusion

5.1 Summary

This thesis mainly focuses on the studies on the colour words, to be more specific, the meanings loaded by colour words in different culture and contrasts these meanings in the two cultures. The author chooses some examples for contrasts and comparisons, revealing that the same colour words can have different meanings in different languages, and different colour words in different languages may also have

the same meanings. After that, this thesis discusses the reasons for the different cultural connotations of basic colour words. Based on the theory of environmental determinism, the author also argues that different geographical environments are the underlying causes of the different meanings of colour words.

5.2 Limitations and Advices for Further Research

This thesis is by no means an exhaustive analysis on the attitudinal evaluative meaning of colour words under English and Chinese discourses. The selection of target colour words is subject to the length limit of thesis. In addition to the seven target colour words mentioned in this thesis, there may exist other representative colour words worthy of our discussion. But in order to satisfy the requirement for thesis length, we have to select six most common pairs of colour words for analysis. Further studies may be done in this respect.

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