论文总字数：26298字

摘 要

颜色在日常生活中处处可见，在人类语言中，颜色词具有其特殊的物理属性，在汉英两种语言中表示颜色的词汇很丰富。同时，颜色词语表现出独特的魅力，令人刮目相看。从这点上来看，颜色词在英汉语言中的使用具有共性；但由于各民族的文化背景存在着差异，导致颜色词的内涵意义在两种语言中也存在着很大的差异，所以在语言的使用中颜色词又具有个性。同时采用的翻译方法不同，颜色词的翻译带来的效果就会不同，因此在翻译颜色词的时候我们应该妥善处理。本篇论文主要分析颜色词在翻译中的共性与个性，以及颜色词翻译的一些方法，以此让我们更加了解颜色词在中英翻译中需要注意的方面，更好地研究两国的文化。

关键词：颜色词；个性；共性；颜色词的翻译

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 1

3. The similarities of color words translation between English and Chinese 2

3.1 The semantic implication 2

3.2 The functional implication 3

4. The differences of color words translation between English and Chinese 4

4.1 The color words in Chinese 5

4.2 The color words in English 6

5. Translation of color words between English and Chinese 7

5.1 Literal translation 7

5.2 Free translation 8

6. Conclusion 10

Works Cited 11

1. Introduction

The world is colorful and life is colorful. Color, as a kind of objective reality, is closely related to human life, and everything has its unique color. In human language, there are many symbols that record color words. Color words are often used in daily life, and it has a rich emotional and cultural connotations. For people of different nationalities, the same color words in the visual and psychological triggered by association and symbolism are also different, with various cultural meanings (Peter, 2001: 68). It must be noted that, in cross-cultural communication, the perception of various colors symbol is not the same due to the different nationalities and different cultures, although they belong to the same ethnic background or the same cultural background but not the same social class. These differences as a positive significance in linguistics make the color words bear a variety of associative meanings. Therefore, cultural differences have a significant impact on the translation of color words, so that the translators often treat them as the same because they lack the knowledge of the cultural background, resulting in completely contrary to the original meaning in translation. Finally, in the process of translation, you must first make clear the connotation of color words in the source culture and target culture, and then choose the appropriate translation methods, so that it can convey information accurately.

2. Literature Review

Translation is more than the conversion between languages; it is the communication between cultures. We must translate such color words from the cultural perspective, and choose the appropriate translation methods. As a translator, we must have a profound understand of the broad cultural context of English and Chinese before we esteem translating as a familiar work with ease. Then, we can make a really good translation.

For centuries, researches on color words have never been stopped. A lot of experts and scholars have been committing themselves to the research of color words. In 1969, two linguists of US, DR. Paul Kay and DR. Brent Berlin did a comparatives study of the color words from nearly 100 languages in the world. Then, they put forward the theory of basic color terms. Besides, many Chinese scholars also carried on intensive and profound reaches on color words. In terms of cultural connotation of color words’ comparative analysis in a cross-cultural background, there are also a lot of excellent works, and some of them are as follows: Cultural Context and Language Translation, Bao Huinan discussed how to determine translation method from the semantic contrast of color words. Yao Xiaoping gives a summary evaluation on Kay and Berlin’s basic color words in the Context of the Comments on Basic Theories of Color Words. At the same time, Zhang Peiji’s book English Sound and Color Words fully discussed the characters, use and translation of the color words.

3. The similarities of color words translation between English and Chinese

First of all, people’s physical mechanism of perception is pretty much the same. We use our sensory organs to sense the environment, and what the organs receive are routed through the nervous system to our brains where they are recorded and interpreted, thus the reflection of the objective world in our minds is the same. Now that people refer to things and interpret meanings by means of the same concepts, the perception to colors are more or less the same or similar.

3.1 The semantic implication

The color is not inherent in the object itself, but the result of the interaction with the outside world and person’s visual sense organs. Due to the commonality of human mind and the convergence of living in the same world that decided the two languages have a great overlap of the vocabulary and the expression of intention or implied meaning is the similar. For example, in both English and Chinese, the red represents a passion, shyness or celebration and also refers to the liabilities and losses, because people always use red pen to register a negative number. Black suggests solemn and evil, white represents purity and so on. Concrete examples are as follows:

脸发红—be red in the face, 青草—green grass, 白雪—snow white, 颠倒黑白—to talk black into white, 黑心肠—black-hearted, 黑市—black market, 绿叶—green leaves, 红旗—the red flag

Chinese people began to worship the red in ancient times. It also can be traced back to ancient times when people worshiped fire and sun. Red is the color which can stimulate the mood. It is passion, excitement and vitality. In traditional Chinese wedding, the bride and groom will wear red dresses. In modern society, heroes and models will wear a big red flower; when companies open they will cut the red ribbons.

English nations will also use red to express warmth and exultation. In general calendar it can be found that every New Year’s Day, Christmas and other holiday dates. The west as well print these days in red to distinguish that is called “red-letter days”, and westerners use it to refer to any happy and memorable days; to paint the town red means 狂欢，饮酒作乐；double red happiness means 红双喜；a red carpet visitor means 来访的贵宾；to roll out the red carpet for somebody is intend as展开红地毯(Zhou Yi 2009: 68-70)，the implied meaning refers to 隆重地欢迎某人.

3.2 The functional implication

The functional implication here refers to the case that the conceptual meaning and the connotative meaning are equivalent between Chinese and English basic color terms. Although most expressions or color terms have the same conceptual meaning, they may be different from other types of meanings more or less. So, the functional implication is not absolute but relative.

One case is “ Black and 黑”. First of all，both“black”and “黑” mean “bad”, “dirty”, “illegal”, “secret” and “evil”. For example, “black water” and “黑水” indicate polluted or dirty water, “black market” and “黑市” refer to the illicit buying and selling of goods; “black-hearted” and “黑心肠的” mean treating other people very badly; “black money” and “黑钱” indicate the income earned illegally. Besides, “black” and “黑” can be used to express “death”, “anger” , “misfortune” and “sadness”. In both Western countries and China, people tend to wear black to mourn the dead; “black humor” and “黑色幽默”imply a funny story about the unpleasant side of life; “black mood” and “黑色心情” refer to low spirit. Black is also related to “dignity” and “justice”. Black suit and black dress are traditional clothes for westerners on formal occasions, and judges also put on black robes to display the justice of law, which are the same with Chinese customs.

Another case is “Red and 红”. In both Chinese and English culture, red is associated with “warmth”, “happiness”, “luck” and so on. For example, Chinese people are willing to wearing red and decorate their rooms with red for weddings; in the Spring Festival, people give money wrapped in red paper envelopes as gifts to children for the best wishes; “开门红” represents good fortune or a good start. In English, “red-letter day” means happy days, “roll the red carpet for sb.” is to welcome sb. warmly, and “paint the town red” refers to holding a carnival. “Red” and “红” are also used derogatively, indicating “violence”, “danger” and “eroticism”. Such expressions, as “red battle”, “red rules”, “杀红了眼” and “白刀子进红刀子出” are all related to violence; “red alert” and “红色警报” means dangerous situation; “red-light district” and “红杏出墙” indicate pornography. What’s more, red can be associated with certain emotions. “To become red-faced” is equal to the Chinese expression “脸红”，showing embarrassment or shyness; “to see red” and “面红耳赤” imply being angry.

The last case is “Yellow and 黄”. Yellow is the color of autumn, when leaves turn yellow and everything becomes withered and bare. So the yellow color indicates “unhealthy”, “disease” and “depression”. There are many such Chinese expressions as “面黄肌瘦” “黄疸型肝炎”，and so on. In English, “yellow blight”, “yellow flag” and “yellow fever” are terms for disease. “Yellow” and “黄” can also symbolize “warning”. For example, “a yellow card” and “黄牌” and “double- yellow-line” and “双黄线” are the symbols of warming. However, yellow is the most respected color to Chinese people. They call themselves “炎黄子孙” and good days for doing significant matters “黄道吉日”. At the same time, yellow is also a holy color in western countries, especially in Christianity.

4. The differences of color words translation between English and Chinese

Due to the differences in customs and aspects of the national culture—geography, history and tradition, religion and national psychology, color words sometimes can show the nation’s character, with significant cultural imprint. Different cultures give color words different connotations, and also lead to color words with different shades of meanings. In the translation of English and Chinese color words, we must pay attention to their individuality.

4.1 The color words in Chinese

In Chinese, white is not exactly the same as that in English. In Chinese culture, due to historical reasons, white was given a reactionary meaning “白区” refers to the region of the Kuomintang, “白色政权” refers to a reactionary government regime; “白军” refers to the reactionary forces. It is absent in the West, as it relates to a particular political structure of countries, and therefore white has a specific cultural connotations. In ancient china, the official title regardless of the rank, his robes are colored. White is used to refer to those illiterate civilians and there is “白衣” and “白丁” is a way to express this meaning. In Peking Opera, facial makeup representing different colors are not the same meaning. For example, white is a symbol of a traitor’s face. There are many meanings that is unrelated color of white, such as “白搭”, “白费事”. “白” is futile and ineffective; “白字”, “白” means wrong. “白”indicates a lack of experience, aging and cunning, but “White” is without this semantics. In Chinese, “white” can be described as a lack of experience. For example, “白面书生”（scholars who did not experience suffering ）, “白徒”（untrained soldiers）,it also can be describe as aging, for example, “白发苍苍” and “满头白发”. However, in English, “grey” is used to describe old. At the same time, it also refers to cunning. For example, “白鼻子”（cunning man, traitor ）(Ding Shusheng 2002: 168), in Chinese traditional opera, white mask is on behalf of the insidious and suspected fraud characters.

In china , no matter how the ancient yellow is divine, “yellow” often refers to pornographic, obscene, indecent and low-level in modern society, such as “扫黄”, “黄色书籍”，“黄色电影”，“黄色录像” and so on, these “黄” has nothing to do with yellow in English, what can represent the meaning of words in Chinese should be: “pornographic” (色情的); “vulgar” (庸俗下流的), “obscene” (猥亵的) and so on. However, another English word blue is often used to represent such a meaning in Chinese, such as “blue jokes” (下流的玩笑), “blue films” (黄色电影) and so on. Yellow, in Chinese, as well as means “unreal thing, outdated”, such as “昨日黄花，陈年黄历，黄粱美梦”. In spoken Chinese, yellow has the meaning of failure, “我和他黄了” means that lovers failed to keep the relationship. In Chinese, “yellow” symbolize honor, imperial power and the noble. However, in English, it is lack of this layer semantics. In the long feudal society, rulers considered yellow as the supreme colors. In Chinese, there are a lot of related words about “黄”: “皇榜” means that the emperor issued the proclamation, “黄道” the road through the line of the emperor; “黄袍加身” put person to do the emperor. And in western culture, yellow without corresponding cultural connotation, we need to use the blue/purple instead.

In Chinese, black is endowed with special meaning in the specific period. This is a kind of unequal caused by historical and cultural reasons. In the Cultural Revolution, black is used to refer to reactionary and counter-revolutionary, just like “黑组织， 黑后台，黑爪牙，黑纲领” and so on.

4.2 The color words in English

Chinese word “white” symbolizes bleak and death, but in English “white” symbolizes cheerful, good luck and hope. In the west, “white” means happy, cheerful and hope. In the biblical story, the angels always have a pair of white wings, floating above the silver ring; at the wedding, the bride always wears a white wedding dress into a church, in order to accept the clergy of the witnesses, and they called their own wedding “white wedding days marked with a white stones” means 幸福的日子(Cui Xi 2009: 221-222)；a white Christmas 银装素裹的圣诞节. “White” also symbolizes luck, for example, white days 黄道吉日；white magic 有天使相助的法术； “white knight” 白衣骑士，白武士，救星; “white war” 不流血的战争.

In English, black as well as has some limited cultural significance, since the 1860s, with the rise of the U.S. civil rights movement, black replaced the negro to represent black, because the word Negro has a pejorative connotation refers to the slaves and black, so use black instead of Negro. In English, there is “work like a black” this phrase with a compliment (or neutral) to describe people work hard, which is associated with the history and culture of the West. Black people as a group always works hard, it is extended meaning of black. In addition, in business English, the phrase “in the black” and “black figure” has definite meaning; it is because business has profits, accounting for billing with black pen. So we have the phrase “black figure nation” said the success of the national trade; the phrase “interest in the black” said the investment profitable. And this is precisely the opposite with the Chinese, the Chinese word for “black” do not express the meaning of profit, but “黑货” and “黑财” contain derogatory meaning.

In English, yellow also has its specific meaning: “jealousy”. “Yellow with envy” and “green with envy” the meaning of this two phrase is the same, because people think that extreme emotions can cause secretions to make person’s skin to become yellow. Now, yellow in the English language is often associated with timid, cowardice and despicable. For example, “a yellow dog” means despicable person; “a yellow livered” has coward meaning; “have a yellow streak” refers to a person by nature timid; “too yellow to stand up and fight” refers too timid that cannot stand up; “He is too yellow to stand up and fight” means that he is too weak to stand up for the fight. In English, yellow is often used for comments on the scandal, current affairs and sensation, sometimes it even can be said for circulation and regardless of the truth of the matter, such as “yellow journalism” (黄色新闻,耸人听闻的报道)， “yellow back” (黄色封面)， “the yellow press” (黄色报刊，追求低级趣味和耸人听闻的报刊)，where the yellow is different from china’s “yellow journals”.

5. Translation of color words between English and Chinese

There are commonality and individuality between English and Chinese color words in translation, so we should adopt different translation methods in the translation. Translation is a kind of language of the information expressed in another language, so that the readers can get the ideas which the original authors express, but readers get the same feeling with the original roughly. This requires us to translate color words. You cannot just purse formal equivalence, but should purse pragmatic equivalence of meaning. English-Chinese translation often adopts the literal translation and free translation.

5.1 Literal translation

We noticed that the color words reflected in the Chinese and Western translation of the words, with taking lots of literal translation methods. That is mostly because these colors on the basis of comparison between Chinese and Western cultures embody equivalent or the peer. The literal translation is that allow both faithful to the original content, while maintaining the original structures form(refer in particular to keep image and national, local characteristics etc) smooth and easy to understand language, textual specification translation. Literal translation strategy is particularly appropriate to the Chinese and Western cultures on the each other, because both faithful expression literal text content, but also reflects the culture of the source language of color and vivid image, allowing readers to grasp the different language and cultural characteristics of the source language deeply, and to promote the communication between both the cultures. Specific examples are as follows:

as white as a sheet 苍白如纸

red card 红牌

black and white television 黑白电视

blackboard 黑板

赤橙黄绿青蓝紫，谁持彩练当空舞？

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet

Who is dancing, waving this colored ribbon against the sky?

Here, we should pay attention to the literal translation is not a word to a word translation, but according to the literal translation it does not make too much of the extension and annotation. For example,

He was the first European head of state to visit their country, and they rolled out the red carpet for him, translation into Chinese is 他是第一个访问该国的欧洲首脑，他们展开红地毯来欢迎他。Of course, we all know that, red carpet means grand ceremony, so we do not need to be translated into “隆重的仪式”， but use “红地毯”。At this time, using literal translation is more lively and vivid, and it is unnecessary to use free translation strategies. According to the above examples, we found that these literal translation strategies did not affect the different language that readers to grasp the meaning, but they will be able to obtain a more vivid image of the source language, contact with another culture directly, even to become their own culture.

5.2 Free translation

Free translation is another kind of translation method which pays attention to the target translation than to preserving the wording intact of the source translation. Free translation indicates that the translator devotes his mind to the most important part of the text while ignoring the unconsidered part for fluency. Generally speaking, free translation does not focus on the style of the original text, containing the use of words, the structure of the sentence, metaphor and other tropes. In the condition of color phrase, the expression is different from both Chinese and English. At the same time the metaphor used in the source language is not consistent with the usage of target language. Examples are as follows:

When Anna graduated from high school, she looked at the world through rose-colored glasses.

The phrase “Look at the world through rose-colored glasses” indicates “see the problems too optimistically”, literal translation will be translated into: “to have on the rose-colored glasses”. If this sentence is translated by literal translation, it will be hard for readers to understand the main ideas or grasp the key points. For the reason that, we are supposed to adopt free translation and help readers express the real meaning distinctly.

From another point of view, some color words have the meaning of amplification. Therefore, we can completely ignore the expression of the color words of the original text and choose the proper words to translate them on the basis of meaning of the original. On the contrary, the word symbolic expression of the main colors in the process of translation is essential. In a particular language environment, the symbolic meaning of some color word bears different meanings in English and Chinese, so we should adopt the free translation. The following three sentences are the typical samples.

Her visit came out of the blue. 她突然来访

The store is running in the blue. 商店在亏本营业中

He is so black as he is painted. 他不像他说的那么坏

When translators translate some literary works, such as an essay or a poem, the emotion of the original is needed to be considered firstly. If the source text is sarcastic, sad or funny, the translation is also to express these meanings. If the original is to make readers laugh, but you don’t see the humor in translation, it is a total failure as well no matter how faithful the translation may be. Excellent translation is not going to mislead readers and distort the original meanings. Some colors being on account of cultural differences have no equivalence in target culture. Translating such words, translators tend to give up some or even all meanings of the images, so that the translation with the original is the same and it can be expressed as fully as possible, such as silver spoon(富贵), blue blood(贵族血统), black sheep( 败家子) . This is the implied meaning of the translation of foreign culture through establishing cultural equivalence. Following are some specific examples:

I heard he was the Republicans’ big white hope.

我听说他是共和党人寄予巨大希望的人。

The child screamed blue murder, but his mother didn’t change her mind.

孩子大声惨叫，但是他母亲还是不改变主意。

6. Conclusion

The use of color words in English and Chinese have a lot in common. At the same time they also have differences. Different translation methods bring different language effect, so the translation of color words should be properly handled. Color words translation between English and Chinese is far more complicated, and much content is not involved because of limited space. But from the paper, we can clearly see that color words both in Chinese and English is widely used. Through the study of color words, you can pivot the fundamental differences between the two languages and two cultures from an angle. Therefore, translator should not only study the languages but also understand and use color words properly. In the translation we must take into account a variety of factors and choose the appropriate translation methods according to some specific meaning of color words in the source language, so as to achieve the more accurate translation.

Works Cited

[1] Berlin, Brent,amp;Paul Kay. Basic Color Terms: Their University and Evolution. Berkely: University of California Press.

[2] Peter Newmark. A Text of Translation. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2001.

[3] LIANG Gai-ping. Some Issues on the Chinese Loan Words in English; Journal of Chengdu Teachers College; 2005.

[4] LIU Dan. Zhang Guruo’s Translation of Tess of the D’Urbervilles and the Chinese National Literature; Journal of Chongqing Institute of Technology Management; 2003.

[5] Lizhen. Characteristics and Translation in Address Forms; Journal of Anhui University of Technology (Social Sciences); 2006.

[6] Liu Qiaoqi. On Cultural Values Manifested by Mate-selection Advertisements in China and the U.S; Journal of Changchun Normal University; 2007.

[7] 包惠南，包昂. 《中国文化与汉英翻译》.北京：外文出版社.2004.

[8] 张培基. 《英语声色词与翻译》. 北京：商务印书馆, 1964.

[9] 陈安定. 《英汉比较与翻译》.北京：中国对外出版社公司，1991.03，146-169.

[10] 王伟军. 《”直译”与“意译”应用理论初探》. 广西广播电视大学学报. 2008(12):68.

[11] 姚小平. 《基本颜色词理论述评》, 《外语教学与研究》 1988(1).

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