论文总字数：28848字

摘 要

本文主要研究汉英颜色词的不同文化隐喻。它包含几个例子来比较中英文颜色词的隐喻。由于本论文的研究揭示了颜色词的不同隐喻与不同社会文明背景之间的联系，本文探讨了这些差异的各种成因，并着重于中英文颜色词的隐喻实例，以帮助人们不同的文化背景对他们有更好的了解。

关键词：隐喻；颜色词；对比分析

Contents

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………..1
2. Literature Review …………………………………………………....1

2.1 Metaphor………………………………………………………………...…...1

2.2 Colors………………………………………………………………..............3

3. The Comparison between Chinese-English Metaphors of Color Terms……………………………………………………………….4

3.1 “Black” and “黑”………………………………………………….…..…….4

3.2 “White” and “白”…………………………………………………...……….5

3.3 “Red” and “红”……………………………………………….……………...6

4. Factors Causing the Similarities and Differences……........…...…...6

4.1 Manners and Customs……………………………………………….……....7

4.2 Historic Background…………………………………………………..…….7

4.3 Literature and Art……………………………………………………....……7

4.4 Political Backgrounds………………………………………………………..8

4.5 Religious Beliefs………………………………………………..………..….8

5. Conclusion…………………………………………………………….9

Works Cited………………………………………………………...……….....11

1. Introduction

For the color is the inborn feature of the world, it is measurable to define color words as the inherence of human languages. The time passing by, the human languages have changed, so have the meanings of color words. All the color words in human languages are in process of development. For instance, white can be taken as the symbol of purity. What’s more, different human languages are experiencing different stages of development and showing various features of color words. For another example, the red is used to indicate blood and angry in Western countries while in China it also represents good luck, justice and prosperity. So, color terms not only enlarged in the number but also are extensively used to represent the abstract conceptions besides concrete entities.

The linguists like Lakoff, Ungerer and Berlin aim to reveal the secret in human languages. In their study process, they are attracted by the color words which reveal an interesting phenomenon called metaphor in all languages. The metaphors of color words are related to the color terms closely. All these above stir up my interests and encourage me to do further research on different metaphors of color terms as follows.

In this thesis, the main purpose and objectives of the study is the different cultural metaphors of color words between Chinese and English. According to the linguists, like Lakoff and Su Dingfang, there are two different perspectives towards the category of basic color terms. There are eleven color terms in English while there are only nine in Chinese. In this thesis, three of these colors are mentioned to make the comparison. Furthermore, the causes of the similarities and dissimilarities will also be studied from the cognitive and cultural views.

Literature Review

• 1. Metaphor

The English word “metaphor” actually originated from a Middle French word “metaphore” or Latin “metaphora”. And these two words share the similar origin. The root of the two words is the Greek word “metapherein”, in which the “meta” means “across” and the “pherein” implys “carry”. The etymological explanation of “metaphor” in Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary is that “metaphor” represents the transference from one thing to another as a whole word. Several famous scholars’ views on metaphor and definitions in several authoritative dictionaries and encyclopedias will be enumerated as follows.

In the West, the earliest study of metaphor can be traced back to over 2,000 years ago in the time of ancient Greek. Aristotle, one of the most famous philosophers, defined metaphor in his works Poetics as “consisting in giving the thing a name that belongs to something else (Poetics 1457b)” (from Ricoeur, 1978:13). This definition laid an essential foundation for the development of rhetoric and metaphor. Metaphor has been studied for a long time by various philosophers, rhetoricians, and literary critics as a matter of language or a figure of speech. Metaphor was just regarded as a kind of decoration to the ordinary language and a word-focused rhetorical device to be used to gain certain effects. Someone even labeled metaphor as a kind of error in using the language. In the 1930s, Richards published his work The Philosophy of Rhetoric, in which the theory of interaction was first proposed. Later, Black did development and improvement on the basis of Richard’s viewpoint. They break the traditional study of metaphor. Kovecses once claimed in the preface of his work: “The traditional theories of metaphor, though divergent from each other, have some commonly accepted features.” According to Kovecses, metaphor is a property of words and is a linguistic phenomenon. It can be used for some artistic or esthetic purpose and be based on a resemblance between two compared and identified entities. It is not an unconscious and undeliberate use of words so the special ability of doing it well is necessary when people try to use it. Actually, it is not indispensable in people’s daily life.

Lakoff and Johnson claimed “the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (Lakoff amp; Johnson, 1980:5). Eve Sweetser held that metaphor enables people to understand one thing as another, without thinking the two things are objectively the same and metaphor operates between domains (Sweetser, 1990: 8, 19).

Different definitions have been given to metaphor from different aspects:

Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (as in “drowning in money”)—compare simile.(The Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary)

(2) Metaphor: 1. Figure of speech in which a word or expression normally used of one kind of object, action, etc. is extended to another 2. Used by G.P. Lakoff in the 1980s of a general pattern in which one domain is systematically conceives and spoken of in terms of another.

(Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics)

(3) Metaphor: a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., “Her eyes were glistening jewels.” Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via association, comparison or resemblance. In this broader sense, antithesis, hyperbole, and simile would all be considered types of metaphor.

(Wikipedia)

According to the definitions above, it is clear to see that the foreign dictionaries published during the 1980s or 1990s have noticed the cognitive function of metaphor. Metaphor was seen as a literary figure of speech.

Later, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson came out the cognitive view of metaphor in their seminal study: Metaphor We Live By in1980. This conception opened a new area for the study of metaphor.

In China, the metaphor hasn’t been studied for a long time and still at an incipient stage. The scholars still keep on committing themselves to the related research and studies and more and more graduates start to choose this topic as their subject of the theses. As a positive promotion, they do great contribution on this career with their infectious enthusiasm. The studies of metaphor have been defined as a subdivision of “analogy” (比喻). Many Chinese scholars, like Wang Yin and Su Dingfang, have introduced the latest western theories of metaphor and translated the foreign findings into Chinese in order to promote the development of metaphor studies in China.

2.2 Colors

In the West, one explanation is that color concepts are totally arbitrary. It is the classical theory represented by Aristotle. But later, the American anthropologist, Brent Berlin, and a linguist, Paul Kay, sampled 98 languages and overthrew the domination of the classic theory in their book, Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution (1969). They claimed that each basic color word should exhibit the following four characteristics: (1) it’s monoleximic; (2) its signification is not included in that of any other color terms; (3) its application must not be restricted to a narrow class of objects; (4) it must be psychologically salient for informants. (Berlin amp; Kay, 1969:6)

Their findings aroused the great interests of others and laid good foundation for the development of the color words.

In China, we came to realized to observe the color words long ago. But it was 1970s that we really put efforts into the study of color words due to the foreign theory coming into China. Recently, more and more scholars, like Li Hongyin, engage in the observation of basic color words in Chinese. There are nine basic color words in Chinese. They include “red” (红), “black”(黑), “white”(白), and so on.

Color metaphors have attracted great attention of scholars and linguists. The research on color metaphors is not mature both at home and abroad. There are still a lot of weaknesses in the previous studies. On the one hand, most of the studies on color words are restricted by the cultural perspective. On the other hand, the color metaphors are always classified in terms of color category to analyze the characteristics of color metaphors in one language or the similarities and dissimilarities between two languages. What’s more, the nine basic color words shared by English and Chinese are the unchanging subjects of linguistic study.

3. The Comparison between Chinese-English Metaphors of Colors

Based on the previous study on metaphors of color terms, the differences can be seen in many aspects of many colors. Color terms is a kind of cultural determiner which can reflect the cultural characteristics of a race or society. In this part, a comparison of metaphor will be made between three pairs of basic color terms in Chinese and English for they are representative and highly used in both countries. They are black and 黑, white and 白, red and 红.

3.1 “Black” and “黑”

Black is one of the basic color and is the embodiment of the night and darkness which can be closely related to the death and evil. Both in Chinese and English, it can be used to describe the evil, dark and illegal things. In English, “black future”(前途黑暗) refers to the future without hope, which is connected to the word “dark”(黑暗) in Chinese.

In English-speaking countries, people believe that black is associated with the evil spirit. Take Judas, the betrayer, as an example. A black aperture was on his head when he died in the end. And the demons always appear in black. “A black sheep” is used to indicate the one who is regarded as the failure or the embarrassment of his family. In Chinese, there are also some words with “black”(黑) share the similar meaning of “evilness”. “Black”(黑) in word “black heart”(黑心) refers to evil intentions of a person.

Both “black” and “黑” can indicate the “secret” and “illegal” things. For example, “black market” in English, which equals to “黑市” in Chinese, means the illegal trading market. Also, “argot”(黑话) expresses the special and secret language used by the rogues and gangsters which cannot be understood by normal people easily. And with the development of Internet, the word “hacker” becomes popular among common people. It refers to the people who try some secret ways to control others computer, so does the Chinese word “黑客”, which translated by the English one and keep both the pronunciation and the implied meaning.

What’s more, “black” and “黑” can express the anger of people. For instance, both “a black face” in English and “黑脸” in Chinese refer to the bad temper of a person.

There are some specific usages of the metaphors in these two languages. “Black Friday” is a special day for it’s the death day of Jesus. And in Chinese, “black”(黑) is the opposite of “red”(红) when it is related to the revolution such as “black program” (黑纲领)and so on.

3.2 “White” and “白”

“White” and “白” are the antonyms of “black” and “黑”. They are usually together. For example, we say someone “turn black and white”(颠倒黑白) in Chinese or “somebody calls white black” in English to express the one who confounds right and wrong.

In English, “white” represents “purity”, so does “白” in Chinese. In Western countries, the brides usually wear white wedding dress to show her purity. In Chinese, people use “white angel”(白衣天使) to describe the purity of doctors and nurses.

“White” and “白” also represent “innocence”. The “white-handed” in English and “clean white”(清白) in Chinese contain this meaning.

“White flag” and “白旗” can be used to claim the failure. “White collar” and “白领” refer to a kind of job. What’s more, “white” and “白” are related to death both in English and in Chinese. For instance, “bleed white” and “white things”(白事) are related to it.

Besides, both “white” and “白” means uselessness. “White elephant” in English originated in ancient Rome and still be used in modern English to express the completely useless things. “white”(白) in Chinese word “white saying”(白说) also contains this similar meaning.

There are some differences between these two metaphors. In Chinese, “white”(白) has political implications which refer to the reactionary such as “White horror”(白色恐怖) and so on. Also, “white”(白) means “illiterate” in some words like “White Ding”(白丁). Besides, “white”(白) reflects the traditional art of makeup in Beijing Opera.

3.3 “Red” and “红”

“Red” and “红” is a representative color both in English and in Chinese. There are more differences than similarities between two languages.

Both “red” and “红” can express embarrassment such as “turn red” and “redden face”(脸红). Also, deficit can be shown both by “red ink” and “red word”(赤字).

In Chinese, “红” is a positive, energetic and passionate color. It represents happiness, good luck and prosperity. Chinese people like this color since ancient time. They like use “red”(红) on any festive occasions like weddings, the Spring Festival and so on. And people can easily find the positive power of “red”(红) in many Chinese words. For instance, “red person”(红人) means the person who is a favorite with somebody in power; “go red”(走红) means being popular; “red bennifit”(红利) means bonus. In the famous masterwork Hong Lou Meng, “red”(红) is the soul of the whole novel. According to Fan Ganliang (1996:221-239), there are as many as 37 kinds of terms denoting the meaning of “红” throughout the whole novel, such as red，red-red，bright-red，vermillion，crimson，deep-red，scarlet，rouge，pale pinkish purple, pinkish red and so on.

Besides, “red”(红) has its implied meaning in Chinese which is relevant to the revolution, such as “the Red Army”(红军)，“Red Songs”(红歌), “the Red Base”(红色根据地) and so on.

On the contrary, “red” represents blood, anger and violence in English. Western people use “red” to express some radical emotions and behaviors. For instance, “have red hands” means spilling blood; “red flag” means the things which make people angry; “the idea is red” means the thought is radical.

4. Factors Causing the Similarities and Differences

For the metaphor of colors are the reflection of differences civilizations, there are several factors which cause the dissimilarities.

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