1 OUTLINE
Abstract
Key Words
I. Introduction
1.1 Definition of Basic Color Terms and Cultural Connotations
1.2 Background of Research on Color Terms
1.2.1 Research on Basic Color Terms in Foreign Countries
1.2.2 Research on Basic Color Terms in China
II. Basic Color Terms
2.1 Chinese Basic Color Terms
2.2. English Basic Color Term
III. Cultural Connotations of Basic Color Terms in English and Chinese
3.1 Black
3.2 White
3.3 Red
3.4 Yellow
3.5 Green
3.6 Blue
3.7 Purple
3.8 Gray
IV. The Translation of Color Terms
4.1 Translation and Culture
4.2 Literal Translation
4.3 Annotation and Contextual Amplification
4.4 Free Translation
4.5 Zero Translation
V. Conclusion
Bibliography
中文标题、摘要、关键词
2 The Cultural Connotations and the Translation of Color Terms
in Chinese and English
Author： Number： Tutor：
Abstract: We live in a colorful world. There are many color words in the world. Color words have rich
cultural connotations. Resulting from different social cultures, historical processes and geographic
conditions, English and Chinese color terms reflect the difference in the cultural aspects such as social
values, customs, color preference etc. Therefore, it is of significance to have a study on the cultural
connotations of basic color terms between English and Chinese. The thesis deals with cultural
connotations of basic color words in English and Chinese and introduces several translation methods by
several examples. By the contrastive study of cultural connotations of basic color terms between English
and Chinese, we can know more about what is going on in people's mind, in their language and culture.
Therefore, in translation practice, what is important is to break the cultural barriers and convey the
source cultural faithfully and effectively.
Keywords: color terms; cultural connotations; translation
I. Introduction
1.1 Definition of Basic Color Terms and Cultural Connotations
We live in a colorful world. To satisfy our daily necessities, people use a great
number of color terms to represent colors. For instance, it is seemed that there are over
three thousand color words in English. Moreover, our eyes can be able to distinguish
seven million colors, for most of which we do not have any expressions available at all.
Generally speaking, the color words in English can be divided into two categories:
basic color terms and object color terms. There are so many color terms in English and
Chinese that we cannot discuss all of them, thus in this thesis, the discussion will focus
on the field of basic color terms.
However, it’s difficult to give a accurate definition to basic color terms. There are
many versions of definition to basic color terms, among which the most acceptable is
given by Berlin and Kay. In their Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution,
Berlin and Kay lay out four basic criteria to judge whether a color word is basic or not. 3 In the case of basic color terms, we often take it for granted that the color terms are
originally used to refer to the physical features of color categories, but we should keep in
mind that the color system is partially determined by the cultural needs instead of being
solely based upon their physical features.
1.2 Background of Research on Color Terms
Color terms are common linguistic phenomenon in all cultures. The study of color
terms has caused great interest for many scholars abroad or at home, and they have
studied the phenomenon of color terns from different perspectives. This section aims to
summarize and briefly comment on the previous research.
1.2.1Research on Basic Color Terms in Foreign Countries
Plato holds that the process of perceiving colors of human beings should satisfy
three basic conditions: 1) a light source; 2) a reflector or an object which can reflect light;
and 3) a functional eye that can receive the reflected light. (Sloane, 1991: 54).
Aristotle pays much attention to the typology of color ingredients. According to him,
simple-colors are related to some basic elements in the physical world and are mixtures
of “black” and “white”.
Brent Berlin and Paul Kay wrote a book Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and
Evolution, the basic color terms are the prototypes in the different color categories for
they best show the color of their own category.
1.2.2 Research on Basic Color Terms in China
Color terms appear in ancient China. In mordent times, more and more Chinese
scholars study on color terms.
English Words of Color Arid Sound and Their Translation by Zhang Peiji was
published in 1964. He makes a detailed description of the usages of almost all the color
terms in English. Since the 1980s, the study on color terms goes further. Liu Yunquan
published his The Beauty of Language in Colors, in which he gave a systematic
introduction of the categories and functions of the Chinese color terms.
In the recent 18 years, more works focusing on basic color terms between English
and Chinese have appeared. Wu Dongping pointed out a cultural semantic field
hypothesis, aiming at seeking the cultural vacancy, equivalence, difference and similarity
from the perspective of cultural semantic field (吴东平, 2000:12).