Abstract:Colors are abundant in both Chinese and English, such as white, black, red, yellow, blue, green, etc. Color is an objective and special substantial form. People all can react to color, no matter in vision or emotion. The view and cognition of different national people toward colors are much alike; they also have many common associations in color and color terms. But the symbols, associations and implied meanings of thinking, environment, psychology and religious belief, all these make the understanding and use of color terms differ in different nations. This thesis mainly takes “red” for example. Through analyzing differences of “red” between Chinese and English, it is to explore its cultural and historical roots. Therefore, it is of practical significance to know the differences between English and Chinese color words and their symbolic meanings for promoting Chinese-English cultural communication and developing translation practice. 

Key words: red; symbolic meanings; causes analysis; contrastive study 

中文摘要:英汉中表示各种不同颜色或色彩的词语都很丰富,如白色、黑色、红色、黄色、蓝色、绿色等等。颜色是一种客观的和具有重要价值的存在。无论是在视觉上还是在情感上，人们都会对颜色有所反应。不同国家的人对于颜色的看法及认知却是十分相像的；同时他们对于颜色及颜色词之间的联系有许多的共同点。值得注意的是，在人们的思考方式，地理环境，心理及信仰等方面的象征、联想及其隐义让各国对颜色词的理解与运用有所不同。这篇论文主要通过分析“红”色的英汉差异，发掘中英的文化及其历史根源。因此，充分认识英汉颜色词的差异性及其象征意义对于促进中英文化交流和提升翻译技巧是十分重要的。

关键词：红色，象征意义，对比研究，原因分析