Abstract: Color is an essential element in people’s life. Both English and Chinese are rich in words which are used to express different kinds of color. The color is endowed with plentiful emotion and cultural connotation. Due to the respective cultural background, people’s understanding and expression to the color are not the same, especially the color of red and yellow. This paper is to make a comparative and contrastive study of the sense of red and yellow in English and Chinese by studying the examples collected from all the materials available. The aim of this paper is to make language learners be aware that there exist similarity and difference of the sense of red and yellow in English and Chinese. Both similarity and difference are attributed to cognitive basis and cultural difference. A good understanding of the similarity and difference of the sense of red and yellow in English and Chinese can promote cross-culture communication and translation practice. 

This paper is divided into six parts. The first chapter gives a brief introduction of this paper. The second chapter reviews some studies on color terms in English and Chinese. The third chapter discusses the semantic similarities and differences of red in English and Chinese. The fourth chapter discusses the semantic similarities and differences of yellow in English and Chinese. The fifth chapter discusses the reasons for the semantic similarities and differences of red and yellow in English and Chinese. The sixth chapter gives a brief conclusion of this paper.

Key words: cognitive linguistics conceptual meaning symbolic meaning color terms

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1 Introduction-1

2. Studies on Color Terms in English and Chinese-2

2.1 Traditional Studies on Color Terms-3

2.2 Cognitive Studies on Color Terms-4

2.3 Cultural Studies on Color Terms-4

3. Semantic similarities and differences of red in English and Chinese-5

3.1 Semantic similarities of red in English and Chinese-6

3.1.1 Similarities in conceptual meaning-6

3.1.2 Similarities in symbolic meaning-6

3.2 semantic differences of red in English and Chinese-8

3.2.1 The main differences of red in English and Chinese-8

3.2.2 Partial equivalence of the sense of red in English and Chinese-10

3.2.3 Vacant match of red in English and Chinese-11

4. Semantic similarities and differences of yellow in English and Chinese-12

4.1 Semantic similarities of yellow in English and Chinese-12

4.1.1 Similarities in conceptual meaning-12

4.1.2 Similarities in symbolic meaning-12

4.2 Semantic differences of yellow in English and Chinese-13

4.2.1 The main differences of yellow in English and Chinese-13

4.2.2Partial equivalence of the sense of red in English and Chinese-14

4.2.3 Vacant match of yellow in English and Chinese-15

5. Reasons for the semantic similarities and differences of red and yellow in English and Chinese-16

5.1 Reasons for the semantic similarities of red and yellow in English and Chinese-16

5.2 Reasons for the semantic differences of red and yellow in English and Chinese-17

5.2.1 Difference in historical background and geography-17

5.2.2 Difference in customs and religion-18

5.2.3 Difference in cognition-18

6. Conclusion-19

Bibliography-19

Acknowledgements-21