Abstract

We live in a world that is surrounded by all kinds of colors, and color has been deeply rooted in humans’ life. However, different people from different countries have various, as well as similar opinions about the same colors. So this thesis aims at analyzing the similar and different connotations of basic color terms in English and Chinese color terms.

The study of color terms has been doing for a long history by thousands of scholars. Those scholars study color terms from different perspectives, such as philosophical perspective, linguistic perspective and psychological perspective. As the world develops fast, cross-cultural study on color terms is gaining more and more attention. This thesis studies color terms from cross-cultural perspective.

There are so many colors in the world that we cannot analyze all of them, so in thesis, eight basic color will be discussed, they are black, white, red, green, yellow, blue, purple, gray. Each color term has its interpretation in Chinese and corresponding connotations. Those connotations can be similar or different. After analyzing the similarities and differences, we will come to see the causes of them. The causes of similarities are mainly because we human beings live on the same planet, and humans had to work to survive back in ancient days. The differences are caused by two main reasons, the first one is environmental (geographic) reason and the second one is cultural reason. We can conclude from the causes of similarities and differences that culture is a product of social practice.

This thesis has made some findings after painstaking study. It is found that the connotations of a color is directly related to people’s social and cultural experience, which is unique to a certain group of people. People’s expressions of colors reflect their social and cultural backgrounds. This study can be helpful to English teachers and learners in terms of cultural differences.

Key words

Basic color term, Similarities, Differences, Connotations

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter 1 Introduction-5

1.1 Intellectual Background-5

1.2 Color and Culture-6

Chapter 2 Literature Review-7

2.1 Relationship between Language and Culture-7

2.2 Basic Color Terms-8

2.3 Study on Color Terms-8

2.3.1 Philosophical Perspective-9

2.3.2 Linguistic Perspective-9

2.3.3 Physical Perspective-9

2.4 Study Based on Cross-cultural Communication Perspective-10

Chapter 3 Comparison of Cultural Connotations of Basic Color Terms between English and Chinese-11

3.1 Similarity-11

3.1.1 Black-11

3.1.2 White-12

3.1.3 Red-13

3.1.4 Yellow-14

3.1.5 Green-14

3.1.6 Blue-15

3.1.7 Purple-16

3.1.8 Gray-16

3.2 Cause of Similarities-17

3.3 Differences-17

3.3.1 Black-17

3.3.2 White-17

3.3.3 Red-18

3.3.4 Yellow-18

3.3.5 Green-19

3.3.6 Blue-19

3.3.7 Purple-20

3.3.8 Gray-20

3.4 Cause of Differences-20

Chapter 4 Conclusion-22

4.1 Findings of the Study-22

4.2 Possible Applications of the Findings on Cross-cultural Communication-22

4.3 Limitations of the Study-23

Bibliography-23

Acknowledgement-25