Abstract
Both Chinese and English are rich in the words denoting different colors. But for the differences of the national cultures, people’s natural feeling of the color and the methods to define the color words will also be different. So even the same color, Chinese and English people will think of it and feel it differently. The color words have a close relationship with their national cultures, and always influence local people’s modes and thinking. Vocabulary is the most active factor in language, and the meanings of color words in the vocabulary are abundant. Various nationalities have formed their unique color views in the long-term history, reflecting gorgeous national cultures. Because of different cultural issues, cultural traditions, psychological and historic backgrounds, the cultural connotations of the English and Chinese color words differ greatly. Thus, these particular cultural connotations are cast under different environments of different nationalities.
There are a lot of similarities and differences on the meanings between English and Chinese color words. This thesis gives quite a few examples and idiomatic expressions to analyze the comparison of the connotations of some color words, which explains the importance of deep understanding of cultural connotations of color words in trans-cultural communication.
Key words: color words; cultural; Chinese; English
摘 要
在英汉语言中，表示各种颜色的词语都非常丰富，但是由于民族文化的不同，人们对于色彩的实际感受和赋予色彩的词汇意义的手段也不尽相同。所以，即使是同一个颜色词，它在中西方人眼中的意义也会有很大差异。色彩与其民族的文化传统密切相关，并时常影响着本民族人的思维习惯。词汇在语言中最活跃, 词汇中的颜色词意义丰富。各民族在长期的历史沉淀中都形成了各自独特的颜色观，折射出绚丽多姿的民族文化。由于文化内容、文化传统、历史和心理背景不同，很多英汉颜色词的文化内涵差异较大，这些特定的文化内涵意义是不同民族在不同的环境下铸就而成的。
英汉颜色词在两种语言中的意义既有相同和相似之处，也存在着很多差异。本文通过列举出一些颜色的惯用法和实例,分析了相当数量的颜色词在英汉语言中的异同，并阐述了深刻了解颜色词的文化内涵在翻译实践中的重要性。
关键词：颜色词；文化；中国；英国
Contents
Ⅰ. The Cultural Significance of Colors between English and Chinese. 1
Ⅱ. An Analysis of Different Cultural Connotations of Basic Color Words between English and Chinese 2
Ⅲ. The Enlightenment of Differences of Color Words in Intercultural Communication. 10
