"Colorful" language--More on Metaphor and Metaphor and Association

Abstract: This paper centers on the cultural differences reflecting in colors. According to the comparisons, we know that we should pay more attention to relationship between culture and language. It’s very important for us to notice the cultural differences from different words.

Key Words: color; language; culture; English; Chinese

摘要：这篇文章以颜色词所反映的文化差异为中心。从一系列的对比中，我们知道我们应该更加关注语言和文化之间的关系。从不同的词语中发现文化的差异对我们来说是很重要的。

关键字：颜色；语言；文化；英语；汉语

Introduction

Since culture is regarded as “the totality of beliefs and practices of a society”, nothing is of great strategic important than the language through which its beliefs are expressed and transmitted and by which most interaction, it can reflect all sides thing of culture. Besides, culture can also have a deep influence on language. In the passage, I will discuss the culture associations of certain “colorful” phrases and expressions in both English and Chinese used as illustration. There are many “colorful”words in English and Chinese, such as yellow, blue, white, black and so forth, which are used frequently. The following part will be devoted to the discussion of those four colors.

Chapter One The similarities and differences between English “colorful”language and China “colorful” language

Yellow

In ancient China, yellow is a color which just belongs to emperor and his families. Yellow stands Emperor’s power and noble, it also represents centralization. So the common people couldn’t use it. Emperor’s coat called “龙袍”, it is yellow. Emperor’s imperial edict called“黄榜”. Yellow is always used in emperor’s houses. Now, we always make jokes for the people who wear yellow coat by saying that they will be killed if they lived in ancient. But, in English, yellow doesn’t have the same meaning. In western countries people will think of the yellow coat that Judas was wearing when he betrayed Jesus. So, yellow is not a good symbol in English. In English, “yellow journalism” means a kind of journalism with heavy emphasis on scandals, or presenting ordinary news in a sensational manner, sometimes even distorting the facts to create a sensational effect. If we called someone “yellow dog”, then it means that he/she is a mean people. “Yellow-livered”means weak, cowardly in English. In contemporary Chinese, yellow appears in such Chinese expressions as “黄色电影”、“黄色书刊”、“黄色音乐”。But we can not translate them into English as “yellow movies”,“yellow books”, “yellow music”. Since we can not find the same usage in English, such terms would not be understood. The “黄色”in those three Chinese phrases might means pornographic, trashy, obscene, filthy, or vulgar. Then let’s talk about the “yellow page”. This is a book with the telephone numbers of different shops, businesses, organization, etc, arranged according to different categories. Its pages are yellow, so it