简论英文颜色词的象征意义

汉英语言各种不同颜色或色彩的词语都很丰富。不仅要注意观察它们本身的基本意义,更要留心它们含义深广的象征意义,因为它们的象征意义在不同民族语言往往有不同的特点,有些特点甚至构成了人们对经过引伸、转义以后颜色的崇尚和禁忌。这种不同文化之间颜色象征意义的差异是由于各自民族的文化历史背景、审美心理的不同而产生的,是在社会历史的沉淀中约定俗成的,是一种永久性的文化现象。文章试图从中西文化对比的角度,去分析、探究各民族文化发展对颜色词的象征意义的影响。

Symbolic Meanings of Colors in English

There are abundance of colors in both Chinese and English.We should pay attention not only to their basic meaning,but also to their extensive symbolic meanings,because the latter may have different characteristics in different languages,some of which have even become color advocating and taboo.The differences are caused by different cultural backgrounds,esthetics and by usage,and are a permanent cultural phenomenon.This article tries to analyze and probe into the influences of different cultural on the symbolic meanings of color words from a comparison between Chinese and western cultures.