Abstract

Our life is full of all kinds of colors everywhere, and becomes more fantastic due to these colors.We named these colors in order to distinguish them.As we all know, there are a number of color words in English and Chinese, and they play an important role in our life.These color words have abundant cultural connotation and symbolic meanings besides expressing their literal meanings.This thesis discusses differences of the six basic color words on cultural connotation and symbolic meanings in Chinese and Western countries, and analyzes these main reason resulting in differences from the backgrounds of history and culture, geographical environments and religious beliefs. It can help us to know the differences between Chinese and Western cultures, and promote the communication of Chinese and Western culture and reduce misunderstanding errors by studying the differences of basic words of Chinese and western.

Key words:color words;cultural differences; symbolic meaning ;Chinese  

          and Western culture

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1.Introduction-1

2. Literature Review-1

3. Differences of color words between English and Chinese-2

3.1 Red-2

3.2 Yellow-3

3.3 Black-4

3.4 White-5

3.5 Blue-6

3.6 Green-7

4.The reasons for different meanings in the 2 cultures-8

4.1 The backgrounds of history and culture-8

4.2 Geographical environments-9

4.3 Religious reasons-9

5.Conclusion-10

Works Cited-12