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1毕 业 论 文题目On Translating English Color Words学生姓名：_ _指导教师：_ _ 外语 系 英语 专业 班毕业论文任务书专业 英语 班级 姓名 下发日期题目 On Translating English Color Words专题翻译主要内容及要求文章主体阐述了英汉语言中基本色彩词的文化内涵，以及造成相同性和不同性的文化缘由,归纳了翻译方法以帮助译者取得原文与译文的对等并举出了详实的英汉翻译的实例。主要技术参数进度及完成日期2009年12月19日 下发毕业论文任务书2010年4月18日 交开题报告和论文提纲2010年5月9日 交论文初稿2010年5月30日 交论文二稿2010年6月13日 交论文定稿系主任签字日期教研室主任签字日期指导教师签字日期摘 要 色彩与人类生活息息相关，是人类认识世界的一个重要领域。色彩不仅具有物理属性，还蕴含着丰富的文化内涵和延伸意义。作为一种视觉效果，人们对于颜色词的感知应该是一致的。然而，基于世界各民族的语言表达受到地理环境，民族风情，思维方式，宗教信仰，社会制度，文化艺术及生活方式差异的影响，不同民族表达颜色的含义又有所不同，颜色词也表现出不同民族的独特“个性”，因此，恰当地使用颜色词能使语言生辉添色，剖析中西方对于颜色词的异同点及其翻译同时，也会使人们在实际的语言运用中更好的掌握其本质含义，从而达到不同语言之间相互交流，相互裨益的效果。本文旨在以颜色词为载体，就造成中英颜色词异同的原因举例进行研究，综合众多因素，总结并分析英语颜色词翻译的方法，力求能够通过更为合适的翻译方法，将中英颜色词所承载的信息和深层次的社会文化意义真实地呈现，以达到交流的目的。关键词：颜色词，异同点，翻译方法ABSTRACTAs a major domain to know the world, color goes hand in hand with the availability of human beings life. It has some physical properties. Besides, it contains plentiful cultural connotations and extended meaning. People should have the same perception of color for what as a kind of visual effects. However, based on the various geographical environments, ethnic customs, ways of thinking, religions, social systems, cultures, arts and lifestyles of the nations all over the world, the implications of color words are affected by the diversities as well as show some idiographic characteristics. That is why they can make the expressions more vivid if they are used in an appropriate way. When people are analyzing the differences between Chinese and western cultures, they will grasp the essential implication better in the actual use of language, and make the effective of communication and mutual benefit between different languages. This paper tries to use color words as the carrier to study the factors resulting in similarities and differences between Chinese and English color words, summarize and analyze the translation methods of color words through integrating a number of factors. It is hoped that more appropriate translation methods can facilitate the exchange of color items in the cross-culture communication.KEY WORDS: color words, similarities and differences, translation methodsContentsIntroduction.(9)Chapter One Synopsis of Color Words.(10)1.1 Definition.(10) 1.2 Categories.(10)1.3 Functions.(11)1.3.1 Descriptive function.(11)1.3.2 Symbolic function.(12)Chapter Two Factors Resulting in Similarities and Differences Between English and Chinese Color Words.(14)2.1 Historical culture.(14) 2.1.1 Literary tradition.(14) 2.1.2 Religion.(15) 2.1.3 Historical events.(16) 2.2 Geographical culture.(17)2.3 Politics and economics.(18)Chapter Three Translation Methods of English Color Words.(19) 4.1 Literal translation.(19)4.2 Free translation.(21)4.3 Substitution.(23)4.4 Explanation.(24) Conclusion.(26)Acknowledgements.(27) Bibliography.(28)Introduction“Vocabulary is the most active factor in the language. Color words are not arbitrarily invented by linguists, but extracted out from life by human beings in order to meet their own expressive needs. The more expressions human beings need, the more meanings of color words will be gifted” (Yuan 1997：48). Translating color words is one of the most important and difficult parts in English-Chinese translation, though very interesting and meaningful. The same color words may indicate the same meaning in some areas around the world, while they may represent discrepancies in different languages or cultures. Sometimes, even the same color words in one literary work can symbolize different things, and perhaps some may be conflicting. These color words not only reflect the basic visual effects on the sensory, but also a broad and deep social and cultural significance.In order to promote the cross-culture exchanges, this paper chooses some basic colors words to analyze, and tries to find more appropriate translation methods to deal with them. This paper is divided into three parts. In the first chapter, it talks about the synopsis of color words from definition, functions, and categories. Chapter two discuses the factors affecting the implication of English and Chinese color items, including historical culture, geographical culture, physiology, psychology, politics and economics. The final chapter, also the focal chapter, is about the methods of Chinese translation of English color words, such as literal translation, free translation, borrowed translation, substitution and explanation. And at the end of this paper, a conclusion is made that according to different situations, people should choose the fittest method to translate English color words.Chapter One Synopsis of Color Words As one of the parts of human beings vocabulary, color words play an important role, and have different functions in terms of different categories. The following chapter will give the general introduction to the definition, categories, and functions of color words.1.1 DefinitionColor is said to be a particular nature of light besides the heterogeneities of the space and time, or a kind of the observers sight caused by stimulations of retina from optical radiation. Color is also regarded as visual characteristics excluding images which are caused by the light acting on the human beings eyes. And color words are the items which describe the colors. 1.2 Categories According to the compositions and brightness, colors can be classified into several categories, such as original colors and mixed colors, bright colors and dark colors. Nevertheless, modern language has stable basic color items that can be used as the root to form its core, thus giving rise to a large number of color words, forming the color words group in lavish abundance. Based on the above constitutes, color words can be divided into many categories as follows:(1) Basic color items. Though basic color items, which usually are called self-reliant color items, have the limited quantities, they represent a wide range of colors and are general. Therefore, they are frequently used. They are usually very brief, easy to remember, come to hand conveniently, and express the colors directly in a short form. For instance, “red”(红色),“yellow”(黄色), “white”(白色), “green”(绿色), “black”(黑色), and so on. Such words can be used independently, and they will turn into the others if the attributes are added. For the purpose of vivid and accurate expressions of colors, human beings always use items with more forms to show colors. Such color words are usually intended to express the specific degree of colors. For instance, “bright red”(鲜红色), “grey blue”(灰蓝色), “dark brown”(深褐色), “greenish yellow”(黄绿色), and so on. But no matter how prolific these color words are, they all come from the basic color words as the extension. (2) Objective color words. They are also called real color words. Such words already exist in nature with the original meanings that mostly indicate the names of objects. They are easily to make people think of the colors of the objects. Gradually, the words describing the objects become into the color words which are become one class of colors words. For example, “silver”(银色), “cherry”(樱桃红), “bronze”(古铜色), “emerald”(祖母绿), “ruby”(宝石红), “jade”(翡翠色), “chocolate”(巧克力色), “coffee”(咖啡色), and so on. (3) Emotional color words. From ancient times, color words have closely linked with emotions. They can stand for different emotions and moods; and people can express the deep meaning skillfully through color words. Hence, these emotional color words are not only widely used in literary works, but also in daily life, and other fields. It is worth noting that the same color words have different meanings due to different cultures from different countries. In the west countries, red will make people feel bloody and violent, so “red activities” refers to radical movements. But in China, people like red which can stand for excitement and joy. They use “红榜” to represent the glory and honor, and “红双喜”to show the happiness of newly-married couple.1.3 FunctionsAs the qualifying phrases, revealing the visual features of the objective world is the most direct function of color words. Yet everything has deeper meaning, thence it is necessary to grasp functions of color words, and it will be very helpful in translation. In this part, it will talk about the functions which include the descriptive function and the symbolic function.1.3.1 Descriptive functionColor words have a strong descriptive effect. Since ancient times, they have been used as the important means of description. Color words are always used to decorate the nouns, and make the description of the object more real, vivid in the daily life. It is the basic function of color words. For examples:ST1: Look! How blue the sky is!TT1: 看，天多蓝啊！ST2: She has brown eyes.TT2: 她有一双褐色的眼睛。ST3: “I just want red apples.” The woman said to the waiter. TT3: “我只想要红苹果。”那位女士对服务员说。In these examples, the color words decorate the nouns directly and briefly as an objective expression of the physical properties of the matter. People can get the basic information of the objects. In ST1, the color word “blue” is the term to emphasize that the sky is so clear and beautiful. Because blue is the background color of the sky, and the bluer the nicer. In ST2, the focal point is the color of the eyes. And in ST3, “red”, the color word, narrows the scope of the apples the woman wants, nothing but the red ones. 1.3.2 Symbolic functionBesides the function mentioned above, color items have another important function, that is, the symbolic implications which can leave room for people to image the deep-seated conception. Color influences the spirit directly. Human beings spirit reflects different contents by virtue of prolific living habits and cultural backgrounds, so that color words have the function to embody more meanings. So in daily conversations, different associative meanings of the synonyms may give rise to commutative barrier, and even lead to communicative disaster. Due to the excellent rhetorical function, color words are the writers favorite, and many writers works include the careful choice of color words. A color word may have better effect than the plain statement, and the writers always use color words to recapitulate more details in literature works. Take “The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake as an example:ST: A little black thing among the snow, Crying “weep! weep!” in notes of woe! “Where are thy father and mother? say?” “They are both gone up to the church to pray.”TT: 黑黑的小东西出现在雪地里， “扫啊，扫啊！”声音中带着悲戚！ “喂，你的爸爸妈妈去哪儿了？”“都去教堂祷告去了。” In the source text, the writer William Blake compares the little boy to “a little black thing”. Such vivid rhetoric and the word “black” tell readers that the poor boys appearance is so dirty, covered by ash. And some critics also think that the black ash is the symbol of human cruelty.Another example is from the famous poem “Ode to the West Wind” by P. B. Shelley:ST: O Wild West Wind, thou breathe of autumns being, Thou，from whose unseen Presence the leaves dead Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing.Yellow and black, and pale, and hectic red,TT: 狂野的秋风啊，你这秋的精气，没看见你出现，枯叶已被扫空，像群群鬼魂没见法师就逃避它们或枯黄焦黑，或苍白潮红。The poet uses some turbid and morbid color words like yellow, lack, pale, and hectic red to symbolize the hateful moribund old forces, castigate the corrupt society. Through the functions above, the necessity of the translating color words is obvious. In the following chapters, this paper will talk more about color items in details.Chapter Two Factors Resulting in Similarities and Differences Between English and Chinese Color WordsColor items are greatly influenced by many factors, and for that reason, the connotations will be different in English and Chinese. This chapter will provide sufficient examples to discuss discrepancies and similarities of connotations of color words based on the different influencing factors between English and Chinese. Now this chapter will discuss the reasons for different connotations of color items in the two languages.2.1 Historical cultureHistory culture here includes literary tradition, religion, and historical events. Due to these factors, there are a lot of different understandings and connotations between English and Chinese color words. These differences make both cultures richly colorful, yet people should pay more attentions to the reasons for different connotations of color items in English and Chinese, and know them well and master the different meanings they represent, or there will be mistakes in translations.2.1.1 Literary tradition As one of the human beings wisdoms, literature works contains many elements. No matter in the Western or in China, color words are blessed with important merits, and many color words can be found in literature to give readers some closet information. And some of them have become emblems that sanctioned by the popular usage. About the meaning of color words in literature or traditional culture, there are many similarities and differences. This part focuses on the differences.Black can be given as the first example. In the literary tradition, the word “black” can express serious atmosphere and dark mood, such as “black dog”. This phrase is a metaphor for melancholy, despondency or depression, and it brings people tenebrous feeling in sense of sight. Color words can be used not only to express the mood, but also to suggest a different character features. If an author uses the color word “black” to describe a womans hair, that means the woman must be high-spirited, wild, independent, and has strong desire. In the eyes of the western people, black is one of the symbol of power, and they believe that they can get solemn strong power and firm perseverance from the color of black, like looking forward to the bright light after dark. For instance, the heroines in Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. But if the same description in Chinese literary works, it is always used to show that the woman is beautiful, tender and weak, and hint people that the beautiful woman needs protection. The color of black, one of the Chinese peoples taboos, stands for being evil and ominous. Therefore, in Chinese literary tradition, people usually try to avoid using it.Another example is “red”. This color is very widely used both in English and Chinese. They can represent the same grand and festive occasion. For example, “red carpet”(红地毯). But these color words are mostly used to show some totally different meanings, maybe polysemy, or it can bring a contrastive effect, even an opposite effect, thus they have the function of comparison. It can be seem through Nathaniel Hauthornes masterpiece The Scarlet Letter and Cao Xueqins masterpiece The Story of a Stone（红楼梦）. Words of the color red even are used in the name of literary works. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, the heroine was given a red A by the people in the village. The color of the letter is not only an eye-catching reminder to remind people her sin, because in the culture of western countries, red is always linked to some derogatory things. But in the novel, the color red also symbolizes her strong desire and passion. In The Story of a Stone , the color word “红”(red) means prosperity, successfulness and happiness. But actually, it describes a tragedy. Though the color word “red” doesnt indicate the same meaning in these two books, they have the same role and effectiveness.2.1.2 ReligionAs an important part of historical culture, religion has a significant impact on the meaning of color words. And owning to different faiths in different religions, the believers regard the different colors as their emblems. Here are several examples.(1) Black. Most people in Western believe Christianity. And in the Bible, black is evil, suffering and misfortune, and it is the sign of Satan, so when people want to express something evil or something not very good, they prefer to choose the word “black”, for instance:black box: a proof to analyze the causes of the disaster black Friday: the Friday that Jesus suffered from tribulation before the Easter dayblack tiding: it means doom or something unsatisfied(2) White. Yet the understanding of white is different from black. “White” has more positive and fine implications in English than in Chinese. “Under the influence of Christianity, white is associated with happiness, innocence and purity. The word white always makes people think of happiness, joy and virtue, which can be the symbol of God or Engels” (Liao 2005：54). For example:white-headed boy: a darling or minion who is idolized by somebodya white lie: a lie which is out of goodwillBut Chinese people do not believe the Christianity, so, except signifying purity, the color word “white” always makes one associate with desolation, silence, death and funeral. “白” (white) stands for funeral in“红白喜事”(wedding and funeral). If there would be a funeral, especially in the ancient China, people should be dressed in the coarse linen cloth of mourning with shirahata, white mantle and white paper flowers. For that reason, Chinese people dodge white, and it results in a bad mood.(3) Others. Yellow is fulsome color in the west, because Judas, who betrayed Jesus, wore in yellow. So the word “yellow” gradually becomes the vocabulary to describe someone or something bad. But, yellow is the favorite color of Buddhists. In ancient China, yellow reflected the worship to God; it was the natural earth color, representing Tia
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