English Vocabulary and Its Cultural Comparison of English Teaching 英语专业毕业论文.doc

english vocabulary and its cultural comparison of english teachingabstract language is closely related with culture. one kind of language is influenced by its national culture and represents for its special cultural connotations. this article points out that vocabulary, as one of the three elements of a language, is the most active factor in language learning, which is obviously seen if there appear some changes in culture and language. the significance of studying the cultural connotations of vocabulary is realized. the connotations belong to one aspect of the meanings of vocabulary, and the meanings are divided into seven styles . besides the conceptual meaning, the rest of other meanings pertain to the connotations. from the connotations, the article analyzes the three corresponding relationships between english and chinese vocabulary that show the cultural connotations: complete parallelism, incomplete parallelism and no parallelism and gives some examples to demonstrate them. while in the english teaching nowadays, the cultural connotations of vocabulary are often ignored by many english educators, which leads to much danger. many problems always occur so that students interests will be lowered and that students do not have scientific methods of learning, or have bad competence of using language. in this way, the article gives some enlightenment of english teaching, including the constitution of syllabus, the choosing and composing of the teaching material, teaching activities in-class and activities after-class. therefore, language can be used freely when integrating the cultural connotations of english and chinese vocabulary with english teaching. key words english and chinese vocabulary; cultural connotation; contrast; teaching 1.introduction language is related closely with culture. language is the carrier and container of culture. english is part of english culture and the chinese language is part of chinese culture. human experience and life style are described and stored in language. customs, habits and behavioural patterns can be described and analyzed in language. even the visual arts like painting, sculpture, movie and dance and the auditory arts such as music and singing can be described and evaluated in language. to be sure, culture can exist in the form of materials. 1 as a mirror of culture language is strongly influenced and shaped by culture. 2 familial relation is very important to the chinese people, so there are many kinship terms in chinese. for example: (1), nephew and uncle - uncle and nephew (2) ye sun - grandfather and grandson (3) mother-and daughter - grandmother and wife (4) husband and wife - husband and wife therefore if you want to learn and master one kind of language, learners should know the cultural background of the country that the language belongs to. if a learner just pays attention to the language itself but ignores the cultural background that the language represents, he will not master it correctly and use it properly. meanwhile language also reflects its influence on culture. white means immaculate and sinless in english, so westerners call the auspicious day of marrying as white day. then in china, white is not good for lovers who will marry. vocabulary is the basic factor of all language and a key element in language learning. a well-known english linguist dawilkins said: no language, people cant express many things; while no vocabulary, people can express none. 3 vocabulary is the most active and flexible component of language. by this token, vocabulary can be reflected by culture. in other words, the discrepancies between different cultures can also be reflected by vocabulary. this article is trying to focus on the cultural connotations of english and chinese vocabulary and give some suggestions to english teaching. 2. the classification of vocabulary meaning english linguist geoffrey leach divides the semantics into seven styles: 1) conceptual meaning; 2) connotative meaning; 3) stylistic meaning; 4) affective meaning; 5) reflected meaning; 6) collocative meaning; 7) thematic meaning 4 conceptual meaning is the basic meaning, the central factor in linguistic communication, which is the word meaning used to express an object in the real world or a concept in our mind. it is also the denotative meaning of words. then the rest of other meanings pertain to the connotation, which is the associative matters and feelings when using the words. the cultural connotation of vocabulary refers to the meaning of the culture of one nation that words imply, or the meanings except for the conceptual meaning of one word or a phrase. so in the following paper, the meanings except the conceptual meaning of vocabulary will be discussed. 3. analysis of the corresponding relationships of the cultural connotations of vocabulary between chinese and english different nationalities have their own thinking ways, social background, customs, habits, ethic moralities and conventional taboo words, which lead to various kinds of national culture. the meanings of vocabulary must be stigmatized as a brand of national culture. through analyzing and contrasting, the three kinds of corresponding relationships of the cultural connotations between english and chinese vocabulary are as follows: 3.1 complete corresponding relationship it means two kinds of languages have same literal meanings and similar cultural connotations on the whole. 5 it consists of 3 kinds: 3.1.1 fixed theory words there are some words that have been established by using rules to express the same theory or the same object. for examples: (1) capitalism - capitalism (2) socialism - socialism (3) marxism - marxism (4) man-made secondary planet - satellite (5) science - science (6) society - the community 3.1.2 body words there are some words that are used to describe our human body (1) heart mean hollow muscular organ that pumps blood through the body 6. it has the same literal meaning with heart in chinese. they also mean a persons thoughts and emotions, esp of love, ability to feel emotion. heart of stone means heart of stone, sweet heart means love, from ones heart means sincere in chinese, to have ones heart in ones mouth means scary, heart to heart means heart to heart. (2) die and dead have the same literal meaning and connotative meaning. chinese and westerners both use other euphemistic words to express the meaning of death instead of using the two words directly. pass away - dying, go to heaven - heaven, go to west - on the western paradise, pay ones debt to nature - fangui nature, meet ones death - - die, end up - dead 3.1.3 metaphor words there are some words that have the same connotations to make the metaphor. it can be clearly seen in the examples below: (1) eat like a wolf - eat quickly and a large sum of food while hungry wolf (2) pure as the driven snow - very white as white as snow (3) hard as iron - very firm strong as steel (4) light as feather - very light as light as a feather (5) foxy - as cunning as fox cunning in conclusion, because of the complete parallelism relationship between chinese and english words, these words are understood well by students. so these words are easy to master for students, and teachers should take advantage of the relationship of complete parallelism. when meeting these words, teachers should ask students to find out the relating chinese or english meaning so that students could remember them quickly and correctly. for example: (1) how to teach as busy as a bee 7? let students imagine how do bees work? they keep working busily without stop. so we could understand as busy as a bee as non-busy open diplomacy. (2) eagle-eyed here eagle is one kind of animal whose character is that it has very good discernment. therefore eagle-eyed is to express that one person can penetrate the phenomenon of things to study their essence and has very keen sight. in chinese it means keen eyesight. if teachers could relate chinese with english, it will get half the effort with twice the result. 3.2 half corresponding relationship it means that the words have the same literal meaning but only have a part of the same cultural connotations or opposite cultural meanings. 3.2.1 a part of the same cultural connotations there are some words that have the same literal meaning but only a part of the same cultural connotations. for example: (1) in chinese, mouse is in the derogatory sense. therefore there exist many chinese idioms which are to express some negative meaning. for example: zeimeishuyan - shifty-eyed baotoushucuan - scurry off like a frightened rat short-sighted - see only what is under ones nose but in english, mouse can be used to refer to women, and girls. for example: as quiet as a mouse - very quiet, silent 8 quiet as a mouse mouse and man - all living creatures all living creatures such kind of meaning is not included in chinese connotative meanings of rat. (2) in chinese and english, rose and rose both refer to love. when a man falls in love with a woman, he would send red roses to her to express his love. in chinese, we often explain prickly rose as a beauty who is difficult to approach. while in english, there is no rose without a thorn. it really means complete happiness or perfection cant be found. 9 every non - perfect. and under the rose means privately 10 in private , which originates from an old convention: roses that hang under the council board imply that all attendees should keep secrets. (3) family means a group consisting of parents, their children and close relatives. and group members consisting of parents, their children and close relatives. 11 then family only means to marriage and descent relationship-based social units, including parents, children and other close relatives living together. 12 there are some other similar examples: aunt, uncle, childs play and so on. 3.2.2 the opposite cultural meanings this kind of words are apparently shown in some animal words. for example: (1) although chinese and westerners have the habits of breeding dogs, they separately have different opinions about dogs. under chinese cultural background, dog always has the derogatory sense. goujitiaoqiang - a cornered beast will do something desperate gouzhangrenshi - be a bully under the protection of a powerful person dog audacity - monstrous audacity gounahaozai more meddling - a dog trying to catch mice-poke ones nose into other peoples business henchman - hired thug but westerners consider dogs as good pets and mans best friends. dogs are very loyal and faithful to men and they all like dogs very much, which reflects greatly in their languages. a lucky dog - a lucky person lucky guy top dog - the most important person important figure in every dog has his day .- every man will be happy at some time. jieyou proud when mortals. love me, love my dog. - you will have to accept my friends as well if you want me to be your friend. aiwujiwu if you are in america, people often call a skillful worker as an old dog. but if you are in china, someone that is given such appellation will be in a short temper. (2) dragon and dragon in western mythology, dragon is considered as a gigantic creature called lizard, usually represented as having a reptilian body. people think they must kill the monster - dragon. the most famous story of killing dragon happened in about 700 ad, the anglo-saxon hero - beowulf killed the dragon-like monster-grendel. at that time, grendel visits the danes hall from night to night and carries the warriors away. so the hall is deserted. on hearing the news, beowulf sails for denmark with 14 companions and offers to fight the monster. after a terrible hand-to-hand combat, grendel retreats mortally wounded. at last, beowulf perishes together with grendel. 13 by this token, westerners dont like dragon very much. and because of this, we couldnt make dragon as the symbol of the olympic games in 2008. on the contrary, in china, dragon is considered as a wonderful animal which can make clouds and rain. it has the capability of 8 animals , including snakes, birds, horses, deers, fishes, eagles and so on. and it also can fly in the sky, swim in the river, walk on the land, which is symbolized as the spirit of braveness and adamancy. we are also proud of being descendants of the loong. as imagined by the chinese, the dragon has the head of a camel, the horns of a deer, fiery eyes and a long beard. its ears are like those of a cow, its paws like the tigers and its sharp claws like an eagles. its neck is serpentine; it has the belly of a frog and the scales of a carp. when the dragon first appeared in the sky, after an heir was born, and the country was blessed with peace and prosperity for many generations thereafter. thus, dragon also served as a symbol of good fortune. as time went by, in ancient time, the emperor of each dynasty was thought as the the real loong and the top dog in the world . in this way, a variety of the words and phrases about dragon mean auspicious. lively and vigorous in calligraphy - like dragons flying and phoenixes dancing flamboyant make the finishing point - finishing touch the dragon and the phoenix bringing prosperity-excellent good fortune - dragon and phoenix a scene of bustling activity - hustle and bustle full of vim and vigor - lively (3) individualism and individualism in chinese dictionary, individualism means everything starting from the individual to place personal interests above the collective interest, for their own interests, regardless of other peoples wrong ideas. 14 in traditional ideas, it is another name of self - concern , which belongs to a word of derogatory sense. while in english, individualism means theory that favors free action and complete liberty of belief for each individual person. (contrasted with the theory that favors the supremacy of the state). 15 this is the synonym of hard-working , which belongs to a word of commendatory sense. these words are difficult to master for students. they often ignore the discrepancies of the cultural connotations of two languages and misuse the words. many students translate stumbling block into a tiger in the way, but in fact it should be a lion in the way . while facing the first kind-the same literal meaning, a part of the same connotation, teachers should relate the same literal meanings together, and then draw the derivations of different cultural connotations so that make students active in remembering the word meanings, also improve the interests of learning. to deal with the second kind-the same literal meaning, the opposite cultural connotations, teachers should focus on the opposite point and introduce the different cultural background of the countries to make students understand the real reasons which lead to the different cultural connotations. in this way, students can have these words at their finger tips. 3.3 no corresponding relationship one language has no corresponding words and cultural connotations in another language. besides the similar or the same objects and phenomenon in different countries, there are many kinds of special things in their own countries. some unique objects are produced by their particular culture. for example : (1) a very well-known judge in the chinese history bao, if we translate it into judge bao, foreigners can not understand it. so we have to add some explanations to it, judge bao (the just and impartial judge in chinese history 16 . (2) there are some other words only appearing in chinese produced by chinese traditional culture. for example: lunar yin-yang solar feet tootsies gossip the eight diagrams attribution to chinese era zodiac twelve representatives of animals then in china, people always use special things to compare to others, eg mandarin duck mandarin duck compared to couples, crane crane compared to longevity, bamboo bamboo compared to humility. in english, there also appears some special words if chinese people dont know the cultural connotations. for example: (1) hippie - hippie refers to some youth wearing strange clothes, indulging in drug and playing (2) jazznik - jazz fan means some people like jazz very much (3) peacenik - peace fans means some people like peace (4) punk - punk means some youth who wear uglily, appear angry, depressed. such words originate from different countries history, culture, tradition, custom, thought and national character. if teachers never explain clearly to students, they wouldnt understand them and use them fluently and correctly. students fail to guess and conclude the meaning. 4.the danger of ignoring the corresponding relationships of the cultural connotations between english and chinese vocabulary from the above, three kinds of the relationship of the cultural connotations between english and chinese vocabulary, we know that the connotations are the embodiment of the accumulation of culture and history from generation to generation. we could not only pay attention to the denotative meaning so that students may lose their applicable ability of using words or communicating with others. here are some harmful points caused by neglecting the connotations of words