英语专业毕业论文3.doc

a study of the cultural connotations of english vocabulary对英语词汇文化内涵的研究 submitted as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of bachelor of englishacknowledgementsmy deepest gratitude goes first and foremost to professor wang xianjie, my supervisor, for her constant encouragement and guidance. she has walked me through all the stages of the writing of this thesis. without her consistent and illuminating instruction, this thesis could not have reached its present form.second, i would like to express my gratitude to professor bai mengfan and professor huang yumei, who led me into the world of english translation. i am also thankful to the professors and teachers at the department of english: professor gary todd, professor amber whitehead, who have instructed and helped me a lot.last but not least, my thanks would go to my beloved family for their loving considerations and great confidence in me all through these years. i also owe my sincere gratitude to my friends and my fellow classmates who gave me their help and time in listening to me and helping me work out my problems during the difficult course of this thesis.abstractas a special type of vocabulary in every language, words and phrases with cultural connotations are usually hard to understand as mistranslation often occurs in their rendering, however, the understanding of these terms plays a very important role in the comprehension of culture. this thesis begins with offering the meaning of culture in the sociological context and a brief review of the cultural differences between china and the english-speaking countries. culture and language are not independent of each other, and from this, the thesis then gives a concise summary on the relationship between culture and language. people attach more and more importance to culture transplant to meet the challenges resulting from cultural differences, which, in this thesis, refer in particular to the different cultural connotations of english and chinese terms. connotation, derived from denotation, the literal meaning, is the idea or meaning suggested by or associated with a word or thing, and it contributes a lot to the colorfulness of language. a few examples are discussed in this thesis to illustrate the differences in the cultural connotations between chinese and english. the thesis also provides a concise discussion on cultural connotations in translation, which serves as one of the applications of cultural connotations in daily life.key words：culture, cultural connotations, english vocabulary, translation摘要随着国际化脚步的加快，国家之间的交流日趋频繁，文化和思想的交流日趋重要，而文化和思想的交流必然借助语言工具， 因为语言是文化的载体，不同民族的语言呈现出丰富多彩的文化特性。文化的迥异性赋予语言和词汇丰富的内涵。历史，文化，地理，风俗习惯等都在无形中影响着各个名族的语言，为了更好的实现各民族间文化和思想的顺畅交流，语言和词汇的学习和掌握就显得尤为重要。具有文化内涵的词汇是学习中的一个难点，然而理解这些具有文化内涵的词汇对于理解文化本身起着至关重要的作用。由于汉英两大社会群体在各自漫长的历史进程中，各自的宗教不同；历史文化不同；地理环境不同；习俗不同，这就形成两者之间的差异。本论文从介绍文化的概念入手，回顾了中国和英语国家差异的诸多方面,并简要介绍了文化与语言的关系。接着指出内涵的定义，即词汇的隐含意义或联想意义，语言的多样性多归功于此；之后，从一些具有文化内涵的词汇入手，详细分析了这种现象。最后，本文还提出具有文化内涵的词汇在翻译中的运用。关键词：文化，文化内涵，英语词汇，翻译outline i introduction .11.1 the definition of culture.21.2 relationship between language and culture.41.2.1 language as the foundation and carrier of culture.41.2.2 culture as the controller of language.51.3 the difference between chinese and western culture.61.3.1 religion.71.3.2 the way of life.81.3.3 family values.9ii associative meaning .10 2.1 definition of associative meaning.10 2.2 categories of associative meaning.11 2.2.1 connotative meaning.11 2.2.2 social meaning.11 2.2.4 reflected meaning.11 2.2.5 collcoative meaning.12 iii words with cultural connotations123.1 geography.123.2 history.143.3 religion.153.4 myth and legend.163.5 color.17 3.5.1 red & yellow. .17 3.5.2 white & black.18 3.5.3 green & blue.18iv strategies to translate words with cultural connotations.19 4.1 translating literally.194.2 transference.194.3 transliteration.204.4 transliteration plus a generic word.204.5 substitution.204.6 paraphrasing and explanation.21v conclusion.21bibliography.23a study of the cultural connotations of english vocabularyi introductionif one examines the history of cultural interaction in the world, it soon becomes obvious that people prefer mirror-images of themselves. today, however, countries and cultures have been forced to interact. people of dissimilar cultural backgrounds have found themselves in academic, business and political situations in which they have been forced to communicate, and to cooperate with each other. they have learned about how to communicate with someone from another culture.there are three ways in which people become aware of new cultures: through studying the language and talking to people who speak it; through study of the history of the economics government, religion and aesthetics of a society; and by examining the dynamics of culture itself, the ways in which people of a culture communicate with each other. the study of language is essential to intercultural learning and communication. however, in english teaching, too much emphasis has been laid on learning grammar, neglecting the importance of learning the target language culture. simply knowing a language does not mean we are always able to communicate with speakers of that language. therefore, it is vital for us to learn and understand these words and phrases with cultural connotations.as a special type of vocabulary in every language, words and phrases with cultural connotations are usually hard to understand as mistranslation often occurs in their rendering, however, the understanding of these terms plays a very important role in the comprehension of culture. this thesis is divided into five parts. the first part gives the definition of culture, the relationship between language and culture and the difference between chinese and western culture. the second part gives a brief introduction of associative meaning. the third part provides us a few words and phrases with cultural connotations as examples to illustrate the differences in the cultural connotations between chinese and english. the fourth part provides a concise discussion on cultural connotations in translation. the final part concludes this thesis.1.1 the definition of culturebefore the study on cultural connotations of words, a review on the study of language and culture as well as the relationship between language and culture should be done for the study.culture can be understood from different perspectives. even though more and more people are starting to pay attention to this term, nobody can give an exact and acknowledged definition on it.larry a. samovar and richard e.porter (1988:36) defined culture as “the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, actions, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and artifacts acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.” this definition is thorough and many scholars analyze the cultural differences of different nations based on this definition. kramsch held that culture could be defined as “membership in a discourse community that shares a common social space and history, and common imaginings. even when they have left that community, its members may retain, wherever they are, a common system of standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating, and acting. these standards are what is generally called their culture.”(2000:10)in china, hu wenzhong adopted c.kluckhohn, and w.h.kellys definition of culture.kluckhohn (1945:78-105), father of modern culturology, said that “by culture we mean all those historically created designs for living, explicit and implicit, rational and irrational, and nonrational, which exist at any given time as potential guides for the behavior of men.”this definition is representative in the discussion of modern culturology, from which it can be drawn that culture has the property of relativity. and culture can act as the behavioral guide of people.it is publicly known that culture can be defined in either broad or narrow sense. in its broad sense, culture is the attributes of human beings. all the characteristics that distinguish human beings from the nature can be recognized as culture. for this sense, it can be called big c culture, which contains 6 important components (zhang, 1994):a. materials;b. social instructions and organizations;c. science and arts;d. language and other communicational systems;e. customs, habits and behavioral patterns;f. value systems, world views, national traits, aesthetic standards and thinking patterns. in the narrow sense, it can be interpreted as small c culture. this refers to the way of life of a population. taylor (1871), the famous british anthropologist, defined “culture” as what was acquired by human beings as a member of a society, which included knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, customs and any other capacities and habits. these things composed a complex entity. this definition emphasizes the differences of way of life. and it is frequently quoted and recommended by most scholars.all kinds of definitions about culture may be somewhat different, but all point to the fact that culture includes not only customs and habits, ideas and beliefs, but also the artifacts made by humans. in general, culture refers to the entire way of life of a society, “the way of a people.”1.2 relationship between language and culturethe relationship between language and culture is complex. they are interdependent and interactional. since language cant be separated completely from the culture in which it is deeply embedded (rivers, 1981), language and culture are intrinsically interrelated.1.2.1 language as the foundation and carrier of culturefrom the discussions of language and culture, it is clear that culture and language are and indispensable and closely connected. the formation of culture cannot be separated from language. language is the carrier and foundation of culture, through which the history of human civilization and social progress are recorded. language is the main means for human beings to study culture and people use language to describe and analyze their customs, religion, science and numerous other areas of human knowledge. language is the obvious tool to carry cultural information and contributes to the evolution of culture. language reflects culture and predicts the developing orientation of culture. therefore it is usually considered as a minor of social culture. language is a product and the medium of culture and influenced by culture. no language can operate in isolation from culture. every language is, to a certain degree, particular to a community which uses the language. it is a unique feature of humanity. it is a system of signs that is seen as having itself a cultural value. it serves not only as a means for conveying feelings and thoughts, but also as a semiotic system to store information.1.2.2 culture as the controller of languagelanguage is controlled by culture. as a mirror of culture language is strongly influenced and shaped by culture. in the broadest sense, language is the symbolic representation of a people. speakers identify themselves and others through their use of language and they consider their languages as a symbol of their social identity. the formation and development of language cannot happen without culture. and the development of language often embodies the change of culture. it comprises the historical and cultural background as well as the way of thinking and living. language is deeply ingrained with traces of peculiar society and the meanings of language must be determined by their cultural contexts. for example, the eskimo tribes have as many as thirty different words for snow to distinguish many different kinds of snow, which indicate the close relation between lifestyle and snow culture. there is also large vocabulary about fish in japan, which reflects their special fish culture. the main reason is that each culture places its own imprint on the linguistic symbols. it is through language that human beings interact with each other in a peculiar culture.the relationship between language and culture is a common concern in humanities culture and language is closely intertwined coexisting through the entire history of man. language is a component of culture and plays a very important role in culture. it is a social phenomenon and also a cultural phenomenon. without language, culture would be impossible. they rely on each other and influence each other. because language is the base of entire culture which can be well presented and transmitted from generation to generation in the environment of language. on the other hand, without the knowledge of culture we cannot have a command of language because culture strongly influenced and shaped language. with the development of culture, language changes a lot. if we lack enough knowledge about the culture of the target language, we cannot use the language appropriately, or even, we have misunderstanding in the communication. learning a foreign language inevitably concerns the learning of foreign culture. based on the relationship between language and culture, the conclusion can be drawn that the changes of language often are caused by some cultural factors. the chinese culture and english culture mentioned different cultures. thus, emphasis should be laid on the comparative study of different cultures.1.3the difference between chinese and western cultureas culture is all-pervasive and multi-dimensional, in order to contrast the two cultures in an effective manner, we must divide this complex whole into several subsystems.1.3.1 religionreligion is a predominant element of the cultural system. the anthropologist hvailand (1993:346) once pointed out that “we know of no group of people anywhere on the face of the earth who, at any time over the past 10,000 years, have been without religion”.in most western countries, the prevalent religion is christianity. accordingly, english abounds with expressions or idioms that contain such words as “god”, “hell” and “devil”.for instance, “gods gift”, “god bless you.”, “god provides for him that trusts.”, “god help those who help themselves.”, “he that serves god for money will serve the devil for better wages.”, “between the devil and the deep blue”, “talk of the devil and he will appear”, “the devil take the hindmost.”, “hell and tommy.” and “come hell or high water”. in addition, as the central ethic that jesus, the son of god, preaches is “love”, there correspondingly exist quite a few idioms or sayings regarding this quality: “love begets love.”, “youre your neighbor as yourself, “love asks faith, and faith firmness.”, “do as you would be done by.”by comparison, the situation in china is a bit more complex. there are mainly three religions in china: taoism, buddhism and confucianism. taoism is indigenous to china, which has retained a lot of age-old rituals and ceremonies, such as conducting witchcraft, worshipping heaven, offering sacrifices to ancestors; buddhism, originating from india, is an imported religion and confucianism is somewhat like an academic school, which is, however, tinted with religious coloring. interestingly, although these three religions differ in doctrine, they have coexisted for a rather long period of time, and even converged to some extent.1.3.2 the way of lifeamong all the aspects of culture, the way of life is the one that is likely to exhibit the strongest tendency towards change in the context of frequent or constant exposure to foreign cultures. for instance, the chinese used to lead a life dramatically different from that of the english-speaking people, but after decades of extensive exchanges with english-speaking culture, the chinese life style has now been greatly westernalized.being an island country with a long coastline, britain is fairly rich in fishery resources, and fishing plays an important role in its economy. naturally, its language is abundant in the expressions that are related to sea, sailing and fishing: all at sea, sink or swim, to go with the stream, to rest on ones oars, be in the same boat with somebody.china is an agricultural country; the majority of the chinese make a living by farming. therefore, it is hardly surprising that chinese is extremely rich in farming-related idioms:“斩草除根”(cut the weeds and dig up the roots), “顺藤摸瓜”(follow the vine to get the melon),“树大招风”(a tall tree catches the wind.), “春雨贵如油”(raining during springtime is as precious as oil.), “瑞雪兆丰年”(a timely snow promises a good harvest.), to name but a few.1.3.3 family valuesas a place where people get their start in life, family is among the oldest and the most fundamental of all social institutions. nearly all the