英语颜色词的翻译 - On translating English color words(英文)

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 2010年 6月 13日 毕业 论文 政研论文下载论文大学下载论文大学下载关于长拳的论文浙大论文封面下载 任务书 专业  英语  班级  061  姓名              下发日期2009年12月19日 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 关于同志近三年现实表现材料材料类招标技术评分表图表与交易pdf视力表打印pdf用图表说话 pdf 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 初级经济法重点总结下载党员个人总结TXt高中句型全总结.doc高中句型全总结.doc理论力学知识点总结pdf 并 分析 定性数据统计分析pdf销售业绩分析模板建筑结构震害分析销售进度分析表京东商城竞争战略分析 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 ABSTRACT As 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 methods Contents Introduction.................................................................................................................(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 Definition Color is said to be a particular nature of light besides the heterogeneities of the space and time, or a kind of the observer’s 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 Functions As 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 function Color 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 function Besides 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 writer's 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 boy's 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 autumn’s 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 Words Color 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 culture History 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 woman’s 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 people’s 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 Hauthorne's masterpiece The Scarlet Letter and Cao Xueqin’s 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” doesn’t indicate the same meaning in these two books, they have the same role and effectiveness. 2.1.2 Religion As 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 day black 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 somebody a white lie: a lie which is out of goodwill But 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 Tiande, Neutralization, and Wisdom, eternally immutable, so Monk and Lama wear yellow cassocks, and works of the Buddhist usually embraces lots of the word “yellow”. For the people in western countries, green symbolizes peace, which has its origins from the Myth of Noah's Ark. In the Bible, Noah gets the information through flying a pigeon to inquire about the situation, and the pigeon carries back a verdant olive branch to tell that the disaster has passed, and it is safe outside. Since then, olive green becomes the symbol of peace. 2.1.3 Historical events Use of color terms has a very long history; many of them can be related to some historical events. For example, “Blue Ribbon” in England. It is a story about the ribbon attached to the Modal of Garter. It was created by Edward III in the middle of the 14th Century and owned by people with the highest title of nobility in England. Edward III wanted to commemorate himself for helping Countess of Salisbury to avoid losing her face in a ball. He used the ribbon tied to the Modal of Garter, and awarded it to those who contributed to the country. Nowadays, “Blue Ribbon” is symbolized the highest honor. But in China, there is no such historical event. Thus, the color word “蓝” doesn’t trigger this association. 2.2 Geographical culture Because of the reasons of history and religion, “white” has many positive meanings in the west. In addition, geographical environment may be another factor. People in west countries have more opportunities to expose themselves to snow than Chinese people, which may strengthen their positive sense of the white color. So the word “white” is more common used, and the people there have expressions like “white day”, “white Christmas”, and so on. Different from the view of the West, Chinese civilization originated in the Yellow River basin in the Loess Plateau region, and Chinese people regard yellow as the color of the land, and the mother river. Besides “黄” (“yellow”) is from the name of the ruler “黄帝” (Huang Di) who used to wear the yellow dress and yellow hats, which was said to be the ancestor of Han Nationality. For those reasons, Chinese people like using the color “黄”. There is another example. Britain is an island which is surrounded by the sea and maritime industry is developed. Therefore, their view or the mood is greatly influenced by the sea. People will easily lose the direction in the boundless sea, and it is difficult to predict the unpredictable weather on the sea, so they feel they are just like a small boat on the vast ocean, and their mood will become sad easily. That is the reason why in English, “blue” is the color word with negative values, indicating “depression” or “sadness”. Hu Guoqiang (2002：72) holds that because of the vast regions in the interior, the sea has a relatively small impact on Chinese people, so they will not have so many negative associating to blue. 2.3 Politics and economics With the development of society, color words are applied in more fields. In the political and economical sphere, color words can be found easily. Here are some other color words which are used in politics. “Yellow Union”(黄色工会) which indicates Unions that are under scabs’ control. It is said that workers broke the windows of the unions’ and capitalists used yellow paper for making them up, so the union chose the color word “yellow” to be the name of it. In both English and Chinese, “red” has the implication of revolution. But the difference is that in Chinese it has the positive and lauditive meaning. For instance,“红军”(the army that helped Chinese people to strive for liberation and independence and used the red flag and the red five-pointed star as their symbol). However, “red” has the meaning of blood in English, because revolution is always with radical, violent or negative atmosphere. For instance, “Red Activities” (左派激进运动), “Red-Tapism” (政府官员办事拖拉、消极的作风). And here are some other examples in economics. For instance, “Green Back” (the currency notes issued by U.S. Government during the Civil War, and the color was green); “Blue Chip” (because objects in blue are very scarce in the nature, so people use this color word to modify the hot financial securities); “White War” (it means to the war without smoke, and it often refers to economic competition, because the meaning of white in the western country is clean). Because people in the western countries always use the red pen to register negative numbers, so there are “Red Ink” (赤字), “In the Red”(亏损), “Red Balance” (赤字差额). Chapter Three Translation Methods of English Color Words Translation is often said to use one language to convey the meaning in another language. Historically, the experienced translators or translation researchers pay more attention to the relationship between culture and translation. In terms of different angles and emphases, there are varied methods in translation. This chapter will discuss several translation methods from the viewpoint of its definition and applicability, and provide with sufficient examples to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each method. Translation methods in this chapter include literal translation, free translation, substitution and explanation. 4.1 Literal Translation The so-called literal translation is the basic translation method to convey the original meaning. It requires translators to make the expression form and sentence structure consistent with the original. Literary translation is mainly used the translation circumstances which have the cultural similarities between the original language and the target language, and make people have the same association. Like “White House”(白宫), “White flag” (白旗), “brown-eye beauty”(褐眼美女), “golden autumn”(金秋). This translation method owns the advantages such as to express the meaning of original language directly, clearly, and retain the original format and contents in a faithful way. Because the similarities in English and Chinese, the corresponding terms can be found in the target language when people translate color words, or the two languages have the similar extended cultural meaning, particularly when people want to express the visual features of the objective things. In this case, the translator can use literal translation. Some examples will be given. ST1: Red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, blue, violet, who is dancing, waving the colored ribbon against the sky? TT1: 赤橙黄绿青蓝紫，谁持彩练当空舞？ ST2: The uniforms were no longer of grey cloth but were grass green through-out, as delicately and attractively colored as the field. TT2: 服装不再是灰色的，一律是草绿色，和春天田野里的色彩一样，娇嫩美观。 ST3: He was dressed in a European-style suit of a pale grey material with pale-blue stripes. TT3: 他穿一套灰色底子淡蓝色条纹的西服。 ST4: “What is purple? Clouds are violet In the summer twilight. What is orange? Why, an orange, Just an orange!” TT4: 什么是紫色？夏日夕阳里的 彩霞就是紫色。 什么是橘色？ 当然啦！橘子就是橘色。 In these examples, the color words in the original text all can be found the corresponding words in the target language, like “violet”(紫色), “ orange” (橙色), “grey”(灰色), “grass green”(草绿色), so the translators choose literary translation to express the meaning of the original text, and the translations are easy to be understood by readers. Moreover, this kind of translation method leaves the format consistent with the original text.