陈兰婷论文定稿

子子子Comparative Analysis of Color\" Blue\" between English

and Chinese from Cognitive Perspective

Integrating E-mail into Chinese College ESL Writing Curriculum: A SLA Approach

A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of HUFN

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for BA Degree in English

Language and Literature

by Chen Lanting

Supervisor: He Aijing Academic Title: Associate Professor

May, 2012

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Acknowledgements

At the completion of this thesis, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude and great appreciation to all those who contribute to the making of this thesis.

I cannot be more appreciative of the kind and patient instruction of my supervisor, Associate Professor He Aijing. It was her inspiring and constant encouragement that enabled me to make effort. But for her sincere and trustworthy guidance, valuable suggestions and critical comments, it would be difficult for me to accomplish this thesis. My sincere thanks should be also given to all the teachers who have instructed my courses and who have offered me great help during my study for Bachelor's Degree in Hubei University for Nationalities. Moreover, my sincere appreciation also goes to my classmates for their kindness and help.

At last, I am extremely grateful to my beloved families and my bosom friends for their selfless support, encouragement, and understanding.

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摘要

世界万物皆有其独特的颜色。因此，英汉语言中有大量丰富的颜色词。但由于东西方文化差异的影响，英汉颜色词有很多的不同点。长期以来，学术界对于颜色词的研究兴趣浓厚，但大多数仅限于描述，而解释性的研究略显不足。鉴于此，本文拟在这方面进行一点新的尝试。

这篇论文从认知语言学的角度对中英蓝色词的异同进行了分析，并且主要建立在前人对隐喻和转喻研究的基础上，对其进行了系统与比较研究。参考资料来源于国内外著作及近期硕士学位论文。本论文从认知语言学角度阐述了中英蓝色词的构词方式及其多种意义。可以得出以下结论：

（1）中英蓝色词主要有三种构词方式：合成、衍生和转移。隐喻和转喻在其构词方式中发挥重要作用。

（2）蓝色词有许多隐含意义，英汉隐含意义有所不同，隐喻和转喻是其重要的推动力量。

（3）多种原因所致，英汉蓝色词出现异同是无法避免的。

本篇论文从认知语言学角度对蓝色词进行了比较深入的研究，研究结果表明英汉语言在颜色词的生成和理解方面具有异同。研究结果有望在跨文化交际、英语教学等方面产生一定的促进作用。

关键词：蓝色；构词方式；隐喻；转喻；意义

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Abstract

Everything in this world has its color. Therefore, a magnitude of color terms have been coined both in English and Chinese. However, Owing to the cultural difference between east and west, color terms vary their notions in English and Chinese. Although many accomplishments have been achieved on color terms in general, most of them just describe the linguistic phenomena rather than explain them. This thesis is trying to make some contributions in this field.

My thesis deals with the similarities and differences of color blue between English and Chinese from cognitive perspective. On the basis of a historical research on metaphor and metonymy in particular, a systematic and comparative description has been applied into this thesis. References include works in and out. And newly journals have also been conculteded here. The thesis illustrates the formational types of words concerning blue and various meanings of blue in English and Chinese from cognitive perapective. It can be concluded as follows:

(1) There are mainly three formational types of color blue in English and Chinese, thus compounding, derivation, and shifting. Metaphor and metonymy is widely used in the formation of color blue;

(2) There are numerous connotative meanings of blue in both English and Chinese, most of which are different and they have metaphorical and metonymic forces;

(3) Similarities and differences can be inevitable between English and Chinese for various causes have led to them.

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This thesis makes a relatively profound analysis of color blue from cognitive perspective, and shows that there are both similarities and differences between English and Chinese. This kind of research is expected to be of great significance for the cross-cultural communication, language teaching, language learning, etc.

Key Words: blue; formational types; metaphor; metonymy; meaning

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgement.........................................................................................................i Abstract in Chinese......................................................................................................ii Abstract in English.....................................................................................................iii 1. Introduction…………………………………….....................................................1 1.1 Studies on color terms ............................................................................................1 1.1.1 Studies abroad ......................................................................................................1 1.1.2 Studies in China ...................................................................................................1 1.2 Aims of this thesis....................................................................................................2 1.3 Content of this thesis ...............................................................................................2 2. Theoretical foundation………………………………………................................3 2.1 Categorization and prototype ..................................................................................4 2.2 Metaphor and metonymy..........................................................................................5 2.2.1 Metaphor ..............................................................................................................5 2.2.2 Metonymy..............................................................................................................6 3. Word-formational analysis of color \" blue\" in English and Chinese...................6 3.1 Formational types of color \" blue\" in English and Chinese ....................................6 3.2 Major formational types of color \" blue\" in English and Chinese...........................7 3.2.1 Compounding........................................................................................................7 3.2.2 derivation...............................................................................................................7 3.2.3 Shifting..................................................................................................................7 3.3 Metaphorical basis of form.......................................................................................8 3.4 Metonymic basis of form.........................................................................................8 4. Semantic analysis of color \"blue\" in English and Chinese...................................9 4.1 Basic meaning of \"blue\" in English and Chinese.....................................................9 4.1.1 Basic meaning of \"blue\" in English......................................................................9

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4.1.2 Basic meaning of \"blue\" in Chinese....................................................................9 4.1.3 Similarities and differences.................................................................................10 4.2 Connotative meaning of \"blue\" in English and Chinese........................................10 4.2.1 The connotative meaning of \"blue\" in English....................................................10 4.2.2 The connotative meaning of \"blue\" in Chinese...................................................11 4.2.3 Similarities and differences.................................................................................11 5. Causes of similarities and differences...................................................................12 5.1 Causes of similarities.............................................................................................12 5.2 Causes of differences..............................................................................................13 5.2.1 Historical and geographical environment............................................................13 5.2.2 Cultural identity...................................................................................................13 6. Conclusion...............................................................................................................14 Bibliography ……………………………………..............…………………............15

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1.Introduction

1.1 Studies on color terms

Color terms are common linguistic phenomenon in all cultures and they are also very important in cross-cultural communication. Many scholars in and out have studied this phenomenon from different percepectives. This section mainly summarizes and makes comments on the previous research.

1.1.1 Studies abroad

Abroad, the study on color could be traced back to 2,000 years ago. It began in the field of philosophy. Early in ancient Greece, Plato made researches on people' s perception of colors. And Aristotle connected basic colors with elements in nature. Then Newton started a new period of color research, which marked the beginning of the scientific study on colors. In the 18th century, studies focused on the development of the vocabulary in color system. In that period, there existed two opinions—the vocabulary-cultural determinism and evolutional determinism. In the 20th century, the linguistic universality paid much more attention to color terms. many linguists, such as Sapir(1921) & Whorf (1956), Berlin & Kay (1969) , Berlin & Paul (1969), Kay & McDaniel (1978) have made great contributions to the exploration of color terms, whose researches covered various fields, especially cognition, translation and culture. In the past three decades, the color metaphor has been the focus of study. The metaphoric meaning of color terms differ much between English and Chinese. And many researches focused on it. Recently, anthropological linguistics developed the color terms in science. All these accomplishments enriches people's perception of colors and facilitates the application of color terms in daily life.

1.1.2 Studies in China

In China, it can also be traced back to 2000 years ago. At that time, it was restricted to Chinese color terms. Later, with the introduction of Berlin and Kay' s (1969) basic color, many scholars dedicated themselves to the color issue and achieved great progress. Zhang Peiji (19) introduced the translation of color terms in his book Sensual Words and

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English Translation of English Name 《英语声色词与翻译》.Yao Xiaoping (1988) and Yang Yonglin (2002,2003) made contrastive studies on English and Chinese colors. Scholars such as Wu Tieping (1986) and Zhang Wangxi (1988) have devoted much in the systematic study of color terms. Then more researches covered a wide range of areas such as linguistics, anthropology, genetics neurology etc.

With the considerable growth in cross-cultural communication and the increasingly apparent trend of globalization, although numerous intellectuals have achieved much on the profound study of color terms, few focus on the word-formational analysis of color terms. At the same time, they seldom pay much attention to the cognitive semantics. And they are merely interested in some other colors such as black, white, red, etc. Hence, a detailed study of color blue is often left out. There is no doubt that a systematic and comparative study on color blue needs to be carried out to make contribution to better understanding and more effective communication between speakers of various cultures.

1.2 Aims of this thesis

This thesis is consistent with the previous researches on color terms. It deals with the comparative analysis of color blue between English and Chinese from cognitive perspective. It lays a solid foundation for the further study of word-formation and semantics from cognitive perspective. And it is beneficial to language teaching and learning as well as cross-cultural communication.

1.3 Content of this thesis

This thesis consists of six chapters in total. Except for the introduction in the first chapter and the conclusion in the last chapter, the other four chapters are the body part. The second chapter illustrates the theoretical foundation of this thesis. The third chapter centers around the word-formational analysis and the fourth chapter semantic analysis. They are both analysed from cognitive perspective. The fifth chapter points out causes of similarities and differences between English and Chinese.

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2. Theoretical foundation

This chapter gives a context for my study. It explains theories of categorization, prototype, metaphor and metonymy in cognitive linguistics.

Cognitive linguistics (\"CL\" in the following paragraphs) is a special field that combines language and cognition. It emerged in the 1970s and has been increasingly active since the 1980s. \"Cognitive linguistics is now a modern and innovative approach to the study of language and mind, and their relationship with embodied experience and culture\" (Chang Zonglin, 2005:2). CL concentrates on how human mind works, it tries to access to the answers for how complex cognitive activities like understanding language, solving problems, and perceiving complex scenes can be processed in human minds. Ever since the 1980s, a great number of researches have been done under the instruction of cognitive linguistics. Topics include the structural characteristics of natural language categorization, the functional principles of linguistic organization, the conceptual interface between syntax and semantics,etc. As a result, cognitive linguistics has broadened its areas of studies. The way in which human beings perceive, categorize and conceptualize the world is the key point of cognitive linguistics.

Here, cognitive linguistics focuses on how human cognition interacts and organizes the world experience to form meaningful concept and conceptual structure. This is a new philosophical view to language in cognitive linguistics. It is called \"experiential realism or experientialism\". About the concept and structure, the view of experientialism goes against that of objectivism. It reflects that meaningful concept grows out of embodiment and that conceptual structure follows pre-conceptual structures. That is to say during the formation of concept and conceptual structure, human physiological structure, bodily experience and cultural experience, human perceptual ability ( observation, choice, attention, etc.) and human imagination ( image schema, metaphor and metonymy) play important parts.

Here are two examples:

1) As we know, \"skyery\" came from our experience and observation that the color of sky is a kind of blue.

2) \"Bluestocking\" was coined while refined people in London wore blue stockings in a club in the 18th century.

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2.1 Categorization and prototype

Categorization is one of the most fundamental and pervasive cognitive abilities. \"It is the mental process of classification and one of the important capabilities of the human mind\" (Liu Runqing, 2006:244). Categorization can be found wherever there are human beings who categorize as they listen, talk and observe. For example, as human beings, they may be classified as infants, children, adolescents or adults. As to the color \" blue\we have light blue, royal blue, clear blue, etc.

There are mainly two theories that people do categorizing. One is the classical theory, and the other is the prototype theory.

The classical theory just defines categories only in terms of shared properties of the members and not in terms of peculiarities of human understanding. For example, according to the classical theory, the sparrow, the robin and the swallow are the members of BIRD, while others such as lions, tigers and bears belong to the BEAST. So we say the former and the latter are two different categories, for their members share the same property respectively. But we cannot classify the good and the bad member of the same category. And certain things do not fall into clear-cut categories. For instance, we do not know if ostriches and penguins belong to the BIRD category.

The best example of a category is called the prototype. According to the prototype theory, people decide whether an entity belongs to a category by comparing that entity with a prototype. And members of a category differ in their prototypicality, or degree to which they are prototypical. For example, among the category CHAIR, desk chairs are thought to be more representative than rocking chairs, barber chairs or electric chairs, while among the last three kinds, rocking chairs and barber chairs seem to be better examples than electric chairs.

The prototype theory is widely used in semantics, especially in the explanation of polysemy. Here is an example about the word \" climb\" ( Lan Chun, 2005:38):

1) The boy climbed the tree.

2) The locomotive climbed the mountainside. 3) Prices are climbing day by day. 4) We climbed along the cliff edge.

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The meaning of \"climb\" in sentence 1) approaches its prototypical meaning most, thus \" to go up sth towards the top with arms and legs\". That in sentence 2) just keeps the meaning \" to go up\That in sentence 4) almost has no meaning of \" going up\".

The other example is about phrases concerning \"blue\" from Oxford dictionary: 1) piercing blue eyes 2) (sth) be blue with cold 3) feel blue 4) a blue movie

The meaning of \"blue\" in the last three prases is more and more far away from its prototypical meaning.

It can be concluded from examples above that those polysemants are on the basis of the prototype, who are connected by meaning chains.

2.2 Metaphor and metonymy

In cognitive linguistic view, metaphor and metonymy are two basic imaginative cognitive mechanisms for our conceptualization of the word. They are not figures of speech, which is considered by many traditional activist approaches.

2.2.1 Metaphor

\"Metaphor involves the comparison of two concepts in that one is construed in terms of the other. It is often described in terms of a target domain and a source domain. The target domain is the experience being described by the metaphor and the source domain is the means that we use in order to describe the experience\" (Hu Zhuanglin, 2010:148). For example:

1): How do you spend your time these days? 2): That flat tire cost me an hour.

These two sentences are based on a metaphor \" Time is money\" in which the target domain \" time\" is conceptualized in terms of the source domain \" money\". In this way, metaphor is used unconsciously to understand abstract concepts. It is a cognitive

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phenomenon.

2.2.2 Metonymy

Metonymy is a cognitive process within the same experiential domain or conceptual structure. Metonymy plays an important role in the construction of abstract categories. For example, the sentence\"I was chilled to the bone.\" equals that \" I felt a sense of fear\". The bodily symptom can help to describe the conceptual structure of emotion. Hence physiological phenomena lead us to conceptualize these emotions.

The relationship between the source and target of a metaphor is of the \" is-a\" kind; in metonymies there is a \"stand-for\" relationship.

In the following chapter, I will explore the process of formation of color blue. I will first analyse the formational features of color blue in English and Chinese, and then analyse the metaphorical and metonymic basis of of the forms.

3. Word-formational analysis of color \" blue\" in English and Chinese 3.1 Formational types of color \" blue\" in English and Chinese

Word-formation refers to the process of how words are formed, thus the creation of new words. There are many ways of word-formation both in English and Chinese such as compounding, derivation, conversion, back-formation, etc. Totally there are about 45 words concerning color blue in English and 81 words in Chinese and their word-formational types are different. I collect them from Oxford Advanced Learner's English- Chinese Dictionary 、《现代汉语词林》(Cai Fuyou) and some MA thesis. The following chart is made to reflect the major formational types of these words: formational type English compounding derivation shifting others total number 35 2 5 3 45 percentage 77.8% 4.4% 11.1% 6.7% 100% Chinese 58 20 2 1 81 percentage 71.6% 24.7% 2.5% 1.2% 100% - 6 -

We can conclude from the chart above that there are three major formational types in English and Chinese, that is compounding, derivation and shifting.

3.2 Major formational types of color \" blue\" in English and Chinese 3.2.1 Compounding

Compounding is the most important way to form words of color blue in English and Chinese. And it is more important in English than in Chinese.

There are four patterns of compounds in English:

(1) object + basic color term: sky blue, moon blue, ocean blue (2) sensory word + basic color term: pale blue, dark blue (3) color term + color term: black and blue, blue-black (4) modifier ( adj.) + basic color term: acid blue, vivid blue There are five patterns in Chinese:

(1) object + basic color term: 宝石蓝，湖水蓝，海棠蓝，北京蓝 (2) modifier ( adj.) + basic color term: 宝蓝，苍蓝，嫩蓝 (3) sensory word + basic color term: 黯蓝，浅蓝，亮蓝 (4) color term + color term: 白蓝，紫蓝，灰蓝 (5) verb + basic color term: 烤蓝，烧蓝

3.2.2 derivation

Derivation is more widely used in Chinese than in English. The only two derivative words in English are bluish and skyery. They are composed of a single word and the \" -ish\" and \" -ery\" respectively.

There are mainly two patterns of derivation in Chinese: (1) the word \"色\" is as an affix: 蓝钢色，蓝玉色，云蓝色彩

(2) root ( basic color term) + suffix ( reiterative locution): 蓝晶晶，蓝盈盈，蓝幽幽，蓝闪闪

3.2.3 Shifting

Many words concerning animals, jewelry, natural phenomena and so on are shifted to

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represent certain colors. This kind of word formation is rather popular in English. Five words of blue belong to this type. They are sapphire, navy, blue ashes, peacock and sea. \"靛\" and \"碧\" in Chinese also present the color of blue.

3.3 Metaphorical basis of form

Metaphor is viewed as characteristic of language alone. It is a matter of words rather than thought or action. The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another. In the word-formational process, some compounds such as light blue, pale blue, ice-snow blue, etc are comprehended in terms of metaphor, in which an attribute of the touch domain is mapped on to the visual domain.

Metaphors have the experiential basis. But human beings are always ignorant about this matter. And our conceptual system is not something that we are normally aware of. Language is an important source of evidence for what that system is like. On the basis of linguistic evidence, we have found that most of our ordinary conceptual system is metaphorical in nature. The ocean is blue, so there is \"湖蓝\" in Chinese and \" ocean blue\" in English. The sky is light blue, then skyery reflects the color of the sky.

3.4 Metonymic basis of form

Language is metonymic in nature. There is a stand-for relation between color terms and existing words. The form of words is rooted in human cognition and developed by ICMs( idealized cognitive models), especially metonymy.

The classification of metonymy is quite complicated. The interrelations between different entities lead to various ICMs and possibilities for metonymy. Category-and-property ICM is obvious in the form of color terms. Properties may either be seen metaphorically as possessed objects or metonymically as parts of an object. Sapphire is a kind of jewlery, whose color is blue. Therefore, \"sapphire\" stands for royal blue. And a navy is soldier who wears blue coat. As a result, navy can refer to a kind of purplish blue.

In conclusion, metaphor and metonymy are of great importance in the form of color terms concerning blue. They both serve the function of understanding and explanation. But they differ in that metaphor mapping occurs across domains, while metonymy mapping

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within a single domain. Due to the application of metaphor and metonymy, forms of color terms will be more and more abundant.

4. Semantic analysis of color \"blue\" in English and Chinese

As discussed in the preceding chapter, most of the formation of color blue is grounded in human cognitive experiences. Metaphor and metonymy are the major forces of their structures. This chapter is devoted to the comparative analysis of way of meaning extension in English and Chinese and their similarities and differences. It is researched that color terms consist of basic colors, words concerning objects and words concerning both objects and colors. Their meanings vary from context, occasion and culture. Therefore,the color blue is polysemy.

4.1 Basic meaning of \"blue\" in English and Chinese

In both English and Chinese, blue belongs to basic color words. It is the color of sky and ocean. Wherever we go, people wear clothes in blue. Nowadays, blue jeans are quite popular among teenagers in and out.

4.1.1 Basic meaning of \"blue\" in English

In English, blue bears rich cultural meaning. English culture is the culture of sea. The color of sea is of great importance among ethnics of UK. They call \"sky\" and \"ocean\" as \"the blue\". Therefore, some fixed expressions came out. \"Blue moon\" means rare chance; \"out of blue\" means in a sudden; \"into the blue\" refers to \"out of reach\"; \"a bolt from the blue\" refers to \"bad news\".

Here is an example, \" My sister lives in London, so I only see her once in a blue moon.\" It can be paraphrased like this, \"My sister lives in London, so I seldom see her.\"

4.1.2 Basic meaning of \"blue\" in Chinese

In Chinese, blue is a neutral color term, developed from the name of the plant used as a dyestuff in ancient China with the progress of ancient silk and ceramic industry, as the saying goes, “蓝，染青草也” . The color term “ 蓝” could be replaced by “青”，“苍”or

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“碧”, like the phrases “青天”，“苍天” and “碧空万里” which means cloudless blue sky. In ancient people's mind, blue is an important color of clothes: officials' clothes in Qing Dynasty(清朝) is in blue. Blue is the color of sea. It is a symbol of tranquility, clearness, profoundness, purity, dream, wisdom etc.

4.1.3 Similarities and differences

According to cognitive linguistics, human physiological structure and perceptual ability play important part in the formation of concept. Therefore, both English and Chinese people have the same perception of the color blue. Just like semiotic triangle, if the symbol is the same, people can point out the same referent through concept. The sea is always the sea, for there is no change of its color.

However, since English and Chinese people have different cultural background, they have been influenced on the understanding of this color. But on a whole, basic meaning of color blue is almost the same in English and Chinese.

4.2 Connotative meaning of \"blue\" in English and Chinese 4.2.1 The connotative meaning of \"blue\" in English

In English, \"blue\" is often associated with high social status, a book with the names of famous figures, especially top government officials, is called \" blue book\". \"Blue\" also stands for the first-rank, which comes from the practice of awarding blue ribbons for first place in certain athletic or other competitive endeavors. \"To get one's blue\" means \" to get first place\".

\"Blue\" is considered the color for the spirit and the intellect. \"Blue stocking \" is used to refer to the women with much knowledge, which is just different from Chinese phrase“蓝缕”. In the 18th century, women in literature society were always wearing blue stockings. From then on, the learned women have been called \" blue stocking\".

\"Blue\" is also related to job and career. In English, \" blue coat\" refers to people who wear uniforms of blue, thus soldiers or policemen; \"blue jacket\" refers to sailors; \" blue collars\" are people who make a living by labour work.

\"Blue\" has the meaning of \" warning\". \"Blue alert \" is the alert of air attack; \"blue

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law\" cannot be translated into “蓝色的法律”, but forbidding dancing, purchasing, or doing sports on Sundays.

In the English language, \"blue\" often represents the human emotion of sadness as in \" He was feeling blue.he God Zeus would make rain when he was cry, and a storm when he was angry. Similarly, \" in a blue mood\" means \"in a sad or gloomy mood\"; \" a blue Monday\" carries the same feeling.

Besides, in English, the word \"blue\" has the same meaning with \"yellow\" in Chinese, indicating \"obscene or vulgar\such as \" a blue joke\\" a blue movie\" and \" blue magazines\". \"Blue Revolution\" means sex revolution; \" blue talk \" means \"indecent or dirty saying\".

4.2.2 The connotative meaning of \"blue\" in Chinese

In Chinese, blue means being original. The color \" blue\" refers to original version of a work; or chief source of writing. For instance, “蓝图”（blue print ）denotes a magnificent plan, or the future version or dream.

Blue also means old and shabby. A saying goes “筚路蓝缕”in which “蓝”sounds like “褴” and it means \" worn out, ragged, or shabby\". Nowadays,“蓝褛”means having meagre knowledge.

In Chinese, there is another phrase “蓝田生玉”which means that an excellent father will have an outstanding son. “魂断蓝桥”indicates that the couple has broken up.

With the development of the society and the frequent interaction between different countries, Chinese has borrowed many words from English. \"Blue\" has been given more meanings in Chinese, for example, the newly coined phrase “蓝颜知己”whose meaning comes against “红颜知己”is always spoken by girls. “蓝领”refers to people who makes a living by labour work.

4.2.3 Similarities and differences

Metaphor and metonymy have made great contribution to the various meanings of those color terms. Blue is a color of magnificence, so there is blueprint in English and \"蓝

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图\" in Chinese. Blue collar and \"蓝领\" refer to people making a living by labour work, for many people wear blue coats when doing hard work. Therefore, the collar of the blue coats stand for people of this kind. This is a typical example of metonymy.

When blue is combined to form new terms, its prototypical meaning has almost been missing. And they are quite different between English and Chinese. Compared with that in Chinese, blue has more connotative meanings in English. People in English often regard \"blue\" as a feeling of sadness and desolation. They create lots of phrases with this word.

5. Causes of similarities and differences

We can find that there are some similarities and differences of word-formational types and the meaning of \"blue\" between Chinese and English in the preceding chapters. The way in which human beings perceive, categorize and conceptualize the world contributes to those similarities and differences. And according to Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, we know that language determines our thinking patterns. Moreover, the linguistic relativity exerts influence on the basic color terms. As we know, color terms are universal while they are different in meanings. These similarities and differences have something to do with those of different languages and cultures. Furthermore, human physical or cultural experience also become the deep cause for the similarities and differences in both Chinese and English. Therefore, the causes for them will be explored in following paragraphs.

5.1 Causes of similarities

The motivation for the same color comes from the perception or culture. In short, the common perceptual and cultural experience is closely related with the similarity of the same color term. Perception serves as an important media for human color recognition. It is the mental process of recognizing and interpreting an object through one or more senses stimulated by a physical object. The visual and psychological perception of color terms of English and Chinese people are the same.

Although there are some different perceptions of color \"blue\" in different cultures, the similarities can still be found, for people have the common sense of the world and intercultural communication. For instance, people from various races and groups share the

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same perception to words, \"the blue sky\\"green trees\" and \"red flowers\". As I have mentioned, blue is the color of sea which will make people's sense connected with tranquility, clearness, profoundness, purity, dream, wisdom etc. And I also mentioned \" English culture is the culture of sea\".

5.2 Causes of differences

The associative meaning of \"blue\" in English is much richer than that in Chinese. After analysis, the majority of its connotations are considered to be used in the positive conditions in English, while it is a neutral term in Chinese. In this section, I will try to explain the causes which relate to the difference from such aspects as historical background, environment and cultural identity.

5.2.1 Historical and geographical environment

Differences in historical background and geographic environment have a direct influence on people's judgement and viewpoint of objective things. British worships blue could be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon period. Because of the living surroundings and the maritime climate, the British people lived on the sea by means of sea trading and developing seafaring industry. Blue, the color of sea has been worshipped by British people, which has become the dignified color. Besides, they thought of \"blue\"as the heaven.

Ancient China was originated from the in-land area. The only thing with natural blue color is the sky. Hence they are not quite acquainted with it, let alone worship it.

5.2.2 Cultural identity

It is obvious that modes of thinking between English and Chinese have a great influence on the interpretation of color terms. In the western world, the rational way of thinking plays a great role in the development of its civilization. They emphasize reason and individualism. They believe that all things must be guided by necessary laws, and the laws can be said to be permanent and unchanging.

Chinese culture, on the contrary, tends to be emotional and human oriented. Besides,

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Chinese civilization is considered to be the aesthetic way of thinking. In short, the way of thinking in the east is regarded as non-rational. The way of thinking in Chinese is close to the warm color yellow.

6. Conclusion

Color terms is a hot topic discussed in and out. Human cognition has a great influence on word-formation and meanings of color terms. Meaningful concept grows out of embodiment, and conceptual structure follows pre-conceptual structures. Hence, how an entity is perceived, categorized and conceptualized is fascinating but has much ground.

This thesis analyses the word-formation and meanings of color blue and offers the theoretical basis for the analysis. It should not be taken granted that forms and meanings of blue are arbitrary in nature. Besides, English and Chinese are quite different in this area. This is due to different geographic environment, cultural identity, etc. Besides, there are also other causes, such as religion, value orientation, etc, which are not reported here.

Since there are so many similarities and differences of formational types and meanings between two languages, a better understanding and mastery of human cognition as well as the cultural background, historical and geographical background of western countries is required for English learners. To some extent, it can enhance our inter-cultural communication skills, guide translation practice, and have a better understanding of this world.

Due to the limitation of knowledge, time and resources, the research of this thesis is confined to certain scope, and the conclusion cannot be applied in all the circumstances. With the frequent interaction and the development of globalization, more and more coined words and meanings will be added to the color of blue. As a result, further study is still needed to explore more aspects of blue on the basis of larger resources.

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References

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[3] 金凤．2009．中文“蓝”和英文“Blue’’之喻意对比研究[J]. http://d.wanfangdata.com.cn/Thesis_Y1667274.aspx. [4]

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