【正文】 ople who’s living in. Then a brief account on the main features of the Chinese and British residences is given in the third part. And the next part is about the reason of the distinctions and different conventions resulted in the two styles of residences shaped by the values of individualism and collectivism. 2. Theoretical foundation: culture and cultural semantics Comparative study of cultures There have been over four hundred definitions made for culture according to the Course of Culturology. Here are two typical ones in the field. 淮陰師范學(xué)院 本科生畢業(yè)論文（設(shè)計） 2 They take that of the British anthropologist Edward Burt Tylor as the first definition of culture. He said: “Culture ... is that plex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.” And defined it as “Culture is made up of exterior and interior behavior patterns. These behavior patterns are obtained and transferred through symbolic signals. The culture represents the remarkable achievements of the group of human, including the embodiment in manmade things。 the core part of culture is the traditional idea (namely idea obtained and selected in the history) and especially the value it brought in. On the one hand the culture system can be regarded as the product of social activity。 on the other hand it is the determining factor of the movements in the future” (Wu Keli 50). Tylor’s definition has the most farreaching influence in the field of culturology since the beginning of the subject. And Kroeber’s is now widely accepted and is considered to be the most plete one. Because of the plication of the culture and it’s hard to give a plete definition, many scholars are inclined to reduce it into concise parts. For example, someone has divided it into four parts as cultureproduct, culturecapability, culturespirit and cultureactpattern. In order to be pithier, Liu made it into two parts, cultureproduct and culturepattern. And the culturepattern includes the patterns of behavior, thought and value (LiuⅠ ). And I prefer this type of conception of culture because it sums up the culture in both broad and narrow senses. Cultureproduct is the culture in broad sense. It includes all the achievements human beings made in the society such as architectures, clothes, laws, literatures, social ideology and so on. Such cultureproduct is the specific display of the culturepattern. For example, the features of Chinese quadrangle courtyard show vividly the value pattern of collectivism of the country。 while British type of detached houses disclose the individualism of the culture. Culturepattern, which is the domination of its cultureproduct, is the narrow sense of culture. The pattern is embodied in all its products and is the abstract image of the achievements. This sense of culture concerns the characteristics and status of the interior structure to make out the internal cause of the external appearances of the cultural products. For instance, because of Chinese value of collectivism, the people would like to live together and the houses are connected together to form a courtyard. And as a result of the individualism, the British prefer the detached houses separated far from each other. 淮陰師范學(xué)院 本科生畢業(yè)論文（設(shè)計） 3 Culture can be divided into two parts, cultureproduct and culturepattern. Then which sense is the parison studying on? Generally speaking, such study concerns the culture pattern through paring the features of the cultural products. For example, this paper deals with the features of Chinese and British architectures to study the cultures. Then, to find out the distinctions of the architectures is on the level of studying the cultureproduct. However, in order to pare the different cultures, it should be researched on the culture pattern which conducted the distinctions, that is, different values of individualism and collectivism. Cultural semantics Culture is a ethnical phenomenon of the life in human society, and different nations and countries have different cultures. That is, culture is differentiated with national marks. The national character of culture decides that the language depends on culture as the background, namely, language will not exist without its culture。 it is the culture that people depending on to prehend and use a language. As a branch of the cultural linguistics, cultural semantics concerns the ethnocultural semantic character of the words, and the irrational analysis method in form restricted by the national culture。 it is research on the influence process that cultural factors affect the semantic part from the aspect of semiotics and semantics。 it is the parison on two languages to reveal the categories of culturefunctional semantics and ethnocultural semantics(. culturesynonymy and cultureantonym) and so on(Wu Guohua 17). Language is the product of the culture in the civil society. It shows people’s attitudes towards the world and their standards for activities. Language is a remarkable achievement of the civil human society and the sign of distinguished from the animals. Language depends on culture and is the reflection of culture. Words e out of the life style, living conventions, surroundings, social conditions of a nation. And this conducts the national characteristic of the word and the language. Architecture is the cultural product that most closely related with people’s living activities and also affects the national language and the semantics. 3. Architecture and culture Architecture is of the cultural product created in the human society. Its shapes, functions 淮陰師范學(xué)院 本科生畢業(yè)論文（設(shè)計） 4 and appearances are all catering for the certain culture pattern of the society. And residence takes the lead position in all kinds of buildings. Architecture as t