【正文】 k out the outline, giving me enlightening advice throughout the whole process of the present thesis. To her, I owe a profound debt of gratitude. The work would not have been possible without the help of my roommates and friends, who gave me a lot of encouragement when I was at a loss. We discussed a lot and moved forward. I am particularly indebted to my father and mother, who encouraged me to persist and gave me the best they could offer. Without all the support, I could not have pleted this tough work. 4 Abstract Colour terms are abundant in both English and Chinese， such as red, yellow, and blue. In this thesis, I have attempted to make a parison between the sense of red in English and that in Chinese by studying the examples collected from all the materials available. The thesis is divided into three parts. In Chapter One, I relate colour terms with cognition and culture in English and Chinese. In Chapter Two, I list a lot of examples related to red in English and Chinese and analyse them from three aspects in terms of their sense: exact equivalence, partial equivalence, no equivalence. In Chapter Three, I find out the factors that cause these semantic similarities and differences of red from the perspective of cognition and culture. Through a parative study of the sense of red in English and Chinese, I shed light on the three kinds of equivalent relationship of red terms in English and Chinese. The three kinds of equivalent relationship indicate that there exist similarity and difference in red terms between English and Chinese. Both similarity and difference are attributed to cognitive basis and cultural influence. If people know them well, they can achieve better crossculture munication. Key words: the sense of red。 semantic equivalence。 difference。 culture 5 摘要 在英語和漢語中 , 存在著豐富的顏色詞 , 如紅色，黃色，藍(lán)色。 本文分為三個部分。在第二章中，我列舉了中英文里有關(guān)紅色詞語的許多例子， 并且結(jié)合三種語義對等關(guān)系對它們進(jìn)行了分析：英漢語義的完全對應(yīng)，部分對應(yīng)和不完全對應(yīng)。 通過對中英文中紅色詞義的對比研究，我揭示出紅色詞語在中 英文里的三種對應(yīng)關(guān)系。 關(guān)鍵詞 ： 紅色語義；語義對應(yīng)；相似；差異；認(rèn)知；文化 6 Contents Acknowledgements …… .…… .…… .…… .…… .…… .…… .…… .… . i Abstract …… .…… .…… .…… .…… .…… .…… .…… .………… . … ii 摘要 …………………………………………………………………… ………… . iii 1. Introduction……………………………………………………… .. 1 2. The general view of colour terms in English and Chinese …… ... 2 Colour terms with cognition in English and Chinese…………………… .. 2 Colour terms with culture in English and Chinese………………………… 3 3. Semantic equivalence of red in English and Chinese…………… . 5 Exact equivalence………………………………………………………… . 5 Partial equivalence……………………………………………………… ... 6 No equivalence…………………………………………………………… . 8 4. Reasons for the semantic similarities and differences of red in English and Chinese………………………………………………… . 11 Reasons for the semantic similarities of red in English and Chinese…… .. 11 Reasons for the semantic differences of red in English and Chinese……… 13 Difference in aesthetic habit… …………………………… .………… 14 Difference in historical background… .…………………… .……… ... 15 5. Conclusion …………………………… ....................…………… ... 17 Bibliography …………………………………………………… .…… 18 7 1. Introduction According to Geoffrey Leech (1981: 9), ―There are seven types of meanings: conceptual meaning, connotative meaning, social meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning, collocative meaning, and thematic meaning.‖ And he bined connotative meaning, social meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning, collocative meaning into ―associative meaning‖. So besides the literal meaning, colour words have affluent associative meanings. Different nations endow them with different cultural connotations. The parative study of the sense of red in both English and Chinese will be a bridge for both English and Chinese learners to understand the similarities and disparities。大柏地 赤橙黃綠青藍(lán)紫， 誰持彩練當(dāng)空舞 ？ 雨后復(fù)斜陽，關(guān)山陣陣蒼 。他回家的那天，對我來說真是一個大喜的日子。 ) (宋偉華 2021: 109) From the case, we can find that ―to roll out the red carpet‖ can also be applied to an ordinary person. Besides, ―to paint the town red‖ means ―to celebrate wildly, to enjoy oneself to one‘s heart‘s content‖. Likewise, in the west, on Christmas Day, Santa Claus es to dispatch presents to innocent children. He is in red, making the day full of mystery and happiness. What‘s more, there exists basic similarity in conceptual meaning of red in English and Chinese such as bloodred (血紅色 ), orangered (橘紅色 ), red wine (紅 12 葡萄酒 ). Partial equivalence But in the process of translating one source language into another target language, the meaning may change, especially when colour terms are involved, although the translator tries his or her best to be faithful. There exists a close relationship between colour and emotion. This can be well illustrated by the following example: Mr. Brown has been feeling blue lately. The actual information this sentence conveys is that Mr. Brown has been very depressed lately. Only when we know its connotations can we understand a colour term correctly。（周立波：《山鄉(xiāng)巨變》） 13 “ What cares have I got?‖ she blushed as she denied them. (4) 他和甫兩個雖然已經(jīng)喝了半瓶黑葡萄酒，可是他們臉上一點也不 紅 ? ?（茅盾：《子夜》） He and Wang Hofu had got through half a bottle of port between them, but their faces were not flushed in the least. (5) 周仲偉的臉上立刻 通紅 了，真像一根“紅頭火柴”。 紅豆 is translated into love pea。 紅利 , dividend. Red ruin in English refers to 火災(zāi) in Chinese； a red battle, 血戰(zhàn)； red tape, 官僚作風(fēng) . A blue sky refers to a sky whose colour is blue, but a red sky is not related to a sky whose colour is red, but refers to colourful clouds in the sky. Let us see Example (13): (10)Red sky at night, shepherd‘s delig