This paper can be pided into five parts。 To begin with, we introduce some fruits that many experts have achieved。 In the second part, the main body of the thesis contrasts cultural connotations of different color words such as red, black, green, yellow, and blue。 The third part talks about three reasons for different cultural connotations of color words between English and Chinese like natural environments, historical backgrounds and religions。 In the fourth part, we talk about two ways of English translation of color words in the third part like literal translation and free translation。 Last but not least, we conclude what we have learned and express our sincere wishes。

This paper attempts to make an analysis of the reasons for different cultural connotations between English and Chinese color words, and to discuss some ways of their translation。 Besides, a lot of typical expressions of color words at home and abroad have been mentioned。 The aim of the thesis is to summarize the fruits achieved by experts and put forward some advice。 On the one hand, it is very essential to effectively improve the teaching and learning of color words。 On the other hand, it is very helpful for us to learn English and understand the cultural backgrounds。

2。 Literature Review 论文网

The study on the differences between Chinese and English color words has a very long history。 Many famous experts have achieved many huge fruits at home and abroad。

Studies on color words in western countries have begun since ancient times。 Color words are popular in philosophy, art and psychology in western countries。

Aristotle suggested that simple color words are associated with some basic elements in On Colors and explain the characteristics of colors。 In his opinion, colors may be the mixture of black and white。

 Plato suggested a theory of colors: a light source, an object that reflects light, and functional eyes that can receive the reflected light。

 In the 18th century, Magnus made a thorough research by the means of a questionnaire about color words。

 In 1969, Brent Berlin wrote a book named Basic Color Words-Their University and Evolution。 The conclusion of the appearance of color words: black/white, red, green, yellow, blue, purple/pink/orange/grey。

The studies on color words in China are more limited than the studies abroad。 The studies began over 2000 years ago, which focused on linguistics and cognition。

The Book of Songs(诗经) is the earliest work on color words。 Zhang Peiji made an analysis of the uses of enormous color words and corresponding translations。 

In 1970s, Wu Tieping accomplished two articles《模糊语言初探》 and《模糊语言再探》。The two articles introduce the theory of vague language。 Besides, Professor Zhang Wangxi analyzed the reasons from two aspects: the subjective influence; the connotations of color words based on the color perception (Zhang 112)。

Yao Xiaoping wrote an article《基本颜色词理论》by summarizing the theories of Berlin and Kay, and he also analyzed of the development of color words。

From 1980s to 1990s, the book《语言的颜色美》summarizes the categories, which is written by Liu Yunquan。 It is the symbol of the independent study in China on color words。 

Besides, there are various researches and theories on the translation of color words。

As the father of cross-cultural psychology, Rivers published some reports about native peoples’ use of color words and he also suggested the evolutionary exists in color language。

In 1978, Kay and McDaniel suggested that perception determines language。 Since Berlin and Kay published the work, a lot of scholars have shown great interest in it (Kay,122)。

Bornstein played very important role in researches on color words。 He made a comprehensive analysis on color words from ethnographic perspective。