商用英语专业毕业论文-cultureandlanguage--theculturaldifferencesbetweenenglishandchinese(编辑修改稿)

商用英语专业毕业论文-cultureandlanguage--theculturaldifferencesbetweenenglishandchinese(编辑修改稿)内容摘要：

re preferred to an uninvited guest. And otherwise, you will be thought unfriendly if you cannot receive an uninvited guest very well. . Idioms As different cultures entail different language expressions, and culturalrelated idioms and proverbs should be intelligible through studying the culture itself. For example, in English, people would use “dog” in many idioms such as “luck dog”, “clever dog” to express something good because they believe dog is their best friend, but in China we may use dog for something bad, In China people may refer bull as hardworking people but in America, it may just describe a person with an irritable characteristic. Still, we can find many different language expressions connected with the culture. Such as the color words, “blue” in China may suggests a sentimental or unhappy feeling while a blue book in America is a book with wellknown names. 7 2. Differences in Custom Culture . Colors Chinese have saying of “红白喜事 ”, it is not difficult to understand “红喜 ” once connected red with having a baby, marriage or birthday congratulations etc which westerners call “the redletter day”. But they couldn39。 t understand why Chinese think it to be “a happy thing” when someone passed away. In fact, in western culture, the connotation of “Red and White” is contrary with that of Chinese custom, westerners often associate Red with blood and death sometimes with radical action or rebellion, which carries a certain political color. Also, red can bring their minds to debts or deficits. There are some example: “He is in the red” means “He is in debt” “A red mother” refers to “the mother with deficits” “A red battle” means “a bloody battle” and “red ringence” means “bloody ringence” “A red revolution” refers to “ the proletarian revolution”. There is another fact to show this difference In 1905, a place in “Sichuan” call “the globe” was a famous brand and was tasty. But it had not a good market in western countries. The reason is that there39。 re red flag on the globe, in the brand, such brand was considered to be dangerous and rebellions, so the people in western countries were unwilling to buy it. After learning this different custom the Chinese omitting the red flag. Of course, the situation turn good as well. The understand ring of white is similar while it symbolizes purification and sincerity in western culture, bride often wears wedding dress in white. In addition, white is also marked by good luck and happiness. On the contrary, white in Chinese express purification in today39。 s China. However, in most situation, it has the unlucky meaning including the connotation of revolt. When somebody passed away, the family will b all in white, wearing white dress, white flowers and putting up white paper such action is so deviation from the understanding of the western customs, the followings are concrete examples to illustrate this difference in order to make it clearer, here some other examples of other colors are included. 8 “One of the white day of somebody39。 s life” here “whiter day” means “lucky day”, “happy day”. “Please give me a black coffee” here “black” doesn39。 t refer to “heavy, thick” but “ light” “A black lie” means “a lie unfivable”, but “a white lie” means “a lie with good will” “In the black” means “to make a profit” In the green doesn39。 t means “in the grass” but refers to “in the course of adolescence”. “I am green with envy when I go to Peking and see them facilities” here “be green with envy” means “envy very much” From these example, we can see differences in customs and background of two cultures in understanding of colors. Only we get to know the differences, we can avoid series of difficulties and leave gaps bridge in transcultural munications. . Numbers In recent year, some Chinese people are sensitive and particular about something connected with number. Such as choosing the number of lucky day, telephone number or Bp call number, license number for eight, six or nine which are considered lucky numbers, the order of numbers had better be “888” , “666”or “999” expressing a kind of “ lucky and good wishes.” In Chinese culture “8” is the homophonic with “发 ”, which means success while “6” corresponds to the homophonic of “六六大顺 ” which has the meaning of satisfactory and gratification. “9” means permanence and eternity because of its homophonic sound in Chinese such meanings and connotation express the idea of happiness, luck and success. These numbers therefore bee the lucky numbers. But “4”is the homophonic of “ death” in Chinese. So people try to avoid this number. Let39。 s see how the westerners act when they meet with some of these number. Because it is impossible to appear homophonic between the number and the meaning in English, their reflection would not be probably similar with that of Chinese. However。