The Influence of Cultural Connotations of Words on Intercult

英语学习

The Influence of Cultural Connotations of Words on Intercultural Communication

Language is intimately associated with culture and the two can not be separated. Language is the cornerstone of culture. There is a need to point out that without language, there will be no culture. On the contrary, language is affected by culture and also reflects culture. The linguist Deng yanchang who have ever said: "Language is the carrier of culture and plays an overwhelming part in culture." Words in language are the most outstanding reflection of culture and embody the social cultural features of a nation to the full. Therefore, an overwhelming majority of words possess specific cultural messages. A language is influenced to various degrees by its national culture. As the fundamental component of a language, words are the pillar on which the large-scale language system can entirely depend and also bear a marked brand of the national culture. When boiled down to an inpidual word, it is safe to say that the meaning of a word goes far beyond what it refers to in some objective known, pre-given world, but includes the world of cultural and social understanding it brings into being when used. Hence, while learning a word, we should start from the following two aspects. One refers to "referent meaning", the other "connotative meaning". "referent meaning" is actually the liberal meaning of words, which expresses the relations among linguistic factors---the internal relation of language. But, "connotative meaning" is the cultural and social meaning of words, which not only illustrates the relations among linguistic factors itself, but also among non-linguistic factors as well as among the relevant society and culture. In the process of acquiring words, only through these two ways can we grasp the words precisely and completely. Otherwise, in the course of cross-cultural communication, we will encounter difficulties when translating the source language into the target one.

It is widely acknowledged that language is a system of signs which are accepted by people through repeated practice. However, we should not solely attach the great importance to language signs and its materiality. Obviously, everyone grows up under the circumstances of specified culture which exercises influence on us. In respect of language learners, if they don't have a good knowledge of the specific cultural connotations of words, they may fail to have a thorough understanding of those words, which will result in their incorrect use, not to mention how to make the appropriate use of language. For instance, the word "pumpkin" has the same conceptual meaning in both Chinese and English. However, among perse cultures, the associations aroused from people's mind are varied. On seeing the pumpkin, Chinese people, especially the older generation, may think of the difficulties and hardships they have undergone. Because, for them, the pumpkin is intimately associated with hard years. Nonetheless, the British or the American will probably not generate such sense of feelings. On seeing the pumpkin, they will just recall Thanksgiving Day or Halloween. Because, for them, the pumpkin is closely linked with happy lives. Taking another word "bat" as an example, it refers to evil in western culture, but a symbol of happiness in China because of its homonymic relation with the word "happiness". The word "bamboo", which symbolizes a sense of high and upright character in Chinese culture, represents a spirit of pureness and freshness, freeing from vulgarity. While in regard to the West, it is merely an upshooting plant. "Would prefer to eat no meat, can't live without bamboo". If people don't know the symbolic meaning of the bamboo well, they are unable to have a complete understanding of the implications of Su Shi's this saying. Citing the word "moon" as another example, it reflects the cultural education and custom of different nations. On seeing the moon, the Chinese will immediately remember the famous sentences in ancient poetry, such as "I saw the moonlight

英语学习

before my couch, And wondered if it were not the frost on the ground.", "I miss my family all the more on every festive day", and the resembling nice legendary traditions, like "Chang'e flying to the moon". In spite of this, the West will always associate the "moon" with the universe or the space. In addition, the word "inpidualism" has the following two meanings in English: (1) the idea that the rights and the freedom of the INDIVIDUAL are the most important rights in a society;

(2)selfishness. (Longman 1988: 729). From these we can see the word highlights personal principle of selfishness. In western culture, the word "inpidualism" is a spirit which extraordinary deserves high praise. It contains the core of American culture "the position of personality value goes beyond everything". It also includes the intentions of independence, struggle and innovation. Even so, in Chinese culture, the word "inpidualism" has a derogatory sense by reason of differences of cultural connotations. People always relate it to selfishness or self-centredness. In China, this word is not identified by most of the Chinese because it goes against the word "collectivism" and the traditional pleasant virtue "先天下之忧而优, 后天下之乐而乐".

Another example quoted is the dragon. It is a kind of animal in the fairy tale. In the western fairy legend, dragon is a large imaginary animal that has wings and a long pointed tail and can breathe out fire. The West consider dragon as a ferocious and ugly monster. They reckon it a symbol of evil. In the Bible, the demon Satan who shows a feeling of strong opposition to God is called the great dragon w …… 此处隐藏：10677字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……