On The Comparison And Translation Of Associative Meaning Between Chinese And English

Associative meanings of a word refer to the supplementary meanings the word gradually acquires with its extended usage. An associative meaning is often used on a specific occasion, in a specific range, for a specific purpose and by a specific person. Generally speaking, associative meaning can be divided into five categories: connotative meaning, social meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning and collocative meaning. It differs from the conceptual meaning in that it is open-ended and indeterminate. In some cases, the associative meanings of a word surpass the word's original, denotative meaning. Different from logical meaning or conceptual meaning, associative meaning, for its vagueness and variability, is hardly controllable for those language learners who are lack of broad knowledge beyond language itself. So it's necessary to explore the sources of associative meaning so as to appropriately use language especially in cross-cultural communication, avoiding misunderstanding or even trouble.The thesis consists of four chapters.The first chapter has a bird's-eye view on associative meaning, including the significance of the study of associative meaning, the previous study of associative meaning, the definition and character of associative meaning.The second chapter discusses the categories of associative meaning. Jeffery Leech in his Semantics states seven types of meaning: conceptual meaning, thematic meaning, connotative meaning, social meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning and collocative meaning, the last five of which are generated as associative meaning. In this chapter, abundant examples of both Chinese and English are quoted to clearly state the five categories of associative meaning.The third chapter expatiates on seven sources of associative meaning and comparison is made between Chinese and English on the basis of classified people, geographic environment, religious culture, illusions and literary works, varied emotions, homonymy and polysemy, aesthetic conceptions.The fourth chapter dwells on the translation of associative meaning. Many standing examples are analyzed to help select an ideal translation method in practice.