A Comparative Study On The Cultural Connotations Of Flower-related Words In English And Chinese

Language is the carrier of culture.Any language in the world is rooted in peculiar cultural background and reflects specific cultural connotation.Words,the window of culture,is the most basic and flexible one in a language.Different culture is inevitably refracted when passing through it.Flower-related words are important as a component of almost all the human languages and carry their respective connotations.With the increasing of intercultural communication between China and the West,it has been realized that flower-related words can not only cause misunderstanding because of the diversities of their cultural connotation,but become a vital factor that cannot be neglected in language learning.However,so far,there has not been a systematic and comprehensive work published, concerning with the connotative differences of flower-related words in English and Chinese,in spite of the fact that some short articles appeared in some journals.And relevant studies from the perspective of language learning are insufficient either in breadth or in depth.This thesis makes an attempt at a comparative analysis of the cultural connotations of flower-related words between English and Chinese.And it also tries to reveal that these words have been beyond their primitive meaning as a species,and contrastive analysis is an effective way to facilitate a clear understanding of the flower-related words from a perspective of culture and the specific charm of flower culture.Flowers,as a species in nature,have been flourishing in the aesthetic field of vision for thousands of years.Endowed with various spiritual connotations,they become a specific cultural sign.People show a constant favor to flowers for their odor,posture, fragrance and charm,which necessarily generates a common ground in connotations of flower-related words between Chinese and English.However,every language has its own ethnic culture.A certain cultural structure is a combination of people who utilize this language and the way of their living,including geographic environment,folklore, religious belief,custom,aesthetic interest and the way of thinking.Influenced by these factors,flower-related words with rich connotation may have chances of resulting in misunderstanding in the intercultural communication.This paper is divided into five parts to make a contrast of flower-related words in Chinese and English culture.Chapter one is the introduction part,which gives a general presentation of the background and significance of the study.Chapter two provides the theoretical basis for further study of the cultural connotations of flower-related words in Chinese and English.Chapter three is about similar and different cultural connotations shared by both English and Chinese flower-related words.Chapter four focuses on the social factors causing connotative differences,such as ways of thinking,aesthetic standards,natural environment,mythology,custom and religion.Chapter five comes to the conclusion of the previous discussion.First,the author stresses that the connotative words reflect the feature of an ethnic group.English teaching should combine language with culture and identify the cultural functions of words.And then,the author gives an overview to this study.Through a comparative study on cultural connotations of flower-related words in Chinese and English,the author verifies the existence of similarity and dissimilarity of these flower-related words based on the cognitive universality and cultural relativity.Meanwhile,the contrastive study of the cultural connotations may strengthen the understanding of different cultures and promote the cross-cultural communication and it is significant and instructive to English teaching and learning.