A Study On Translation Of Color Terms In Four-character Expressions

The Chinese language abounds in four-character expressions， which arecolorful，forcible and thought-provoking．They form all important parts of the Chineselanguage vocabulary and are considered as the essence of the language．The colors,rich and various in nature, are closely related to human beings, and our languagebecomes vivid with the use of color terms. There are countless kinds of colors in theworld, with a distinct reflection in the language, especially in four-characterexpressions. A1though different languages have their own color terms to express thecolors, they also have many colors in common, such as red, yellow, green, blue, black,white and other basic color words. However, due to different geographic conditions,national customs, histories, politics, economy and national psychology, they havegreat difference during the translation from one language to another.This thesis is based on the data of four-character expressions collected fromChinese English Dictionary edited by Yao Xiaoping and discusses the differentimplications and applications of color words between English and Chinese in politics,religion, economy, and social life by means of contrast. Different semantic meaningsof Chinese and English color words lead to the different comprehensions to theirmetaphoric meanings. This thesis is intended for a contrastive study on the commonuse of Chinese color terms in four-character expressions. It mainly analyzes thecharacteristics of color words and the distinctions of color terms between Chinese andEnglish from the aspect of cultural connotation, aiming at confirming the suitabletranslating method and accurately transmitting information, which is also beneficial tothe cross-cultural communication and can help to promote understandings on bothsides.