On The Optimization Of The Definition Of Color Terms In Chinese Dictionaries

Color term plays an indispensable role in our daily life, and it is also an essentialpart of the vocabulary. Definition is the core of dictionary compilation and itsaccuracy and sufficiency are one of the main standards to judge the quality of adictionary. The definition of color terms occupies an important position in Chinesedictionary. Therefore, color term is still a subject of great research value.The thesis takes the definition of color term “Yellow” from five Chinesedictionaries as example. Based on the Schema Theory and the Theory of SemanticField, new theoretical model is created to analyze and optimize the definition processof color terms by adopting both qualitative and quantitative methods. Throughsystematic analysis, it can be concluded that: based on Chinese schema for color,characteristics of color terms and properties of semantic field, color terms can bedefined in both color domain and non-color domain. Besides, Chinese cognitivedomain could be divided into the following three parts--the stage of discriminatingcolor, the stage of designating color and the stage of describing color, in which thedefinition process could be semantically divided into color domain and non-colordomain. Optimization of the definition of color terms could therefore be achieved.This research has strong theoretical and practical significance. It expands therepresentation mode of color term in theory, and improves the representation systemof content word. In practice, it provides realistic foundation and operating guidelinesfor the compilation of Chinese dictionary.