The Comparative Study On Cultural Connotations Of Flower Terms 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 terms 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 terms 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.This study makes an attempt at a comparative analysis of the cultural connotations of flower terms between English and Chinese. And it also tries to reveal that the connotative meaning of 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 terms 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 terms with rich connotation may have chances of resulting in misunderstanding in the intercultural communication.This study is to make a contrast of "flower" connotations in Chinese and English culture. First it gives a general presentation of the background and significance of the study. Then it is found that there are similar and different cultural connotations shared by both English and Chinese "flower" words, which caused by different social factors, such as thinking patterns, aesthetic standards, natural environment, mythology, custom and religion. For instance:Both of the two languages use flower terms to indicate women’s appearances, love, good things; and Chinese tends to employ flower terms to describe something specious or derogatory, which, however, have no equivalent connotative meaning in English. Through a comparative study on cultural connotations of flower terms in Chinese and English, the author verifies the existence of similarity and dissimilarity of these "flower" 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.