An Analysis Of Affective Differences On Chinese Hong And English Red From The Cultural Perspective

Red, a common word in Chinese and English, carries many complicated semantic and cultural meanings in both languages. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis, this essay compares all the entries of red in the authorized Chinese Dictionary with those in Oxford English Dictionary. It reasons out the conclusions as follow: Semantically speaking, Red in Chinese and English bears much difference in both commendatory and derogatory meanings, semantic category as well as the affective meaning implicated in the conceptual meaning. Such differences in affective meaning are closely related with the geographical environment where each language originates, different social norms, cultures, histories as well as national characteristics. Therefore, in the teaching of Chinese for foreigners, it is advisable that teachers illustrate the affective meanings of words in both Chinese and English and integrate the cultural elements into the classroom teaching. Such practices will help students to learn not only the conceptual meaning of Chinese, but also the values and the cultural psychology implicated in those words. Moreover, these practices will facilitate students to maximally reduce the negative transfer from native languages and cultures and ultimately improve students' intercultural communicative competence.