A Preliminary Study Of Semantic Meaning Between English And Chinese

Semantic meaning is the common object of study in semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, contrastive linguistics and contrastive studies between English and Chinese. It has been studied from different angles in these different disciplines and great achievements have been obtained. However, judged from the rich literature and the latest achievements of semantic studies, little has been done on semantic study of the combining denotation and connotation. Therefore this dissertation focuses on the semantic meaning between English and Chinese for the purpose of understanding the differences between the two languages, widening and deepening the discussion on semantic meaning, and helping people do researches in language teaching, translation and intercultural communication.By synthesizing authoritative views on semantic studies and the latest achievements in semantic studies, we have found that Leech (1974) has divided semantic meaning into seven types: conceptual meaning, connotative meaning, stylistic meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning, collocated meaning and thematic meaning; he has also generalized connotative meaning, stylistic meaning, affective meaning; reflected meaning and collocated meaning into associated meaning. John Lyons (1977, 1995) has divided denotation into extension and intention. Wang Dechun (1983) has divided Chinese semantic meaning into lexical meaning, rhetorical meaning and grammatical meaning. Mu Shen (1985) has pointed out that Chinese logical meaning is equal to English conceptual meaning; its rhetorical meaning equal to English associated meaning, and Chinese grammatical meaning equal to English thematical meaning.By absorbing the latest achievements in the semantic studies, we have contrasted English and Chinese semantic meanings by using the methods of multi-perspective, multi-leveled, omnibearing and stereoscopic, and study twenty English words and Chinese characters or idioms about human's organ, animal, plant, season, colour and natural phenomena and contrast their denotative meaning, connotative meaning, stylistic meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning, collocated meaning, and probe into their etymology. We have found that English and Chinese semantic meanings are rich and complex, and manifested that there are at least five semantic relations: (1) Both denotative meanings and associated meanings are identical; (2) Denotative meanings are identical but associated meanings are partly similar; (3) Denotative meanings are identical but associated meanings are different; (4) Denotative meanings are identical but associated meanings are opposite; (5) Denotative meanings are identical but associated meanings merely exist in English or Chinese. We also found that the main causes of disparity are the cultural factor. Because English and Chinese respectively belong to two different cultures梩he typical littoral commercial culture and the continental agricultural culture, which have at least influenced English and Chinese semantic meanings in three aspects: (1) Environments; (2) Social customs; and (3) World outlooks.iiiThis study is significant both in theory and practice. (1) In theory, it helps us understand the richness and complexity of English and Chinese semantic meaning and their relations; it also helps us enrich the understanding of semantic meaning and widen the scope of discussion; (2) In practice, it can help us master semantic meaning in English and Chinese, avoid pragmatic errors and make language teaching, translation and intercultural communication more effective, more effective and more tactful.