| People employ all sorts of signs that exist in our life. Of course, language is a very important kind of sign as well. Language is the carrier of culture and culture shapes language. As an active component of language, vocabulary can obviously reflect the culture of human beings. Apart from some core words in English, many words with specific cultural information are the so-called culture-loaded words. The cultural connotations of these culture-loaded words always impede the learners to understand and use language.This dissertation analyzes and compares the culture-loaded words both in English and Chinese by virtue of semiotic theories. The main theoretical foundation is from Peirce and Barthes. They proposed the increase of signs and the hierarchical system of signs. According to the different effects in cross-culture communication, the culture-loaded words can be divided into three types, with similar connotations, with different connotations and with vacant connotation. Under the framework of such a classification, more analysis and comparison are detailed in color terms, plant words, animal words, numbers words and directions words respectively with a large number of examples of culture-loaded words. Meanwhile, the reasons for the production of these culture-loaded words are related to geography, esthetic standards, ways of thinking, customs and religions. At last, some suggestions are represented for English learning and teaching. Learning a language is not only to learn the pronunciation, vocabulary or grammar inside the language, but also to learn the culture behind the language. The culture-loaded words are likely to become the obstacles during cross-culture communication, therefore, the studies on the culture-loaded words are in favor of cross-culture communication and make a better understanding of Chinese and English cultures. Meanwhile, the study points the way to improve vocabulary teaching and learning. |
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