英汉颜色词语义与文化对比

英汉这两种各具特色,大相径庭的语言由于民族历史、宗教信仰、风俗习惯等的不同而存在差异。同样颜色词在不同民族中的联想与使用具有鲜明的民族文化特征。学习并了解其承我的文化信息,对跨文化交际和英汉双语互译有重要意义。     

英汉颜色词"white"和"白色"的文化内涵意义对比研究

随着中西文化交流的不断深入.具有深刻文化内涵的颜色词也不可避免地成为跨文化交际的障碍之一.英语颜色词"白"是使用频率较高的两个词语.对比研究"white"和"白"的相同与相异之处,可见有其不同的文化内涵,区别二者的内涵对促进跨文化交际及提高英语初学者语言能力有所裨益.     

英汉词汇的联想意义差异

语言是由词汇组成的,在语言整体结构中,词汇意义既包括概念意义,还包括联想意义.概念意义是词汇的核心,它直接、明确表示所指的对象.联想意义是人们语言使用过程中,在特定的语用环境下对某一个词产生的附加意义,这种附加意义体现词汇的感情色彩意义、搭配意义和内涵意义等.英、汉词汇中,某些词汇虽具有相同或相似的概念意义,而他们的联想意义却不同.     

刍议大学英语教学中颜色词的用法

在不同的语言学习中,颜色词都会有其特定的不同的意义和用法.英语和汉语一样,在语言表达中都蕴含大量丰富的颜色词,但是同一颜色在英语和汉语当中的所表达的含义却不尽相同.其原因主要在于文化差异.因此,在大学英语教学过程当中,对于颜色词的学习和认知,应该尽量摒除汉语的文化因素,在英语语言环境下去理解颜色词的不同含义.     

赏析杨宪益《红楼梦》英译本中色彩词的翻译

色彩词(color words)是公认的说明颜色的符号.在每一种语言和文化中,色彩词都是不可缺少的组成部分,同时色彩词又表现出各民族独特的个性,包含着不同的文化内涵.结合杨宪益先生<红楼梦>英译本中色彩词的翻译实例,分析总结其可行有效、可推而广之的方法论.     

小议英汉翻译中的颜色词翻译

颜色词数量众多,作用巨大.在英译汉过程中,想要将颜色词正确地翻译成汉语,必须了解颜色词在英语和汉语中的作用和用法.同时,语言是文化的重要组成部分,颜色词作为语言的一部分,也与文化精密关联.所以,英汉文化的不同也是英汉颜色词翻译过程中必须考虑到的因素.     

词语形象感的认知机制及其教学的运用

词语形象感,即为词语在读者的意识中引起的一种情绪联想反映.文章以英语中的动物词和颜色词为例,分析说明词语具有形象感的认知机制,即图形-背景的分离.作者进而把这种理论分析运用与英语精读课堂教学中,让学生了解英语国家文化,并加深对元语言的认识.     

浅谈英语颜色词在经济领域中的应用翻译

英语学习者必定已经接触过很多颜色词,赤橙黄绿青蓝紫,五颜六色炫彩斑斓.可能会有这样的感觉:颜色词的使用正如它自身一样变化莫测.不同民族、不同文化背景的人们根据某一颜色的特性,赋予颜色词汇相应的或相同或迥异的象征意义和引申意义,而在特定的领域又赋予其特定的意义,并广泛地应用于人们生活的各个方面:经济、政治、文化习俗、日常生活、情感情绪等等.英语颜色词用法丰富,含义广泛,理解它需要英语学习者拥有较深厚的历史和文化背景.本文拟从英语颜色词在经济领域中的应用来探索其用法,并浅谈相关译法,以期提高我们在经济领域中英语颜色词语的运用能力.     

认知模式与汉英颜色词的翻译

汉语和英语中的颜色词的不同内涵,反映着中英文化的差异和认知模式的不同.汉语和英语的颜色词翻译,需要在了解认知模式和文化差异的基础上正确选取适当的翻译方法.     

颜色的不同涵义

涵义是词的隐含或附加的意义.英语语言中表示颜色的词汇,除了能够用来描绘大自然中的绚丽色彩外,还具有多种不同的涵义.学习和掌握颜色的不同涵义有助于正确理解和使用英语语言.     

The relatedness-of-meaning effect for ambiguous words in lexical-decision tasks: When does relatedness matter?

Effects of the number of meanings (NOM) and the relatedness of those meanings (ROM) were examined for Japanese Katakana words using a lexical-decision task. In Experiment 1, only a NOM advantage was observed. In Experiment 2, the same Katakana words produced a ROM advantage when Kanji words and nonwords were added. Because the Kanji nonwords consisted of unrelated characters whereas the Kanji words consisted of related characters, participants may have used the relatedness of activated meanings as a cue in making lexical decisions in this experiment, artificially creating a ROM advantage for Katakana words. Consistent with this explanation, no ROM effect for Katakana words was observed in Experiment 3 when the Kanji nonwords consisted of characters with similar (i.e., related) meanings. These results pose a further challenge to the position that the speed of semantic coding is modulated by ROM for ambiguous words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Making sense of word senses: The comprehension of polysemy depends on sense overlap.

Studies of polysemy are few in number and are contradictory. Some have found differences between polysemy and homonymy (L. Frazier & K. Rayner, 1990), and others have found similarities (D. K. Klein & G. Murphy, 2001). The authors investigated this issue using the methods of D. K. Klein and G. Murphy (2001), in whose study participants judged whether ambiguous words embedded in word pairs (e.g., tasty chicken) made sense as a function of a cooperating, conflicting, or neutral context. The ambiguous words were independently rated as having low, moderate, or highly overlapping senses to approximate a continuum from homonymy to metonymic polysemy. The effects of meaning dominance were examined. Words with highly overlapping meanings (e.g., metonymy) showed reduced effects of context and dominance compared with words with moderately or low overlapping meanings (e.g., metaphorical polysemy and homonymy). These results suggest that the comprehension of ambiguous words is mediated by the semantic overlap of alternative senses/meanings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The arbitrariness of the sign: Learning advantages from the structure of the vocabulary.

Recent research has demonstrated that systematic mappings between phonological word forms and their meanings can facilitate language learning (e.g., in the form of sound symbolism or cues to grammatical categories). Yet, paradoxically from a learning viewpoint, most words have an arbitrary form-meaning mapping. We hypothesized that this paradox may reflect a division of labor between 2 different language learning functions: arbitrariness facilitates learning specific word meanings and systematicity facilitates learning to group words into categories. In a series of computational investigations and artificial language learning studies, we varied the extent to which the language was arbitrary or systematic. For both the simulations and the behavioral studies, we found that the optimal structure of the vocabulary for learning incorporated this division of labor. Corpus analyses of English and French indicate that these predicted patterns are also found in natural languages. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of phonology in the activation of word meanings during reading: Evidence from proofreading and eye movements.

Six experiments explored the role of phonology in the activation of word meanings when words were embedded in meaningful texts. Specifically, the studies examined whether participants detected the substitution of a homophone mate for a contextually appropriate homophone. The frequency of the incorrect homophone, the frequency of the correct homophone, and the predictability of the correct homophone were manipulated. Also, the impact of reading skill was examined. When correct homophones were not predictable and participants had a range of reading abilities, the evidence indicated that phonology plays a role in activating the meanings of low-frequency words only. When the performance of good and poor readers was examined separately, the evidence indicated that good readers primarily activate the meanings of words using the direct route, whereas poor readers primarily activate the meanings of words using the phonological route. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading homographs: Orthographic, phonologic, and semantic dynamics.

Reading processes were compared across 3 word types: homographs (separate pronunciations and meanings, such as lead), homonyms (singular pronunciations but separate meanings, such as spring), and control words (e.g., clock). In Experiment 1, naming reaction times were significantly slower to homographs than to all other words. Experiments 2 and 3 used an association judgment task, with referent words related to the dominant or subordinate meanings of homonyms and homographs. In Experiment 2, homonyms and homographs were presented 1st, followed by disambiguating associates. In Experiment 3, presentation order was reversed. For homographs, performance costs always occurred for subordinate meanings. For homonyms, these costs vanished when context was provided by the preceding associates. The data underscore the priority of phonologic information in word meaning access and suggest that low- and high-level constraints combine to shape word perception. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading storybooks to kindergartners helps them learn new vocabulary words.

In sessions conducted individually, 45 kindergartners who were nonreaders listened to an adult read the same storybook twice, 2–4 days apart, and then completed a posttest measuring their knowledge of the meanings of 22 unfamiliar words, half of which had appeared in the story. Some target words occurred twice in the story and some only once, so children heard some words 4 times and some words twice. Children recognized the meanings of significantly more words from the story than words not in the story, indicating that storybook reading was effective for building vocabulary. Gains were greater among children with larger entering vocabularies. Four exposures to words appeared to be necessary but not sufficient for higher rates of word learning. Findings confirm that story listening contributes modestly to young children's vocabulary growth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of left frontal lesions on the selection of context-appropriate meanings.

The present study examined the role of the left frontal cortex in strategic aspects of semantic processing. Participants were tested in a semantic priming task involving the meaning access of ambiguous and unambiguous words. Patients with left or bilateral frontal lesions failed to develop semantic facilitation of context-appropriate homograph meanings relative to age-matched controls. When the ambiguous words, however, were replaced by unambiguous words, patients with left frontal lesions improved to normal levels of semantic priming. This pattern of results seems difficult to explain in terms of a problem to access semantic information per se or to use contextual cues. The findings are, however, consistent with a deficit in selecting context-appropriate meanings in the presence of competing meanings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical ambiguity and its role in models of word recognition.

Reviews research concerned with processing words that have more than one meaning. Three principal models of ambiguity processing are outlined—context-dependent, ordered-access, and exhaustive access—and the research on which they are based is discussed. Findings seem best served by a hybrid model that allows for activation to accrue for all meanings, with the degree of activation sensitive to the frequency of the meanings and context. The major results of this field are interpreted in terms of the literature in word recognition. Such interpretation is important because of the guidance that such models may give to ambiguity research and because of the importance that ambiguous words hold for more general models of lexical access. (77 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Wrestling with ambiguity—further reflections: Reply to Masson and Borowsky (1995) and Rueckl (1995).

As noted by S. Joordens and D. Besner (see record 1995-07873-001), a number of distributed models of word recognition encounter difficulties when processing words that have multiple meanings because of competition that occurs when the multiple meanings attempt to instantiate their patterns of activation across a semantic level of representation. This contrasts with humans' lack of difficulty in naming and lexical decision when processing ambiguous words in the absence of a manipulated context. Joordens and Besner therefore concluded that the processing of ambiguous words represents an interesting challenge for distributed models of word recognition. A number of critical issues highlighted in the commentaries by M. E. J. Masson and R. Borowsky (see record 1995-31413-001) and by J. G. Rueckl (see record 1995-31416-001) are addressed in the present article. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Semantic effects in single-word naming.

Three experiments demonstrated that, for lower frequency words, reading aloud is affected not only by spelling-sound typicality but also by a semantic variable, imageability. Participants were slower and more error prone when naming exception words with abstract meanings (e.g., scarce ) than when naming either abstract regular words (e.g., scribe ) or imageable exception words (e.g., soot ). It is proposed that semantic representations of words have the largest impact on translating orthography to phonology when this translation process is slow or noisy (i.e., for low-frequency exceptions) and that words with rich semantic representations (i.e., high-imageability words) are most likely to benefit from this interaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)