大学语言与文化期末复习资料总结.doc

语言与文化

第一章
1.Culture: it is human specific and also a social, national and historical phenomenon, which contains several subcultures. It refers to the total pattern of human knowledge ,beliefs ,and behavors,customs,institutions that depends on the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning, what’s more,it consists of all shared products of human society,such as attitudes ,values,goals,and practices and so forth. It is also an excellence of taste in the fine arts and humanities.
2.Language: language is systematic(系统的), arbitrary（任意的）, symbolic（符号的）,vocal and uniquely human, and is regarded as a keystone of culture. As a carrier and container of culture, it is infulenced and shaped by and also exerts its influence on culture.Language contains their historical and cultural background and approach to life and their way of living and thinking.
3.Major deferences between C and W culture:
1. Western culture is based on individulism whileas Chinese culture focus on collectivism. Individulism emphasizes oppositions between man and nature,democracy, liberty ,independent and human rights,but collectivism emphasizes harmony between man and nature, obligation and resposibilies, and think highly of “family”
2. Western culture is adventurous and exploraton based. They like taking risks and discovering new things while Chinese culture is conservative and traditional based,they like carring on the good traditional ways to shape their life.
3. In attemping to solve people and nature’s relationship,Western culture is based on science,they see man and the world seperate and aim at conquering nature,so change is considered progress, while Chinese culture is based on humanism and people, they think man is a part of nature and aim to keep harmonious relationship with nature,so satbility is highly valued. Moreover, they attempt to fuse the human and “heaven ”as one.(天人合一)
4. In resolving people and people’s relationship, Western culture use law while Chinese culture use ethics and tolerance.
5. To resolve human and spiritualism, Westerner use god and religion , but Chinese use internal cultivation(修身养性)
6. Chinese culture that expands and develops internally while Western culture outwards
7. Chinese focus on “middle way”,peace is always honoured.
4.Different thinking ways:
The pattern of thinking in the wesk is linear(直线的), chain-like, direct and analytical, in the east, it is cyclical, holistic, indirect and intuitive; in political and ideological areas, the western is a contract model but the Chinese is an entirety one
The features of thinking ---Western : inner to outside, small to big , below to upper; many to one.
Different thinking styles:---western: seek difference from sameness ;
C A
1. figurative thinking abstact thinking
2. Comprehensive thinking analytical thinking
3. Subject-centered thinking object- centered thinking
4. Straight thinking converse thinking
5. Imagery thinking logical thinking
5.Native English speakers:
English is their mother’s tongue,it includes people of many countries--Amecicans, Englishmen, Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders and others. In spite of their common language, there still exists differences, such as American say “you’re welcome ” in reply to “thank you ”,whereas Englishman would say Not at all, etc. Of course, there also some differences between native and non-native speakers, such as speed of speech,accent, use of slang and so forth.
第二章words
6. Semantic differences(语义差异)
1) A term in one language that does not have a counterpart in another language
2) Words or terms in both languages that seem to refer to the same object or concept on the surface, but which acturally refer to quite different things
3) Terms or concepts that are represented by one or perhaps two terms in one language,but by many more terms in the other language
4) Terms that have more or less the same primary meaning,but which have secondary or additional meanings may differ from each other.
Such as “干部” in Chinese, there is no exact counterpart in English.
7. Fire company: 消防队 let George do it :让别人去干吧
Highway :主要干道 A wet hen ： 非常生气
Frenchwindow :落地窗 goose flesh ：鸡皮疙瘩
Indian summer ：小阳春 A lion in the way： 拦路虎
A drowning rat : 落汤鸡 an ass in a lion’s skin 狐假虎威
High school 中学(A.) service station:加油站
Rest room：厕所，浴室 lounge ：休息室
Busboy :服务员 busybody 爱管闲事的人
Political campain 竞选运动
第三章 words and family tie
stepmother 继母 mother-in-law 婆婆、丈母娘
Daughter-in-law 媳妇 exhusband 前任丈夫
Sister-in-law 嫂嫂，弟妹 brother-in-law 姐夫，妹夫
Connotative: from two dictionaries that one defines connotation as “the implication of a word, apart from its primary meaning”; the other one defines it as “the suggesting of a meaning by a word apart from the thing it explicitly names or describes”, we know that the connotation of a word is different from it denotation--its explicit meaning. For students of a foreign language, it’s important to learn not only denotation but also connotation,otherwise they will feel bad.
Peasants:
This word has a derogatory meaning in English term,it points at those uneducated peson of low social status, or countryman, rustic , an ill-bred person ,ect. While in Chinese , the word “peasant”is used in its primary sense,it refers to a group of the agricultural class,including farmers,laborers,etc according to AHD. So if we don’t know the difference, there will be misunderstanding between people from different coutries,especially those people from western countries.
Idealist 与materialism
Idealist is also translated as “唯心主义者”， and the latter one as “唯物主义者”。In a strictly philosophical piece of writing, such translations might be acceptable. But more often than not, the words are used in a totally different sense.In some circumstances, idealist can be translated in “追求理想的人”or “理想主义者”，and materialism can be translated in “物质主义者” or “追求物质生活的人”，so the meaning of “Idealist ”and “materialism”can be different which all depends on what situations they are in.
Politician 与statesman
In American English,politician can be a very derogatory term, one that arouses contempt. It implies a person who is in public life merely for personal gain as well as for self-interests.It can also mean a smoothoperator.In Chinsese, we can call it “政客”；Whileas statement, it means a person with wisdom and skill in managing the affairs of state and used when referring to a respected person in high government office.Politicians can be found everywhere, statement are comparatively rare.
Liberal与liberalism
As an adjective, liberal means a person is willing to understand and respect the ideas and feelings of others, or favouring some change, as in political or religious affairs; As a noun, liberal means a person with wide understanding and also is in favour of change(LCE),or person in favour of progress and reform and opposed to privilege(OAL); While we can see Liberalism as a whole, it contains many different aspects, views and so on , so we can not exactly say liberal equals liberalism,or liberalism means liberal.
关键字(了解)：individualism, freedom and human rights, competition, pragmatism实用主义(on the linking of practice and theory)，social equality, feminism(is a collection of movements and ideologies aimed at defining, establshing, and defending equal politicalm economic and social rights for women), progress
Chapter 5
Idioms: Idioms are phrases and sentences that do not mean exactly what they say. An idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has figurative meaning — its implication comprehended only through common use; whereas the literal definition of the idiom, itself, does not communicate its meaning as a figurative usage.

Proverbs: Proverbs are wise sayings that help teach lessons. A proverb also called a byword or nayword, is a simple and concrete saying popularly known and repeated, which expresses a truth, based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. Proverbs are often borrowed from similar languages and cultures, and sometimes come down to the present through more than one language. Proverbs are found in many parts of the world and are often borrowed across lines of language, religion, and even time. 例子：（All rivers run into sea. 海纳百川。 All that glitters is not gold. 闪光的不一定都是金子。）

Chapter 6
Metaphor比喻: Metaphor is the concept of understanding one thing in terms of another. A metaphor is a figure of speech that constructs an analogy between two things or ideas; Metaphors are comparisons that show how two things that are not alike in most ways are similar in one important way. Metaphor also denotes rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via association, comparison or resemblance

The differences of association联想:
1. Creatures having certain associated characteristics in one culture, but not in the other 2. Creatures with certain associated qualities in both cultures, but with different qualities. Under the second category let us consider the owl, the bat, the dog, the tiger and the petrel.

Owl: In English owl stands for wisdom, like the saying goes: as wise as the owl. In Chinese, owl stands for potential misfortune, the mere sight of an owl is enough to draw back in fear, just as the saying “an owl visiting a home”.
Bat: The bat is usually associated with negative qualities in the West. As bind as a bat；crazy as a bat are typical expression of the negative associations. Mention of the bat often evokes the in image of an ugly, sinister, blood-sucking creature.
To Chinese, the bat is a symbol of good fortune, well-beings, happiness----all positive qualities since the name of the creature is pronounced the same as 福.
Dog: Dog is the best friends of man, in English people treat dog as the simple of loyalty, dependability, courage, intelligence. However, in Chinese the dogs are generally associated with unpleasantness. Many dirty words are often related with dog.
Tiger: The characteristics associated with the tiger in Chinese culture are two sides: positive and negative, good and bad. On the positive side are courage, vigor, decisiveness. On the negative side are ferocity, cruelty, ruthlessness.
Petrel: In English the petrel is considered as an omen of disaster. However, in China the word “petrel” is associated with braving hardship and adversity, advancing with perseverance and courage.
Lion: to the English, and to the most westerners, “the king of the beasts” is the lion. It can be seen in from such expressions regal as a lion, majestic as a lion. In Chinese, lion is regarded commonly as being fierce and powerful, but not necessarily majestic of regal.
第七章 color words
Red:
1. it is associated with joyful occasions and celebrations,both in English-speaking countries and in China. In English, some holiday words are marked in red in calendars; in Chinese, such as “ 开门红”，it means things get off to a good beginning.
2. It is related to certain emotions. In English,to become red-face means Chinese “脸红”，but sometimes some English expressions cannot be easily understood by Chinese and vice versa, such as “red flag” or “红光满面” 。
3. It is associated with revolution and socialism. Such as “red guard”(红卫兵) exists in both English and Chinese,but to English-speaking countries, this word means communism,and full of derogatory meaning
4. In some cultures, red denotes purity, enthusiastic, and energetic, In China, red is the color of happiness and prosperity.
5. Red means danger or emergency. Such as “stop signs” and “stop lights”
White:
1. To most Chinese and Westerners, white has certain similar connotations: purity, innocence,清白，etc. But it does not apply to all the English terms or Chinese terms, such as white in English “white lie” stands for a good excuse to rejrct something and white in Chinese “红白喜事” means funeral.
2. In most Western countries ,white is the color for brides. In the east, it’s for mourning and funeral.
3. White is often associated with hospitals ,doctors, nurses, and dentists.
4. Some countries viewed white as royalty and impartiality, many Westerners potray angels wears white,which means angels are pure and holy.
Blue-collar workers 蓝领阶层 White flag : surrender
White-collar workers 白领阶层 white goods 白色货物，（冰箱等）
Red ink 赤字 brown goods 棕色货物 （电视等）
In the black 盈利 white night 不眠之夜
Yellow dog 忘恩负义之徒 red flag 让人生气的东西
In the red 透支，赤字 危险，警告
Black dog 不开心的人 black smith 铁匠
Black sheep 害群之马 black leg 骗子
the white coffee 牛奶咖啡 white man 善良的人
Build up from nothing 白手起家 all in vain 白费事
black in the face 脸色铁青
第八章 Allusions(典故)
An allusion is a brief, often indirect reference to a person, event, thing ,or place,real or fictitious, or a work of art.It is used to explain or clarify a complex promblem. Allusions ususlly come from a body of information that the author thine reader will know and also from famous people, history, mythology, literature and the bible and so forth.
Many English allusions from the treature house of English literature, especially from shakespeare, such as “Shylock”, if someone described a person is like Shylock, he or she is cruel , greedy and monty-grabbing person.In Chinese, many allusions come from the Four classical masterpieces;
Many allusions in English and Amecrican speech and writing are legends and mythology, such as Geographical names “Paris”, it is Tray’s son’s name,Paris, who reducted the beautiful Helen led to the Trojan War., such as Names of days of the week “Friday” and so on.
A lot are from contemporary events, personalities or products ,etc.such as “That’s something for Ripley”
Chinese allusions come from history, legends,religions ,sports and so on, such as “智多星”，“刘姥姥进了大观园”,”拔苗助长” “临时抱佛脚”“唱白脸”等
Chapter 9
Euphemism: A euphemism is a word or phrase that stands in for another word or phrase, chosen to mask or soften the true meaning of what is being expressed. A euphemism is an expression intended by the speaker to be less offensive, disturbing, or troubling to the listener than the word or phrase it replaces. Euphemisms are often used to hide unpleasant or disturbing ideas, even when the literal term for them is not necessarily offensive.

To refer to death:
to be asleep in the Arms of God; to be at peace; to be at rest;
to be called to God ; to be called home ; to be home and free;
to be taken to paradise ; The call of God ; to depart;
The final departure; final sleep ; to go home; Pass away ;
Be no more; Breathe one’s last; Go west; Fall asleep in the