1. Introduction
The language and the culture are created by people step by step have close relationship with various flowers on earth. Moreover, humans’ linguistic abilities are based on the knowledge that they have. Flower names have been integrated into the vocabulary through description.
Like other words, flower names not only have their denotation meanings, but also have their connotation meanings as well. The flower words, for instance, can be understood by anyone who is engaged in any spoken English. The denotation meaning is the meaning you can find in the dictionary. Professionally, denotation meaning is the same meaning for all speakers of a given language. However, connotative meaning is associative meaning which a word suggests or implies. Just take the phrase “the flower of the film” as an example, it does not mean something literally that it is a flower in the film, but refers to the best part of the film. Connotative meanings are common especially in idioms with flower names. The connotative meanings are rooted from fables, legends, and fairy stories, having been passed down from generation to generation. So the thesis discusses the issue from the angle of semantic features and culture connotations.
As semantics is a wide branch of linguistics, it can not work without making certain relevance to pronunciation of words and their spellings, and the number of flowers in the world is so huge. My thesis starts from the flower-related words and try to find out the difference of their symbolic meanings. The study of the flower names in such a way come from the sparkle of inspiration when one of my roommates sent flowers to his girl friend one day. I have forgotten hoe many flowers he sent, but the symbolic meaning the flowers present is “I love you forever”. So knowing the symbolic meanings of flowers is useful in our daily life.
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2. Literature Review
2.1 Relationship between Language and Culture
Language plays a vital role in human life. We use language every day. Language is a tool for people to communicate with others. Without language, the world will be beyond imagination.
What is language?
This is an intricate question to answer. In linguistics, language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbol used for human communication.
What is culture?
Culture involves at least three components: what people think, what they do, and the material products they produce.
For many years, researchers have been showing much concern on the relationship between language and culture. 'They have contributed many theoretical comments and innumerable facts. Kramsch (2000:3) remarks, \is the principle means whereby we conduct our social lives. When it is used in contexts of communication, it is bound up with culture in multiple and complex ways.\ Nida believes that \terms of reciprocal modifications, the rates of change, the representation of culture by language, and the issues of double causation\Although the scholars' opinions are various, they all admit that language and culture are intricately interwoven. If there was no language, there would be no culture.
On the one hand, language is the carrier of culture and in turn culture is the content of language. The history of human civilization and social progress are recorded by language. Language is the main means for human beings to study culture. In another words, all the components of culture, such as beliefs, customs, religions, science, arts are described, analyzed and evaluated by language. Language is the obvious tool to carry cultural information and contributes to the evolution of culture. No language can operate in isolation from culture. Culture is source of language.
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Every language, to some degree, is particular to a community which uses the language. For examples, People live in the cold climate have as many as different words for snow to distinguish among different types of snow: falling snow, snow on the ground, fluffy snow, wet snow, etc. They live in the world of snow. It is important for them to be able to distinguish among and refer to different types of snow. In contrast, certain hot climate cultures have no word at all for snow. It is said that there are more than four hundred words for camel in Arabic while there is only one word for it in English or Chinese. There are“kuaizi”，“mantou”，“jiaozi”in Chinese. However, in English-speaking countries, there are almost no equivalent expressions to express them. So any item in a particular language is a product of particular culture in which the language is spoken.
On the other hand, language is shaped by culture and it reflects culture. In a wide sense, language is the symbolic representation of a people. People identify themselves and others through their usage of language and they consider their language as a symbol of their social identity. The formation and development of language can not happen without culture, and the development of language often embodies the change of culture. People give meaning to language through the medium they can communicate with each other. The way in which people use the spoken, written, or visual medium itself creates meanings that are understandable to the culture they belong to. In this case, language refers to a store of the whole information of culture. Meanwhile, it also reflects speakers' attitude, belief, point of view, and so on.
The relationship between language and culture is a common concern in humanities. Culture and language have a close relationship through the whole history of man. Language is a component of culture and plays a very important role in culture. Without language, cultural continuity would be impossible. Every language can be considered as symbolic system to reflect a specific culture and an expression of subjective world of the world. So, language is the cornerstone of entire culture which can be well presented and transmitted from generation to generation in the environment of language.
In addition, without the knowledge of culture we can not have a command of
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language because culture strongly influences and shapes language. The development of culture must have enriched language. With the development of society and the progress of science and technology, the content of culture become more and more complicated varied, and richer. They rely on each other and influence each other. Therefore, if we lack enough knowledge about the culture of the target language, we can not use the language appropriately, or we have misunderstanding in the communication. The Chinese culture and English culture are different culture. Thus, emphasis should be laid on the comparative study of different culture. 2.2 Cultural Connotations of Words
As mentioned above, language coexists with culture. Language reflects the culture of a nation on the one hand and is influenced greatly by that particular culture. As a result, words, the basic component of language, are influenced and shaped by culture. Because of the different historical backgrounds, geographical positions, religious beliefs, customs, life styles and value systems, people speaking different language have their own special interpretation of the same world. In each language, there are particular labels or names for objects, events, experiences and feelings as the speech community has arbitrarily decided to name so.
Meaning, the only medium through which words and language are connected with the real world, has always been a central topic in human scholarship. In the viewpoint of Nida, lexemes have two kinds of meanings--denotative meanings and
connotative meaning, and the latter ones are often far more important. Denotative meaning is assumed to be the central factor in linguistic communication. The denotative meaning covers those basic, essential components of meaning that are conveyed by the literal use of word. It is relatively stable and forms the basis of communication. Without conceptual meaning, it is difficult to construct meaning work. It is the nucleus of the meaning network and the main foundation of cultural connotation.
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3. Contrastive Analysis of the Cultural Connotations of
Flower-related Words in English and Chinese
Words are the window of culture, in the sense that people can insight a culture through its connotation. The visible part is the denotative meaning of words; the great part, lying hidden beneath the surface, is its invisible aspect, connotation. Both Chinese and English possess a long history and rich culture, so do the flowers. This chapter will deal with a contrastive analysis of the cultural connotations of flower-related words in English and Chinese.
3.1 The Cultural Connotations of Some Chinese Flower Terms
Each language represents a system of meaning in its particular ways. The distinctions of a certain culture are shown in the lexical system. The cultural connotation of some Chinese flower-related words will be illustrated as follows. 3.1.1 Plum Blossom
The plum blooms in early spring and at the end of winter. The flowers are fragrant and attractive for its color, white, purple, red and pink with usually five pieces of petals. Plum blossoms are admired by Chinese people, so they have the following connotations.
Firm and unyielding
The plum blossoms are the only flower which blossoms in the peak of winter season. Though the surrounding is cold and covered with thick snow; the plum blossoms keep on blooming. No other flower can sustain in this season. So the flower has gradually become the symbol of survival.
Arrogance and purity
In ancient Chinese literature, plum blossom becomes the focus of writings of scholars. As one of popular saying goes,“True scholars will turn to plant plums first, and the more the better”. In the eyes of many scholars, the noble character of plum blossom is a vivid portray of their own. In reality, they have characters of firmness, uprightness and persistence. Neither riches nor honors can corrupt them; neither poverty nor humbleness can make them swerve from principle; neither threats nor
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花卉的象征意义
