THE COLOR TERMS IN THE CHINESE LINGUOCULTURAL TRADITION

Abstract

The study of color terms has always been in the focus of linguists’ attention. Chinese and foreign scholars have made some progress in the lexical system and the semantic structure of modern Chinese and ancient Chinese languages, as well as in the rhetorical and cultural studies of color terms. In recent years, fruitful results have been obtained in the study of color terms. Color terms are not only a reflection of objective material properties in language, but also an embodiment of the understanding of the objective world by people using language, and through the hidden meaning of these words people can learn about religious beliefs, hierarchical concepts, and customs of different ethnic groups. This article takes the most basic color terms of Chinese language, such as red, yellow, blue, white, black and green, as examples, to examine the historical background of the emergence of color terms and their assigned meanings, and provides a detailed explanation of the cultural symbolism of various colors in Chinese culture.