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【Abstract】： Colors， as a kind of perception for the objective world， are visual experiences caused by light waves on eyes， and gradually become basic color concepts hence create basic color terms because of different influences from external environment. Color words， corresponding to color perception， is special in the system of language， and people can study the relationship between language and cognition in terms of studying color terms and their cognition. This paper will discuss how color terms affect English teaching in terms of semantic distributions of color “white”.
【Key words】： color terms white English teaching
【摘要】：作為对客观世界的一种感知，颜色是由光波作用于人眼而引起的视觉经验，因为受不同的外界环境的影响，而逐渐形成基本的颜色概念，并产生基本颜色词。颜色词与颜色知觉相对应，在语言系统中具有特殊性，通过对颜色词与颜色认知的研究可以探讨语言与认知的关系。本文将从颜色词“白”的语义分布情况看探讨颜色词对英语教学的启示。
【关键词】：颜色词；白；英语教学
1.Introduction
In Metaphors We Live By， Lakoff and Johnson propose “Conceptual Metaphor Theory” （CMT）. They put forward that “metaphor is not just a matter of language， that is， of mere words. We shall argue that， on the contrary， human thought processes are largely metaphorical” （Lakoff & Johnson， 1980：6）. Moreover， they take metaphor as a process of cross-mapping from one mental domain to another， and every abstract concept as metaphorical. Lakoff’s cognitive view on metaphor is regarded as a breakthrough in metaphor study， which challenges the traditional metaphorical study that mainly focuses on the linguistic internal study. With the increasing progress of neurology， genetics， and cognition， the color metaphor has been the focus of study， apart from the spatial metaphor and the time metaphor. The universality of the color metaphor across cultures has become a priority.
Nowadays， with the development of technology， corpus-based study is becoming a new area， and corpus-based study has been used in multiple academic fields. And there are many advantages of using corpus， for example， it can avoid subjectivity and provide convincing proofs and results， what’s more， corpus could be used to help researchers save time and energy. It is well-known that interdisciplinary study is always a top choice， especially to put technology into a certain research field. Therefore， it is a development tendency to combine corpus and color metaphor study.
2. Semantic distribution
In order to get a general idea of the frequency of “white” term， the author searches “white” in the corpora and get 500 data respectively in English and in Chinese. The types and the frequency of “white” metaphorical uses in English is shown in the article “A Corpus-based Contrastive Study on the Metaphor of the Color Term ‘white’”. 2.1 A comparison between “white” and “白” metaphorical uses
From table 1 and table 2 in “A Corpus-based Contrastive Study on the Metaphor of the Color Term ‘white’”， people can see that “white” metaphor in English and in Chinese is used pervasively. The author will classify these metaphors under different domains. According to each domain， the similarities and dissimilarities of “white” and “白” are to be understood by the certain samples from corpora in detail.
（1）The love domain
WHITE /白IS PURENESS AND HONESTNESS
I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare. He was my first white love.
很难设想白衣天使们对细胳膊嫩肉屡屡下针时是什么样的心情.
WHITE IS LOVE
How then， she thought as Daisy pinned white roses in her hair the following morning， had it come to this？
In Chinese， “白” is not symbol of love， but “红” is a symbol of love， such as “红玫瑰”.
（2）The politics domain
WHITE/白IS GIVING UP
They’ve already waived the white flag of defeat.
對方敌人举了白旗，我们胜利了.
WHITE/白 IS DOCUMENT
In 2011， a United States Food & Drug Administration （FDA）'white paper' analyzed 34 of the 60 cases reported worldwide.
洲共同体委员会发表名为《欧洲社会政策之路：选择联合》白皮书.
WHITE IS POWER
The White House appears to want to have its cake and eat it too， bragging about its " year of action " while pointing to numbers that play down Obama's use of executive authority.
In Chinese， there is no sample in CCL， so “白” is not symbol of power， but “红” is symbol of power， such as “红色政权”. “白色政权” in Chinese means counter-revolution political power， so it is a negative word， which is different from “white” in English.
白IS COUNTER-REVOLUTION POWER
正如毛泽东所说的：“一国之内，在周围白色政权的包围中，……”
（3）The emotion domain
WHITE IS COWARDICE
In the way of destruction， I do not turn tail or show the white feather at calamity's first notice.
WHITE/白 IS FEAR AND TERROR
Horthy imposed a brutal' white terror' on socialists and communists.
面对白色恐怖，爱国学生不顾个人安危，为迎接上海的解放，为新中国的诞生而积极投身于革命事业.
白IS DESPISE
There is no sample to express this meaning.
当年宋查理在林乐知那里受到的歧视和白眼.
（4）The social morality domain
白IS NOTHING
“念书之外”，同学和我常作白日梦.
五十岁可以在家乡白吃白喝.
白IS POOR
和中国一穷二白的基础相比，这些成绩实实在在，国内外有目共睹.
白IS UNDERSTANDABLE
在明代白话小说中，“X之外”、“除了X之外”.
WHITE/白IS CLEAR
I’m proud of my white history and my white blood.
【Key words】： color terms white English teaching
【摘要】：作為对客观世界的一种感知，颜色是由光波作用于人眼而引起的视觉经验，因为受不同的外界环境的影响，而逐渐形成基本的颜色概念，并产生基本颜色词。颜色词与颜色知觉相对应，在语言系统中具有特殊性，通过对颜色词与颜色认知的研究可以探讨语言与认知的关系。本文将从颜色词“白”的语义分布情况看探讨颜色词对英语教学的启示。
【关键词】：颜色词；白；英语教学
1.Introduction
In Metaphors We Live By， Lakoff and Johnson propose “Conceptual Metaphor Theory” （CMT）. They put forward that “metaphor is not just a matter of language， that is， of mere words. We shall argue that， on the contrary， human thought processes are largely metaphorical” （Lakoff & Johnson， 1980：6）. Moreover， they take metaphor as a process of cross-mapping from one mental domain to another， and every abstract concept as metaphorical. Lakoff’s cognitive view on metaphor is regarded as a breakthrough in metaphor study， which challenges the traditional metaphorical study that mainly focuses on the linguistic internal study. With the increasing progress of neurology， genetics， and cognition， the color metaphor has been the focus of study， apart from the spatial metaphor and the time metaphor. The universality of the color metaphor across cultures has become a priority.
Nowadays， with the development of technology， corpus-based study is becoming a new area， and corpus-based study has been used in multiple academic fields. And there are many advantages of using corpus， for example， it can avoid subjectivity and provide convincing proofs and results， what’s more， corpus could be used to help researchers save time and energy. It is well-known that interdisciplinary study is always a top choice， especially to put technology into a certain research field. Therefore， it is a development tendency to combine corpus and color metaphor study.
2. Semantic distribution
In order to get a general idea of the frequency of “white” term， the author searches “white” in the corpora and get 500 data respectively in English and in Chinese. The types and the frequency of “white” metaphorical uses in English is shown in the article “A Corpus-based Contrastive Study on the Metaphor of the Color Term ‘white’”. 2.1 A comparison between “white” and “白” metaphorical uses
From table 1 and table 2 in “A Corpus-based Contrastive Study on the Metaphor of the Color Term ‘white’”， people can see that “white” metaphor in English and in Chinese is used pervasively. The author will classify these metaphors under different domains. According to each domain， the similarities and dissimilarities of “white” and “白” are to be understood by the certain samples from corpora in detail.
（1）The love domain
WHITE /白IS PURENESS AND HONESTNESS
I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare. He was my first white love.
很难设想白衣天使们对细胳膊嫩肉屡屡下针时是什么样的心情.
WHITE IS LOVE
How then， she thought as Daisy pinned white roses in her hair the following morning， had it come to this？
In Chinese， “白” is not symbol of love， but “红” is a symbol of love， such as “红玫瑰”.
（2）The politics domain
WHITE/白IS GIVING UP
They’ve already waived the white flag of defeat.
對方敌人举了白旗，我们胜利了.
WHITE/白 IS DOCUMENT
In 2011， a United States Food & Drug Administration （FDA）'white paper' analyzed 34 of the 60 cases reported worldwide.
洲共同体委员会发表名为《欧洲社会政策之路：选择联合》白皮书.
WHITE IS POWER
The White House appears to want to have its cake and eat it too， bragging about its " year of action " while pointing to numbers that play down Obama's use of executive authority.
In Chinese， there is no sample in CCL， so “白” is not symbol of power， but “红” is symbol of power， such as “红色政权”. “白色政权” in Chinese means counter-revolution political power， so it is a negative word， which is different from “white” in English.
白IS COUNTER-REVOLUTION POWER
正如毛泽东所说的：“一国之内，在周围白色政权的包围中，……”
（3）The emotion domain
WHITE IS COWARDICE
In the way of destruction， I do not turn tail or show the white feather at calamity's first notice.
WHITE/白 IS FEAR AND TERROR
Horthy imposed a brutal' white terror' on socialists and communists.
面对白色恐怖，爱国学生不顾个人安危，为迎接上海的解放，为新中国的诞生而积极投身于革命事业.
白IS DESPISE
There is no sample to express this meaning.
当年宋查理在林乐知那里受到的歧视和白眼.
（4）The social morality domain
白IS NOTHING
“念书之外”，同学和我常作白日梦.
五十岁可以在家乡白吃白喝.
白IS POOR
和中国一穷二白的基础相比，这些成绩实实在在，国内外有目共睹.
白IS UNDERSTANDABLE
在明代白话小说中，“X之外”、“除了X之外”.
WHITE/白IS CLEAR
I’m proud of my white history and my white blood.