The Cultural Barriers in the Study of English Words.doc

1、The Cultural Barriers in the Study of English WordsAbstract： Language is the carriers of culture. peoples words and deeds reflect certain cultural connotation consciously or unconsciously. Word studying is the backbone in a language to study. So，if you want to manage it you should know some knowledg

2、e about its culture. Analyzing the differences of the cultural elements， such as social， history，regional，and interal causes etc， is very useful in the study of English words. Key words： regional culture equivalent word internal causes 中图分类号： H319 文献标识码： A 文章编号： 1009-8631（2012）10-0053-02 I. Introduc

3、tion Study the word. Because language is the carrier of culture， peoples words and deeds reflect certain cultural connotation consciously or unconsciously. Every social communication possesses its own certain the word studying is the backbone in a language to study. So it is important for a foreigne

4、r to ought pattern， value， custom， and way of life， every word as the basic of language have their cultural character in the background， and we cannot understand and use the word every well if we did not have some cultural knowledge. II. Four important cultural elements which affect the meaning of a

5、 word For a long time， in China， English teaching has just focused on the language forms （such as phonetics， vocabulary and grammar） and ignored the effect of background knowledge of culture. As the carrier of culture， the cultural background of language is rather extensive. Lacking of the necessary

6、 cultural background may hinder people from comprehending language. For instance， when the President Reagan took up his post， an American told a Chinese teacher： “the United States has gone from peanuts to popcorn.” The syntax of this sentence is very simple. However， the Chinese teacher did not und

7、erstand the sentence at that time until her friend explained to her that former President Jimmy Carter owned a big peanut farm while the present President Reagan is an actor and people eat popcorn while they watch TV. She suddenly realized the real humorous meaning of this sentence. 1. Historical Cu

8、lture Historical culture refers to the culture that is formed by the developing process of certain history and social heritage that varies between nations at often times. In the process of cross-cultural reading， we often meet the comprehension barriers that are caused by such differences of histori

9、cal cultures. For example： At a science museum you can feel your hair stand on end as harmless electricity passes through your body （The Intersection of Idioms?.The phrase ones hair stands on end is an idiom， from a criminals expression. In 1825， an Englishman named Robert was sentenced to death by

10、hanging for stealing horses.While waiting for his execution at the gallows， Robert was extremely scared， the result of which made his hair stand straight up. Therefore， in English， ones hair stands on end means fear. The writer uses this idiom to emphasize that the museum is very weird and strange.

11、However， if Chinese students do not know the background of this idiom， they may fail to understand its idiomatic meaning over and above the direct meaning. 2. Regional Culture Regional culture， here， refers to the culture that can be shaped by natural conditions and geographical environment of an ar

12、ea. These effects on culture may lend themselves to creating comprehension barriers to Chinese students. For example， （1） shall I compare thee to a summers day？ Thou art lovelier and more temperate. This poem is a part of Shakespeares sonnet. He compared the lover to a summers day， which is difficul

13、t for Chinese students to understand. Only knowing some relevant geographical knowledge， can they get real understanding of this sonnet？ As Britain is a high latitude country， the average summer temperature is about 20 degrees and the daytime is very long， from about 4 oclock in the morning to about

14、 10 oclock at night. Therefore， the summer in Britain is pleasantly cool and delightful. （2） British poet Shelleys poem “Ode to the West Wind” compares the west wind to the warm and delightful wind that brings forth spring. However， to Chinese people， the west wind not only means cold but also means

15、 declining and depressed. 3. Social Culture Language is an important component of culture， the existence and development of language are influenced by society， and the social phenomenon and vocabulary of a certain historical periods reflect the objective history of society. Such vocabulary may confu

16、se foreign readers. For instance， when American President Nixon was in his second term of office， Watergate became a well-established and common term. 4. Religious culture Religious culture is an important component in the lives of many human beings. It refers to the culture that is formed by religi

17、ous belief of nation and can be embodied in the cultural differences of taboo of different nations. Confucianism， Taoism and Buddhism are three main religions of China， which deeply influence Chinese people. On the contrary， many people living in European based and/or founded cultures believe in Chr

18、istianity?or have been seriously influenced by Christian values. Again， there is a need to emphasize cultural differences as being potentially extensive and complex. In the process of words studying， at times， we should focus on the understanding of cultural background to get a deeper understanding

19、of the word. III. The different comprehension of the equivalent words in different cultures In English studying， cultural barriers and language cannot be separated. Language is a carrier， which not only carries the information of language， but also carries the information of culture. Every kind of l

20、anguage is created and developed in a certain historical circumstance of society. As the basic element of language， vocabulary is the backbone of the whole language system. It certainly reflects the differences of culture most obviously and extensively. On the one hand， some English words can have t

21、heir equivalents in Chinese， so during the process of reading， readers from different cultures may not experience culturally related comprehension barriers. However， there may be many words in one culture， for which the equivalents can not be found in other cultures； in other words， “vocabulary vaca

22、ncy”. On the other hand， although we can find the equivalent word， the meaning extent of a word and the connotation of culture are not complete equivalent between different cultures. The differences of culture in vocabulary can be reflected in the following： for example， （1） In English， privacy mean

23、s state of being away from others， alone and undisturbed while it usually refers to personal secrets and the secrets and unusual behaviors of personal life in Chinese. （2） Exploitation means using or developing fully so as to get profit in English while in Chinese， it usually means use selfishly and

24、 unfairly for ones own advantage or profit. Secondly， many English words can find the equivalents in Chinese while the cultural connotations of them are different. Two aspects will be concerned： the quantity of the equivalents， the meaning extent of the equivalents and the cultural association of th

25、e equivalents. （1） The numbers of equivalents of English and Chinese are not always the same. For example， the word cousin in Chinese can have a different meaning. A compete translation of Biome could be a sister younger than me and on my mothers side. （2） There is one equivalent word in Chinese to

26、an English word， but the meaning extent of two words are not exactly the same. One reason may be is that the meaning extent of English vocabulary is larger than that of Chinese vocabulary. IV. The Internal causes which affect the meaning of a word Besides the external causes including readers vocabu

27、lary and the knowledge of grammar and cross-cultural background， this paper will also examine the internal causes. This includes thought pattern and value as the two most essential ones. 1. Thought Patterns Every foreign language learners naturally and easily apply their habits of mother language to

28、 foreign language mechanically. Sometimes it works but sometimes it does not， because of the differences between mother language and foreign language. The habits here refer to the thought patterns. The differences of thought patterns are the main reason of causing cross-cultural barriers. English em

29、phasizes formal logic thought， for example， the structure of sentence is inflexion. In other words， they use every kind of connecting approaches to complete the grammatical form， while the Chinese focuses on dialectical thought， the expressive form of language is guided by meaning， and the sentence

30、is loose. These two different thought patterns between English and Chinese influence the connection of the text. For example， many years ago， there was an old woman. She did not like children at all， but she loved cats. She had black cats and white cats. She had mother cats and baby cats， so the chi

31、ldren all came to her house. More and more cats came to the old womans house. Soon there were too many cats. “The children love my cats， ” she thought， so she gave each child a cat. Then she was happy. And the children were happy， and the cats were happy， too， because they each had a home. （Helen Fr

32、itch）?马博森?. 2. Values Some experts considered that in the view of philosophy， value is a very common concept. It includes economy， politics， morality， art， religion， science， culture and even the common connotation and essence of gains and losses， kindness and evil， beauty and ugliness， produces and

33、 corns in every field of daily life. Different cultures have different values. There are many differences of value concepts between English and Chinese culturally based countries. These differences cause varied thought patterns， standards of morality and behaviors. （1）Individualism and Collectivism

34、Individualism is the idea that the rights and freedom of the individual are the most important in the society. The interests of the individual are considered to be more important than the interests of the group. It is the outcome of historical development and traditional culture of the West. On the

35、contrary， Chinese emphasize collectivism. The interests of the collectivism are considered to be more important than the interest of the individual. They cherish the complete and stable family， maintain harmony and avoid confrontations. （2） Independence and Dependence Independence is an important fe

36、ature of the western culture. The tradition and spirit of self-dependence influence the young generation. The educational patterns and principles of society， school and family in every aspect influence their views of life continuously. Generally speaking， the youth ages from 18 to 21 tend to solve t

37、heir problems by themselves both in economy and emotion for they consider that depending on parents is ashamed of. V. Conclusion People like to use the “global village“ to describe the present world. Because of frequent cross-cultural communication， the world has become smaller and smaller. Therefor

38、e， it seems that we live in the same village. However， it does not necessarily mean that differences of cross-culture become smaller and smaller. On the contrary， it may be that there is an increase in miss-understandings and communicative barriers because of frequent cross-cultural communication， A

39、s a foreign language learner， we should not only learn the knowledge of language， but also try our best to contact the social and cultural aspects of English countries and learn the background knowledge of literature， history， geography， local condition and customs. Works Cited 1 Samour， L.A. and R.E Porter. Intercultural Communication： A Reader （5thed） M.Wadsworth Publishing Co.， 1988. 2 Goodman K. S. Reading： A psycholinguistic Guessing GameJ. Journal of？Reading，1976.