References 23

 1. Introduction

1.1 A Contrast between Traditional Color Words (TCWs) and New Color Words (NCWs)

According to L. D. Lerner (2014), color, as the complex sensation, is made up of four different sensations. These are hue, which determined by wave-length; admixture with white, which makes a color pale or intense; and brightness, determined by the amount of light falling on or emanating from it. Color words keep developing with the change of society. 

   Chart 1

Traditional color words always have basic color words. In English, Brent Berlin & Paul Kay(1969) mentioned the categorization of colors. They thought that there were ten basic color words. Through survey, they also found that there is an order of the appearance of these color words: black/ white >red>green>yellow>blue>purple/ pink/orange/ grey. Such an order has a close link with “focal colors”. In 1973, Rosch did further research on focal colors and formed the prototype theory.

    In Chinese, Yao Xiaoping (1988) and Li Hongyin (2001) both stated that there are eleven color words: 红, 黄, 蓝, 白, 黑, 绿, 灰, 紫, 棕, 褐, 橙. With time going by, the category of traditional color words is enriched. The color “金(gold)”, “银(silver)” and “粉(pink)” are commonly used as basic color words. In Chinese, people always use the color words or add the character “色” after them. For example, when describing the color of snow, Chinese people will use “白” or “白色”. 

Compared with traditional color words, New Color Words (NCWs) differ from it in the following aspects.    

    First, NCWs contain modifiers that can be nouns, adjectives, verbs and so on. 

Table 1

TCWs Examples NCWs Examples

white noble white

blue passion blue

红 胜利红

黑 炫酷黑

    Second, some NCWs lack basic color words such as “沙漠雾”, “俏佳人”, “海洋之星”, “grape”, etc. Although people can not directly recognize the color without basic color words, they can still understand  

what those color words refer to because of the imagination. For example, “俏佳人” refers to “pink” and “grape” refers to “purple”. Thirds, NCWs are endowed with commendatory or derogatory sense. Due to the modifiers, NCWs can easily be influenced by their original meanings. For example, “高雅蓝” in Chinese and “passion blue” in English. Both “高雅(noble)” and “passion” have commendatory meanings that praise people. 

1.2 Objectives of the Study

The emergence of NCWs is not accidental. It represents the change of the society. So it is of great necessity for people to know about what is happening nowadays. Generally, the objectives of the study can be expressed in three points.

First, this study gives a contrast between TCWs and NCWs both in Chinese and English. In this way, people can better understand what NCWs are, based on their cognition of traditional color words. 

    Second, the analysis of NCWs is developed from three aspects: cognitive metaphor, cognitive metonymy and cognitive metaphor and metonymy combined. From these three aspects, how NCWs convey metaphorical and metonymic meanings will be clearly expressed. And it also states how metaphor differs from and connects with metonymy, which will help people further know about these two cognitive tools.

    Third, it presents a semantic analysis and a survey on the use of NCWs, which help people know basic information about NCWs as well as the current situation of them in real society.  从认知隐喻和转喻的角度研究新兴颜色词(3):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_49078.html