Lexical Gaps Between English and Chinese From Cultural Difference

开篇：润墨网以专业的文秘视角，为您筛选了一篇Lexical Gaps Between English and Chinese From Cultural Difference范文，如需获取更多写作素材，在线客服老师一对一协助。欢迎您的阅读与分享！

【摘 要】论文在指出词汇空缺现象和国内外对该现象的研究后，从宗教、习俗和社会价值三方面论述了其原因。

【关键词】词汇空缺；宗教；习俗；社会价值

【Abstract】This thesis gives the definition of lexical gaps and makes a summary of the studies about lexical gaps both home and abroad. Then three causes of lexical gaps， such as religion， custom and social values， are presented by the author to show language and culture are totally together.

【Key Words】lexical gaps， religion， custom， social values

1. Introduction

Language cannot exist separately from culture. Culture is the combination of the spiritual，intellectual，and artistic attitudes shared by a group，including its tradition， habits， social customs，morals，laws，and social relations. Sociologically，every society，on every level， has its culture. Language reflects the culture of a nation on the one hand and is influenced greatly by that particular culture on the other hand. As a result， words， the basic component of a language， are influenced and shaped by culture. As two languages belong to different cultures， English and Chinese have their particular lexical systems， which results in the absence of certain words or certain meaning of the same word in the other language. This phenomenon is called lexical gaps for the first time. Lexical gaps occur in every field in real life. They are manifested in the different grammatical categories between english and chinese like number， gender， person， tense and collocation， and display in semantic categories like denotation and connotation.

2. Studies Both Home and Abroad

Lexical gaps refer to the phenomenon that one word exists in one language but has no corresponding word in other languages. Lexical words are visible signs or tools， which contain cultural information and reflect human social life. The comparison of linguistic and cultural differences shows the existence of lexical gaps between English and Chinese.

The discussion of “vacancy” phenomenon aroused researchers’ interest and promoted the research in 1970s. American linguist DiPietro.RJ proposed the concept of “vacancy” to show the words unequivalence in Language Structure in Contrast. He used “random holes in patterns” to describe the language phenomenon when comparing grammatical patterns of two language. Lexical gaps， Lexical gaps are often discussed together with culture. In 1980s， Russian scholar Sorokin proposed the theory of “cultural vacancy” in his research paper concerning cultural peculiarities of diverse nations.

Talking of the relationships between the other and the self， we can readily find Chinese expressions about self-depreciation but respect to others， which is called a pragmatic principle of belittling self and respecting others （卑己尊人）.Expressions like 糟糠、贱内、鄙人、献丑、见笑 and so on find no equivalents in English. The value about the age varies in different cultures， too. In China， the old symbolizes the intelligence and authority， and deserves others’ respect. This can be proved by many respectful expressions connecting with “老” such as 老师傅、老大爷、老王and 李老. While in English speaking countries， people respect the young more than the old. The old saying of “It is great to be learned. It is great to be young” supports this view. So， if 老人家 is literally put into English as old man or old lady， or老王 as old man Wang， the lexical gaps must arise as the real sense is lost and we can in no way find their equivalents in English.

4. Conclusion

Language cannot exist separately from culture. Language reflects the culture of a nation on the one hand and is influenced greatly by that particular culture on the other hand. The thesis only show some causes of lexical gaps. Later， the representation of lexical gaps， cultural zero equivalences， semantic gaps， grammatical consideration， semantic gap （denotation and connotation） and grammatical consideration （number， gender， person and tense） will be discussed in detail， together with some ways to eliminate this phenomenon.

（To be continued）

【References】

[1]DiPietro，RJ. 1978. Language Structure in Contrast， Newbury house， Rowley， Mass

[2]Hu Wenzhong. 1998. The Introduction of Communication between Different Cultures. Beijing Foreign Language and Research Press

[3]Hu Zhuanglin. 2001. A Course of Linguistics. Revised Edition. Beijing： The University of Beijing Press

[4]James， Carl. 1980. Contrastive Analysis， Longman Group Ltd.

[5]Procter， Paul. 1987. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Longman Group Limited

[6]邓炎昌.语言与文化―-英汉语言文化对比[M].北京：外语教学研究出版社，2001.

[7]王德春.汉英谚语与文化[M].上海：上海外语教育出版社，2003.