Language and culture: the contrastive analysis in the Vietnamese and English idioms of colours

Abstract

This paper compares and contrasts five colours in both Vietnamese and English idioms to identify similarities and differences in the connotational meaning caused by cultural effects on their own languages. The meanings of idioms are not definitely related to grammatical rules or the lexical meaning of each word but are based on cultural features. In each culture, the meanings of colours have not only similarities but also differences. This paper clarifies the importance of culture in the language in terms of colours. That is, if one is unaware of the culture behind a language, language learners can misunderstand or distort target language meanings as evidenced by well-presented examples. Accordingly, the implication drawn is that learning any language means learning not only the grammar and the vocabulary of this language but also its own cultural elements.

Keywords

• language
• culture
• contrastive analysis
• connotational meaning
• vietnamese and english idioms of colours