The Different Indication of the Same Words in Different Contents between Differe

【Abstract】This paper focus on such type of words, explore their different cultural contents.This paper talks about the significance of religious culture and belief in foreign language learning.The connection between words and religion and belief brings out a question that is the lackness of religious culture and belief in our foreign language learning.

【Key words】Ｐhenomenon;Ｕnderstand;英语词汇学;Ｌanguage;师范大学

When we talk about language, we can’t avoid mentioning culture, and when we talk about culture, we can’t avoid mentioning language either. Then, what is language, what is culture and what is the relationship between them?

The word “culture” is a very broad concept, which should contain all the civilization of human beings, including food, mechanics, architectures, social organizations, economic systems, customs, thoughts and languages, etc.

Many scholars put forward different opinions about these questions, but they came to an agreement that culture and language influence each other greatly and deeply, especially the religious culture that reigned human society for several thousands of years help to develop different national consciousness, different cultural content and different understanding to words. This question also arouses the echo in foreign language learning: How different cultural content affect students when they learn a foreign language? How can they use this influence passively?

I choose a kind of typical type of words in this paper―kinship address.Kinship address’ difference between Chinese and English is a typical question that is a big headache for many translators and language learners for its complexity. These examples are typical embodiment of cultural difference, through the research on them you could find the core of the culture hidden behind words.

First let us see an interesting phenomenon. In Chinese, there are a lot of words to address one’s relatives according to age and different relations between them, e.g. marriage relation, blood relation. While in English，kinship address is much simplified.The statement Katherine’s brother married John’s sister is hard to be translated into Chinese without additional information. You may wonder whether her brother is older or younger than her and whether his sister is older or younger than him.

For kinship address, here is a list as follows:

In China ethical relations are very complex and very important; to be a good person means to be a good husband, a good wife, a good daughter, a good son, a good king, or a good subject. While in West, personal relations are not so important to them, to be a good person means to be saved by God and be sent to heaven. These two opinions have been handed down for thousands of years in two worlds and have taken deep roots in two societies.

Language as the keystone of culture is tightly intertwined with culture.Learning a language is inseparable from learning its culture. When learning a foreign or second language, you should not only learn the mere imitation of the pronunciation, grammar, words and idioms, but also learn to see the world as native speakers do, that is to say, learn the ways in which the foreign language reflects the ideas, customs, and behavior of that society, learn to understand their “language of the mind”, or acculturation. That is to say, you need to learn enough about the language’s culture so that you can communicate in the target language properly to achieve not only the linguistic competence but also the pragmatic or communicative competence as well.This is of great significance in learning a foreign or second language. Otherwise the ignorance of cultural differences can create barriers in learning the target language and in communication, thus causing some unnecessary misunderstandings and confusions sometimes.

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Through such kind of research above, students and learners get better understanding about culture education in foreign language learning. As everyone knows, language is the basic link connecting human beings and the world, is the main way of expressing the thoughts and feelings. The culture behind the language is very important, and every student or learner of a second or foreign language needs to study it. If you just learn pronunciation, grammar and words, you can’t master the language really. Only when you learn culture behind language, you can really master the language.■

【References】

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［５］The Holy Bible (illustrated),Pauline Epistles,Galatian5, London:Collins’ Clear Type Press.

［６］《汉英词典》修订版缩印本.北京:外语教学与研究出版社.1995:1629.

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