中英植物词汇文化浅析A Comparative Study on Cultural Connotation of PlantTerms between Englishand ChineseAbstract: Language is an important part of social culture. People cantcommunicate and understand each other without language. Therefore, Culture is the bridge of communication between peoples. Language is really a forceful tool for us to understand the essence of a society, so culture and language is an inseparable entity. The paper probes into the relationship and interaction between the connotation of plant terms and culture in English and Chinese. To the differences of traditional culture and custom between English and Chinese, this article compares and analyses their similarities, differences and nationalities in culture meaning of plant terms, exploring the original cultural reasons of that differences, and the connotation of two languages as well. Helping the readers learn the differences of two culture, the research has great value to the cross-cultural communication, language teaching, and bilingual translation.Key words: plant words； connotation；culture；similarities and differences摘要：语言是文化的一个重要组成部分，没有语言作为工具，人们将无法交流和相互理解；与此相对应， 文化也通过语言来体现，各种不同的语言体现着不同的文化。透过中英植物词语可以看到不同的文化对语言的影响及其在语言中的体现，同时也可以看到不同的语言对其文化的能动作用。针对英汉语言中的中西文化与风俗习惯差异，本文对比分析了英汉植物词语的国俗语义的趋同现象、趋异现象及其异同的文化根源及文化内涵。这一问题的研究帮助读者了解英汉文化差异、对实现跨文化交际、语言教学、英汉互译都具有极其重要的实用价值。关键词： 植物词汇；内涵；文化；差异. 2ContentsI. Introduction . .1II. Cultural Connotation of PlantsA. The cultural connotation of plants between English and Chinese areperfectcorresponding 1. Laurel . . .22. Grass . . .2B. The cultural connotation of plants between English and Chinese arepartialcorresponding . 31. Pine . . .32. Willow . . .43. Peach . . .5C. The connotation of the same plant in Chinese and English aredifferent . . 51. Peony . . .62. Lily . . .63. Red Poppy . .6D. The connotation of a plant only exists in English 71. Apple . . . 72. Rose . . . .83. Olive . . .9E. The connotation of a plant only exists in Chinese 91. Chinese mei Flower . . .92. Bamboo . . .103. Apricot . . .10 III. Conclusion . 11Works Cited . . 12A Comparative Study on Cultural Connotation of Plants between English and ChineseI. IntroductionWhen we study a language to learn a country culture,s firstly, we must pay attention to the study of MEANING . The difficulty in this study is that the word“ meaning ”in itself has different meanings. G. Leech in a more moderate tone recognizes 7 types of meanings: concept meaning, connotative meaning, socialmeaning, affective meaning, reflective meaning, collocative meaning and thematic meaning. ( Hu 105) Among these meanings the connotative meaning refers to what is communicated by virtue of what language refers to. Philosophers use connotation, opposite to DENOTATION, to mean the properties of the entity a word denotes. For example, the denotation of “ human” anyis person such as John and Marry, and itsconnotation is“ biped ” ,“ featherless” ,“ rational” , etc. In Leech s systemrefers to some additional, especially emotive meaning. The difference between“ politician and”“ statesman for” , example, is connotative in that the former is derogatory while the latter is commendatory. This type of meaning is known as associative meaning. In this paper I want to mainly compare and contrast the culturalconnotation ofplants between Englishand Chinese tofurtherfacilitatethecross-culture communication.The plants have close relation to human s existence and development. We knowthat there are many kinds of plants and what s more, they maintain all creaturesand play an important part in human sdevelopment. Many plant terms in both Chinese and English have rich connotative meanings which present the language s communitive function and cognitive function. On the one hand, human scognitive activities come from the body experiences of daily life, but different nations body experiences are the same, and because of the same natureof plants, there are somesimilarities on the connotation of plants in China and English-speaking countries; on the other hand, people in China and English-speaking countries belong to different cultu