A study of the colour word "gold" and its combination = Yan se ci "jin" ji qi zu he yan jiu

Abstract

“Gold” is a colour indicating the colour of an object. It is a unique colour word which represents the colour of gold. From ancient to the present, “gold” is a common Chinese word which is frequently used in the literature. Furthermore, “gold” is the symbol of goodness in the traditional Chinese society. Nowadays, “gold” represents noble, luxury, wealth, hope, etc in the cultural connotation.

This dissertation consists of five chapters. The first chapter introduces the research background, purpose of the topic and key points of the study.

The second chapter is divided into three parts. In the first part, it begins to look for the semantic origin of the colour word “gold” by analyzing its original meaning, aboriginal meaning and quotative meaning. In the second part, it demonstrates the development of cultural connotation in China and elaborates the cultural connotation in the present Chinese society. In the third part, the colour word “gold” is compared with the colour words “yellow” and “red” to identify their differences and similarities of cultural connotations.

In the third chapter, it mainly focuses on phraseology function of “gold” and its combinations. Meanwhile, the aspects of word-formation, syntactical functions, sentence structure of “gold” and its combinations will be discussed.

The fourth chapter analyzes the usage and effect of “gold” and its combinations with regard to rhetoric. It also illustrates and explains the features of usage and rhetorical effects on seven categories of figures of speech which are fairly typical.

The last chapter is the conclusion of the whole dissertation. “Gold” is a very unique colour word which differentiates from other colour words such as “red”, “yellow” and so on. “Gold” has been representing a positive image from the past, even nowadays, “gold” is still one of the most glamorous colours.