International Journal of Linguistics & Communication

Introduce to the Non-symmetry of Word Derivation between ‘Wenhua’ and ‘Culture’
Fei Deng, Jianli Tang

Abstract
The western civilizations have brought many new thoughts to Chinese language in the 19th century, and further influenced and changed the words’ meanings of Chinese words. To studying the Chinese-English translated terms and knowing their different derivation can bridge the gap between different cultures. The scholar translated the English word ‘Culture’ into Chinese word ‘Wenhua’. ‘Wenhua’ is derived from two words which are ‘Wen’ and ‘Hua’ in ancient Chinese language. ‘Wen’ means ‘to feel and experience the nature by heart, and then painting and describing things, at last, one can achieve correlating knowledge through this process in ancient Chinese language’. ‘Hua’ means ‘to change’ which stresses persons can improve them based on ‘Wen’. The start-point of meanings emphasizes the harmonious relationship between human beings and outer nature, and stresses the inner harmony of human beings by themselves. Namely, ‘Wenhua’ focuses on the all sorts of social and ethical relationship which comes from the inner human beings society. The startpoint of meanings derivation of English word ‘Culture’ emphasizes the interrelation between human being society and the outer nature, and focuses the contrary relationship which embody as the remolding one and the reformed one.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/ijlc.v3n1a15