Cultural Differences in Names 英语专业毕业论文.docVIP

Cultural Differences in Names Ⅰ. Introduction Language is the carrier of culture and the tool for communication, while culture is the soil for the survival and development of language. In a world of multi-culture, different languages show various features, which reflect different patterns of thinking. The specified investigation of different cultures and different languages is of great importance, because it will give people a full understanding of those who are from different cultural background and speak other kinds of languages. “People’s name is the most universal language phenomenon in each human society; it is also the historical product of human social development”(Sun,51). As a part of human culture, it reflects the civilized condition and the social custom situation of human social development from different angles. Naming habits is a miniature of the national culture. Its characteristics and the development have close relation with national history, religion, custom, cultural mentality, and social virtue and so on. That means “people’s name is a miniature of the national culture.” (Qiu,288) Since both Chinese and English speaking countries are made up of various ethnic groups and each has its own way of naming, when the comparison is made between these two parts, the starting point should be set at the broadest phenomena existing in them, that is that the comparison will be done mainly in the naming system of Han ethnic group and the general used naming system in the majority of English speaking countries. Ⅱ. Cultural and Social Functions of Names Though the forms of names differ from nation to nation, the cultural and social functions carried by it stay the same. In all the functions that name carries, identifying individuals is the basic one, which was gained in the prehistorical period. Name received this function naturally, since in the communication, which intensified with time, an individual must be signed to be distinguished from others. Human