姓名研究.docx
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姓名研究.docx
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姓名研究
姓名研究
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Both in Chinese and English, there are also names in great authors‟ writings which are taken as current vocabulary.
Hamletis the hero in Shakespeare‟s tragedy “Hamlet”. His uncle murders his father so he wants to take revenges on him. But he hesitates so much in his avenging plan that in the end he has to pretend being mad. “Hamlet” in present English is not only one of the characters in Shakespeare‟s tragedy, but also considered as a synonym to a person who is hesitating in doing something or to a hesitating action. If people think someone is very hesitating in doing something, they may say“You are Hamlet”. Rip Van Winkle is one of the heroes in the works of the American writer Washington Irving. He is a hen-packed man. Once being scolded by his wife, he runs into the Catskill, a mountain near his village. He feels relaxed there and drinks too much before falling asleep. When he wakes up, it is too many years later that everything in the village has been greatly changed. Rip Van Winkle is now referring to some people who are old-fashioned, or whose minds and thoughts are dropped far behind from the present society. People may express someone‟s idea that is out of date, by saying “This is the opinion of same Rip Van Winkle”.
3.2 Differences between the two name systems
It is said that every coin has its two sides. We talked about their similarities above, and now, we are going to talk about the differences between Chinese and English name systems and their culture connotation 3.2.1Origin of family names
Family names reflect different national cultures and ancient civilization from various points of view. Being a kind of social phenomenon and complicated psychological process, family names reveal social reality. So the development of family names cannot be separated from the social and cultural background on which they rely. The form and use of family names are developing progressively with the evolution of history and changing of society. (i) Origin of Chinese family names
“The number of family names in Chinese is much smaller than that of English name. So far, we have all together less than ten thousand family names, in which 6363 family names are from the Han nationality. But in the west, there are 156 thousand family names, among which thirty-five thousand are frequently seen in daily life”.[8] P6 “It is thought that Chinese family names came about in matriarchal clan society. At that time, every clan got the distinctive clan name based on their totem or dwelling places. The clan names are the earliest family names which in Chinese are called 姓(xing)”.[9] P9 After population of a clan multiplied, the clan divided into several branches and moved to different places to live. Then each branch would get their own branch name to distinguish this branch from the others. The name of each branch is called氏(shi). The difference between them is that, the former one is used to tell apart different families in ranks of family in the society. So “xing” is not changeable, but “shi” can be changed. In ancient China, there would be thousand of people shared the same family names, they came from the same clans and lived in the same villages, some of them may move to other places, but they couldn‟t change their family names. According to historical records, in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, “xing” and “shi” began to have class color besides their original function. “Shi”, especially, was best owned by their ruler. As a result, “shi” became the mark of the aristocracy. Only the aristocrats had “shi”, and the ordinary people had no “shi”. All the aristocrats were men at that time. Therefore, only men had “shi”. “The distinction between “xing” and “shi” disappeared in Qin and Han Dynasty. They became one that is called “xingshi” in Chinese and refers to family names”.[10] P10 This phenomenon indicates that the original function and distinction of “xing” and “shi” were of no significance after the centralized feudal social system was established. (ii) Origin of English family names
“The history of English family names is much shorter than the Chinese ones. It came about in the Middle Ages”.[11] P34 They are in large number. Social cultural factors play an important role in the development of English family names. They reflect a complete picture of English feudal society. So they are the living fossils for studying English history and culture. English family names are the historical product of English society. They experienced nearly three centuries from nonexistence to full development. There was a time when no one had a hereditary family name. “When the ancestors of English people invaded Britain in the 5th century, they formed a tribal society. English people didn‟t get family names until 1066 when Normans conquered Britain. The Normans certainly didn‟t have a fully developed family names system”.[12] P80 It was not yet their conscious policy to identify a family by one name. But there were not enough names for distinction. In a certain period more and more names were duplicated. This phenomenon brought great trouble to people in communication. So when people were talking about a person who was absent, they often employed additional phrases for further identification. For example, when they referred to John who lived under the hill, they would add descriptive phrase as “from the hill”. Then John became “John from the hill” to indicate which John they were talking about. Although the additional phrases can play the role for further identification, they are too complicated. Therefore, some
unimportant words are often omitted. Then “John from the hill” is changed into “John Hill”. With the development of feudal society, there was an urgent need for people to solve the problem of personal identification. For this reason, people created a new way for expression that they began to add their father‟s or manor‟s name behind their given name. In fact, the additional phrases which are called “bynames” are the embryos of English family names. They played an important transitional part in the development of English family names. Gradually, these bynames were turned into hereditary family names.
From the beginning of the 15th century nearly all English people inherited family names at birth and the word “surname” was used with the meaning we give it today. It had been borrowed from French “surnom”, deriving from Latin super, and was used at first to mean “an extra name” or “a nickname”. Modern French translates “surname” as nom de femile, so in English surname is also called family name. 3.2.2 Forms of names and cultural connotation (i) Forms of names
In both Chinese and English, the personal names can be divided into surnames and given names. A person‟s family name is inherent. He/She got his/her family name before he/she was born. Therefore family names are not selectable. The case is different in given names. Given names are not inherent but selectable; one can choose his given names. But the way in which these names are used varies in the two languages. A fundamental difference is the order in which these names occur. In Chinese, the family name comes first and the given name is placed after it. And there are two kinds of family name, one is single surname, the other is double surname. For example, 王国强(Wang Guoqiang), 司马相如(Sima Xiangru). Here 王(Wang) and 司马(Sima) are family names, 国强(Guoqiang) and 相如(Xiangru) are given names.
However, in English, the family name is at the end, and the given name is in the front. “The given name could be divided into Christian name (first name) and middle name (second name)”. [13] P58
In western counties, most people have middle names, the number of which can be one, two, three or even more than tens, such as “an American writer Robert Peter Tristram Coffin and a British
Coffin and Wilde are family names. Middle names are only used in very formal situation for official purpose, such as on a document. Usually people omit them or use the capital letters instead. Therefore the writer mentioned above is called Robert Coffin and Oscar Wilde on most occasions. As most English –speaking people believe in Christianity or Catholic, according to the religious custom, a baby who was born around one week should be baptized and named in the church. So the given name can also be called baptized name or Christian name. Although given names are frequently referred to as Christian names, this does not mean that the person is a Christian or the name has been given by the church. Nowadays, it is usually used as a synonym for “given name”. Many parents take their baby to church to be baptized, but the given names are chosen by their parents before this. And even if a person has never been baptized, their names can still be called Christian names. (ii) Cultural connotation
The opposite orders of Chinese and English names are reflection of different cultures on
personal names. Chinese family names represent the relationship of clan, group and consanguinity; Traditional Chinese culture emphasizes the generality. Therefore, in this kind of culture atmosphere, Chinese people put their family names which represent their ancestors, clans and groups before their given names, which symbols person individuality while the western people not only emphasize individual person and individuality, but also value the independent personality and self-consciousness, they think the given names are life and soul of a person, so they highly value them.
Contrary to the high esteem of given names, English people think family names are not very important. The reflection of this sense leads to the different order of name, i.e. given names are put before family names. And we can also find the different culture connotation in women‟s names. Chinese women remain their family names and given names, even in the past. However, in most western countries, the women once married, they should change th
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