Yang, P. (2015). 'Stealing Is Not Always a Crime': A contrastive socio-cultural analysis of English lexicology in the context of translation and cross-cultural communication. In R. Wang, G. Jia, & S. Chen (Eds.), Studies in English lexicology from multi-perspectives (pp. 202-225). Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

This paper aims to examine the double faces of English lexicon, unmasking the two contrasting dimensions (complimentary and derogatory) of lexical meaning in the context of the English linguistic and cultural system. The double faces are presented through contrasting the differences between English and Chinese. Using a contrastive socio-cultural approach (CSCA), the author touches upon four points. First, he believes that "个体主义" is a better translation of "individualism" as it is not equivalent to "个人主义". Second, he proposes that the English lexicon is more open-ended and tends to be more inclusive and the Chinese counterpart is more closed-ended and tends to be more exclusive. Third, he finds that "Mr" may be omitted in specific English-Chinese translation context due to cultural differences. Forth, cross-cultural sensitivity matters in intercultural communication between Australian police and a Korean student. Examples are selected to exemplify intercultural misunderstanding of English lexicon can be effectively avoided when they are examined in specific translation context. Finally, the author discusses pedagogical implications in language teaching and learning (e.g. ESL/EFL) and English-Chinese translation.