DifferencesBetweenChineseandEnglishThinkingModes只是分享.docx

1、DifferencesBetweenChineseandEnglishThinkingModes只是分享Differences Between Chinese and English Thinking ModesI. IntroductionLanguage by nature is the embodiment of human thoughts and thoughts in turn is the mental reflection of the world around us on basis of some analysis, generalization, judgment and

2、 reasoning. Animals have thoughts as well, but their awkward sounds for communication are far from being language. Language is therefore closely related to and supported by human thoughts. That is to say, language has no basis for its existence if there is no thought. But thoughts, though accessible

3、 by various means, are best represented in language and can thus best fulfill its obligations to the speakers by such means. Language as an arbitrary, phonetic and morphologic semiotic and audio system of communication, has long defined as human and is thus the most convincing distinctive features o

4、f human beings from animals.The thinking patterns are one of the most important cues in culture. It is closely related to cultures and embodies the characteristics of cultural psychology. Besides, the modes of thinking also are closely related to language. Different modes of thinking are embodied in

5、 language.(i) The relationship among language, culture and thoughtLanguage is part of culture. Such as Chinese language is part of Chinese culture. Each country has its own language in a specific culture. However, their relationship is not just between part and whole. Language is the carrier and con

6、tained of culture, as many aspects of culture can be expressed in language. As a mirror of culture, language is strongly influenced and shaped by culture. In all, language and culture are closely related; each influences and shapes the other.Language is an instrument used in the communication of tho

7、ught. It is closely related to thought, too. It represents thought and is influenced by thought. In turn, thought is influenced by language. In addition, thought is determined by cultural value. Their relationships with each other seem more complex. In a word, each of them influenced and shapes othe

8、rs. They are seem as three parts of a whole.(ii) Different ways of thinking between Chinese and Western“The ways of thinking is quite different, actually, people live in certain area have their own way of thinking. It connects to various kinds of factors, such as geography, history, nation and so on

9、. The ways of thinking are the important reason of cultural difference. It includes knowledge, concepts, methods, language and custom and so on.”(邓炎昌483)There factors influence each other, which led to different ways of thinking. Therefore, the ways of thinking have their own characteristics, like g

10、eography characteristics, social characteristics and national characteristics, etc. according to geography characteristics, it can be divided into Han nation, English and American nation, etc. Here we will make a comparison on Chinese and Western ways of thinking.“The different ways of thinking in f

11、act are the reflection of cultural difference. People who live in different areas for a long time have different cultural characteristics; therefore, their ways of thinking are different,” (ibid. 484) .Under the influence of different geography environments, life styles, customs and different cultur

12、al values; the East and West are different from ways of thinking. Let us examine some phenomena:In the college, a foreign teacher is teaching in a class, he is talkative and expressive. Everyone listens to him interestingly. Suddenly, he stops and asks them a question. However, the students dont kno

13、w how to answer, they dont tell the answers. The teacher got a little angry but he had no idea on their behavior. This scene often happens in Chinese classroom. In the foreigners eyes, they consider that keeping silent is not a good way when we contact with others. Even you dont understand, you shou

14、ld say something instead of keeping silent, as it often is regarded as rude and impolite.The reason lies in that the East and the West have a different way of thinking. The Eastern people are conservative, introvert and inactive, they put more emphasis on harmony, and they like common and stable lif

15、e; while the Western people are more open-minded, extrovert and active, they like changeable life and thus they emphasize on competition. In this way, their different ways of thinking lead to their different understanding on each others behavior. If Chinese see somebody is talkative, they could thin

16、k he or she wants to extent himself or herself to be the focus of everyone.In China, we seldom see a couple making close contact in public. They are always walking side by side in a certain distance. While in the West, the couple will open to the public; they are free to show that they are a couple.

17、 Even they meet the acquaintances; they always give them a hug or kiss as greeting. Controversially, Chinese will shake hands with their friends but seldom hug them. They dont kiss them as they regard it as an intimate action between husband and wife.The reason why the east and the west people behav

18、e so differently is that people live in the East emphasize on ethic principal, morality, they focus on direct feeling and image. The westerners focus on freedom, democracy and emphasize on individual. In all, Chinese traditional way of thinking has its own characteristics. It emphasizes the morality

19、, harmony of the society; it promotes the collectivism, responsibility and devotion and so on. The western way of thinking also has its own characteristics. It emphasizes on logic and science, individual achievement, it promotes human right, equality and so on.The great geographic distance between t

20、he British and the Chinese peoples, together with the accompanying different living conditions and cultural environments, has much accounted for the diverse conceptual patterns of the two nations. Such conceptual differences have been duly reflected in and shed great influence on the two languages.

21、Translation between the two languages is consequently far beyond linguistic rendering, but more of cultural transferring and exchange of conceptual patterns. II. Literature ReviewAccording to Jia Dejiang, “thinking patterns, thought characteristics and thinking styles are the philosophical mechanism

22、 of language production. Language actually attaches closely to the thought that is the profound mechanism.”(Jia DeJiang 166) Thinking patterns are the deep-rooted mechanism in the formulation and development of language, which in turn promotes the specialties in certain conceptual patterns. Language

23、 is the carrier of reflection and abstraction of reality, and mode of thought is the conscious activity when people reflect and recognize the objective reality.（汪德华 36）The differences between thinking patterns are the main reasons that result in the differences of language forms, so the study of the

24、 transition between different languages should begin with the study of modes of thought in close connection with the cultures and the languages. Another well-recognized Chinese linguistic scholar Liu Miqing has offered apparently different but essentially similar remarks on the relations between lan

25、guage and thought. His standing is that modes of thought has controlled over languages (ibid.35) , and that languages are the concrete manifestation of modes of thought.English-Chinese modes of thought have their own characteristics in thinking core, thinking pattern, cognition habits and thinking p

26、rinciples. As a tool for communication the basic attribute of English and Chinese are the same. But because of the influence of their own cultures, there are many differences between the two. The English individualism and the Chinese entirety, hypotaxis as against parataxis, as passive vs active, st

27、atic vs dynamic, and impersonal vs personal, have long been recognized as the most distinctive features of the two conceptual patterns which are justified by the apparently different cultures and living methods. As Nida once puts it, the most important different characteristic between Chinese and En

28、glish is the difference of parataxis and hypotaxis.(Zhang Sijie&Zhang Boran 13) Liu Miqing holds the opinion that hypotaxis and parataxis are the “unique characteristic” for English and Chinese. (ibid .13) Conceptual pattern, or mode of thought, is a very complicated abstract conception connected cl

29、osely to philosophy. English people prefer individualism, which lead to their subordinating the recognized objects into small parts. While Chinese people like entirety, they prefer to take the world as a whole. Thinking patterns have been clearly reflected on languages, as a result of which English

30、is hypotactic and Chinese is paratactic. R. Kaplan found that in their English writing English learners of different nations show national tendencies in accurate correspondence with their native tongue and national thinking patterns. For instance, the Chinese and the Korean learners are spiral while

31、 the native English learners are more straightforward, and those of Latin (French and Spanish) cultural background are tortuous in approaching the theme, the Russians tend to be parallel and segmental and those of Arabian and Hebrew display parallel thinking modes. In this aspect, a Chinese scholar

32、Zhang Daishan in his Chinese Thinking Tendencies (Zhang and el) summarizes the differences between the English and the Chinese in three aspects: unit vs. opposite, integrity and organic vs. concrete and mechanical as well as circulative vs. straightforward, with the former characteristic of the Chin

33、ese while the latter typical of the English. They hold that the Chinese are characterized in their thinking patterns by their introspection, pursue of similarity, circulation, stabilization and visual representation. Another Chinese scholar Zhang Guangming in his Conceptual Thinking in Translation between English and Chinese concludes that such di