DifferencesBeweenChineseandEnglishThinkingModes_开题报告

Introduction

Language 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 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 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 of 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 language.

1.1.The relationship among language, culture and thought

Language 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 contained 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 thought. 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 others. They are seem as three parts of a whole.

 

1.2. 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. 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 geography 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 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. 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 geography 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 fact 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 cultural values; the East and West are different from ways of thinking.

2. Literature Review

2.1. different opinions about the relationship between the thinking patterns, language and culture

According to Jia Dejiang, “thinking patterns, thought characteristics and thinking styles are the philosophical mechanism 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 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 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 language 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.

2.2 Respective features

English-Chinese modes of thought have their own characteristics in thinking core, thinking pattern, cognition habits and thinking principles. 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, static 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 English 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 closely 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 is hypotactic and Chinese is paratactic.  

3. Differences between Chinese and English Thinking Modes 

3.1 Differences between Chinese Thinking Patterns and English Thinking Patterns

3.1.1. Visual Thinking VS Rational Thinking

3.1.2 Generalizing Thinking VS Analytical Thinking

3.1.3 Subject-oriented Thinking VS Object-targeted Thinking

3.1.4 Tortuous Thinking VS Straight Thinking

3.1.5. Fuzzy Thinking VS Accurate Thinking

3.1.6 Hypotaxis VS Parataxis 

3.1.7 Some other classifications

3.2. Linguistic Features Resulting from Differences of Thinking Patterns 

3.2.1 Lexical Features

3.2.2 Syntactic Features

3.2.3  Semantic Features

3.2.4 Contextual Features

3.2.5 Grammatical Features

4. The Impact of Thinking Patterns on Translation 

4.1  Stubborn Rendering Resulting from Ignorance of Different Syntactic Preferences

4.2  Misleading Rendering due to Differences in Viewpoints

4.3  Awkward Transferring for Ignorance of Rhetoric Preferences

4.4  Wordy Diction regardless of the Syntactic Structural Differences

4.5  Inaccurate Translation Caused by Improper Diction

5. Some Practical Approaches in Translation between the Two Languages

5.1  Sufficient Cultural Background Information

5.2   Shifting Translation

5.3   Graphic Translation

5.4   Backward translation

6.Conclusion

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