The Analysis of Different Thinking Pattern between Chinese and English from the Words Perspective

Zhu+Lidan+Jia+Wenjuan

【Abstract】It is easy to find the differences between two things， but why these differences exist is the difficult one to answer. Obviously， Chinese and English are two very different languages， so what has caused these differences is so important for learners， and this will be discussed form words perspective by clarifying the different thinking pattern between Chinese and English. Language and thinking pattern impact each other during the process of formation and development. There are so many kinds of different thinking patterns between Chinese and English. In this article， it analyzes one kind of them form the words perspective， so that our these two kinds of languages can be learned deeply.

【Key words】Culture； Thinking pattern； differences of language

1. Introduction

Language is not only a kind of social phenomenon， but also a kind of cultural phenomenon. Language and culture which are closely related to each other exist at the same time and develop together. From this point of view， It can be seen that language is the products of culture and the media of culture. The development of language cannot isolated from social history and culture of a nation， thus， language is the mirror of culture. That is to say， if there is no culture， there is no language， of course， if there is no language， there is no culture. Language is reflected by culture and indicates the feature of a nation which includes the view of life， the function of life and the thinking pattern of life. The following passage will discuss the differences of language from the words perspective by analyzing the different thinking pattern between Chinese and English.

2. The analysis of different thinking pattern between Chinese and English form words perspective

Thinking pattern is one of the aspects of culture， and it influences the language directly， while the language can reflect the nations thinking pattern. Vocabulary is the basic meter of language， so the analysis of different words in Chinese and English is very important for learning these two languages. The comparison of different thinking pattern could tell the reason why they are different. And in this article， syntactic thinking and analytic thinking in the application of words perspective could be analyzed.

Its impossible for any nation to think in only one pattern， of course， not only syntactic thinking or analytic thinking. Because of the influence of different traditional culture， Chinese people tend to use more syntactic thinking pattern， but English people tend to use more analytic thinking pattern. There are more formal inflections in English while Chinese are not. Some Examples are showed to express the differences between two languages. （1） The English word “work” add the suffix “er”， formed a new word “worker”， （2） more examples like， “translate”， “translator” and “translation”， “improve” and “improvement”， “conclude” and “conclusion”， “describe” and “description”， “introduce” and “introduction”， “allow” and “allowance”， “end” and “ending”， “comfort” and “comfortable”， “danger” and “dangerous”， and so on. （3） In Chinese， there is no prefix or suffix to form the words， such as “今晚，我要翻譯一篇文章。” “翻譯” means “translate” and are used as a verb， while “今晚，我要做一篇翻譯。” “翻譯” in this sentence means “translation” and are used as a noun， and “今晚， 我需要一篇翻譯譯文。” “翻譯” here means “translated” and are used as a adjective. It is concluded that Chinese words do not have the formal inflections. English needs to use the formal inflection to express the meaning of tense， voice and mood， （4） such as， “Im translating an article.” “translating” here is to express the present continuous tense. “An English article needs to be translated by me.” “translated” in this sentence is to express the passive voice. Chinese would say “我在翻譯一篇文章。” and “ 一篇英語文章需要我來翻譯。” “翻譯” in both of the two sentences are not transformed to express the tense and the voice.

3. Conclusion

From the above， it is concluded that thinking pattern and language are closely related to each other. Thinking pattern is the deeply system of the formation and development of language， while language can also influence the thinking pattern. Language is the main tool and key meter of thinking pattern. The author of this article has focused on one aspect of different thinking pattern that is closely relevant to language between Chinese and English， especially form the words perspective. It has to be admitted that there are also some other aspects of different thinking pattern that worked on languages between Chinese and English. Given space limitations， this article cannot fully explore the differences of Chinese and English. The rest parts of this topic can be discussed in other articles in the future.

References：

[1]劉宓慶.英漢對比與翻譯[M].南昌：江西教育出版社，1992.

[2]周玉忠.英漢語言文化差異對比研究[M].銀川：寧夏人民出版社，2004.8.