中英思维差异对翻译的影响_毕业论文.doc

2. Thinking modeWhen it comes to thinking mode, something abstract, obscure occurred to our mind. It is hard to boundary what it exactly means because of its abstract traits. However, it is highly correlated to our daily life. Thinking mode affect the perspective, the reaction and the decision. It is diverse against different backdrop of society, culture and region.2.1 Definition In terms of thinking mode, philosophically speaking, it is a process of our human minds to reflect the objective reality. Specifically speaking, it is a process of our minds to do analysis, synthesis, judgment, inference, and other cognitive activities on the basis of presentation and concept. According to Rong Kaiming (1989, p30), thinking modes refers to “a established system of thinking patterns, thinking methods and thinking procedures of the subject in their reflection of the objective world.” Thought is a intrinsic process of human brains in understanding and memorizing the physical as well as non-physical world that we live in, and is a special organic function of the brain. From the general meaning, thinking mode is a pathway people perceive the world. As the subject of thinking, human beings thinking mode are mainly shaped by the environment., culture, philosophical thought and living habits. Since everyone is independent, the thinking mode must be different from each other more or less. However, because of living in the same society, the same cultural environment, the thinking mode may have something in common. People have different thinking mode due to different nation, different society, different culture and different history.2.2 Causes of different thinking mode Different culture is one of the main reason leads to different thinking mode. The thinking modes are one of the most important cues in culture. It is closely related to cultures and embodies the characteristics of cultural psychology. In Chinese history, the theory of pre-Qin philosophers is an essential part of the ancient Chinese philosophy. People believe that man proposes and god disposes, pursuing the coordination of favorable time, location and human relationships, chasing the harmony between human and nature. Gradually, unity of man and nature is the world view of Chinese in ancient Chinese philosophy. And then Confucianism are emerging, which have great influence on following ideas. Confucianism represented by Confucius and Mencius was the most influential thought in the Period of Autumn and Spring and War States. It achieved the peak in Han dynasty. The principle Ren sums up the core of Confucianism, which advocate warm feelings between people. As a result, it contributed a great deal to the shaping of Chinese synthetic thinking mode. On the contrary, English thinking mode are focus on rationality, nature and object. It can be traced back to the ancient Greek philosophy, for the Greek philosophy influenced all the West. The core of ancient Greek philosophy was naturalism, for it put emphasis on the exploration of the secret and the origin of the nature in order to achieve the ideal life. It tried to explain the various natural facts through objective analysis. It was rational and logical. English philosophy are based on demonstration, analysis and experiment. So the thinking mode of English stress analysis.Different economic systems have subtle influences on thinking modes. The economic system of China is typical self-sufficient nature economy, which lead people lack of connection with outside world, becoming short-sighted and thinking blocked. Since China developed agriculture, people gradually realized that living is the gift of nature, people can not live without favorable nature. furthermore encouraged the thought everything as one. They began to live together in larger and larger groups. They had to depend on and co-operate with each other, otherwise, they wold perish. The individual would choose to join the group. They shrank from the new, became conservative, lacked innovation and personal courage and conformed to their group. Therefore, Chinese thinking mode stress the experience, unity but oppose competition and adventure. Turning to English, we can see that they give priority of the development of manufacture, commerce and seafaring. Commerce focusing on profits led to individualism. Meanwhile, English philosophers were interested in the field of astronomy, meteorology, geometry, physics and math. Gradually, they tend to use the science knowledge, such as experiment, analysis and logic, to explore the mistery of nature. Since then, English break out the industrial revolution, which implant the idea of independence, fairness, competition and self-realization. Consequently, English thinking mode take priority of individualism, of logic and of knowledge through analysis. Different geographical conditions affect thinking modes as well. Located in the east of Asia, China is a continental country with lands bordering on the Pacific Ocean in the east and south. The vast inland provided enough area for Chinese people to live peacefully in ancient China. High mountains and inconvenient transportation blocked communications with the outside. The abundant source made people self-contained, which discourage to explore the outside world. All these factors made people conform to the nature and sought harmony with nature. In a sense, it make the synthetic thinking mode come into being. As for English, it is a kind of ocean type environment. It is surrounded by ocean. Since it often suffered natural disaster, like tsunami, English developed the power of conquering the nature. People living in the coastal areas usually communicated and competed with the outside. They preferred exploring the outside world and updating knowledge and skills. English are more adventurous, strong-willed and objective. Hence, the different thinking modes are formed.3. The influence of different thinking modes between Chinese and English on translationEnglish-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, economic systems and geography, there are many differences between the two languages. The different thinking mode has greatly influenced translation. Actually, the issue can be approached and considered from various viewpoints.3.1 Thinking mode and translationTranslation is a kind of language activity,. The relationship between language and thinking modes has effect on translation. According to Jia Dejiang, “thinking modes, 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 modes 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 modes are the main reasons that result in the differences of language forms. Language is an instrument used in the communication of thought, and translation is product of the communication of the different culture. However, translation is a procedure of converting different languages. Since thinking modes affect language, it affect translation as well.3.2 The difference of thinking modes between Chinese and EnglishDifferent nation has different cultures and different thinking styles, patterns and thinking traits. These together form the thinking modes. Thinking modes not only influence the living styles of human beings but also the ways to do or think and express things. Different thinking modes between Chinese and English are classified into four pairs: Concreteness vs. Abstractness, The linear structure vs. “The cyclical structure”, “Synthetic” vs. “Analytic” and Ontological vs. Objective.3.2.1 Concrete thinking mode vs. Abstract thinking mode Concrete thinking mode can also be called image thinking mode. It refers that people use image to cognitively analyze and generalize outside things, thereby, to delineate the essence of the world. Meanwhile, abstract thinking mode means people use concept, reasoning and inherence to generalize objective reality indirectly. In Chinese culture, people are particular about images and form the thinking mode of this kind. They are used to using the image to express the abstract concept, in that way the abstract concept can be more vivid and easy to understand. Chinese people respect the unity of heaven and human, they put the abstract things on a concrete basis. So it becomes a tradition for Chinese people to express abstract things through concrete images. However, English thinking method are deeply influenced by the western philosophy and religion, which put emphasis on abstract thinking method to observe and perceive the world. People pay attention to the abstract thinking mode to show respect to their culture tradition. They prefer using the abstract concept to express the concrete objects, which means to get the inner rule of the objects. Chinese are pictographs which express things by external shape. For example, the word“人” looks like a person standing with legs wide apart: the word “口” seems like an opening mouth. But in English, man and mouth dont have pictographic meaning. It cant be understanded by its shape, but by inner thinking. Chinese characters are the mimicry of natural phenomenon and are called imagery language. There are many examples: original Chinese is “胸有成竹”，and English version is to have an ace card in sleeves; original Chinese is “水深火热的生活”，and English version is to lead a life for extreme hardship; original Chinese is “我军势如破竹，打得敌人落花流水”，and English version is our army won a smooth and overwhelming victory; original Chinese is “聪明人防患于未然， 愚蠢者临渴掘井”，and English version is wisdom prepares for the worst, but folly leaves the worst for the day it comes. These examples are enough to prove that Chinese stress the concrete thinking method, otherwise, English emphasize the abstract method. Chinese tends to be concrete, expressing abstract content by using concrete images. Whereas, English is characterized by its direct and abstract words.3.2.2 Curvilinear Thinking Mode vs. Linear Thinking ModeThe thinking track of Chinese and English are entirely different. Chinese is used to the curvilinear thinking mode, which inclined to implicit expression. It is the Chinese tradition to pursue the unity and harmony of the world, therefore, the thinking mode of Chinese is characterized by intuition, concreteness and curve. There is an old saying in Chinese, 文如看山喜不平. That is to say, When Chinese people speak or write, they would like to diverge their thoughts and then bring them back to the original starting point. They are accustomed to beating about the bush when they talk, hiding the key point until the last moment, which can be called a pattern of climaxing. This is a typical structure mirroring curvilinear thinking mode. It is ingrained in peoples mind., while linear thinking mode is preferred in English. English-speaking people are used to presenting the topic at a foremost place so as to arouse the attention of the listeners or readers, which is followed by the specification of facts, and a conclusion in the end. This is a typical structure mirroring linear thinking mode. As to the Chinese people, they prefer to explain or describe an idea from the peripheries and the outside atmosphere to support the main idea or topic shown up at the end of the expression. For example, the original English is that it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in procession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife (J. Austen, Pride and Prejudice), and the Chinese version is “凡是有钱的单身汉，总想娶个太太，这是一个举世公认的道理”. It revealed that topic sentence always generalize the central idea in English. There is another example, the original English is that the two sides found is beneficial to have this opportunity to present one another their views on a variety of issues, and the Chinese version is 现在有机会互相介绍彼此对各种问题的观点，对此，双方认为是有利的”. Chinese stress curvilinear thinking mode that the most important message put in the last. Reversely, English emphasize linear thinking mode that the most crucial message lay in the first.3.2.3 Synthetic thinking mode vs. Analytic thinking modeAs we all know, both synthetic thought and analytic thought are basic forms of human thought. Synthetic thought inclines to combine separate parts of an object or idea into a unity, and integrate its qualities, relations. And analytic thought inclines to disintegrate a unity into small parts, or separate its qualities, relations. Different culture background between Chinese and English result in different thinking mode they preferred. In philosophy, Chinese people emphasize the ideas of unity of heaven and man, the blending of objects and man, harmony and the power of understanding. Chinese people dont stress the analysis, but pay attention to the individual comprehension, understand tacitly and the mentality space and time order. (GaoChunjuan.2005). However, in English thinking mode, individualism is highlighted. The English people link their own emotion to planetary influence and the natural elements, so they prefer logically analytic thinking. It clarifies the differences of subject and object, men and nature, spirit and materials, imagination and existence, etc. For example, the word 说 in Chinese can be expressed by say, speak and tell in English. The English expression of speaking can be specified in different situations, which makes language terse, precise, diverse and vivid. But in Chinese expression, the meaning of speaking is general and some modifiers are used to enrich the meaning. As another example, Chinese version is 春花含苞待放，绿叶缓缓舒展，溪水潺潺流淌，欢乐的春天涌动着无数的追求和希望，这一切难以用言语倾诉表达. English version is Spring has more much than speech in its unfolding flowers and leaves, and the coursing of its streams, and in its sweet restless seeking (John Galesworthy, The Apple Tree). The example reflects that Chinese emphasize synthetic thought. flowers, leaves and streams are described in detail at first and then conclude that everything is beautiful and promising. Oppositely, English stress analytic thought. General conclusion come first, and then described in detail. From the previous analysis, we can see that Chinese pay attention to synthesis, conclusion, hint and reservation, while English focus on analysis, the pursuit of details, and the all-aspects description of things. 3.2.4 Ontological thinking mode vs. Objective thinking modeIn Chinese traditional philosophy, philosophers pay attention to the harmony between human beings and environment, and the laws which people should gasp in the nature. Lao Zi, a well-know scholar in China, has put that human follows the earth, the earth follows heaven, heaven follows Taoism, Taoism follows nature. Human efforts can achieve anything is one of the essence of Chinese thinking habit. Chinese advocate that human things must be done by people, the thing itself cant finish it. Chinese people regard man as the central to observe, analyze, deduce and study the objects. It embodied with strong ontological thinking mode in their beliefs. Thus, Chinese people prefer to use the animate to be the subject of a sentence. Meanwhile, in terms of English, they regard nature as study object, so their culture is object-oriented and nature-oriented. Gradually, English-speaking people take the objective world as the central, and form objective thinking mode. English-speaking people prefer to use the inanimate to be the subject. Here are some examples. Original English is American education owes a great debt to Thomas Jefferson. Chinese version is 托马斯杰佛逊对美国的教育事业作出了巨大的贡献. From the example, we can see that the subject of original English is not the executive of behaviors. But in Chinese version, they transferred the subject to conform to Chinese thinking habitontological thinking mode. As another example, the original English is An idea suddenly struck me. American English owes a great deal to Noah Webster, an American lexicographer and writer. Her good work and obedience have pleased her teacher. Chinese version is 我忽然想到一个主意，美国词典编纂者、作家诺亚韦伯斯特为美语做出了巨大的贡献，她的老师为她的勤奋努力和听话感到高兴. Original English applies the objective thinking mode to the language structure. idea, American English, work and obedience are impersonal nouns which is used as subjective of the sentence. Meanwhile, Chinese version use personal pronoun as subjective of the sentence, which is a display of ontological thinking mode.The difference of thinking modes between Chinese and English has contributed a major obstacle to the translation between the two languages. However, the differences are relative not definite. The Chinese thinking modes do not only have the unique characters as the concrete thinking mode, the curvilinear thinking mode and the ontological thinking mode etc. while the English thinking modes do not only have the abstract thinking mode, the linear thinking mode and the objective thinking mode etc. These are just the most popular different thinking modes used most frequently in each nation, and can be accepted easily and unconsciously. Mastering the difference of thinking modes between Chinese and English can help a lot in translation.3.3 How the difference of thinking mode between Chinese and English influence translationDifferent thinking mode result in different view point of w