The Influences of the Different Ways of Thinking Between Chinese and English In Languages

The Influences of the Different Ways of Thinking Between

Chinese and English In Languages

【Abstract】The background of living and environment people live in lead to the different ways of thinking in languages between Chinese and westerners.The paper sums up the influences from the different ways of thinking upon the languages through vocabulary，expression and the manifestation in conception.

【Key words】the ways of thinking； vocabulary； expression； conception

【摘要】由于中西方人们生活的背景和环境的不同，这就导致了我们彼此思维方式的不同，思维方式的不同体现在语言方面。论文通过词汇，表达及在观念上的表现总结了不同的思维在语言上的影响。

【关键词】思维方式 词汇 表达 观念

Different nations have the distinct ways of thinking owing to different cultures.How to differentiate this difference？ The direct way is the language.This paper emphasizes on the vocabulary，expression and manifestation in

conception.Westerners are of the abstract thinking and Chinese

are of the concrete thinking.Westerners express themselves directly but Chinese implicitly.The conception also reflects the different ways of thinking. I.The different vocabulary

Chinese get used to using the concrete languages to express the abstract ones.But westerners often use the abstract to describe the details.

1.English has more abstract nouns and verbs but Chinese has more concrete words.

E.g.No pain，No gain. 不劳而获.

In English，people use “pain and gain” to express concrete meaning.But in Chinese “不劳而获”means that you will only get the returns when you try your best to do every thing.It means that everything in the world is not free.“劳，获” are the concrete verb in Chinese but in English just using the abstract words “gain，pain” expresses the same meaning. 2.Because of the different ways of thinking，people appropriately alter the parts of speech.Generally，nouns，adjectives and so on are translated into verbs.

Nouns and adjectives in English are transferred into verbs in Chinese.

E.g.Agreement on control and reduction of strategic

weapons between the superpowers is impossible. 两个超级大国在限制和削减战略武器上取得一致意见是不可能的。 In this sentence “control，reduction” are nouns.However，when they are translated into Chinese，the nouns need transferring into verbs because the nouns are used to express the action of the two countries.So they should be translated into concrete verbs “限制，削减” in Chinese.Thus the meaning of the sentence is more specific.

II.Direct expressions in English and implicit expressions in Chinese

The expression of Chinese is implicit，whereas English direct.The different ways of thinking enable Chinese to grasp the whole and westerners to care about individual.The following examples can prove this point. 1.The expression of Chinese has a trend to be obscure and

dim.However，the culture of west has a trend to be concrete. E.g.你吃饭了吗？

Chinese people just say “Do you have your dinner？” and do not emphasize the concrete time： breakfast，lunch or supper.But Chinese people can understand the situation by the custom of everyday life.But in English，they must convey the detailed time as greetings.The distinction results from the

different ways of thinking.Then Chinese people analyze everything from entire―meal.English people emphasize the precise individual---breakfast，lunch，supper，then the total ?Cmeal.

2.Direct expression in English and intentional expression in Chinese

The expression of Chinese has a purpose of

intention.Obviously，they have known something ahead，but they also ask the same thing.Maybe this is out of politeness.The expression of English is more direct，and they just give the exact question to achieve their ideal result and answer. E.g.A：你去干什么呀？ B：我去地里除草。

At that time，A saw B taking a hoe to the field.Evidently，the man took a hoe to the field，which means he would work in the field.But Chinese people also ask the answer.What’s more，in China，this is a polite way to greet.If we don’t do like this，others may think we are indifferent.Whereas somebody in the West may think this is nonsense and they never ask this kind of questions.They think it is very easy to make others puzzled. This is just because the different ways of thinking coming from the customs and cultures.So every language is a kind of

culture.It not only reflects the certain history，local conditions and customs，but also the ethics，morality，thinking and the conception.

3.The limited greetings in English and extensive greetings in Chinese

The content of greetings is very extensive in Chinese，but in west，the greetings have a lot of forbidden words，such as one’s income，the age of a woman and so on，all of which belong to one’s privacy. E.g..你今年多大岁数了？

This is a polite question in China，especially for the older，which is also the beginning of a conversation and people can talk about relevant things around this topic.But in west people don’t like to be asked this kind of question. III.The manifestation in conception

In this part，I will take one example to prove the different conceptions between Chinese and westerners.. E.g.Who owns the right of choice？

One American official travelled in the south of China.The guider said they would visit an ancient temple on the outskirts and they would set off from one road and come back from another.The official was very pleasant for this arrangement.But