the influence of the difference between english and chinese thinking on translation 英语专业

Contents

The Influence of the Difference between English and Chinese Thinking on Translation ................. 1

I. Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 II. The Thinking Modes of Chinese and English reflected in the Language ......................... 3

A. The Relationship of Thinking and Language ............................................................ 3 B. The Classification of Chinese and English Thinking Modes .................................... 5

1. The Synthetic Thinking Mode vs. the Analytic Thinking Mode ..................... 6 2. The Curvilinear Thinking Mode vs. the Linear Thinking Mode ..................... 6 3. The Image Thinking Mode vs. the Abstract Thinking Mode .......................... 7 4. The Ontological Thinking Mode vs. the Objective Thinking Mode ............... 8

III. The Transfer of Thought Patterns in the Course of Translation ................................ 9

A. Transferring between Concreteness and Abstractness ............................................... 9 B. Rearrangement of Word Order ................................................................................ 10 C. Transferring between Covert Coherence and Overt Cohesion ................................ 11 D. Rearrangement of Sentence Structure ..................................................................... 12 E. Transferring between the Subjective and the Objective .......................................... 13 IV. Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 14 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 15 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................. 16

1

The Influence of the Difference between English and

Chinese Thinking on Translation

I. Introduction

Nowadays, more and more Chinese People be come to realize that it is a very urgent task to learn English well so as to meet the needs and challenges of the society. Under this circumstance of \Frenzy\a series of problems correspondently arise like mushrooms. How to improve the qualities of English teaching and learning in China nation widely? How to overcome and avoid misunderstandings in communication? How to enhance the overall level of E-C & C-E translation etc. Concerned with these problems, scholars, in the field of foreign language teaching and the field of translation, have made new approaches to the principles and methods to actuate their work, e.g. 1994 witnessed a new discipline upon the scene when China Association for Comparative Study of English and Chinese (CACSEC) was established with the initiation made by Zhang Zhiying and other scholars(Zhang Zhiying,2000).

However, a thorough study on the relationship between language and thought has been marginalized for long. In many books, dictionaries or monographs that specialized on language studies, this aspect is only a slight touch. As what the American scholar Marsh (2008) once noted in his book, American English Rhetoric, \though English thought patterns are not native to you, once you understand them you can more easily imitate them. By doing so, you will succeed in writing more effective English.\So, to write this paper means the author take the challenge to follow those preceding footsteps and make new accomplishment, for there have been earlier introductions to the topic from which I myself have benefited.

Language, the most commonly accepted, is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols

2

used for human communication. And thought, philosophically speaking, is a process of our human mind to reflect the objective reality. In terms of the relationship between language and thought, there are mainly two groups of views: the first is that language determines thought and the second is that thought determines language. So the whole we are concerned with in this paper is whether our thoughts are formed in advance of the words that we utter or whether our ideas are formed in advance of the words that we utter or whether our ideas are formed in terms of the words themselves. This paper firstly takes a deep insight into the root of the dialectical relation between language and thought(Gong Aihua,2004). And then, Chinese and English thought pattern differences are listed in mainly three aspects, namely, image thought vs. abstract thought, synthetic thought vs. analytic thought, and subjective thought vs. objective thought.

In addition, it has for centuries been taken for granted that translation merely takes place between languages(Gen Hongmin,2005). However, as proved by practice, translation cannot be viewed as a merely linguistic undertaking, but should be regarded as an aspect of a larger domain, namely, that of communication. In the case of complex texts, translation involves not only \proficiency\but also \knowledge\Jiguang,1999). It always involves a process full of contradictions. Being an important aspect of \communication\relation between language and thought pattern, this paper explores the connection of translation with other disciplines, e.g. sociolinguistics& translation, contrastive linguistics& translation, and pragmatics& translation. Some skills or techniques on how to do E-C translation well are also highlighted in this paper, from which we can draw something beneficial to the enhancement of E-C translation (Zhu Shanjun,2005). Starting from the discussion of the dialectical relation between thought and language, this paper provides detailed coverage of Chinese and English thought pattern differences, their reflections on the two languages and text structure, and