Influence of Different Thinking Models on Chinese and English Sentence Structure 不同思維模式對漢英句子結(jié)構(gòu)的影響

1、influence of different thinking models on chinese and english sentence structure 不同思維模式對漢英句子結(jié)構(gòu)的影響abstractbecause of different ethnic backgrounds and humanistic geography, history, culture and philosophy, different nations form the different habits of thinking. these thinking habits also called ways

2、of thinking or thinking models, which are reflected in language as the different features for their performance. without understanding the thinking differences, english learners may use the habits of chinese thinking models to organize english expressions; therefore chinese-english (chinglish) will

3、be inevitable.cross-language communication is not a conversion between two different languages, but also the transition between the thinking modes. this article starts from the definition of thinking model, tries to analyze the main differences between chinese and english thinking models and their f

4、ormation and performance. the mainly differences will be analyzed from three aspects: the synthetic thinking and the analysis thinking, the subject thinking and the object thinking, the cyclical thinking and the linear thinking. the second part mainly analyzes how the different thinking models influ

5、ence the sentence structures, which cause the different characteristics between chinese and english sentence structures. the last part enumerates the common english expression errors caused by chinese thinking models among english learners in china. the aim of which is to cause their attention to be

6、 aware of the differences between different thinking models, to jump out of the chinese thinking framework, to improve the ability to use western thinking and to get rid of troubles of chinglish. key words：thinking model; sentence structure; difference; analysis 摘要不同的民族由于不同的歷史背景，人文地理，文化和哲學(xué)觀念，形成了不同的思

7、維習(xí)慣，這種思維習(xí)慣或者說思維方式反映在語言上，表現(xiàn)為各自的語言特征。如果不了解這種差異，不能學(xué)會用英語的思維習(xí)慣來組織語言，漢式表達不可避免。漢英表達不僅是兩種語言之間的轉(zhuǎn)換，更是兩種思維方式之間的轉(zhuǎn)換。本文從思維模式的定義，形成及表現(xiàn)入手，主要從綜合思維與分析思維；主體思維與客體思維；螺旋思維與直線思維這三個方面簡要分析中西方思維模式的主要差異。第二個部分重點對比分析這幾種思維模式差異如何影響漢英句子結(jié)構(gòu)，及帶來的漢英句子結(jié)構(gòu)不同的特點。最后列舉中國英語學(xué)習(xí)者常見的英語表達錯誤，由此引發(fā)廣大英語學(xué)習(xí)者的注意，跳出漢語思維模式的框架，提高運用英語思維的能力，擺脫漢式英語的困擾，用地道的英語進

8、行表達。關(guān)鍵詞：思維模式；句子結(jié)構(gòu)；差異；分析contentsintroduction1 the differences between chinese and western thinking models21.1 the features of chinese thinking models21.2 the features of western thinking models3 the influences of thinking models on chinese and english sentence structure32.1 synthetic thinking and ana

9、lysis thinking42.1.1 word order-prominence and morphological prominence42.1.2 parataxis-prominence and hypotaxis-prominence52.2 subject thinking and object thinking82.2.1 animate subject and inanimate subject82.2.2 active sentence and passive tense92.3 cyclical thinking and linear thinking92.3.1 end

10、-focus and head -focus92.3.2 topic-comment pattern and subject-predicate mechanism102.3.3 bamboo-like sentence construction and tree-like sentence construction11 usual errors of english expression caused by chinese thinking models12conclusion13bibliography:14acknowledgments15introduction“l(fā)anguage is

11、 the outward of form of thought (jiang lei, 2000)”, so language is the carrier of the thinking. language, which also contains the grammatical structures, is the reflection of logical rules of human thinking, which based on the rich content and logical meaning for the basic component of the sentence.

12、 (mao ronggui, 2001:266). as different nations have different survival environment and the social environment, a nations way of thinking will have different characteristics. as lian shuneng(2006:7) said, though traditional chinese thinking model contains some kind of rational factors, it emphasizes

13、more on wuxing (power of understanding/ comprehension/ intuition), while western thinking model is rationality intrinsically. therefore the characteristics of language structure and characteristics of ways of thinking are consistent. chinese wuxing thinking and western rational thinking appears in a

14、ll aspects of language. grammar and logic determine the semantic. if we want to understand the semantic and sentence meaning, we should analyze the form of words, sentences structure and the logical relationship between sentences. (lian shuneng,2006：7). as wang li said, “as for sentence structure, w

15、estern grammar is the rule of law, while chinese language is the domination of man.”(wang li , 1984).it has been axiomatic to state that there is a close relationship between language and thought, which is widely known as the sapir-wholf hypothesis. what this hypothesis suggests like this: language

16、is not only the way of expressing or representing the thinking, but also the mould of thinking. people who speak different language are also different in acquiring the thinking contents. (hu zhuanglin, 2001). that is to say language determines the thinking models. but opponents hold that thought is

17、independent of language, as people can exchange their thought through ways other than language. no matter what is true, we couldnt deny there is a correlation between language and thinking. thinking is one kind of functions of human brain, which is a reflection process of the objective reality and t

18、he ability to realize the objective world, so language is the organizer of human thinking and acquiring. thinking models are the hobbits of thinking, so the foundation or the source of language is thinking models, which are the deeper mechanism of a languages birth and development. .the differences

19、between chinese and western thinking modelsthe thinking of human beings has some similarities; meanwhile it has their own characteristics for different nations, which are ethnic. duo to the differences from history, biology, custom, religion etc. of different nations, and the expression are differen

20、t for a same given object or content, because of different thinking models. as lian shuneng(2006:7) said, though traditional chinese thinking model contains some kind of rational factors, it emphasize more on wuxing (power of understanding/ comprehension/ intuition), while western thinking model is

21、rationality intrinsically. so the differences of thinking models reflect the cognition tendency of the peoples for thousands of years.1.1 the features of chinese thinking modelschinese culture influences chinese peoples thinking models. when they think of something, they think in a synthetic and cyc

22、lical way, which involves trying to grasp things in their totality (gudykanst, 1998).they think about all sides that might be related, before they decide what to say. this kind of thinking can be traced in the theory of “five element” centre of the chinese philosophy since han times (206bc) is a typ

23、ical example (gudykanst, 1998). the system has been used ever since in many aspects of cultural systems. these five elements are wood, fire, earth, metal and water. their essential distinctive feature is that each element maybe arranged in a number of sequences, but the two actually uncounted are ei

24、ther the productive sequence or the destructive sequence. in the productive sequence, each element generates the next; while in the destructive sequence, each element destroys the next-but-one of the productive sequence.the existence of the “five elements” theory shows that the chinese people do not

25、 consider things as individualistic，they think them as an integral unit. they do not think in a one-to-one way but in a synthetic and cyclical way. in understanding nature, chinese people rely on intuitions or thinking through the sense. their perception is not guarded by the reasoning and intellige

26、nce. traditional chinese philosophy relies on “harmony with diversity” or great chinese union”, believes “universal has no shape”, all sides of the world come from the mind through the sense. so the chinese thinking models also have the subject characteristic.1.2 the features of western thinking mod

27、elsto see the contrast is the main feature in the way the english explore the world. their analytical ways of reasoning and judging signify linear ways of thinking. (michael, 1993)“ontology” is the main source of western philosophy, of which main characteristic is “l(fā)ogos which is an ancient greek wo

28、rd that means “l(fā)ogic”. (kaplan, 1998:16)on the influence of this philosophy, the value of esthetics tends to the separation from human and the universal”, assisting with logic dialectic thinking. so it emphasizes more on analysis, judgment and reasoning. the rationality sweeping through western euro

29、pean in the 16th century is the best evidence. from 16th century to the 18th century, there are a number of scientists who advocated that start from the concrete or part and then proceed to the whole; this is an analytic and object ways of thinking.the ancient greece peninsula gave birth to the west

30、ern civilization the special geographical environment leads to the appearance of sea farming, handcraft, commerce, thus builds different social contact from chinese agricultural society. it celebrates personal wills, value, interests, equality. english people are very conscious of self-dignity and i

31、ndividual freedom, so their behavior and ways of thinking are more direct and straightforward. (gudykunst, 1998), so the western thinking models also present the linear thinking.so, western philosophy not only emphasizes individuality, but also emphasizes form. on one hand, they highlight the scient

32、ific experience the formation argumentation; on the other hand, they stress the separation from the subject and the object. so, the western thinking models are rational, object, and linear thinking.the influences of thinking models on chinese and english sentence structureas it has been mentioned be

33、fore, thinking models have indispensable relationship with language. the differences of thinking models have caused the different characteristics in the sentence patterns. the main features of chinese thinking models are synthetic, subject and cyclical thinking, while the main characteristics of wes

34、tern thinking patterns are rational, object and linear thinking. thus how do the thinking models have effect on the syntax structure? in other words, how do the syntax structure differences reflect the thinking models of human beings which determine the structural formation of sentence? 2.1 syntheti

35、c thinking and analysis thinking “ wuxing thinking has the characteristic of synthetic.(lian shuneng, 2006:7)”because han nationality believe “harmony with diversity”, they believe the nature and human beings, the subject and the object are a whole, which pays attention to integral harmony, emphasiz

36、es comprehensive summary, and always explains things from the whole to the local, from the general to the special, from the large to the small. therefore models of thinking and language all tend to seek holistic and general, with characteristics of the whole, “synthesized” and “summarized”. rational

37、 thinking has the characteristic of analysis. western nationality believes “separate from diversity” thus form subjective cognitive thinking pattern under the influence of philosophy of dichotomy. therefore it pays more attention to the individual components of independent analysis, attention to the

38、 accurate and detailed, emphasizes from one to more, from small to large, from the concrete to the general.2.1.1 word order-prominence and morphological prominencesynthetic thinking model enables chinese with these characteristics: the formations of words, phrases and sentences have no formally sign

39、；their combination lies in the semantics, emphasizes less on the form but more on meaning. while the analysis thinking enables english with morphological coherence, the combination between sentences is explicit. for examples:她出生于1995年圣誕節(jié)晚上八點。she was born at 8oclock on christmas morning in 1995.遠(yuǎn)看山有的

40、，近聽水無聲春去花還在，人來鳥不驚when you look afar, the mountains are green and clear,but no sound of stream is heard when listening near,the flowers remain in full bloom when springs away,a human beings approach the bird doesnt fray.the expression of chinese poems is smooth and fruity, conditions of logical relat

41、ionship dont need to use conjunctions, readers can understand its meaning, while english should add the conjunctions of “when” and “but”.connectives are often omitted in chinese sentencesin this case, the grammatical and logical relationship among the minor sentences in a compound sentence is not re

42、flected by any connective word，but implied by the word orderalthough the minor sentences may be linked just by commas，looking like in a coordinate relationship，actually if they are in a normal word order，usually the former one may indicate such meaning as “because”，“if， although”，“ even if” and so o

43、n，so that no connective word is necessaryword order is so important a device in chinese to reflect the meaning of a sentence that according to xin huihua，“all chinese grammar is syntax，all chinese syntax is word order and therefore all chinese grammar is word order(xin huihua，2004：40)”look at the fo

44、llowing examples：她不老實，我不能信任她。because she is not honest，i cant trust her跑得了和尚，跑不了廟。the monk may run away，but the temple cant roll with him你不惹我，我不惹你。im not offending you unless im offended早早獻關(guān)，饒你性命!倘若遲誤，粉身碎骨!if you give up the pass，i may spare your life；if you delay，1 will grind your bones topowder an

45、d make mincemeat of itby contrast, the analysis thinking way enables sentences accord with many fixed rules, emphasizes more on morph-syntactic changes, so we should pay the relationship of the conjunction between sentences.2.1.2 parataxis-prominence and hypotaxis-prominencein china，wang li first pu

46、ts forward the notions of hypotaxis and parataxis in his principles of chinese grammar(1984：310)，stating that “ parataxis is dominant in the chinese language where connective elements are not obligatory，whereas hypotaxis in english because in most cases connective elements are indispensable”liu miqi

47、ng (1992：18-19)considers thathypotaxis and parataxis are two different ways in which linguistic units are organizedhypotaxis is the way the connection of words or sentences is realized by linguistic formal means(1exical and morphological)in a paratactic way，the connection of words or sentences is no

48、t realized by formal means but by the logical and semantic relations between words or sentenceshypotaxis is concerned more with formal cohesion，while parataxis coherence in meaning.”synthetic thinking characterizes with integrality, imagination and their predominance on tuition, so it causes the cha

49、racteristic of parataxis-prominence in chinese sentences. synthetic thinking model enables flexible construction of chinese sentences. parataxis，in the worm book dictionary，refers to the arranging of clauses one after another without connectives showing the relation between them，for example：the rain

50、 fell；the river flooded；the house washed away”. parataxis is a distinctive feature of chinese language，which puts its stress on coved coherenceit is at first reflected by the much more flexible construction of chinese sentencesthe linguistic units like words or sentences are more often than not comb

51、ined together according to semantic coherence and integrity in the discourse，rather than relying heavily on the fixed mechanism of sentence construction and formal cohesive ties as in english. there are absolutely no such relative words as relative pronoun，relative adverb and relative determiner tha

52、t are indispensable in englishand there are only about 30 prepositions in chinese，compared with gcurmes statistics 286 in english(lian shuneng ,1993:50)，which，moreover，can mostly be found their origins as verbs“chinese as noneinflectional language has no clear and definite distinction between prepos

53、itions and verbs and almost all chinese prepositions evolved from verbs. whats more，both prepositions and connectives are often omitted，especially in spoken chinese，and the presence of which may sometimes even cause redundancy and awkwardnessno such meaningless expletives like “it” and “there” in en

54、glish exist in chinesepronouns are less frequently used，tooin a word，all those cohesive devices in english just mentioned in the above section either are absent or have a much lower appearance in chinese，which well manifests chinese paratactic characteristicssince analysis thinking way enables sente

55、nces accord with many fixed rules, it emphasizes more on morph-syntactic changes, so it is called hypotaxisprominence which is usually seen in english sentences. english sentences usually involve various explicit inflectional markersenglish abounds in cohesive ties like morphological changes，preposi

56、tions，connectives and the relative words，which are frequently used to combine words，phrases and clauses or even paragraphs togetherthe strictly ruled deep sentence structure and all these devices of overt cohesion that are highly emphasized in english，apparently reflect the hypotaxical feature of th

57、e english languagetake the poem” tian jing sha” by ma zhiyuan for instance,tian jin sha sky-clear sandkuteng laoshu hunya, rotten vine,old tree,crows at duskxiaoqiao liushui renjia, small bridge,streem running,a small village,gudao xifeng shouma, ancient road,west wind,lean rag,xiyang xixia, the sun

58、 westering,duanchangren zai tianya. and one with broken heart at the sky edge.nine nouns in the first three lines depict nine things, which present a vivid picture of the autumn dusk in the suburb. the description of the autumn scene sets off the feelings of the broken-hearted man who is far away from home.chinese readers are used to this kind of synthetic structure. since these nouns are fundamentally imagistic, it is not very difficult for chinese readers to associate them with their daily experience and form imagines in their minds through an exercise of the imagination.if th