浅谈中西方文化对中英文语言特征差异的影响

柯纪宏

摘  要：隨着当代英语学习的普及，越来越多的学生开始对英语学习产生了极大的热情。然而，在面对英汉两种语言之间主动与被动、动态与静态、人称与物称、简单短句与复合长句、意合与形合、话题突出与主语突出、重动词与重名词这些语言特征差异时，往往只注重机械性学习，而非有意义学习。文化和语言息息相关，本篇文章重点在于研究中西方文化对中英文语言特征差异的影响以便使大家更好地学习、使用英语。

关键词：中西方文化; 中英文语言特征; 差异; 影响

The Influence of Chinese and Western Culture on the Differences Between English and Chinese Language Characteristics

【Abstract】With the popularization of contemporary English learning， more and more students begin to have great enthusiasm for English learning. However， for some different language features such as active and passive， dynamic and static， personal subject and impersonal subject， simple short sentences and complex long sentences， parataxis and hypotaxis， topic prominence and subject prominence， verbs and nouns between English and Chinese languages， students often only focus on mechanical learning， rather than meaningful learning. Language is closely related to culture. This article focuses on the influence of Chinese and Western culture on differences of language features between Chinese and English so as to better learn and use English.

【Key Words】 Chinese and Western culture;  language feature of Chinese and English ;difference ; influence

一、Language Characteristics between English and Chinese

Contents of language characteristics between Chinese and English refers a variety of aspects. It includes Chinese emphasizing on active， dynamic， personal subject， simple short sentences， parataxis， topic prominence， analytic language and verbs， in contrast， English emphasizing on passive， static， impersonal subject， complex long sentences， hypotaxis， subject prominence， integrated language and nouns. Next， I will introduce these concepts one by one. First， English and Chinese belong to two different language families. The former belongs to Indo-European language family， and the latter belongs to Sino-Tibetan language family. So in the sentence structure， it can make a big difference. Generally speaking， English has more passive sentence patterns， while Chinese emphasizes on active pattern. Because the Chinese word "be" has some derogatory meanings. Yao Yanmei expresses her opinions on this topic. Chinese is flexible in expressing the active voice and the passive voice. Sometimes the same form can be used to express both the active voice and the passive voice. Some Chinese sentences， though its form likes the passive voice， indeed it is not. English beginners often make mistakes because of the influence of Chinese. For example， in a competition， Xiao Ming is a winner. The wrong version is “Xiao Ming was defeated his opponent”， but the right is “Xiao Ming defeated his opponent”. Compared with Chinese， English nouns are more frequently used and have a static advantage， while Chinese verbs are more frequently used and have a dynamic advantage. Due to the influence of thinking habits， there are differences between impersonal subject and personal subject in English and Chinese. Englishs impersonal subject makes the sentence objective， fair and compact， and personal subject makes the sentence more natural and logical. But these differences are not absolute.

In terms of frequency， parataxis outweighs hypotaxis in Chinese， by contrast， English

applies more hypotactic strategies in sentences and texts construction. There is a natural

shifting from hypotactic approach to paratactic approach in E-C translation. On the other hand， the usage of parataxis and hypotaxis is not absolute in either Chinese or English. Language users may sometimes choose the less frequent usage compared to the commonly used expressions of their own language habits. Thus， the choice he or she made in their writings will probably possess pragmatic values rather than simply semantic meaning. An English or Chinese text should be judged from its context， writing style and the intention of the writer to decide whether it is parataxis or hypotaxis.

According to Yu Shuang， Chinese is the language with prominent topics and English is the language with prominent subjects. Topic sentence in Chinese is a normal structure， but English rarely uses topic sentence， which determines the general trend of Chinese topic sentence translation： The "topic + comment" structure in Chinese will be converted into the "subject + predicate" structure in English. In the process of conversion， it is very important to deal with the relationship between Chinese subject and English subject.

二、The Characteristics of Chinese and Western Culture

（一）The Characteristics of Chinese Culture

Chinese culture is red civilization. China has been a society of small farmers since ancient times. It is a tradition for men to plow and women to weave. Diligence is a traditional virtue of the Chinese nation. We love labour and love peace. We are against aggression， against war， against striving for hegemony， and against getting something for nothing. Everything we have now is accumulated by ourselves bit by bit. In the case of material abundance， we also pay attention to spiritual wealth. Tang poem， Song iambic verse， Yuan drama， and Ming and Qing novels are all our precious spiritual wealth.

（二）The Characteristics of Western Culture

Western culture is blue civilization. The West has always been a maritime civilization. In order to meet the needs of capitalists， they adopt aggressive methods to quickly acquire wealth and resources. On the surface， they are acting， but in essence， they want to get all the good things in the world with the mentality of getting something for nothing. From the Industrial Revolution and the various kinds of ships and guns produced by the West， we can see that the West is particularly full of logic and organization. It is characteristic that enables the Westerners to deploy sophisticated strategies to invade other countries.

American is a small power distance country. its culture shows equality and freedom. Teachers in small power distance cultures will treat students as equal as teachers. The courses are in center of students， making them interested in studying， improving their creative spiritual and discovering their own learning methods. Students are encouraged to express themselves. Therefore， Chinese students abroad will also feel like a fish out of water at first. Chinese students accustomed to spoon-feeding cant keep pace with American students. Because American students always discuss in the class or even some students argue against professor. American professors always require students to take part in the discussion， raise questions and share own ideas. Students frequency of class participation will influence impression in professor. Chinese students will feel shocked. In large power distance cultures students must observe the power of professor and dare not object to professors even other students opinions. Some students dont adapt to expressing their opinions in public. In fact， this phenomenon from the side reflects that Chinese does not come straight to the point， and always covers too much when speaking. This is influenced by the different ways of Chinese and Western education.

三、The Influence of Chinese and Western Culture on the Differences Between English and Chinese Language Features

（一）The Influence of Chinese Culture on Chinese Language features

Chinese culture emphasizes on “Big Head” ideas. We can think about Chinese figure of Buddha. It appears a figure that head is big. In addition to this， Chinese summer Olympics mascot is Fuwa baby. It gives us a figure that head is big， in the meantime， the Winter Olympicss mascot is Bing Dwen Dwen and Xue Rong Rong. It still shows a figure that head is big. Because of this culture， our Chinese language focuses on covering a lot in the previous sections. At last， we conclude by pointing out the core theme. In Chinese culture， we pay attention to do anything by ourselves， and we can acquire anything by ourselves. A typical example is farmers plant crops to harvest food. Even though we meet a bad year， we choose starvation rather than aggression. Diligence is a traditional virtue of the Chinese nation. Diligence principle has been followed since ancient times. Kuang Heng chiseled wall to steal light to study everyday. Zu Di heard the chicken crowing to practice the swordplay. These vivid examples show our industrious characteristics. From these aspects， we can find Chinese language is linked with these culture features. It responds to Chinese languages active， dynamic， personal subject and verbs. About the topic prominence， I want to say a simple and easy examples. In the current， people always talks about some movie stars or singers private matters after they have a dinner. Or， people is bound up in talking about some hot issues in society. These behaviors reflect Chinese languages topic prominence. Of course， Westerners talk about these things too， but in the process they more focus on the persons feeling rather than the topic. It reflects English languages subject prominence. About parataxis and simple short sentences， I want to introduce Tang Dynastys poetry especially Li Bais poems. His poems express romantic thoughts through a few words. That is the charm of Chinese. Of course， in addition to a several of literate person like poets， all ordinary individuals also can express complete meanings in refined language. For instance， Mr.Wang asks such a question that “What time is it ？” to Ms.Liu. If Ms. Liu answers him in English， she will say “twenty-one oclock p.m.”， in contrast， if Ms. Liu answers him in Chinese， she just will say a “nine”. This “nine” represents “p.m.” and “twenty-one oclock”. Chinese is so easy that we dont have to say too much， but express clearly what we want to express in a simple and efficient way. Therefore， this culture of idea and behaviour reflects Chinese languages simple short sentence and parataxis. Referring to simple short sentences and complex long sentences， Zhang Zhenjiu expresses his opinions in A Concise Course on English—Chinese & Chinese—English. He thinks Chinese has some differences from English in punctuation marks， especially in the use of commas and periods. Punctuation marks are an organic part of written language， but in the long history of language development， There is no punctuation marks in Chinese. The ancient people completely relied on meaning interpretation and sentence breaking based on the understanding of meaning， which formed the situation that Chinese always attached importance to meaning rather than form， and even did not need punctuation. Therefore， in run-on sentences which are composed of several clauses， we often change the subject in the middle when translating. In English translation， sentences with different subjects may be rendered into different English sentences. From this aspects， we have a deeper understanding of parataxis in Chinese.

（二）The Influence of Western Culture on English Language Features

Western culture emphasizes on maritime civilization. Western culture appears some “lazy” in a way. This “lazy” is not a derogatory， in contrast， appearing an open mind for foreigners. From the Industrial Revolution， we can know they are full of logic and organization. This point reflects the character of English complex and long sentences. Because English complex and long sentences acquire us to make constant analysis. English focuses on static， impersonal， hypotaxis. These aspects appear in bringism. They want to satisfy their desires through the way of aggression. British invaded India and made it their colony， exploiting the resources and manpower there. They want to get all the good things in the world with the mentality of getting something for nothing. It shows static， nouns and impersonal. Frankly speaking， they just want to profit by other peoples toil. Western culture emphasizes on individualism， reflecting the most obvious example that Corona Virus Disease-19. American government only cares about themselves， therefore， thousands of people died because there was no money for treatment. Some people will question that foreigners are very active in building their own country， so their language shouldnt be passive. For this issue， I want to say no country that has not been active in building their own country. We need to understand Westerners to build the essence of their country. Their initiative are just embodied in behaviors， and their mind still exists the idea of getting something for nothing. To some extent， these aspects reflect the static and passive characteristics of English language.

四、Conclusion

This article is intended to make every English-learning students learn about the influence of Chinese and Western culture on the differences of between English and Chinese language characteristics so as to better understand the difference of two languages. Culture is closely related to language. Only when we understand the differences between Chinese and Western cultures can we learn and use language better. Through learning about the differences of Chinese and Western culture， I hope students can master different language characteristics such as active and passive， dynamic and static， personal subject and impersonal subject， simple short sentences and complex long sentences， parataxis and hypotaxis， topic prominence and subject prominence between English and Chinese languages.

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