中西思維差異對(duì)英漢翻譯的影響【畢業(yè)論文】

1、<p><b>　　（20_ _屆）</b></p><p><b>　　本科畢業(yè)設(shè)計(jì)</b></p><p><b>　　英語</b></p><p>　　中西思維差異對(duì)英漢翻譯的影響</p><p>　　The Differences between Chines

2、e &Western Mode of Thinking and Their Impact on E-C Translation</p><p><b>　　內(nèi)容摘要</b></p><p>　　從思維的角度看，翻譯不僅是一種語言活動(dòng)，更主要的是一種思維活動(dòng)。思維的差異肯定會(huì)影響兩種語言的相互轉(zhuǎn)換。本文首先通過對(duì)比的形式加以分析，提出了中西思維方面存在的三大不同

3、之處，綜合思維和分析思維，具象思維和抽象思維，順向思維和逆向思維。從而引出了由于思維方式的差異給翻譯帶來的三個(gè)影響,表現(xiàn)在詞匯視點(diǎn)的不同，表達(dá)結(jié)構(gòu)和語序上的差異三方面。最后還提出了一些基本方法用來提高思維影響下的翻譯質(zhì)量。因此，在翻譯過程中，為了避免誤區(qū)，我們必須重視中西思維差異對(duì)翻譯的影響。</p><p>　　關(guān)鍵詞：思維；語言學(xué)；差異；英漢翻譯</p><p><b>　　

4、Abstract</b></p><p>　　From the perspective of thinking, translation is not only a linguistic activity, but also involves the process of thinking activity. The different modes of thinking will certainly

5、 affect the conversion between the two languages. This paper firstly proposes three differences existing in Chinese and western mode of thinking by some comparison and analysis, synthetic thinking and analytic thinking,

6、concrete thinking and abstract thinking, forward thinking and reverse thinking. Thus present three gr</p><p>　　Key words: thinking; linguistic; difference; English and Chinese translation</p><p>

7、;<b>　　Contents </b></p><p>　　AbstractIII</p><p>　　1.Introduction1</p><p>　　2.The contrast between Chinese and western modes of thinking2</p><p>　　2.1 S

8、ynthetic thinking VS analytic thinking2</p><p>　　2.2 Concrete Thinking VS Abstract Thinking3</p><p>　　2.3 Forward thinking VS reverse thinking4</p><p>　　3. Different modes of thi

9、nking and translation problems ..5</p><p>　　3.1 Different modes of thinking and choice of words5</p><p>　　3.2Different modes of thinking and expression structures7</p><p>　　3.3 D

10、ifferent modes of thinking and words order8</p><p>　　3.3.1 The Principle of Temporal Sequence9</p><p>　　3.3.2 The Principle of Spatial Sequence9</p><p>　　3.3.3 The Principle of C

11、ause and Result Sequence10</p><p>　　3.4 Basic methods to improve translation quality10</p><p>　　Conclusion11</p><p>　　Bibliography13</p><p>　　Acknowledgements14<

12、;/p><p>　　Introduction</p><p>　　In the long progress of human society, translation helps human being to communicate with each other and have been closely bound up with human existence and developme

13、nt. Translation studies have long been confined to the periphery of research in the humanities. In the long translation history, there are many factors to affect the quality of translation such as the difference of cultu

14、re and translation habits and so on. Different nations have different languages and cultures. Because of the differ</p><p>　　Samual Johson pointed out to translate is to change into another language retainin

15、g as much of the sense as one can. (Samual Johson,1895:2). Translation is a cross-lingual and cross-cultural communicative activity. It reproduces the message of the source text into the message of the target text to mak

16、e the target reader understand what the source text is about. In other words, the translation among different languages might express the same thinking meaning. Translation is a complex process, whi</p><p>　

17、　In terms of features, language is not only a tool for thinking, but also for communication. People’s brain can reflect the objective world, and thinking is one of functions for human’s brains. However, language and thou

18、ght is not one to one relationship. Shakespeare said: what’s in a name, that which we call a rose\ by any other name would smell as sweet. (Romeo and Juliet, Scene 2) The unity of thought and an arbitrary form of languag

19、e content, constitute the diversity of translation, but also </p><p>　　But different modes of thinking between Chinese and western always lead to the different understanding to the same message. Chinese and

20、English people have different connotative meanings to same words or use different words to express same or similar meanings.</p><p>　　The main purpose of this paper is to point out several common errors in E

21、-C translation, and help us have a better understanding of the mode of thinking between Chinese and western people, therefore make the gap of intercultural communication narrower.</p><p>　　The contrast betwe

22、en Chinese and western modes of thinking</p><p>　　Synthetic thinking VS analytic thinking</p><p>　　Generally speaking, Chinese people emphasize integrity while western people emphasize individua

23、lity. Chinese people think the world is united. They think that the collectivity is the most important thing. Compared with this, westerners tend to analysis the whole world into smaller parts, because it is good to use

24、logical analysis and stress the individual value. This phenomenon also exists in thinking. As a result of this phenomenon, Chinese people lay stress on synthetic thinking while western </p><p>　　The structur

25、e of Chinese sentences is very incompact, but the English are very precise. When we are in translation, we should pay our attention to the parataxis and hypotaxis to avoid mistakes in English-Chinese translation. Chinese

26、 people usually use nomenclature and have generic concept in mind. It is also comes from the synthetic thinking, thus some errors may occur in English translation.</p><p>　　(1) Planet in China is used as the

27、 assemblage of all galaxies, but western people usually use the words in detail, such as Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Sarurn, Urahs, Neptune and Pluto. </p><p>　　So we should distinguish them from each oth

28、er in English-Chinese translation, putting the individual at the first place in the course of translation.</p><p>　　Concrete Thinking VS Abstract Thinking</p><p>　　Western people tend to be abst

29、ract while Chinese people tend to be concrete. Abstract is one of the most important features of western language. They usually use abstract words to express concrete meaning. But Chinese people are accustomed to use con

30、crete words to express concrete meaning. For most western people, those abstract words are explicit and concise, and they can understand it easily. When Chinese people come into contact with those sentences or articles w

31、hich includes several abstract</p><p>　　(2) I hope my presence here tonight is further proof of the importance we British attach on relations with your great country. </p><p>　　我希望，今晚我到這里來可以進(jìn)一步證

32、明，我們英國(guó)人非常重視和你們偉大祖國(guó)的關(guān)系.</p><p>　　We can see clearly that in this sentence three abstract words symbolize three concrete things. The first word is “presence”，it means to come here by himself; the second word i

33、s “proof”，it means the person’s attendance tonight , it’s a concrete thing, not just an evidence. The third word is “importance”, it means the importance of the relationship. </p><p>　　(3) Wisdom prepares th

34、e worst, but folly leaves the worst for the day it comes.</p><p>　　聰明人防患于未來，愚蠢者臨渴挖井. </p><p>　　“Wisdom” and “folly” are also two abstract words. The concrete meanings of these two words are the

35、clever persons and the stupid persons. </p><p>　　(4) Another example: for what can be prettier than an image of love on his knees before beauty? (M. Thackeray: Vanity Fair CH.15)</p><p>　　癡情公子向

36、美貌佳人跪下求婚，還不是一幅賞心悅目的畫嗎？</p><p>　　As we all known that love can’t propos marriage before beauty and it naturally let us imagine a beautiful scene in which a handsome man propos marriage to a beautiful woman wh

37、ich is reasonable.</p><p>　　From what I have mentioned above, we may easily draw a conclusion that Chinese people are used to think in a specific way, but westerners like to describe things in an abstract wa

38、y. If you do not transform the abstract words into the concrete meaning, and then there will be a lot of mistakes in the E-C translation.</p><p>　　Forward thinking VS reverse thinking</p><p>　　T

39、he difference between forward thinking and reverse thinking mainly includes space, position and time. Chinese people are accustomed to using forward thinking, while western people are quite different from Chinese people.

40、 Forward thinking usually complies with the principle of temporal sequence, the principle of spatial sequence and the principle of cause and result sequence. Chinese people first describe what has happened in the past, t

41、hen talk about the plot which happened at current and at la</p><p>　　(5) Mike did not remember his grandmother who died of cancer when he was three years old. </p><p>　　When we translate this se

42、ntence, Chinese people usually first focus on his grandmother’s death, and then causes effect Mike doesn’t remember her. But the English sentence is absolutely not, they used the principle of result and cause. From this

43、example, we can easily get the conclusion that forward thinking and reverse thinking have a lot of differences when in English-Chinese translation.</p><p>　　(6) Chinese people usually say 東南西北，western people

44、 rearrange their order 北南東西，so southeast means 東南. </p><p>　　This example fully demonstrates the difference of forward thinking and reverse thinking in E-C translation.</p><p>　　(7) Past experi

45、ence，if not forgotten, is a guide for the future, Lessons learned from the past can serve as a guide one in the future, or Looking back, I do not see the ancients, Looking ahead, I cant not see the wise ones to come <

46、/p><p>　　前不見古人, 后不見來者 </p><p>　　It’s a typical example to explain the difference between forward thinking and reverse thinking. Past and back, don’t use their source meaning, so we should put forw

47、ard thinking into reverse thinking in most situation.</p><p>　　Different modes of thinking and translation problems</p><p>　　Different modes of thinking and choice of words</p><p>　

48、　A very common example in English---Chinese translation, in the most western countries, the word “back” means the past, and the word “forward” means in the future. The Chinese way of thinking is the other way round. Back

49、 means later on, and forward means before. So we always make mistakes when we are in translation.</p><p>　　(8) In this regard a chore is the very opposite of a “happening” –that strange sort of event which a

50、 few years back was so much in fashion.(A. Heckscher：Doing Chores) </p><p>　　In this sentence, we tend to think “a few years back” means some years later, in fact, it means several years ago. </p><

51、;p>　　As the old English saying goes: words do not have meanings, people have meanings for the words. Every word has three meanings, the structural meanings, the referential meanings and the situational meanings. In li

52、nguistics, the meaning of a word includes grammatical meaning and lexical meaning. Lexical meaning has two parts. They are conceptual meaning and cognitive meaning. The former is the center of the meaning of the word, an

53、d it indicates definitely the object. Conceptual meaning has compara</p><p>　　Different modes of thinking and vocabulary viewpoints lead to difference in translation management. Because of the differences ab

54、out the modes of thinking of the Chinese and English, unique national thinking is formed. The similarities and differences of the thinking lead people to give the same or different emotion and association towards the sam

55、e object. So according to the appearances and habits of the thinking, different words can have the same or similar connotation, and the same word may h</p><p>　　There are many other examples to reflect this

56、phenomenon: </p><p>　　(9) A ten percent discount（九折）</p><p>　　Because of the different modes of thinking, English people usually focus on the precept of discount while Chinese people may focus o

57、n actual payment proportion after giving a discount. </p><p>　　(10) Black tea(紅茶)，not red tea.</p><p>　　(11) Chinese people say大雪; western people use heavy snow rather than big snow.</p>

58、<p>　　(12) I am going to catch the first train back to Beijing.</p><p>　　我打算乘 下一趟 火車回北京</p><p>　　Obviously the first train here was translated equally to the meaning of the next train.</

59、p><p>　　(13) green eye紅眼,skin deep 膚淺,standing clock座鐘,warm clothes 寒衣、冬裝,wet paint油漆未干Many of the words used in these examples is the opposite way of our Chinese usage. If we follow our own thinking habits in

60、translation, it will not appear a good translation effect.</p><p>　　(14) He had left a note of welcome for me, as sunny as his face, here the exact meaning of sunny is 熱情洋溢.</p><p>　　(15) The ne

61、w father wore a proud smile </p><p>　　剛做了父親的那個(gè)人面帶得意的笑容; </p><p>　　(16) It was an old and ragged moon.</p><p>　　那是一個(gè)又老又破的月亮(F) 這是一彎下弦殘?jiān)拢═）</p><p>　　(17) Last night I hea

62、rd him driving his pigs to market. </p><p>　　昨夜我聽見他把他的豬趕到市場(chǎng)(F),昨夜我聽見他鼾聲如雷(T)</p><p>　　So when in translation, we should pay more attention to the different vocabulary viewpoints. One point shoul

63、d be made clear that translation is not word-for-word translation. We can not just stop at the surface meaning of a word or a sentence. We should recognize that different modes of thinking may lead to the different choic

64、e of words. In many cases, we are unable to translate English into Chinese by its literal meaning. We need to consider different ways of thinking between Chinese and Wester</p><p>　　Different modes of thinki

65、ng and expression structures</p><p>　　A term used to refer to any approach which views translation as a “communicative process which takes place within a social context” (hatim and mason 1990:3, emphasis rem

66、oved). Obviously, all approaches will to some extent consider translation as communication; however, a so-called communicative translation will typically be generally oriented towards the need of the reader or recipient.

67、 Thus for example a translator who is translating communicatively will treat modes of thinking as a message rat</p><p>　　Different modes of thinking and expression structures make the article to be inflexibl

68、e and defective even fault. There are two ways to express one thing--- positive and negation, Negation refers to the translation of positive expressions in English as negative expressions in Chinese or the translation of

69、 negative expressions in English as positive expressions in Chinese, or vice versa. Its purpose is to better and more faithfully convey the original meaning in the target language. But under the</p><p>　　(18

70、) He is the last man to reach there. </p><p>　　他絕不是會(huì)去那里的人</p><p>　　(19) A simple example, don’t you want to go? Yes ,I do .</p><p>　　不，我想，No, I don’t .是的，我不想</p><p>　　(

71、20) Another example: The college student caught cheating does not even blush. He shrugs his shoulders and comments: Everybody does it, and besides, I can’t see that it really hurts anybody (J. Krutch: “The New Immorality

72、) I can’t see that it really hurts anybody</p><p>　　我不認(rèn)為這會(huì)損害任何人 (F), 我看這實(shí)在不會(huì)損害任何人（T）</p><p>　　(21) The doubt was still unsolved after his repeated explanation.</p><p>　　雖然他一再解釋，疑團(tuán)仍然

73、存在</p><p>　　(22) The soldiers would rather fight to death before they surrendered.</p><p>　　士兵寧愿戰(zhàn)斗到死也決不投降。</p><p>　　(23) He is a good riddance. </p><p><b>　　他還是不在

74、場(chǎng)的好</b></p><p>　　If we neglect the differences in thinking style, it will inevitably lead to ambiguous sentences. Most Chinese language beginning with theme rather than subject, then give a comment

75、 to the theme, but every English sentence has its subject and object, and the subject should be nominal. There are many English sentences with structural inversion, in our translation of those English sentences; the most

76、 important thing is to adjust the sentence structure. </p><p>　　(24) How beautiful this city is! </p><p><b>　　這城市好美啊</b></p><p>　　(25) Not a word did he say</p>&

77、lt;p><b>　　他一言不發(fā).</b></p><p>　　For some English sentences, speaking it implicatively and indirectly, Chinese sentences are very straightforward. </p><p>　　(26) This is the last pla

78、ce where I expected to meet you. </p><p>　　我怎么也沒有想到會(huì)在這個(gè)地方見到你 </p><p>　　(27) I have read your articles. I expected to meet an older man. </p><p>　　看過你的文章，想不到你這么年輕 </p><p&g

79、t;　　In this sentence, an older man is an indirectly way to give Praise to the articles.</p><p>　　Different modes of thinking and words order</p><p>　　Generally speaking, Chinese words order is m

80、ore stable than English. Because of different geographical environments，traditional habits，value orientations and ways of perception，the connotations of words in English does not necessarily coincide with those in Chines

81、e, so English words order has a fixed side as well as a flexible side. </p><p>　　(28) For example we can say” The train had left when I reached the station” Another words order also can express the meaning o

82、f this sentence” When I reached the station, the train had left” </p><p>　　Because of the different modes of thinking, there are many differences exist in the translation process. When we translate English i

83、nto Chinese, we have a common mistake---based on the source language words order. If we do like this, many English sentences after being translated into Chinese will lose its original meaning, even do not meat the Chines

84、e way of thinking.</p><p>　　The Principle of Temporal Sequence</p><p>　　This order suggests that in E-C translation, if an English sentence has several actions that may not be arranged in time o

85、rder, the translator should rearrange the actions according to the time order in Chinese.</p><p>　　Judging from Chinese sentences, the sentence order is in accordance with the time successively.</p>&

86、lt;p>　　(29) I will go and call a taxi for you after dinner. We are translated this English sentence into Chinese </p><p>　　我吃了飯去給你叫出租車</p><p>　　After translating into Chinese, the English wor

87、ds order are changed because of the principle of temporal sequence caused by the different modes of thinking.</p><p>　　The Principle of Spatial Sequence</p><p>　　The following examples are some

88、time principle of spatial sequence. </p><p>　　(30) At 12 o’clock on April 20 in the 17th year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, we usually translate this sentence like this: 清代康熙十七年四月二十日午時(shí)，if we translate this

89、sentence based on the English word order, it obviously wrong. </p><p>　　(31) An example of address principle of spatial sequence: 中國(guó)浙江省嘉興市南湖區(qū): Nanhu District, Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, China. </p>&

90、lt;p>　　(32) An example of institution principle of spatial sequence: Class 9 English Department the Graduate School Xiamen University </p><p>　　廈門大學(xué)研究生院英語系九班</p><p>　　The Principle of Cause a

91、nd Result Sequence</p><p>　　Generally speaking, the cause comes before the effect and the condition comes before the result in most Chinese sentences. While in English, the cause may come before the effect a

92、lso the effect may come before the cause. The same is true for condition and result, and explanation and conclusion. In the translation of complicated sentences into Chinese, it is necessary to rearrange the structure ac

93、cording to the logical order in Chinese when the original-order-based translation is non-smooth. </p><p>　　Cause and Result Sequence is one of the basic principles in the long Chinese history, Chinese people

94、 usually put the cause before the result. However, it’s not common in English because of the reverse thinking. Sometimes Result and Cause Sequence can be accepted by western people. </p><p>　　(33) Errors and

95、 omissions is possible, I’d like to express my apology in advance.</p><p>　　我先道個(gè)歉，原因是錯(cuò)漏難免 </p><p>　　(34) The painting will be yours if you win three times running. </p><p>　　這幅畫歸

96、你，如果你連贏三次</p><p>　　Basic Methods to Improve Translation Quality</p><p>　　Since translation is an activity of reproducing in one language the ideas which have been express in another language. Th

97、e existence of thinking differences should not be ignored. We should pay more attention to those differences in the process of translation. There are many basic methods to improve translation quality. We can use foreigni

98、zing method and domesticating method to avoid those differences. Another method is restructuring, because of the difference of word order; the different positi</p><p>　　In order to make a translator enable t

99、o give a complete transcript of the ideas of the original work, it is necessary, that he should have a perfect knowledge of language of the original, and a competent acquaintance with the subject which it treats. If he i

100、s deficient in either of these requisites, he can never be certain of thoroughly comprehending the sense of his author.</p><p>　　Conclusion</p><p>　　Human beings always have inseparable relation

101、s with translation, because it is one of the most important ways to communicate with other people or other countries around the world. In the long period of time people come to realize that translation, whether they are

102、exact or not, contributing much to man’s lives. But translation should not be limited in the exchange of words. Different modes of thinking are not only misleading but also ruin the meaning of the source language, theref