On The Effects Of The Differences Between Chinese And Western Patterns Of Thought On Translating

Translation is a kind of link or bridge for people with different languages to communicate with each other; it is a process of translating between the original and target languages. But why will misunderstanding and even not understanding sometimes occur when Chinese students translate between the two languages? As the fact of matter, the process of translating concerns with not only the exchange of different language forms but also the exchange of different cultures. The differences in language expressions and ideas arrangement result from the different patterns of thought which embody the cultural characteristics. This thesis makes a contrastive study between Chinese patterns of thought and Western patterns of thought, so as to reveal that Chinese and Westerners are largely different in their mentality, which is embodied in their linguistic expressions respectively. It discusses the effect of thought patterns, which is the inmost mechanism of language generation and development, on translation. The idea is put forward that it is necessary to make transfer between Chinese patterns of thought and Western ones in the course of translating in order to obtain a natural and idiomatic translation.The first chapter is an introduction of research on patterns of thought, especially the research done by Chinese scholars. The contrastive study of Chinese and Western patterns of thought has been done for a long time. Earlier and present scholars, such as Yan Fu and Lin Yutang, all made contributions to the contrastive study of the two different thought patterns.The second chapter summarizes the major features of Chinese and Western patterns of thought. Basically, Chinese patterns of thought are integral, concrete and circular while Western patterns of thought are analytical, abstract and linear.The third chapter discusses differences between Chinese and Western patterns of thought as are shown in languages. Chinese integral pattern of thought induces Chinese parataxis grammar, general-particular narrative order and correlative mode while Western analytical pattern of thought leads to hypotaxis grammar, particular-general narrative order and detached mode. The concreteness in Chinese language corresponds to Chinese concrete pattern of thought and the abstractness in Western language to Western abstract...