A Contrastive Study Of The Xing (action) Preference In The English Classical Novel Le Morte D’arthur And The Xing (form) Orientation In The Chinese Classical Novel Shuihu Zhuan

Inspired by the notion “inner linguistic form” proposed by Humboldt in1836, WangWenbin (2012) proposes the hypothesis that English has the trait of temporality whileChinese has that of spatiality. Wang maintains that the inner essential difference betweenEnglish and Chinese, hidden from a number of superficial various phenomena, is thediscrepancy of English temporality and Chinese spatiality. Stimulated by this viewpoint, thisthesis attempts to demonstrate, verify and ascertain the root cause of the differences betweenEnglish and Chinese on the linguistic level by probing into the individualized differencesexhibited in the two classical novels: Le Morte d’Arthur and Shuihu Zhuan.Written in an approximate era but set in two totally disparate geographic locations andpresented in two fundamentally distinct languages, these two classic novels could provide theacademic field with interesting facts about the crucial differences between English andChinese. The major findings of this thesis are as follows:Firstly, the character descriptions in Le Morte d’Arthur enjoy the simplex and holisticpreference and the dominant use of verbs highly focusing on the description of events. On thecontrary, the character descriptions in Shuihu Zhuan favor the detailed and meticulousorientation and the dominant use of nouns prominently concentrating on the description ofentities. Secondly, the above-mentioned distinctive characteristics displayed in these two novelscan be regarded as differences between the Xing (action) preference in the English classicalnovel and the Xing (form) orientation in the Chinese one. However, these two notions are notexclusive. In the English classical novels, Xing (action) is the central characteristic whileXing (form) is the peripheral one. In the Chinese classical novels, Xing (form) is the majorcharacteristic while Xing (action) is the minor one. Xing (action) refers to “event” which ischaracterized by the English temporal trait, whereas Xing (form) refers to “entity” which isspatial in nature shown by Chinese. Xing (action) is mainly represented by verbs, while Xing(form) is basically represented by nouns.Thirdly, the causal relation between the temporal or spatial trait of language and theirexplicit extrinsic differences is examined and verified in this thesis. The temporal or spatialtrait is the cause, while the explicit extrinsic differences are the effect. The Xing (action)preference of English is the effect of the temporal trait whereas the Xing (form) orientation ofChinese is the effect of the spatial trait on the linguistic level.Fourthly, the temporal or spatial trait of language and their explicit extrinsic differencesare mutually convertible in the process of translation. Under the influence of the targetlanguage, a limited portion of translation enjoys the explicit extrinsic differences of the targetlanguage. Influenced by the source language, a substantial portion of translation shares theexplicit extrinsic differences of the source language.Fifthly, related studies in semiology, psychology and linguistics have indirectly proventhe temporal trait of English and the spatial trait of Chinese whereas the Xing (action)preference of English and the Xing (form) orientation of Chinese have directly verified thetrait of these two languages.