A Study On Differences Of Chinese And Western Thinking Styles Reflected In Chinese Characters And English Words

Language and thought are closely associated with each other. Language, as the main tool of thought, is the key element of thinking style. Thought embodies itself by certain means, and manifests itself in certain language forms. Different thinking style is an important factor of linguistic differences. The use of language embodies the selection and creativity of thought.As Plato said:"In the thinking of the mind, heart, it is nothing more than to speak." Thinking is the reflection in general and indirectly to the objective reality of the human brain, and it expresses to rely on the language tools. The word is a tool to record language and to communicate, so the word is a manifestation of thinking or a carrier of thinking. Thus, both word and ways of thinking are closely related, the differences between Chinese and English words from different aspects may also reflect differences in the two ways of thinking in Chinese and Western.Professor Ji Xianlin once said,"The difference of Chinese and Western culture lies in their different thinking styles, which have different foundation." As far as the difference of Chinese and Western thinking styles is concerned, a lot of scholars agree that Chinese focus more on syntheses, imagination and subjectivity, while Westerners pay more attention to analysis, logic and objectivity. Chinese characters and English words as the research object in this thesis, aims to the study of differences of thinking styles between Chinese and Western reflected in words, compared with differences between Chinese characters and English words, to help Chinese language learners who speak English as mother tongue to recognize Chinese correctly, to understand Chinese and to learn Chinese better and more effective. This thesis outlined the original of thinking style between Chinese and Western and the different of thinking styles between Chinese and Western briefly. This thesis overviewed the generation, composition and characteristics of Chinese characters and English words, comparative analysis on the differences of thinking styles in Chinese characters and English words. Finally, this thesis presented some strategies for the Chinese language learners who speak English as mother tongue.This thesis is di.vided into six chapters. They are sequentially the introduction, the literature review, the analysis of Chinese characters and English words, the different thinking style between Chinese and Western reflected in Chinese characters and English words and the conclusion. Chapter1Introduction:this part introduces the objective, background and significance of this thesis. Chapter2Literature review:this part introduces scholars study about differences of thinking style between Chinese and Western the relationship between thinking style and words from domestic and abroad. Chapter3Chinese and Western thinking styles:this part introduces the original of thinking style between Chinese and Western, comparatively analyzes this two kinds of thinking styles briefly. Chapter4Chinese characters and English words:this part describes the generated, structure and characteristics between Chinese characters and English words briefly. Chapter5The analysis on differences of Chinese and Western thinking styles reflected in Chinese characters and English words:this part analyzes differences of thinking styles between Chinese and Western reflected in Chinese characters and English words, and presents some Chinese language learning strategies for people who speak English as mother tongue. Chapter6Conclusion: this part summarizes this thesis.In Chinese language learning, Chinese learners study not only the form of Chinese language, but also the way of thinking, and understand the different thinking styles between Chinese language and English, which will help Chinese learner to achieve qualitative change from emotional to rational, to exclude the negative impact of the migration of thinking in English, to culture the ability of Chinese language and to learn Chinese language in Chinese thinking style.