Different English And Chinese Thinking Modes And The Consequent Impact Upon Translation

Thought and language interact with each other, but the part each plays in the relationship is not in the balance and thought plays a decisive role. Thus different modes of thinking lead to diverse language expressive forms. Translating process starts in language and ends in language. Translation is not only a kind of linguistic activity but also a kind of thinking activity as well. Thought has its universality, which is the basis of translation, but at the same time it has its individuality, namely national character, which is predominantly reflected in this fact that different nations have their own different modes of thinking. Then various modes of thinking give rise to various language expressive forms and this is the origin of the problems we often encounter in translation. Thus in order to solve translation problems fundamentally, I think thinking mode which plays decisive role has to be discussed, and language as a vehicle of communication should be also discussed. And this is the reason that I write this thesis.In this paper, the main causes led to differences between Chinese and English thinking modes are firstly analyzed from the perspective of philosophy. Obviously, the discussion of the differences between thinking modes is deeper than that in pure language level, which can provide us with inspiration and help in translation practice. Next the differences between Chinese and English thinking modes and their reflections on respective expressive forms are discussed, on whose basis how to adjust these differences of another thinking mode to suit your own expressive ways is analyzed. It is apparent that besides the impact upon syntactic structure, the different modes of thinking between English and Chinese impose powerful influences on the other aspects of language, such as word diction and discourse arrangement, thus the discussion of these two aspects in the last chapter of the paper will correspondingly provide some significant instructions for word and discourse translation.Without any doubt, the comparison between two different kinds of thinking modes can help us realize many translation problems in essence, and thereby find better solutions. It can make us adopt an objective and dialectical attitude in our future translation study so as to understand translation better.