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【Abstract】Translation is not only a linguistic transference, but also an intercultural communication. Thought belongs to one of the most important functions of human brains.Influenced by geographical, philosophical and other factors, different thought patterns are formed in English and Chinese, which consequently lead to different language characteristics. This paper first analyzes thought pattern differences, then the characteristics of the two languages--Chinese and English, and their impact upon translation, and finally put forward some suggestions for translation.
【Key words】Thinking patterns；Differences and Translation
Thought belongs to one of the most important functions of human brain，it cannot be seen, heard, and felt. And it has to resort to language as its form. Thus language is the instrument to express and externalize thoughts.Because different nations have different histories, religions, philosophies and customs, different thought patterns are formed, which consequently lead to diversified language expressive forms. Moreover, it is known that translation is work that involves at lease two languages, so it can be inferred that translation is inevitably linked with modes of thinking.
１．Discussion：Relationship between Thought, Language and Translation
1.1 Thought and Language
Discussions on the relationship between thought and language have been carried on for a long time. It has been an issue of great controversy and great interest to the studies of philosophy, linguistics and psychology. It is really complex and elusive. Much of the relationship still remains unknown. Generally speaking, there is no unanimous agreement on this matter and some of the theories are even contradictory. Accordingly, two important points could be captured in this theory. On the one hand, language determines our thinking patterns; on the other hand, similarity between languages is relative, the greater their structural difference is, the more diverse their conceptuation of the world will be. For this reason, this hypothesis has alternatively been referred to as linguistic determinism and linguistic relativity.
Nowadays, it is commonly accepted that thought is closely related to language. Language is dominated by thought, in other words, without thought, language would not possess its current multifarious forms and functions; similarly, without language, it would be a difficult to shape and describe thought. Different thoughts or different modes of thinking will carve different marks on their respective language. Therefore, the influence different modes of thinking impose on translation cannot be neglected during the process of translating.
1.2 Thought and Translation
After the discussion in the foregoing section, we are now in a better position to analyze the relationship between thought, and translation. As is known to all, translating process contains not only linguistic activities but also thinking activities.Translation is not only influenced by two different languages but also by two different modes of thinking. In other words, translating process is the process of a translator’s special thinking activity. Translation activity is always closely related with abstract and visualized thinking ability no matter it is in the stage of understanding or in the stage of expressing. Therefore, thinking activity plays a vital role in the whole translating process. And it is not exaggerating to claim that the further exploration on the thinking activities in translating process is the breakthrough of translatology.
As we know, the human mind not only has its universality, the essential basis of translation, but also has its national characters, which is dominantly reflected in the differences entailed in the expressive forms of human language. English and Chinese are no exception. For instance, to convey the meaning, “to achieve two aims with a single action or simultaneously”, in Chinese , it can be said as “一舉两得” or “一箭双雕”; in English, there is an idiom for this, “to kill two birds with one stone”. Therefore, notwithstanding the similar content of thought in different nations, language expressive forms have distinct disparities because of the national individuality of thought. So in the translating process, different thought patterns should also be taken into consideration. However, such differences cannot be made clear only through linguistic rules. It requires the research on the national histories, cultures, and the related different modes of thinking as well. Actually, from the perspective of translatology, translation comprises thought level, semantic level and aesthetic level. But, thought level is the basis and precondition upon which the other levels are built. The universality contained in thought makes translation possible, however, it does not mean that the modes of thinking in all nations are the same. On the contrary, not only do different nations have different modes of thinking, but people belonging to the same nation have as well. It is certain that a careful analysis of the different modes of thinking between English and Chinese will, to a large extent, lead us to achieve a clearer understanding of translating process and then to obtain a more accurate, more intelligible and more readable translation. Now I will try to make a comparison between the English and Chinese modes of thinking and focus my analysis on their impact on translation.
2.Different Modes of Thinking and Their Implications upon Translation
When premiere Zhou and secretary of state Kissinger were discussing and drafting “the Shanghai Communiqué”, Kissinger commented that the thinking habit of eastern people is to seek “similarity” from “differences” whereas western people are inclined to seek “differences” from “similarity”. This remark, to some extent, reflects the different modes of thinking between eastern people and western people. In the early 19th century, the German materialist philosopher Feuerbach made the similar comment, Hence, there do exist some apparent disparities, which cannot be neglected, between the oriental mode of thinking and the occidental mode of thinking.
In this part, for the sake of clarification and explanation the different modes of thinking between English and Chinese are tentatively classified into two main pairs. However, it does not follow that they function independently. On the contrary, they are interwoven and interrelated with each other.
2.1 Individual Thinking vs. Holistic Thinking
（1）English Individual Thinking：Individual thinking is paid special attention to in English and the analytic mode of thinking is its main manifestation, in which the formal syntactic structure is underlined. In western philosophy, individual thinking is highly respected.Compare two Chinese sentences and their English versions: (a)Haughtiness invites losses while modesty brings profits. (b) Smart as a rule, but this time a fool.
In the examples, antithesis, an important figure of speech, is used in Chinese sentences to achieve the effect of contrast. However, in the English version, while in the first example is used to connect two contradictory ideas. So is but in the second sentence. The connective words in English give rise to the compactness of the sentence structures and seem to build a bridge between clauses.
（2）Chinese Holistic Thinking：Comparatively speaking, holistic thinking is the cornerstone of traditional Chinese thinking and it is primarily mirrored in the synthetic mode of thinking, in which the holistic balance and formula are underlined. For hundreds of years this holistic thinking has been exerting operating and orientating influence upon Chinese language. As a result, in Chinese the holistic and syntactic structure is emphasized; sometimes repetition is even used to reach this aim.
（3）Implications for Translation：Due to the impact of the holistic thinking, circular repetition often appears in Chinese sentence arrangement. However, in English this kind of repetition is not necessary, for example: (a)Nowadays you’ll have to present gifts on almost every occasion—gifts for the newborn, the aged, the sick and the dead. (b)The small town lies in a valley surrounded with mountains. The examples show that the phonological advantage in Chinese language also contributes to the circular repetition, which, as a result, makes the sentence sound very rhythmic and the sentence structure seemingly simplified. There is no such syntactic advantage in English. However, the basic reason is that the English analytic mode of thinking does not emphasize this kind of overall description and the integrated narration. In contrast, ellipsis is used to make sentences concise.In Chinese the formularized narration is also greatly influenced by the thought tendency, In fact, only a few meaningful points are contained in the sentence. While translating such Chinese sentences, we do not have to rigidly adhere to the structure and can leave out some unnecessary parts. For example: (a)The production plan was carried through due to the common effort of the workers and staff, the cooperation between the factories in partnership and the effective management of the government departments concerned. This Chinese sentence can be taken as three whole independent clauses. There are three “結果”. But in English, it is not necessary to repeat it time and time again. Three none phrases are used to achieve the effect of conciseness.
Chinese people have the inclination to view one thing as a whole and integrate each constituent so as to attain the comprehensive handling of the problem. This characteristic of the thinking mode gives the priority to wholeness over constituent, largeness over smallness, earliness over lateness. However, in English this is a different case. English follow the spirit which ancient Greek and Roman employed to explore the cosmos. They are inclined to analyze the matter first and then seek a conclusion. Especially influenced by the humanist spirit in the Renaissance, they developed a different mode of thinking. While encountering this divergence in translation, we should notice this point. For example: (a)At eleven minutes past 1a.m. on the 16th of October, 1946, Ribbentrop mounted the gallows in the execution chamber of the Nuremberg prison. (b)He had flown in just the day before from Georgia Where he had spent his vacation basking in the Caucasian sun after the completion of the construction job he had engaged in the south. With regard to the second example, if the above-mentioned characteristic of the English mode of thinking is not taken into account, the source sentence will naturally rendered as the following by most Chinese students: He had been engaged in a construction job, and after he completed it, he went to Georgia to spend his vacation basking in the Caucasian sun, and flew back just the day before.The target sentence above is grammatically right, but has the marked peculiarity of the Chinese mode of thinking, so the translation carries a strong foreign tone and it is Chinese-flavored English. Certainly it is not a good rendering.
2.2 Formal-Logical Thinking VS. Intuitive Thinking
English people attach much attention to logical reasoning with emphasis on formal demonstration based on experiments and this thinking characteristic, in its turn, results in the “masculinity” in the English language, as Jespersen said that English possesses “virile qualities”. Eric Partridge made the similar remark that, “In English, the logic of facts often-indeed, generally-overcomes the logic of grammar where the two are at variance.” Obviously the rational quality in English has something to do with English people’s mode of thinking. However, this is a different case in Chinese. Chinese often acquire the relations among things by means of “the power of understanding”, which is called intuitive thinking, instead of the formal analysis. Our intuition comes from practical activities and experience. To a large extent, the impression achieved by the subject through intuition may exhibit some characteristics of the object. If people can correctly employ intuition to accurately grasp the features of the object, intuition, to a certain degree, can be useful to our cognition.However, intuitive thinking has some noticeable weak points. It does not resort to the formal demonstrations based on scientific investigations and the formal-logical structures to achieve correct judgments. In a word, parataxis is the distinct result of Chinese preference for intuitive thinking.
（1）English Hypotaxis：Hypotaxis and parataxis are prominent reflections of synthetic thought and analytic thought on languages. Hypotaxis, in the American Heritage Dictionary, it means “dependent or subordinate construction or relationship of clauses with connectives. The following English sentences contain various kinds of connectives, which are left out in their correspondent Chinese sentences. (a)I am glad you showed up when you did.(b)His children were as ragged and wild as if they belonged to nobody. English is hypotactic. The characteristic of hypotaxis is the wide use of connective forms including prepositions, conjunctions, relative pronouns, relative adverbs, conjunctive adverbs, and conjunctive pronouns. Moreover, many clauses are used in English, which is typical of overt cohesion. Sentence forms and the completeness of structure are emphasized. Forms are the clear representation of meanings.
（2）Chinese Parataxis: In terms of parataxis, in the World Book Dictionary, the definition is “ the arranging of clauses one after the other without connectives showing the relation between them. Example: the rain fell; the river flooded; the house washed away”. Convert coherence is the striking characteristic of Chinese syntax. And with few formal connecting devices in Chinese, word order, as a result, is given special attention to. Although Chinese subordinate compounds are not connected by conjunctions and seem to be coordinating compounds, the implications of the clauses can still be distinguished primary or secondary. If the clause is preposed, it usually contains the following logical meanings such as “because”, “if”, “although”, or “even if”, etc. For example: Because she is not honest, I cannot trust her. In the English, we must use because to illustrate the relationship between clauses. Chinese does not have those relatives, conjunctions and prepositions, which, on the other hand, are frequently used in English. There are only about thirty prepositions in Chinese, and most of them are “borrowed” from verbs. As for those westernized prepositions in Chinese, most of them are not actually real prepositions, but only in contrast to English prepositions do they carry the peculiarity of prepositions. This characteristic is explicitly reflected in Chinese conversation. Chinese do not like using many function words and arranging sentence parts in order. They leave the listeners figure out the meaning. However, it does not mean that Chinese speak illogically, because we can still comprehend what has been said without function words added. In Chinese, there are not morphological changes, no such expletive words as “it” and “there”. Moreover, pronouns are not often used. In general, all the unnecessary formal decoration in Chinese is omitted to the utmost. The relation between sentence parts, where the grammatical meanings and logical relations are connected, is self-evident.
（3）Implications for Translation: English syntax is characterized by hypotaxis while parataxis is the characteristic of Chinese, which provides significant enlightenment for our translation. In EC translation, we should try to analyze the complicated English sentence and figure out the main parts of the sentence, say the subject and predicate. In CE translation, only after the clarification of the logical relations among sentence parts can we organize the translation into hypotactic structure by means of connectives.
In English sentences, there are many connective words, which indicate the logical order of the structures, while in Chinese the meanings of sentences are mainly understood through the orders of words. Therefore, in EC translation, those connective words in English Such as coordinating compounds, subordinate compounds, prepositions, relative pronouns, which we often regard superfluous in Chinese, are usually left out; in CE translation, some connective words have to be added instead and this method is called amplification. However, both methods can only be appropriately used on the basis of accurate comprehension of the original sentence. For instance: (a) He considered it (National Security Council) too large and bulky and thus leaky, too many people who talked too much. (b)We could not look on while they were mistreated. (c)Tell me whom you associate with and I will tell you who you are. There is another amplification worthy to be noticed here, which is mainly focused on one of the differences between English hypotaxis and Chinese parataxis. Although in English ellipsis is often used to make sentences concise, this grammatical feature is still related to English hypotaxis. The connective words in English give rise to the compactness of the sentence structures and seem to build a bridge between the principal clause and the dependent clause. For the sake of conciseness, the parts before or behind the connective word are usually left out, but it does not affect the clarity or the comprehension of the whole sentence. This is one of the advantages of hypotactic structures as well. In EC translation, these omitted parts of the original sentences should be supplemented. For example: (a) We don’t retreat; we never have and never will. (b) They show skill in their sneak attacks and ferocity when cornered. (c) He did not really represent their opinions to the high-up, although he claimed he did.
Besides conjunctive words, English language has other kinds of connective ways, including inflection, morphological changes of verbs, nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. In terms of verb, it can show tense, voice, and mood through morphological change, and its predicate forms (past participate, present participate, infinitive) can reflect structure and logical relations. For example: (a) The day was just breaking when we were about to start; and then as I sat thinking of her, came struggling up the coach side, through the mingled day and night, Uriah’s head. (b) They would have had to live the rest of their lives under the stigma that they had recklessly precipitated an action which wrecked the Summit Conference and conceivably could have launched a nuclear war. One obvious characteristic of Chinese language is its abundant use of verbs. Where prepositions, participle, infinitive are used in English sentences, verbs are often used in Chinese sentences. For example: (a) Hard pressed, he told the truth in spite of his wife’ warning. (b) Party officials worked long hours on meager food, in cold carves, by dim lamps.
Although English language is a hypotactic language, it can be paratactic, sometimes. For example, “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Meanwhile, Chinese language is inclined to parataxis, but under the influence of western culture formalization has been introduced into Chinese.
3.Conclusion
Due to different thought patterns, different language characteristics are formed. Chinese is paratactic, while English is inclined to be hypotactic. Consequently, during translating process, some points must be paid enough attention to. In this paper,First I briefly discuss the relationships between thought, language, and translation. Then after giving a brief comparison of the different modes of thinking, I present an analysis of their influences upon translation, mainly on the sentence translation. Last, I put forward some suggestions for translation.
Generally speaking, learning the differences of Chinese and English thought patterns is beneficial to improve the quality of English teaching, learning and translation. For those translators, they should know something about English thought pattern, and can simultaneously transform thought patterns from Chinese to English and vice versa in reading, writing and translating.
【Key words】Thinking patterns；Differences and Translation
Thought belongs to one of the most important functions of human brain，it cannot be seen, heard, and felt. And it has to resort to language as its form. Thus language is the instrument to express and externalize thoughts.Because different nations have different histories, religions, philosophies and customs, different thought patterns are formed, which consequently lead to diversified language expressive forms. Moreover, it is known that translation is work that involves at lease two languages, so it can be inferred that translation is inevitably linked with modes of thinking.
１．Discussion：Relationship between Thought, Language and Translation
1.1 Thought and Language
Discussions on the relationship between thought and language have been carried on for a long time. It has been an issue of great controversy and great interest to the studies of philosophy, linguistics and psychology. It is really complex and elusive. Much of the relationship still remains unknown. Generally speaking, there is no unanimous agreement on this matter and some of the theories are even contradictory. Accordingly, two important points could be captured in this theory. On the one hand, language determines our thinking patterns; on the other hand, similarity between languages is relative, the greater their structural difference is, the more diverse their conceptuation of the world will be. For this reason, this hypothesis has alternatively been referred to as linguistic determinism and linguistic relativity.
Nowadays, it is commonly accepted that thought is closely related to language. Language is dominated by thought, in other words, without thought, language would not possess its current multifarious forms and functions; similarly, without language, it would be a difficult to shape and describe thought. Different thoughts or different modes of thinking will carve different marks on their respective language. Therefore, the influence different modes of thinking impose on translation cannot be neglected during the process of translating.
1.2 Thought and Translation
After the discussion in the foregoing section, we are now in a better position to analyze the relationship between thought, and translation. As is known to all, translating process contains not only linguistic activities but also thinking activities.Translation is not only influenced by two different languages but also by two different modes of thinking. In other words, translating process is the process of a translator’s special thinking activity. Translation activity is always closely related with abstract and visualized thinking ability no matter it is in the stage of understanding or in the stage of expressing. Therefore, thinking activity plays a vital role in the whole translating process. And it is not exaggerating to claim that the further exploration on the thinking activities in translating process is the breakthrough of translatology.
As we know, the human mind not only has its universality, the essential basis of translation, but also has its national characters, which is dominantly reflected in the differences entailed in the expressive forms of human language. English and Chinese are no exception. For instance, to convey the meaning, “to achieve two aims with a single action or simultaneously”, in Chinese , it can be said as “一舉两得” or “一箭双雕”; in English, there is an idiom for this, “to kill two birds with one stone”. Therefore, notwithstanding the similar content of thought in different nations, language expressive forms have distinct disparities because of the national individuality of thought. So in the translating process, different thought patterns should also be taken into consideration. However, such differences cannot be made clear only through linguistic rules. It requires the research on the national histories, cultures, and the related different modes of thinking as well. Actually, from the perspective of translatology, translation comprises thought level, semantic level and aesthetic level. But, thought level is the basis and precondition upon which the other levels are built. The universality contained in thought makes translation possible, however, it does not mean that the modes of thinking in all nations are the same. On the contrary, not only do different nations have different modes of thinking, but people belonging to the same nation have as well. It is certain that a careful analysis of the different modes of thinking between English and Chinese will, to a large extent, lead us to achieve a clearer understanding of translating process and then to obtain a more accurate, more intelligible and more readable translation. Now I will try to make a comparison between the English and Chinese modes of thinking and focus my analysis on their impact on translation.
2.Different Modes of Thinking and Their Implications upon Translation
When premiere Zhou and secretary of state Kissinger were discussing and drafting “the Shanghai Communiqué”, Kissinger commented that the thinking habit of eastern people is to seek “similarity” from “differences” whereas western people are inclined to seek “differences” from “similarity”. This remark, to some extent, reflects the different modes of thinking between eastern people and western people. In the early 19th century, the German materialist philosopher Feuerbach made the similar comment, Hence, there do exist some apparent disparities, which cannot be neglected, between the oriental mode of thinking and the occidental mode of thinking.
In this part, for the sake of clarification and explanation the different modes of thinking between English and Chinese are tentatively classified into two main pairs. However, it does not follow that they function independently. On the contrary, they are interwoven and interrelated with each other.
2.1 Individual Thinking vs. Holistic Thinking
（1）English Individual Thinking：Individual thinking is paid special attention to in English and the analytic mode of thinking is its main manifestation, in which the formal syntactic structure is underlined. In western philosophy, individual thinking is highly respected.Compare two Chinese sentences and their English versions: (a)Haughtiness invites losses while modesty brings profits. (b) Smart as a rule, but this time a fool.
In the examples, antithesis, an important figure of speech, is used in Chinese sentences to achieve the effect of contrast. However, in the English version, while in the first example is used to connect two contradictory ideas. So is but in the second sentence. The connective words in English give rise to the compactness of the sentence structures and seem to build a bridge between clauses.
（2）Chinese Holistic Thinking：Comparatively speaking, holistic thinking is the cornerstone of traditional Chinese thinking and it is primarily mirrored in the synthetic mode of thinking, in which the holistic balance and formula are underlined. For hundreds of years this holistic thinking has been exerting operating and orientating influence upon Chinese language. As a result, in Chinese the holistic and syntactic structure is emphasized; sometimes repetition is even used to reach this aim.
（3）Implications for Translation：Due to the impact of the holistic thinking, circular repetition often appears in Chinese sentence arrangement. However, in English this kind of repetition is not necessary, for example: (a)Nowadays you’ll have to present gifts on almost every occasion—gifts for the newborn, the aged, the sick and the dead. (b)The small town lies in a valley surrounded with mountains. The examples show that the phonological advantage in Chinese language also contributes to the circular repetition, which, as a result, makes the sentence sound very rhythmic and the sentence structure seemingly simplified. There is no such syntactic advantage in English. However, the basic reason is that the English analytic mode of thinking does not emphasize this kind of overall description and the integrated narration. In contrast, ellipsis is used to make sentences concise.In Chinese the formularized narration is also greatly influenced by the thought tendency, In fact, only a few meaningful points are contained in the sentence. While translating such Chinese sentences, we do not have to rigidly adhere to the structure and can leave out some unnecessary parts. For example: (a)The production plan was carried through due to the common effort of the workers and staff, the cooperation between the factories in partnership and the effective management of the government departments concerned. This Chinese sentence can be taken as three whole independent clauses. There are three “結果”. But in English, it is not necessary to repeat it time and time again. Three none phrases are used to achieve the effect of conciseness.
Chinese people have the inclination to view one thing as a whole and integrate each constituent so as to attain the comprehensive handling of the problem. This characteristic of the thinking mode gives the priority to wholeness over constituent, largeness over smallness, earliness over lateness. However, in English this is a different case. English follow the spirit which ancient Greek and Roman employed to explore the cosmos. They are inclined to analyze the matter first and then seek a conclusion. Especially influenced by the humanist spirit in the Renaissance, they developed a different mode of thinking. While encountering this divergence in translation, we should notice this point. For example: (a)At eleven minutes past 1a.m. on the 16th of October, 1946, Ribbentrop mounted the gallows in the execution chamber of the Nuremberg prison. (b)He had flown in just the day before from Georgia Where he had spent his vacation basking in the Caucasian sun after the completion of the construction job he had engaged in the south. With regard to the second example, if the above-mentioned characteristic of the English mode of thinking is not taken into account, the source sentence will naturally rendered as the following by most Chinese students: He had been engaged in a construction job, and after he completed it, he went to Georgia to spend his vacation basking in the Caucasian sun, and flew back just the day before.The target sentence above is grammatically right, but has the marked peculiarity of the Chinese mode of thinking, so the translation carries a strong foreign tone and it is Chinese-flavored English. Certainly it is not a good rendering.
2.2 Formal-Logical Thinking VS. Intuitive Thinking
English people attach much attention to logical reasoning with emphasis on formal demonstration based on experiments and this thinking characteristic, in its turn, results in the “masculinity” in the English language, as Jespersen said that English possesses “virile qualities”. Eric Partridge made the similar remark that, “In English, the logic of facts often-indeed, generally-overcomes the logic of grammar where the two are at variance.” Obviously the rational quality in English has something to do with English people’s mode of thinking. However, this is a different case in Chinese. Chinese often acquire the relations among things by means of “the power of understanding”, which is called intuitive thinking, instead of the formal analysis. Our intuition comes from practical activities and experience. To a large extent, the impression achieved by the subject through intuition may exhibit some characteristics of the object. If people can correctly employ intuition to accurately grasp the features of the object, intuition, to a certain degree, can be useful to our cognition.However, intuitive thinking has some noticeable weak points. It does not resort to the formal demonstrations based on scientific investigations and the formal-logical structures to achieve correct judgments. In a word, parataxis is the distinct result of Chinese preference for intuitive thinking.
（1）English Hypotaxis：Hypotaxis and parataxis are prominent reflections of synthetic thought and analytic thought on languages. Hypotaxis, in the American Heritage Dictionary, it means “dependent or subordinate construction or relationship of clauses with connectives. The following English sentences contain various kinds of connectives, which are left out in their correspondent Chinese sentences. (a)I am glad you showed up when you did.(b)His children were as ragged and wild as if they belonged to nobody. English is hypotactic. The characteristic of hypotaxis is the wide use of connective forms including prepositions, conjunctions, relative pronouns, relative adverbs, conjunctive adverbs, and conjunctive pronouns. Moreover, many clauses are used in English, which is typical of overt cohesion. Sentence forms and the completeness of structure are emphasized. Forms are the clear representation of meanings.
（2）Chinese Parataxis: In terms of parataxis, in the World Book Dictionary, the definition is “ the arranging of clauses one after the other without connectives showing the relation between them. Example: the rain fell; the river flooded; the house washed away”. Convert coherence is the striking characteristic of Chinese syntax. And with few formal connecting devices in Chinese, word order, as a result, is given special attention to. Although Chinese subordinate compounds are not connected by conjunctions and seem to be coordinating compounds, the implications of the clauses can still be distinguished primary or secondary. If the clause is preposed, it usually contains the following logical meanings such as “because”, “if”, “although”, or “even if”, etc. For example: Because she is not honest, I cannot trust her. In the English, we must use because to illustrate the relationship between clauses. Chinese does not have those relatives, conjunctions and prepositions, which, on the other hand, are frequently used in English. There are only about thirty prepositions in Chinese, and most of them are “borrowed” from verbs. As for those westernized prepositions in Chinese, most of them are not actually real prepositions, but only in contrast to English prepositions do they carry the peculiarity of prepositions. This characteristic is explicitly reflected in Chinese conversation. Chinese do not like using many function words and arranging sentence parts in order. They leave the listeners figure out the meaning. However, it does not mean that Chinese speak illogically, because we can still comprehend what has been said without function words added. In Chinese, there are not morphological changes, no such expletive words as “it” and “there”. Moreover, pronouns are not often used. In general, all the unnecessary formal decoration in Chinese is omitted to the utmost. The relation between sentence parts, where the grammatical meanings and logical relations are connected, is self-evident.
（3）Implications for Translation: English syntax is characterized by hypotaxis while parataxis is the characteristic of Chinese, which provides significant enlightenment for our translation. In EC translation, we should try to analyze the complicated English sentence and figure out the main parts of the sentence, say the subject and predicate. In CE translation, only after the clarification of the logical relations among sentence parts can we organize the translation into hypotactic structure by means of connectives.
In English sentences, there are many connective words, which indicate the logical order of the structures, while in Chinese the meanings of sentences are mainly understood through the orders of words. Therefore, in EC translation, those connective words in English Such as coordinating compounds, subordinate compounds, prepositions, relative pronouns, which we often regard superfluous in Chinese, are usually left out; in CE translation, some connective words have to be added instead and this method is called amplification. However, both methods can only be appropriately used on the basis of accurate comprehension of the original sentence. For instance: (a) He considered it (National Security Council) too large and bulky and thus leaky, too many people who talked too much. (b)We could not look on while they were mistreated. (c)Tell me whom you associate with and I will tell you who you are. There is another amplification worthy to be noticed here, which is mainly focused on one of the differences between English hypotaxis and Chinese parataxis. Although in English ellipsis is often used to make sentences concise, this grammatical feature is still related to English hypotaxis. The connective words in English give rise to the compactness of the sentence structures and seem to build a bridge between the principal clause and the dependent clause. For the sake of conciseness, the parts before or behind the connective word are usually left out, but it does not affect the clarity or the comprehension of the whole sentence. This is one of the advantages of hypotactic structures as well. In EC translation, these omitted parts of the original sentences should be supplemented. For example: (a) We don’t retreat; we never have and never will. (b) They show skill in their sneak attacks and ferocity when cornered. (c) He did not really represent their opinions to the high-up, although he claimed he did.
Besides conjunctive words, English language has other kinds of connective ways, including inflection, morphological changes of verbs, nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. In terms of verb, it can show tense, voice, and mood through morphological change, and its predicate forms (past participate, present participate, infinitive) can reflect structure and logical relations. For example: (a) The day was just breaking when we were about to start; and then as I sat thinking of her, came struggling up the coach side, through the mingled day and night, Uriah’s head. (b) They would have had to live the rest of their lives under the stigma that they had recklessly precipitated an action which wrecked the Summit Conference and conceivably could have launched a nuclear war. One obvious characteristic of Chinese language is its abundant use of verbs. Where prepositions, participle, infinitive are used in English sentences, verbs are often used in Chinese sentences. For example: (a) Hard pressed, he told the truth in spite of his wife’ warning. (b) Party officials worked long hours on meager food, in cold carves, by dim lamps.
Although English language is a hypotactic language, it can be paratactic, sometimes. For example, “I came, I saw, I conquered.” Meanwhile, Chinese language is inclined to parataxis, but under the influence of western culture formalization has been introduced into Chinese.
3.Conclusion
Due to different thought patterns, different language characteristics are formed. Chinese is paratactic, while English is inclined to be hypotactic. Consequently, during translating process, some points must be paid enough attention to. In this paper,First I briefly discuss the relationships between thought, language, and translation. Then after giving a brief comparison of the different modes of thinking, I present an analysis of their influences upon translation, mainly on the sentence translation. Last, I put forward some suggestions for translation.
Generally speaking, learning the differences of Chinese and English thought patterns is beneficial to improve the quality of English teaching, learning and translation. For those translators, they should know something about English thought pattern, and can simultaneously transform thought patterns from Chinese to English and vice versa in reading, writing and translating.