Then where on earth does Eastern thinking differ from Western thinking? For decades people have been trying to dichotomize the thinking styles. Eastern thinking is described as "holistic", "dialectical", "figurative", "subjective" and "fuzzy". By contrast, Western thinking is "analytical", "abstract", "objective" and "precise". Chinese language is developing towards fuzziness, obscurity and generalization, whereas Western language is towards precision and concretion.
The Chinese scholar, Jia Yuxing holds the views that Western thinking is characterized by logic, analysis and linearity, while Eastern thinking is known for its integrity of intuitive perception and harmonious dialectics. Westerners are apt at analysis and reasoning, as a result, their thinking pattern is linear; Easterners are prominent in holistic thinking, as they are imaginative and rely more on intuition, therefore their thinking pattern is rather circular. Still there are scholars who hold an ontological point of view and believe that Easterners emphasize the overall consonance as well as all things of creation are integrated with me; in contrast, Westerners are rational, analytical and analogical, which is best manifested by the Greek viewpoint "Man is the gauge of all things in the universe". In terms of thinking patterns, Eastern thinking is radiating while Western’s is rather perspective, the knowledge of which might be of great help to us in further investigating the logical principle underlying the structuring of the Chinese and English languages.
Fu Lei，the well-known translator, thinks that “Eastern thinking differs from that of the West in that Easterners emphasize comprehension, induction and implication, whereas Westerners attach great importance to subtle, precise and in-depth analysis as well as comprehensive description.” [18]
3.1 Figurative Thinking v s. Abstract Thinking
The above-mentioned styles of thinking can be found in all nations, but owing to their particular historical and cultural reasons, different nations might be prominent of one style of thinking. Generally speaking, Chinese is featured by concrete style of thinking in contrast to Westerners’ abstract thinking.
The two different thinking styles are directly reflected on sentence and vocabulary. In Chinese, more concrete nouns are used, but the case is quite different in English, where more abstract nouns are found. An important reason why Chinese in figurative thinking is that a lot of concrete forms are used to express abstract concepts, giving readers the being concrete, definite, direct and lucid impression. While English likes to use abstract nouns in English sentences. These nouns’ meaning is nonfigurative and general and could strike the receivers as abstract, indistinct, obscure and misty.
Chinese scholar Wang Li believed the so-called nouns in Chinese are slightly different from their counterparts in English in terms of denotation and connotation. Generally speaking, Chinese nouns, except for those used in such fields as philosophy, science, economy, politics, etc., usually denote concrete, tangible things that can be sensed by the five sense faculties. Wang also pointed out that strictly speaking, nouns derived from adjectives, such as `kindness’, `wisdom’, `humility’, `youth’, as well as those derived from verbs, like `invitation’, `movement’, `choice’, `arrival’, `assistance’, `discovery’, etc., can find no equivalents in Chinese vocabulary.
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