从英汉语言的数字表达方式看中英文化差异(英文)

Abstract: This paper presents an analytical study of the cultural difference on the expressions of numbers between English and Chinese at a cross-cultural level. It is composed of three parts: (1) the meaning differences between English and Chinese numbers; (2) the pragmatic differences between the English and Chinese numbers; (3) a contrastive study of translation of Chinese and English numbers. A comparison and an analysis of the numbers in Chinese and English will help us understand the culture of China and those in English speaking countries and enable us to avoid misunderstanding or conflicts caused by cultural differences in cross-cultural communications.

Key words: English; Chinese; numbers; cross-cultural differences; translation

    摘  要：本文试图从跨文化学角度出发，对英汉数字的文化差异进行探讨。它由三部分组成：（1）英汉数字所表示的含义差异；（2）英汉数字的语用差异；（3）分析比较英汉两种语言数字的翻译。对英汉数字的比较和分析,有助于我们了解中国和英语国家的文化差异，避免在跨文化交际活动中因文化差异而引起的误解和冲突。
     
关键词：英语；汉语；数字；文化差异；翻译

Introduction
Culture has been a controversial and puzzling problem for generations of linguists and anthropologists. However, “culture, in a broad sense, means the total way of life of a people including the patterns of belief, customs, objects, institutions, techniques, and language that characterizes the life of the human community” [1]. As culture is so inclusive, it permeates virtually every aspect of human life and influences predominantly people’s behavior, including linguistic behavior. And language, “the carrier and container of cultural information” [2], is commonly viewed as a means of communications, means of expressing ideas and emotions of human beings. As a reflection of the culture and a mirror of the society, language is strongly influenced and shaped by culture. And culture is also influenced by many factors, such as language, religions, customs, and social habits and so on. Thus, language and culture, intrinsically dependent on each other, cannot exist without each other. The close relationship between language and culture is readily shown by the fact that culture is transmitted from one generation to the next through language. As far as the relationship between elements of language and culture is concerned, the word relates most tightly to the culture. Hence numbers, as an important kind of word in language, have an informative function. But what is a number? As Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary defines, “A number is a word or symbol that represents an amount or a quantity” [3]. Numbers are widely used in every aspect of life esp. in language. Without numbers nothing can get along well in the world. As we know, both in Chinese and in English, the concept of numbers stems from the Nature, from human beings’ observation and exploration to the objective world, from the realization and generalization to the physical world [4]. Language Master Saussure (F.de Saussure) pointed out that the language was a system of arbitrary symbols, which was the result of social convention, and the different culture cause the different connection between vocabulary and meaning. The connection between numbers and their connotations in a language is also determined by the cultural where the language is spoken. The different cultural traditions, religious beliefs, customs and habits between English people and Chinese people have gradually formed their own unique connection between numbers and their connotations. The study of the connection between numbers and their connotation in Chinese and English is an important practical significance for the Chinese English language learners to master the cross-cultural communication.

1 The concept differences between numbers and their connotations
 in English and Chinese and their analysis
Number is a special kind of language system. In the early days number meaning showed no difference in both English and Chinese. Influenced by religion, history and social custom, some numbers have given implied meaning and then formed number words and number idioms, thus number culture appeared. We may make number words play beneficial role in cross-cultural communication, through exploring these and analyzing the formation of the differences.
1. 1 The differences of expression forms of numbers in English and
Chinese and their analysis
Because of the differences of cultural habits between two nations, there are some differences when expressing some concepts about numbers. Chinese is a combination of pronunciation, morphology and meaning. It focuses on the perceptions, which embodies the intuitive perceptions on the Han nationality World way of thinking. The structure of English idioms figures show that the Western nations to reflect the external things does not rely on intuition perceptual knowledge but rely on the abstract rational expression, which is a model of logic analysis. Although many English and Chinese customary expressions contain numbers, they are not equal. For example, “Aside from books for school though, we never read very much. We didn’t need to because my father has read everything you've heard of, and people in town have said that talking to him about anything is better than reading three books” and “与君一夕谈, 胜读十年书”. Two sentences both show the same meaning, however, Chinese uses “ten years reading” compared with “three books” in English. And “one night talk” suggests the time in Chinese, while is the same meaning with “talking to him about everything” in English. When Chinese people to express thirteen, English uses baker’s Dozen to show the same meaning. Chinese is a kind of perspective language, while English is more analytical. When to express apprehensive mood, Chinese uses “七上八下” while in English is “at sixes and sevens”. The literal meaning of  “七上八下” is a rope hanging on a stick, there are seven things on one end of the stick, and eight on another. The number of two is not equal, of course the stick couldn’t keep balance. It’s just like you haven’t certainty to something. Apparently, Chinese is more vivid, while in English you have to analyze the “at sixes and sevens” then you could find the meaning. The literal meaning of “九死一生” is only live for one time but died nine times in the past, there is only one time life for human beings. Factually it pictured that person had undergone many tests. In this word nine is an estimate which means many times. And English takes “a narrow escape from death” to express the same meaning.转贴于 酷文网-论文下载中心 http://www.coolwen.net