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Abstract:In recent years, the linguists begin to pay attention to the research of cultural characters of language, and to the research of the relationship between language and culture. But the language teaching from high school to university is still at the stage of the description of language, and the teaching of language phenomena or rules, hardly concerning the cultural aspect of language. This results in the dullness of language teaching and lacking practicability. This article puts special emphasis on the cultural value of language so as to draw the attention of language teachers and improve the content and method of language teaching.
Key words: language;different cultures;language teaching
1、Introduction
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is a theory which had a great significance in linguistics of last century. "It has two major components: linguistic determinism and linguistic relativity. The former is simply a claim that language determines thought, and the latter is a claim that there is mo limit to the structural diversity of languages" (刘润清;封宗信 2007:159). Speakers of different languages perceive and experience the world differently, that is, relative to their linguistic background. The linguistic system is part of the background knowledge of mankind, and relates to different culture. Humboldt believes that a nation's language links close to the nation's spiritual identity, and language develops with the nation's growth. It is the outward manifestation of national spirit; meanwhile it also carries nation's history and culture.
Based on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, this article attempts to discuss the hidden cultural values in language from the respective of vocabulary, grammar and sound, hoping to broaden the horizon of teachers, providing new ideas and methods for language teaching.
2、Vocabulary Level
Cultural value in language is embodied in the language vocabulary system. Each nation's language vocabulary systems can most fully demonstrate its own cultural characteristics. Chinese has a series of vocabulary reflecting Confucian culture, such as, 仁义、礼乐、忠信、正己、慎独、温良恭俭让 and so on. And also a series of words exhibit Taoism culture, such as, 自然、无为、齐物、逍遥、小国寡民and so on. Another series of words display Buddhist culture, such as, 因缘、报应、此岸、彼岸、三生有幸、七级浮屠 (于延春 2004). There is a number of English vocabulary manifesting English nation's Christian culture, such as, pope (教皇), priest (教士), nun (修女), abbot (修道院院长), hymn (赞美歌) church (教堂), and the like.
What's more, the Chinese are accustomed to thinking in image and lack abstract words. For example, Chinese words or phrases, especially the four-character idioms, always involve one or two specific images, while the corresponding expressions in English only involve abstract terms without image(章丽萍 2009).
For example,
望子成龙 to expect one's son to become an outstanding personage
引狼入室 he brought in his own trouble or he brought trouble to his house.
黑色金属 ferrous metal
有色金属 non-ferrous metal
The words "dragon" and "wolf" in the first two idioms are specific images, but are replaced by the abstract words "outstanding personage" and "trouble" in the corresponding English expression. As to the two latter phrases of metal classification, Chinese words are based on the appearance of metal which shows that the Chinese rely on feeling or intuition to make judgments, but the English intend to clearly indicate the metal components.
3、Syntactic Level
Cultural values are also manifested in the syntactic level. Chinese structure has a significant impact on Chinese thinking mode. Through different order of Chinese and English expres-sion, we can know the different thinking mode between the Ch-inese and the English. Chinese word order is consistent with behavior process order. English is not the case. The English always put the most important thing at the beginning of the sentence.
eg,
(1) 他吃过晚饭后去散步。
He went out for a walk after I had my dinner.
(2) 我从河北坐火车经过北京去南京。
I came to Nan jing from He bei through Bei jing by train.
English expression intends to straight to the point, followed by secondary content. Primary and secondary content are distinguished obviously, revealing the characteristics of rational thought. On the contrary, Chinese usually narrate the additional content firstly and put the key part in the end, in order to emphasize the key parts, showing the characteristics of emotional thinking.
Eg,
(3) I saw Mr Liu at the gate of the college at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon, whom I haven't seen for five years.
昨天下午三点钟,在学校大门口,我看见了五年没见面的刘先生。
(4) It is impossible for me to get there before May.
要我在五月以前到达那里是不可能的。
If we ask two persons who are Chinese speaking and English speaking the same question respectively, the different answers will reflect the different psychological characteristics and cultural patterns in different languages. For example, in Chinese, to "你从来没有去过北京吗?" the Chinese will have two answers: "是的,我从来没有去过北京" and "不,我曾经去过北京。" This kind of answer indicates that the Chinese language is characterized by making corresponding responses to the issues raised by the other party. While in English, to "Have you never been to Bei jing?" It also has two answers: "No, I have not", and "Yes, I have". This response shows the English have inadequate response to questions, but they are rather more concerned with the response of the facts.
In another case: "我从河北坐火车经过北京去南京" and "I came to Nan jing from He bei through Bei jing by train". It is clear that Chinese is organized according to time and logic order, thus making the way of Chinese thinking tend to focus on the perception for concrete things, but for English, due to constraint to morphological and grammatical category, the syntactic order has nothing to do with time and space order but with the grammatical form.
4、Syntactic Level
Westerners focus on formal logic, which performs in language is the complete structure of sentences, that is, to use conjunctions to connect the main sentence, clause or phrase. Discourse markers are often used in clauses and sentences. There is a logical relationship between sentences. Chinese structures seem loose and the logical relationship between sentences depends on reader's feelings or knowledgeable judgments.
For example,
(1)汉:他打我。我打他。
英:He beats me. I beat him.
In Chinese, whether as subject or object, the word "他" and "我" are the same form. While in English, the pronoun referring to the same person will use different forms according to whether it acts as the object or the subject.
Key words: language;different cultures;language teaching
1、Introduction
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is a theory which had a great significance in linguistics of last century. "It has two major components: linguistic determinism and linguistic relativity. The former is simply a claim that language determines thought, and the latter is a claim that there is mo limit to the structural diversity of languages" (刘润清;封宗信 2007:159). Speakers of different languages perceive and experience the world differently, that is, relative to their linguistic background. The linguistic system is part of the background knowledge of mankind, and relates to different culture. Humboldt believes that a nation's language links close to the nation's spiritual identity, and language develops with the nation's growth. It is the outward manifestation of national spirit; meanwhile it also carries nation's history and culture.
Based on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, this article attempts to discuss the hidden cultural values in language from the respective of vocabulary, grammar and sound, hoping to broaden the horizon of teachers, providing new ideas and methods for language teaching.
2、Vocabulary Level
Cultural value in language is embodied in the language vocabulary system. Each nation's language vocabulary systems can most fully demonstrate its own cultural characteristics. Chinese has a series of vocabulary reflecting Confucian culture, such as, 仁义、礼乐、忠信、正己、慎独、温良恭俭让 and so on. And also a series of words exhibit Taoism culture, such as, 自然、无为、齐物、逍遥、小国寡民and so on. Another series of words display Buddhist culture, such as, 因缘、报应、此岸、彼岸、三生有幸、七级浮屠 (于延春 2004). There is a number of English vocabulary manifesting English nation's Christian culture, such as, pope (教皇), priest (教士), nun (修女), abbot (修道院院长), hymn (赞美歌) church (教堂), and the like.
What's more, the Chinese are accustomed to thinking in image and lack abstract words. For example, Chinese words or phrases, especially the four-character idioms, always involve one or two specific images, while the corresponding expressions in English only involve abstract terms without image(章丽萍 2009).
For example,
望子成龙 to expect one's son to become an outstanding personage
引狼入室 he brought in his own trouble or he brought trouble to his house.
黑色金属 ferrous metal
有色金属 non-ferrous metal
The words "dragon" and "wolf" in the first two idioms are specific images, but are replaced by the abstract words "outstanding personage" and "trouble" in the corresponding English expression. As to the two latter phrases of metal classification, Chinese words are based on the appearance of metal which shows that the Chinese rely on feeling or intuition to make judgments, but the English intend to clearly indicate the metal components.
3、Syntactic Level
Cultural values are also manifested in the syntactic level. Chinese structure has a significant impact on Chinese thinking mode. Through different order of Chinese and English expres-sion, we can know the different thinking mode between the Ch-inese and the English. Chinese word order is consistent with behavior process order. English is not the case. The English always put the most important thing at the beginning of the sentence.
eg,
(1) 他吃过晚饭后去散步。
He went out for a walk after I had my dinner.
(2) 我从河北坐火车经过北京去南京。
I came to Nan jing from He bei through Bei jing by train.
English expression intends to straight to the point, followed by secondary content. Primary and secondary content are distinguished obviously, revealing the characteristics of rational thought. On the contrary, Chinese usually narrate the additional content firstly and put the key part in the end, in order to emphasize the key parts, showing the characteristics of emotional thinking.
Eg,
(3) I saw Mr Liu at the gate of the college at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon, whom I haven't seen for five years.
昨天下午三点钟,在学校大门口,我看见了五年没见面的刘先生。
(4) It is impossible for me to get there before May.
要我在五月以前到达那里是不可能的。
If we ask two persons who are Chinese speaking and English speaking the same question respectively, the different answers will reflect the different psychological characteristics and cultural patterns in different languages. For example, in Chinese, to "你从来没有去过北京吗?" the Chinese will have two answers: "是的,我从来没有去过北京" and "不,我曾经去过北京。" This kind of answer indicates that the Chinese language is characterized by making corresponding responses to the issues raised by the other party. While in English, to "Have you never been to Bei jing?" It also has two answers: "No, I have not", and "Yes, I have". This response shows the English have inadequate response to questions, but they are rather more concerned with the response of the facts.
In another case: "我从河北坐火车经过北京去南京" and "I came to Nan jing from He bei through Bei jing by train". It is clear that Chinese is organized according to time and logic order, thus making the way of Chinese thinking tend to focus on the perception for concrete things, but for English, due to constraint to morphological and grammatical category, the syntactic order has nothing to do with time and space order but with the grammatical form.
4、Syntactic Level
Westerners focus on formal logic, which performs in language is the complete structure of sentences, that is, to use conjunctions to connect the main sentence, clause or phrase. Discourse markers are often used in clauses and sentences. There is a logical relationship between sentences. Chinese structures seem loose and the logical relationship between sentences depends on reader's feelings or knowledgeable judgments.
For example,
(1)汉:他打我。我打他。
英:He beats me. I beat him.
In Chinese, whether as subject or object, the word "他" and "我" are the same form. While in English, the pronoun referring to the same person will use different forms according to whether it acts as the object or the subject.