燕守宝
上海政法学院语言与文化学院，上海青浦，201701
Abstract: Thinking models determine the way of language expression. Translation should be carried out according to the characteristics of the national thinking mode of the target language, so as to conform to the expression habits of the target language. The shift of two thinking models is an important technique in the translation process.
Key words: thinking models, translation techniques
1.Introduction
Thinking model is, by its nature, the thinking type or the immanent character of thinking when people are considering and handling problems. This paper probes thinking models between English and Chinese. In the process of English-Chinese translation, only by reasonably transforming the thinking models can better translation version be achieved.
2. Different thinking models
In this section, four pairs of thinking models will be analyzed, including the abstract thinking and the concrete thinking, the lineal thinking and the circular thinking, the synthesis thinking and the analysis thinking, and ontological thinking and the object thinking.
2.1. Abstract thinking and concrete thinking
Abstract thinking is a rational kind of thinking, which leads taking action into a scientific, systemic and standard track. Concrete thinking refers to the activity of the mind's analysis of image thinking. The English philosophers and thinkers pay more attention to developing reasoning, while the ancient Chinese are skilled at concrete thinking, since it places emphasis on people’s subjective feeling. Sometimes it appears that the British have a tendcy to use a noun as the key word in a sentence, while Chinese often put it in the position of object.
To a great extent, this facilitates the formation of the abstract thinking in that the noun, especially the abstract noun, can express a objective and dispassionate vioce. Relatively, the Chinese usually place emphasis on the people in the subject and the action he takes in a sentence, in this way, the concrete imformation and the personal emotion will be converied and the dynamic situation can be showed. For example, the “It is of great importance that students should finish with their school before they start to have fun.” is translated into Chinese as “学生应该在完成学业之后再进行娱乐，这是十分重要的。
”In this sentence, the subject of the Chinese sentence is “student”, while the subject of the English sentence is “it”. This is resulted by the concrete thinking model of Chinese and the abstract thinking model of the English. These different points originate from the cultural differences between the two languages: English speakers stress the abstract logical thinking and the Chinese speakers tend to the concrete thinking.
2.2 Lineal thinking and circular thinking
Lineal thinking is defined as a logical suquence of thought, while circular thinking is to express the evidences first, then show the point of view at last. Chinese thinking model is characterized by circular type, before people come to the point, they always pave a long way for it. English thinking model is characterized by lineal type. English emphasizes logic and rationality, and possesses a liner way of thought pattern,while Chinese is more intuitive and has a circular way of thinking model.
When the English write an essay, for example, they always show their view point by a topic sentence at the very first of the essay, then itemize their reasons logically and coherently, most of the paragraphs in English have corresponding topic sentences, and the other contents are centered on this sentence. The logic of English is clear and well-ordered. That is formed by the Aristotelian-lineary, a culture model inherited by the Eurpoean from ancient Greek Philosophers. This kind of thinking model influences the cultural concept, national personality and social development direction very much. Due to this lineal thinking model, the English usually think in a straight line, they expand the theme of context layer by layer, and a topic sentences often appears in every paragraph. So it is easy for the readers to know what their meanings in the context are, since their passage are succint and clear most of the time. Some of their passages are very functional.
2.3 Synthesis thinking and analysis thinking
Synthesis thinking is the process that separating some elements from one thing, then connect these elements to another thing, which is a productive and creative thinking model. Analysis thinking is the abstract separation of a whole into its constituent parts in order to study the parts and their relations. Under the edification of river cultural and the farming culture, the Chinese have formed a thinking style that attaches importance to the entirety and pays attention to comprehensive analysis,which has great differences from the English thinking model that has been produced and developed under the tempering of the English culture and commercial civilization, which is individual-oriented and exploration-oriented. Synthetic thinking tends to combine separate parts of an object or phenomenon together, while analytical thinking tends to separate a whole thing into small parts. Synthesis thinking and analytical thinking are both the basic thinking models of human thoughts. The English people show a tendency to analysis thinking, while the Chinese, synthesis thinking.
2.4 Ontological thinking and object thinking
In the Chinese culture, people regard human beings as the center of observation, analysis, inference and research to the objective entity. In this way, they form the humanistic thoughts. In the long river of history, the ontological thoughts of the Han nationality has been formed. The Chinese people are used to thinking in the ways of their own spirit, and in this way they can straighten out their logics and experience the world better by their way of thinking. While the English people focus on the objective world and pay attention to the observation and research of nature, they advocate and explore nature, which forms the object thinking of the Englishers.. Chinese people are more likely to use life entity as the subject of sentences, however, English people prefer to use the inanimate things as the subject of sentence. By the choice of the subject of the sentences, we can know that the order of the English and Chinese context are totally different. Chinese does not express their meaning in a clear order, and the sentences are always full of hints. Also, Chinese are likely to express their contents in chronological order. However, in English, non-personal nouns are always used to be the subject of sentences, and the active voices and passive voices are completely different in expression.
3.Translation techniques
English thinking models are characterized by abstraction, analysis, precision, object and differentiation, while the East pays more emphasis on image, synthesis, ambiguity, ontology and seeking common points. Therefore, in the process of English-Chinese translation, the differences between English and Chinese thinking models should be considered and the corresponding changes should be made. Four translation techniques will be discussed.
3.1 The transformation of concreteness and abstraction
The concreteness of Chinese thinking models and the abstraction of English thinking models are reflected in the language as the concreteness and abstraction of the expression of words, such as: if your departure date is not in it, please contact us for other fares and schedules. In Chinese this sentence means “如果您的出发日期不在这段时间内，请与我们联系相关的价格和日程。” In this example, “departure” is an abstract noun, used to represent the concept of abstraction. The “departure” can not be directly translated into Chinese because it is necessary to concretize the content of the words to conform to the Chinese people’s thinking pattern. There are many similar words in the English could not be translated precisely, like failure, agreement, and so on because in the different contexts, they have their specific meaning.
3.2 Word order reforming
In the process of the translation between English and Chinese, in view of the differences between the two languages, re-adjusting the word order is an essential and all-important part. The holistic way of thinking in Chinese produces the order of expression from general to individual. The analytical thinking in English produces an order of expression from the individual to the general. For example, “今天下午三点小明要参加学校运动会的短跑项目。” In English, it will be “Xiaoming will take part in the spirinting event in the school sports meeting three o’lock this afternoon. In this sentence, the time of Chinese sentence is located before the whole sentence, however, the time is at the end of the sentence in English sentence. In English, adverbial phrases, such as time and place, are often placed at the end of the sentence, while in Chinese, they are often placed at the beginning of the sentence.
3.3 The sentence sturcture and the text structure
English and Chinese languages have different ways of arranging information, especially in manner of writing. English is used to put the important information in the first place. At the beginning, the topic or subject is pointed out, and the relevant elements are gradually added in the following content. Chinese is accustomed to entering the subject from the outside to the inside, taking the time and making a painstaking investigation, to give the readers a sense of being suddenly enlightened in this way. The structure of Chinese sentences is laid out according to the logic and chronological order of event development. In the whole, sentences in English and Chinese have a semantic focus on opposite positions: Chinese subject structure tends to be longer, while English subject structure is shorter. English sentences usually have a short main clause, but they can have more than one long subordinate clauses because they’d like to keep the structure of sentences clear.
Therefore, the adjustment of the sentence structure is especially necessary in the translation process of English and Chinese. And the text structure is the same reason that the translator should change. It is of great importance to translate by the target language’s conventional text structure. If the translator fails to do this, the readers of the target language may be very confused, they will even stop reading the text halfway since they are not familiar with the sentence structure and the text structure. So, it is very essential for the translators to translate texts into the sentence structure and the text structure of the target language.
3.4 Means of expression
In the means of expression, the translators also need to pay attention to the ideological contents and spiritual essence of the original text. The original text always gathers and permeates the author’s world outlook, outlook on life and the author's ideological inclinations and moral sentiments. This is the aesthetic value of the original text of the original author. But before the original text is interpreted and appreciated, this can only be a potential value that the readers can not understand his language. Only the combination of the potential aesthetic value of the original text and the reader's aesthetic appreciation of the original text can truly produce the aesthetic value of the work. The rational thinking is directly accepted through the perceptual image and the concrete image, it plays a role without trace. The translator is interpreting the author’s ideological realm, moral sentiment and artistic accomplishment,and he tell the readers all these things by his own linguistic organization. For example, a sentence like“ It is very glad for us to meet you here as the honored guests invited by the sponsor” translate into Chinese means “我们很高兴能够在这里看见你们作为嘉宾被主办方邀请过来。”In this sentence, the subject of the English sentence is “it”, while the subject of the Chinese one is “我们”.
4. Conclusion
This paper probes the differences between Chinese and English thinking models: synthesis thinking and analysis thinking, lineal thinking and circular thinking, abstract thinking and concrete thinking, ontological thinking and object thinking. Then a series of translation techniques are proposed to produce translation versions that conform to the target language expression. It is hoped that this paper would be of help to the translation between English and Chinese.
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