Difference between English and Chinese

1
Difference between English and Chinese

• General introduction
• Words
• Sentences
• Discourse
• Rhetorical devices

2
General introduction(1)

• Different language families
• English Indo-European language family or
  Indo-Germanic system
• Chinese Sino-Tibetan language family
• English alphabetic character
• Chinese ideographic character

3
General introduction(2)

• Different nature of language
• Chinese analytic language
• Englishcomprehensive language

4
General introduction(2)

• Analytic language the relationship of words is
  expressed not by the form of word itself-----but
  by prepositions and word order and so on.
• Comprehensive language the meaning of the
  language is expressed by the change of the form
  of the word itself such as case, number, tense
  and so on.

5
General introduction(3)

• Difference of sentence structure
• English sentences well-knit, close and compact
• Chinese sentences concise and explicit
• In English, nouns, especially the abstract nouns
  and prepositions are widely used, just like a
  series of Grapes. In Chinese verbs are widely
  used, just like a Bamboo.

6
Word

• Verbs
• Nouns
• Pronouns
• Adjetives and adverbs
• Articles
• Conjunctions
• Prepositions

7
Verbs (1)

• It rains everyday recently.
• It rained yesterday.
• It is going to rain.
• It is raining hard outside.

8
Verbs (2)

• The window was broken.
• The cup was broken.
• This pot is made of stainless steel.
• Measures have been taken
• Enough attention has been paid to that problem.

9
Verbs (3)

• I want to go out for a walk.
• Being a teacher, he should love his students.
• Given more money and time, he would succeed.

10
Nouns (1)

• Custom?? customs??,??
• Economy ??economics????
• Damage?? damages???
• Ground ??grounds??
• Export ??exports????

11
Nouns (2)

• Unemployment ????
• tension????
• Arrogance ????
• shortage????

12
Nouns (3)

• A birds-eye view of London????
• St. Peters?????
• The barbers???

13
Nouns (4)

• Efforts should be made to overcome the
  disadvantages.
• ????????????
• Steps have been taken, but without success.
• ?????????,??????

14
Nouns (5)

• They fell in love at first sight.
• The passage of the bill by houses of Congress was
  hopeful.
• ????????????

15
Pronouns (1)

• He put his hands into his pocket.
• They had their lunch at half past twelve today.

16
Pronouns (2)

• Anna, who was here a moment ago, left this note.
• ??????,??????????
• We used a plane of which almost every part
  carried some indication of national identity.
• ??????????????????????
• God help those who help themselves.
• ???????

17
Adj. adv.

• This magazine is more interesting.
• This book is the best one.
• He is old enough to go to school.
• She has enough time to do it.

18
Articles

• A cup of tea
• An English book
• He is a student in our class.
• ?????????
• The end does not justify the means.
• ??????,????????
• I like the red one.
• ????????

19
Conjunctions

• She was so excited that tears came to her eyes.
• ?????????
• ????????
• If you dont leave, I wont leave either.

20
Prepositions (1)

• He goes to school at seven oclock every morning.
• Across the street, he began to run very fast.

21
Prepositions (2)

• Look after ??
• Look for ??
• Look at ?
• Take off ??,??
• Take sth. for granted ???
• Take for ???
• Take out ??
• Take in ??,??

22
Sentence

• ???????(hypotaxis)???????(parataxis)???????????
  ???????????????????????????????????????????????
  ,?????,??????,????????????????????????????????,???
  ???,??????????????(relative pronoun),??????,?????(
  clause)???????,?????????????????,??????????

23
Examples (1)

• The isolation of the rural world, because of
  distance and the lack of transport facilities, is
  compounded by the paucity of the information
  media.
• ?????,???????,??????????,?????,?????????????????

24
Examples (1)

• ?????,???????,??????????,?????,?????????????????
• Because there is a great distance and there are
  not enough transport facilities, the rural world
  is isolated. This isolation has become more
  serious because there are not enough information
  media.

25
Examples (2)

• It is a curious fact, of which I can think of no
  satisfactory explanation, that enthusiasm for
  country life and love of natural scenery are
  strongest and most widely diffused precisely in
  those European countries which have the worst
  climate and where the search for the picturesque
  involves the greatest discomfort.

26
Examples (2)

• ??1????????????,?????????????????????????????????
  ????????????????????????????
• ??2??????,????,?????????,??????????????,?????????
  ???,?????????,????????????????,????????????????

27
Examples (2)

• Europe has some countries, climate is worst,
  people there must have greatest discomfort, then
  can search for the picturesque, curious, they
  precisely have the greatest enthusiasm for
  country life, and love of natural scenery, and
  this is most widely diffused, this is a fact, but
  I can never think of any satisfactory explanation.

28
Text / Discourse

• Definition
• The difference between English text and Chinese
  text
• examples

29
Definition (1)

• ???????????????????????????,??????????????????????
  ????????????????????????????,?????????????

30
Definition (2)

• ?????????????????,??????????,????????
• ?????,??????????????(cohesion),????????????
• ?????,????????,???????????????????????????????????
  ,????????????????????
• ??????

31
Difference in text (1)

• English subject-prominent
• Chinese topic-prominent
• Examples

32
Examples (1)

• 1??????,2????,????????,????,??????,3?4???,????,?
  ???,????,????,??????????????,5????????????,???????
  ?????
• ------------------------(??????,????,1985,14?)

33
Examples (1)

• When he1 reached the temple, he2 looked
  southwards and saw on the other side of the lake
  the Mount of a Thousand Buddha. There were
  temples and monasteries, some3 high and some4
  low, scattered among the greyed pines and green
  cypresses the red were as red as fire, the white
  as white as snow, the blue as blue as indigo and
  the green as green as emerald, while here and
  there were a few red maples. It5 looked like a
  big painting by Zhao Qianli, the Song-dynasty
  painter, only made into a screen a dozen miles
  long.
• (from The Travels of Lao Can, tr. By Yang
  Hsienyi and Gladys Yang, Panda Books, 1983,
  p24-25)

34
Examples (2)

• They tell us, Sir, that we are weak unable to
  cope with so formidable and adversary. But when
  shall we be stronger? Will it1 be the next week,
  or the next year? Will it2 be when we are totally
  disarmed, and when a British guard shall be
  stationed in every house? Shall we gather
  strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we
  acquire the means of effectual resistance by
  lying supinely on our backs and hugging the
  delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall
  have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak
  if we3 make a proper use of those means which the
  God of nature hath placed in our power.

35
Examples (2)

• ??,????????,????????????????????????1????????2????
  ??????????????????????????????????????????????????
  ???????,????????????,????????????????,??3?????????
  ????????,???????

36
Difference in text (2)

• ???????(hypotaxis) and, but, if , as, therefore,
  when, however, moreover or in addition, whats
  more important
• ???????(parataxis)?
• examples

37
Examples (1)

• A second aspect of technology transfer
  concentrate on US high technology exports. China
  has correctly complained in the past that the US
  was unnecessarily restrictive in limiting
  technology sales to China. Recently some
  liberalization has taken place and1 major
  increases in technology transfers have taken
  place as the result. However2, some items
  continue to be subject to restrictions and
  unnecessary delay, in part because3 the US
  Government submits many items to COCOM for
  approval. There is significant room for
  improvement with the US bureaucracy and COCOM.

38
Examples (1)

• ?????????????????????????????????,??????????????,?
  ????????????1????????,????????,??2,???????????????
  ?????,???????3???????????????????????????????????
  ??????????????

39
Examples (2)

• ?????,
• ??????
• ?????,
• ??????
• (?????)

40
Examples (2)

• I awake light----hearted this morning of spring,
• Everywhere round me the singing of birds,
• But now I remember the night, the storm,
• And I wonder how many blossoms were broken.
• ------(from The Jade Mountain, tr. By Witter
  Bynner and Kiang Kang-hu, New York, Knopf, 1929)

41
Rhetorical devices (1)

• ????
• As timid as a hare
• The apple of ones eye
• ????

42
Rhetorical devices (2)

• Jim has become the sun in her heart. (??)
• ????????????
• The brains dont lie in the beard. (??)
• ???????
• We sang, we laugh, we dance. (??)
• ??????,??????,???????

43
Rhetorical devices (3)

• ?????,??????(??)
• The pathways red with cherry blossoms,
• The lakeside green with willow leaves.
• ????????,?????????(??)
• Six years have passed by in a twinkle since I
  came to the city from the countryside.

44
Rhetorical devices (4)

• ????????,?????????????????,???????????????????(?
  ?)
• There was a village called Zhangjia Village,
  where lived Carpenter Zhang, who had a good wife,
  nicknamed Little Moth, who gave birth to a girl
  called Aiai.
• ???????,????????(??)
• The west is veiled in rain, the east basks in
  sunshine,
• My beloved is as deep in love as the day is fine.

45
Exercise

• All of us have read thrilling stories in which
  the hero had only a limited and specified time to
  live. Sometimes it was as long as a year
  sometimes as short as twenty-four hours. But
  always we were interested in discovering just how
  the doomed man chose to spend his last days or
  his last hours. I speak, of course, of free men
  who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose
  sphere of activities is strictly delimited.

46
Exercise

• ????????????,????????????????????????????????,????
  24???????????????,?????????????????????????????,??
  ?????????????????,??????????