汉字、欧洲字母文字与中西思维方式的关系

Writing Systems and Ways of Thinking——A Contrastive Study of Chinese and European Alphabetical Writing Systems

本文提出并论证了汉字与西方字母文字的差异与中西思维方式的差异具有一致性。汉字起源的象形性在一定程度上决定了汉语语法直观和意合的特点。而西方字母文字 ,以英语为例 ,是对事物的抽象反映 ,其语法也不倾向于直观地描写客观世界 ,而是在描写事物的同时通过屈折变化、主从句的结构、介词词组等语法手段把对事物及事物间关系的分析表现出来。汉字和以英语为代表的欧洲字母文字与各自所服务的语言的语法一起分别促成了中西不同的思维方式。

This paper suggests and proves that the difference between Chinese and European Alphabetical Writing Systems to a certain degree corresponds with the difference between the Chinese and Western ways of thinking. The pictographic nature of the origin of Chinese writing system has played a role in the making of the directness and the paratactic nature of the grammar of Chinese. European alphabetical writing systems, represented by English writing system, are the abstract representation of the objects and reality, and the grammars of European Languages are not inclined to directly represent the world either, instead, while describing the world and reality, they also convey the logical analysis about the objects and events together with the relations in between through the grammatical devices such as inflections, complex hierarchical syntactical structures, etc. . The two kinds of writing systems,combined with the languages they each served, have enhanced the Chinese and Western ways of thinking respectively.