从“语言相对论”看中西方文化语义

A Probe into Chinese and Western Cultural Semantics from the Perspective of Linguistic Relativity

语言与思维关系密切。语言的差异是思维方式差异的表现形式。另一方面,语言又与文化有着密不可分的联系,中西文化差异必然导致文化语义大不相同。文章从“语言相对论”的角度探讨了汉、英两种语言之间的符号与文化语义的巨大差异。指出,文化语义其实是语言背后的语言。

Language and thought are closely interrelated. The differences in languages represent the differences in modes of thinking. On the other hand,however, language and culture are also closely related to each other. Cultural differences between China and the West naturally lead to their different cultural semantics. This paper inquires into the differences of linguistic signs and cultural semantics between the Chinese language and the English language from the perspective of linguistic relativity. It concludes that cultural semantic is the substantial part of language itself.