论英汉表象性差异背后的时空特性——从Humboldt的“内蕴语言形式”观谈起

The Temporality of English and the Spatiality of Chinese Hidden Behind Their Superficial Differences——Starting from Humboldt’s Notion of Inner Linguistic Form

学界普遍认为,英汉语之间存在形合与意合、客体意识与主体意识、个体思维与整体思维等差异。本文提出,隐匿于这些差异背后的根由是英语的时间性特质和汉语的空间性特质,形合与意合、客体意识与主体意识、个体思维与整体思维等差异只是这一根由的诸种外在表象,而英语的时间性特质和汉语的空间性特质缘起于英民族的时间思维偏好和汉民族的空间思维取向,这无疑印证了Humboldt的"内蕴语言形式"观。本文指出,英语的时间性如同音乐,其本质特征是连接性和延续性,而汉语的空间性犹如绘画,其本质特征是离散性和块状性。

It is widely acknowledged in the contrastive linguistic field that between English and Chinese there exist the discrepancies of hypotaxis and parataxis, object consciousness and subject consciousness, atomistic thinking and holistic thinking, etc. This paper claims that the root cause for these distinctions is that English is a language of temporality while Chinese is that of spatiality. The contrasts in hypotaxis and parataxis, object consciousness and subject consciousness, atomistic thinking and holistic thinking, etc. are no more than the surface representations of the root cause stemming from the temporality-prominent cognitive approach followed by the English-speaking nation and the spatiality-prominent one taken by the Chinese people. The theory proposed here accords strongly with the notion of ＂inner linguistic form＂ advanced by Humboldt. The paper also holds that the English structure of temporality is like music, whose essential characteristics are connection and continuity, while the Chinese structure of spatiality is like painting, whose fundamental traits are discreteness and chunkiness.