汉英表征顺序认知定势差异及其对外语教学的启示

Differences in Cognitive Set of Representation Order Between Chinese and English and Their Implications for Foreign Language Teaching

中国“崇尚和合、取法自然”的哲学思想和英美民族“天人各一、主客二分”的思维方式导致汉英在句法结构上的显著差异。句法结构差异在认知表征顺序上体现为汉语是“背景——前景”,英语是“前景——背景”的认知定势差异。现代汉语在时间表征顺序上临摹自然时间顺序,而英语则相反;汉语在组词上受“损——益”价值取向制约,而英语组词并不受“损——益”价值约束。研究汉英表征顺序认知定势规律,有助于跨文化外语学习和教学减少盲目性,提高针对性,最大限度地提高外语理解、记忆的效率。

The Chinese philosophy of“advocating harmony and learning from nature”and the Western thinking mode of“nature and man are divided,subject and object are separated”lead to the significant differences in syntactic structure between Chinese and English.The difference of syntactic structure is reflected in the order of cognitive representation as“background-foreground”in Chinese and“foreground-background”in English.Modern Chinese imitates natural time order in time representation order,while English does the opposite;Chinese word formation is restricted by the value orientation of“loss-benefit”,while English is not.The study of the cognitive set of representation order in Chinese and English is helpful for cross-cultural foreign language learning and teaching to reduce blindness,improve pertinence,and maximize the efficiency of foreign language learners’understanding and memory.