A Study on Chinese and Western Thinking Patterns by Contrast of Chinese and English Idioms

Abstract

The overall research review on English-Chinese contrastive studies suggests there has been an extensive description of the distinction between Chinese and Western thinking patterns in the absence of extra demonstrations. Therefore, it is found necessary to carry out a delicate study on reflections of Chinese and Western thought pattern differences in light of the E-C idioms. In this study, two kinds of thinking patterns are contrasted from the following three aspects: concrete and abstract thoughts, subjective and objective thoughts, as well as synthetic and analytical thoughts, via the explanation and analysis of idioms collected in the A Concise Dictionary of English Proverbs and Idioms. The paper thus not only provides evidence for the different thinking patterns between China and West, but also helps language learners to gain a deeper comprehension and mastery of features of both languages.