英文参考资料 (1)

Reference

Language is the principal means whereby we conduct our lives and belongs to a typical symbol that records and expresses different cultures. History, worldview, beliefs, values, religions, and social organization may all be reflected through different languages and linguistic varieties in a culture. Language is a reflection of culture. So the linguistic differences are due to the relative cultural differences and influences. Negation is a universal linguistic phenomenon for almost all the languages in the world. Different languages have different ways to express negation. Negation is defined as “the absence or opposite of some positive thing or quality” in the World Book Dictionary and in Chinese “否定” is defined as “否定事物的存在或事物的真实性；表示否认的，反面的”. Follow ing it will describe the cultural influences on the form and use of negation in English and Chinese. And then the importance of culture will be emphasized in language use.

1. Cultural Influences on the Form of Negation

Culture has great influence upon language. In English and Chinese, negation is also influenced by two cultures and especially on the form of negation. Chinese culture belongs to HC culture and English culture belongs to LC culture. In 1976 Edward T. Hall defined the two terms—HC and LC as the following: “A high context (HC) communication or message” is the one in which most of the information is already in the person, while very little is in the coded, explicitly transmitted part of the message. LC is just the opposite. So because English culture belongs to LC culture and Chinese culture belongs to HC culture, English is hypotactic and Chinese is paratactic, English is more diverse than Chinese in negative words. For example, English negative words like not, no, never, hardly, seldom, few, nor, none, etc. and the forms in 3.3. In contrast to English, the common negative words in Chinese are不(adv.), 没（有）(adv./v.) and别(adv.). And English is more complex than Chinese in negative structures. English language is alphabetic, so the English-speaking people like abstract thinking, which causes expressing themselves with complex structures. Chinese characters are pictographic and ideographic, and the Chinese-speaking people

are good at thinking in terms of image. As to the negative structure, English negation is more complicated than Chinese negation.

2. Cultural Influences on the Use of Negation

Language is the carrier of culture. Culture has great influence on language not only in terms of form but also in terms of use. Therefore, there are cultural influences on the use of negation in English and Chinese.

(1) In Western countries, English-speaking people use the affirmative way to express

a negative response, and the negative way to confirm a negative statement. For example,

a: A: He isn’t from China, is he?

B: Yes, he is.

b. A: He isn’t from China, is he?

B: No, he isn’t.

In English, the response to the negative statement is in accordance with the corresponding statement. If the statement is positive, yes is used and if the statement is negative, no is used. But in Chinese, people will use the affirmative way to confirm a negative statement, and the negative way to deny a negative statement. The answer depends on people’s attitudes towards the question itself. That’s to say, if you agree to the ideas and you say “yes”; if not then you say “no”. The Chinese relative responses to the former example are:

a. A: 他不来自于中国，是不是？

B: 不，他来自中国。

b. A: 他不来自于中国，是不是？

B: 是的，他不来自中国。

So because different customs and thinking modes existed in English and Chinese, people will use different even opposite answers to express their meanings of yes or no on the use of negation.

(2) In Western countries, people often have the thought of equality. They like to treat others as equals and prefer to be treated in the same manner. They pay enough attention on equality that has been the public principle. If using some public tools