中西方时间观念对比研究

中西方时间观念对比研究

comparison between the Chinese concept of time and western concept of time

0ginates from agriculture civilization and industrial civilization which affect l people’s behavior，awareness Of concepts，industrial relationship，interpersonal relationship and value orientation．Different cultures breed different time conceptions and time behaviors．

Today will talk about the aspects of their differences．

When different time views meet with each other —cultural communication，conflicts and obstacles Of interpersonal communication may arise.

1．Introduction

Because of the social practice，ways of thinking and understanding and time of people from different cultures are different.．That is to say, time ,as an objective existence，has different forms of reflection in different cultures．Time view is seen as a part of cultural deed structure，which affects people‘s perception of the world，controls their judgment and determines the ways of behaviors．The vagueness and exactness Of Chinese and western cu1ture usually lead to conflicts and misunderstanding when peop1e interact with each Other．The Chinese use time Very casually and tangibly（明确的）．The Chinese prefer to say some uncertain words 1ike “at Once"，”sometimes”，“a short while"，which a1ways contrary to the westerners．Chinese students who are studying English tend to misuse the tense when communicating with the foreigners．The reason may be that there is no clear differentiation of the concept Of time in Chinese．When a Chinese and a westerner parted from a party，the westerner said，“I shall invite you to have a lunch one day”．And the Chinese took his words seriously and had been waiting f0r his invitation，but in Vain．So he thought the westerner was dishonest and he did not carry out his promise．In fact，such“promises”，as“we will keep in touch”and‘‘I will see you 0ne day"，do not specify the time and place of the invitation and are only greetings．Because we are accustomed to such vague expressing way Of time，we tend to take them seriously．

Conversely，a certain behavior also reflects certain concept of time and transmits some message about it．As a way 0f non-verbal exchange，time has its own special communicative

function．Just as American cultural anthropologist ([ˌænθrəˈpɒlədʒɪst] 人类学家)E．T．Hall has pointed out that it has its own language，every culture owns its

“time language"(Hall，l 959，p．2O)．We all have such experience that when people shake hands with each other on social occasions，we can know something about their identities，relationship and status from the order of who stretches his hand first and how long the shaking has lasted．Similarly，if two sides have made an appointment to negotiate a contract at 9：00，while