湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
Bibliography
[1] Edward, de bono, Lateral Thinking for Management, [M] New York: McGraw-Hill, 1986:24. [2] Fung, Yulan, A Short History of Chinese Philosophy, [J] Derk Boded (Eds.).New York: The
Macmillan Company, 1948:6.
[3] Glenn., Abstractive Thinking versus Associative Thinking. [M]Boston: Beacon Press.
1981:57-65.
[4] Gulick, Van, A functionalist Plea for Self-consciousness., [D] The Philosophical Review
XCVII, 1988:12.
[5] Hoebel E.A ＆Frost, E.L ,Cultural and Social Anthropology, [J]New York: McGraw-Hill.
1976:6.
[6] Hajime, Nakamura, Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples: India, [D] China, Tibet, .Honolulu:
East-West Center Press, 1964:20.
[7] John, H. B, an Anthropological Perspective. Cultural Anthropology: [M] Tribes, States and the
Global; System, 1994:14-35.
[8] Samovar, L.A., Porter, R.E&Stefani, L.A. Communication Between Cultures[J]北京:外语教
学与研究出版社, 2003:36.
[9] Tannen, D... That's not what meant: Language, culture, and meaning.[M.]Into the Classroom
Media, 10573 N. Los Angeles, CA 90064. (2004:43). [10] Williams, R. Keywords London: Frontenac [M] 1983:45.
[11] 杜瑾, 文化价值观对跨文化交际的影响，[J].重庆大学，2005:15. [12] 季羡林，对21世纪人文学科建设的几点意见 [J].教学与教材研,1998:6.
[13]Hu Wenzhong Cultural Assumptions of East and West: Japan and the States, Selected
Readings in Intercultural Communication. [A] Hunan: Hunan Education Publishing House.1988:07.
[14] 王敏 ，《中美思维方式差异对跨文化交际的影响》[D].东北财经大学，王强,2006:9. [15] 朱冠群,《中美思维方式差异对跨文化交际的影响》[D].山东师范大学，李新, 2004:8.
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Acknowledgement
When I started to work on this thesis, I thought about whom I would thank when it was ever finished. Although at that time I didn't have a clear picture as to what the final version of the thesis would be like, I did know that I would feel a lot of gratitude to those faces that helped me to get this done.
First, my special gratitude goes to my tutor, Professor Han Yan who has given me so much help throughout my research work. Without her help and valuable instruction, I can hardly finish the whole thesis so smoothly.
Other thanks are given to my dear friends who gave me encouragement and helped to collect useful data and materials. Without them, I might spend much more time in front of the computer.
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
Appendix A: Informative Chinese Abstract
什么是思维?思维就是在表象、概念的基础上进行分析、综合、判断、推理等认识活动的过程，是人类特有的一种精神活动。来自不同文化背景的人思维模式是不同的。这种不同的思维模式反映在社会生活的方方而而。英美民族和汉民族山于不同的生存条件和历史，因而形成了不同的思维模式，这种思维模式的不同在英汉语言文字、人生观、世界观和价值观都表现了出来.
学术界对于英汉思维模式差异的研究很多，关世杰认为中国人偏好形象思维，美国人偏好抽象思维或逻辑思维;中国人偏好综合思维，美国人偏好分析思维;中国人注重“统一”，英美人注重“对立”。
几千年的文明积淀使汉民族形成了以群体观念为核心的思维方式, 因此他们在看待事物、处理问题时往往将整体置 于个体之上, 认为个体只是整体网络中的一个环节或一分子, 整体是一个稳固的融合关系。在观察和处理问题时 , 他们也往往从大处人手, 从大到小, 整体综合，各部分协调对称，上下层次分明, 先后顺序清楚, 主客观是一种相互适应与和谐统一的关系。以自我为中心的英文化强调个体的独立和主体的作用，观察和处理问题时以主体为中心，从小到大, 由近及远，进行个体分析，强调个体，突出个体，事从局部到整体，从特殊到一般，这是一种解析式的思维方式。
中国人的形象思维较发达, 就包涵着对于直观经验的重视, 而在理论上往往停留在经验论。人们广泛运用形象类比的方法，通过物体的形象表达思想。得到思想后可以忘掉形象, 超越经验而获得直觉的体悟。西方人擅长于抽象思维，即逻辑思维。在欧美文化中有根据亚里士多德的原理建立起来的一套逻辑体系。美民族擅长于用抽象概念表达具体的事物, 比较重视抽象思维能力的运用。
中国传统文化强调,人与天地万物一体 ,人与人和谐 ,人与自然和谐 以天人合一为最高境界。西方人从古至今倾向于把宇宙分成两个截然不同的世界 , 天人相分,二者对立。
正因为中美思维模式上的这些差异，在跨文化交际中也存在着很大的影响。
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
受整体倾向和圆式思维模式的影响 中国人说话习惯于绕弯子，常常避开 主题, 从宽泛的空间和时间人手, 从整体到局部, 从大到小，由远及近，但这种做法就让直线思维的美国人感到扑朔迷离。在我们的商务交流、合作、谈判中，也存在着因为思维模式的差异产生的影响，由于中国人的思维模式是整体取向, 凡事从整体到局部，由大到小，从笼统到具体, 因此, 中国人在谈判的起始阶段往往就有关合同双方所共同遵守的总体性原则和共同利益展开讨论 , 所谓的具体细节留到以后。与此相反，西方人，尤其美国人, 由于受线性思维和分析思维方式的影响, 最重视事物之间的逻辑关系, 重具体胜过整体, 因此他们往往对具体细节给予极大的关注。本文也特意针对这两个大方面给到一些建议，去尽量缩减这种影响，已达到更好的跨文化交流。在教育学习过程中就注重思维方式的一个区别，了解彼此整个的一个思维过程。在商务合作中，多注重别人的一些商业习惯以及理念。
总之，在中西方跨文化交流中，交际双方不能忽视不同的思维模式对交流的影响。交际双方必须给予不同文化中思维模式的差异以充分的认识, 以求同存异, 培养异文化思维, 最大程度地减少思维模式给跨文化交际带来的负面影响。
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湖 南 涉 外 经 济 学 院
本科毕业论文（设计）
Impacts On Intercultural Communication of Differences between
题 目
作 者 学 院 专 业
English and Chinese Thinking Modes 英汉思维模式的差异对跨文化交际的
影响
外国语学院
英语
学 号 指导教师
二〇 一三 年 四 月 十五
I
ABSTRACT
Nowadays, the world is characterized by a fast growing number of contacts resulting in communication among people with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. This cross-cultural communication covers many fields from education, business, medical-care, politics, tourism, culture, diplomacy, media and entertainment. Intercultural communication concerns the differences between cultures, and these differences can lead to embarrassment in communication. At the worst, such mistakes may confuse or even offend the people we wish to communicate with. The most basic and the most important one is thought patterns. This thesis tends to compare different thought patterns and their impacts upon the intercultural communication between Chinese and Americans. A good understanding of thinking pattern and cross-cultural communication will help us have a better awareness toward cross-cultural barriers and troubles. In other words, the thesis aims to give some ideas for people who are preparing for, intercultural communication and who are experiencing intercultural communication.
Key words: thought patterns; culture; intercultural communication;
I
摘 要
当今世界最显著的特征便是不同语言文化背景下的人们之间的联系愈加密切。跨文化交际涵盖了各个领域：教育、商务、医疗、政治、旅游、文化、外交、新闻媒体以及娱乐业。跨文化交际就需要关注文化中的差异，这些差异轻到交际中出现尴尬的场面，重到严重影响交际本身，甚至出现混乱局面。在诸多的差异中，最基础的，最重要的就是思维模式的差异。本论文就是尝试去解析英汉思维模式的差异，及它对跨文化交际的影响。对思维模式差异和跨文化交流很好的了解即是对跨文化文化交流的障碍和困难的一种意识，换而言之，本论文就是给那些准备进行跨文化交流和正在进行跨文化交流中得人一些建议，已达到更佳的交流效果。
关键词：思维模式；文化；跨文化交际
II
Contents
·······································································································I ABSTRACT ·
摘 要 ·················································································································· II ····································································································· 1 Introduction ·
Chapter 1 Literature Review ·············································································· 3
1.1 The Definition of Culture ·············································································· 3 1.2 Thought Pattern ·························································································· 4 1.3 Intercultural Communication ········································································· 5 1.4 A Description of Related Empirical Studies ······················································ 5
Chapter 2 Different Thought Patterns between Chinese and American ······· 7
2. l Synthetic Vs Analytic ··················································································· 7
2.1.1 Synthetic Thinking ·············································································· 7 2.1.2 Analytical Thinking ············································································· 7 2.2 Unitary Vs Opposite ···················································································· 8 2.3 Imaginative and Abstractive ········································································ 10
2.3.1 Imaginative Thinking ········································································· 10 2.3.2 Abstractive Thinking ········································································· 10 2.4 Past Orientation Vs Future Orientation ·························································· 11
Chapter 3 Influences of Different Thought Patterns upon Intercultural Communications ································································································ 14
3.1 Ambiguity Perplexity, Anxiety and Conflicts Caused in Intercultural Communication14 3.2 Influences on Business Setting ····································································· 15
Chapter4 Suggestions to Improve Intercultural Communications ·············· 17
4.1 Improving Intercultural Communication in Educational Setting ·························· 17
III
4.2 Improving the Business Negotiation and Management ······································ 18
Conclusion ·········································································································· 20 Bibliography ······································································································· 21 Acknowledgement ····························································································· 22 Appendix A: Informative Chinese Abstract ··················································· 23
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
little ambiguous and indirect. Tannen notes that the use of indirectness can hardly be understood without the cross-cultural perspective. Many Americans find it self-evident that directness is logical and aligned with power whereas indirectness is akin to dishonesty as well as subservience. But for speakers raised in most of the world's cultures; varieties of indirectness are the norm in communication. (Tannen 2004：43)
The above quotation clearly shows that indirectness will Lead to serious misunderstandings or even conflicts among business people who have different thinking styles. Meanwhile, the Chinese belong to a high-context culture while the Americans belong to a low-context culture. Since the different culture background provides chances for indirectness and ambiguity. \communication is described as “...indirect, ambiguous, and understated. Love context communication people tend to be”…direct, explicit, open, precise\is consistent with their feelings.\：15)
Greatly influenced by analytical and abstractive thinking styles, Americans are very direct, explicit and open in their business communication. They lay stress on accuracy and clearness, and avoid ambiguity. This characteristic of theirs is best illustrated by Okabe\to use explicit words is the most noteworthy in their communicative style. They prefer to employ such categorical words as \
On business contacts and exchanges, Americans often consider the Chinese to be evasive and unreliable, while the Chinese admit that American's directness and straightforwardness are too much for their tolerance.
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
Chapter4 Suggestions to Improve Intercultural
Communications
4.1 Improving Intercultural Communication in Educational Setting
For many Chinese students in America, due to their quite different thinking patterns with Americans, they are faced with several obstacles in the communication as we mentioned in, the above chapter. Suggestions for improvement are made in order to foster effective intercultural communication in educational setting.
As one professor of the College of Micronesia-FSM points out that culture conditions and shapes our thinking about the natural world. Culture teaches people to notice and consider some things over others and to subscribe to some explanations of natural phenomenon awareness is necessary over others. American writer Thoreau once wrote: \experience a different educational setting. As for teachers who is going to teach students from another culture, it is very important to know as much about the cultural backgrounds of the students as possible. Many Chinese students are now studying in America, and then American teachers should be familiar with the educational structure of the students' cultural heritage, as well as learning style, linguistic rules, and non-verbal behaviors, and gender role expectations.
When Chinese students study in American culture and actively strive to develop cross-cultural understanding and allow them to adjust to the culture, actually they make big changes in the way they think, feel and behave. We can refer to this as informal intercultural communication training and it can be very effective. For many people an informal approach may be all that is needed for them to quickly adjust to another culture. “Success with an informal approach to cross-cultural self-training depends on the personality, knowledge and experiences of the individual. Formal training programs in cross-cultural communications also bring about the changes in people that are necessary for them to interact cross-culturally.”(Zhu2004:8) Perhaps one of the most effective ways to bring about cross-cultural understanding and intercultural interaction skills is to combine both language and cultural training in an intensive program of instruction. The study of language is a considerable aid to cross-cultural understanding because embedded in a people's language is their cultural logic and their rules of social interaction.
However, at the meantime, we should keep our own culture values continuing,
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
especially those that are worth devoting to. A good intercultural communication does not mean that we have to discard our own cultures values.
4.2 Improving the Business Negotiation and Management
The success of international business relationships depends on effective business negotiations. Negotiators need to be well prepared. Understanding how to achieve international business negotiation outcomes and the factors relevant to the process will allow negotiators to be more successful.
“After a review of the literature and interviews, practitioners outlined ?ten factors? in the negotiation process that seem to be influenced by the thinking patterns of a particular culture. It includes goal, attitudes, personal styles, communications, time sensitivity, emotionalism, agreement form, agreement building, team organization and risk taking.”(Wang2006:9) Some researchers suppose that there is a negotiation between a Chinese and American corporation, it is perfect for two parties to have a full understanding of the ten factors of both sides, in case there is any perception existed. A wide range of knowledge of these factors can be gathered from books, thinking patterns and so do the Americans. Such kind of mutual understanding will facilitate their negotiation and lessen the chance of misunderstanding and discord.
International authority research finds that: for a corporation, if you want to have small changes, you only have to change the behaviors of the staff. However, if you want a fundamental change, then you have to change their thinking patterns. “Thinking is the basic resource for human kind; it decides the future of humankind. In developed countries, the training for managerial thinking patterns has many years of history.”(Edward 1986:24) An upstanding thinking pattern becomes the most effective method to enhance the organizational competitiveness. If the Chinese corporations want to be competitive in the global economy, the key element is to improve the managerial ability---thinking patterns. So far, the popular thinking pattern among the “top 500 corporations” has already emerged in the Chinese management circle. Such kinds of thinking patterns training help managers deal with various problems, face changeable situations and make efficient and remarkable decisions.
The whole team can achieve good work only when the team members can fully understands each other. The different thinking patterns of Chinese and Americans make it difficult for a multicultural corporation to be efficient. That is the reason thinking patterns training is also a kind of useful management tool.
Besides thinking patterns training, international communication is even further
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
strengthened when businesspeople can anticipate areas of commonality. Actually, business in general is enhanced when Chinese and Americans find new approaches to old problems creating solutions by combining cultural perspectives and examining the problem at hand from each other's differing thinking pattern and cultural perspectives. Moreover, to be effective in Chinese or American culture; however, managers should also consider the following issues before they begin to communicate: Setting communication objectives, Choosing a communication style, Assessing and enhancing credibility, Selecting and motivating audiences; Setting a message strategy, Overcoming language difficulties; Using appropriate nonverbal behaviors.
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
Conclusion
In a period dominated by technology and information, the world is gradually becoming a global village in which intercultural communication is more and more important and urgent. Successful intercultural communication requires people on the earth to learn not only each other's language, but also different thought patterns, worldviews, value systems, social customs and so on.
Thought patterns play a vital role. It is so important that we can even assert that the development of the world today is the outcome of thinking. As we have known, the logical thinking led to the birth of natural science.
Various specific elements history, climate philosophy, political system, language and some others geography, combined together shaped the thought patterns within a culture. Chinese thought patterns, based on experience and intuition are predominantly synthetic , associative and past一oriented. And The American?s thought patterns, based on logic and facts are predominantly analytic, abstractive and future- oriented.
Thinking patterns influence education, and business. These two main areas are important in the society. When intercultural communication becomes more frequent among the Chinese and Americans, there will be more misunderstandings if they are not prevented in due time. In this thesis, different thought patterns of Chinese and Americans are compared and the influences on them upon the intercultural communication are explored. I hope this thesis will be of some help for the understanding and conducting of the intercultural communication, and meanwhile, bring some possible good ways to solve the problems in education and business.
There must be some limitations of my thesis, as communication can be conducted through Goth verbal and non-verbal ways. This thesis, however, concentrates on verbal ones in order to have a comparative through understanding. Besides, the thesis lacks empirical study data. Since Thinking patterns of the Chinese and Americans greatly affect intercultural communication that happens between them.
Certainly, there are still many important things which deserve to be explored and mentioned in the field on intercultural communication that is also long way for me in the future.
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
Yutang and Yan Fu, who gave much extraordinary comments on this thinking styles, professor Hu Wenzhong and Jia Yuxin has published many books on intercultural communication which involved patterns of thinking, beliefs and values: Professor Yuan Ying gave a comparison of Chinese and American patterns of thinking in her article On the differences of the Eastern and Western Thinking Mode in Intercultural Communication. Chen Xinxia thinks that Patterns of thinking cover knowledge, concept, method, intelligence, emotion, will, language and habit. By interacting with each other, these elements form a dynamic and complex system. Thus, the nature, type, characteristic, and differences of thinking patterns are all regulated by the integrated elements.
Western scholars, starting from Dr. Stanford University, first described Karl Pribram, professor of neuropsychology at patterns of thinking as something that vary according to different culture situation. People from different culture background tend to have different patterns of thinking. Different thinking styles in turn make people communicate quite differently with each other; hence, we realize that it is impossible for people to act under the same thinking pattern. Nevertheless, although we can not make the differences invisible, we do can make things better if we try to understand thinking patterns of another culture, and learn to facilitate intercultural communication.
Based on their research, this thesis is going to make a detailed comparison of Chinese and American patterns of thinking in this chapter, and try to analyze the impacts that they have on intercultural communication.
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
Chapter 2 Different Thought Patterns between
Chinese and American
With long-term development, there are many differences between Chinese and American culture .The basic one lies in thinking patterns. The Chinese usually think in a synthetic and imaginative way, while the Americans usually think in a Analytic and abstractive way.
2. l Synthetic Vs Analytic
The Chinese and Americans have their own thinking habits, no matter they are habitual, traditional or customized. Technically, the Chinese emphasize more on synthetic aspects and connotation; while Americans prefer the analytic stuff and denotation.
2.1.1 Synthetic Thinking
Synthetic thinking, including all the factors, suggests thinking from the perspective of the whole. For the cognition of the objective (an object or, maybe an event or things like that)，all the separate parts concerned are combined together. On the contrary, analytic thinking refers to thinking in a way of separating the whole into constituents or parts to acquire its properties or relations between the individual parts.
As a matter of fact, synthetic thinking and analytic thinking are the unity of opposites. They oppose each other, also complement each other.
Generally speaking, Chinese thinking is predominantly synthetic in which holism and intuition take priority; American thinking is predominantly analytic which lays emphasis on reductionism and logic. 2.1.2 Analytical Thinking
In the western world, Plato is the first man to advocate \Dichotomy\Analytical thinking patterns perceives the world by distinguishing subject and object, moral and material, thinking and being, soul and body, meanwhile; such thinking patterns explain the world from a dualistic angle. The Americans believe the power of man. Their relationship with nature is “master -slave relationship with man the master of nature” (Hu, 1988:07). American culture admires independence and they believe that early birds catch the worms. Their thinking
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
patterns base on individualism whereas the Chinese base their thinking patterns on groups. Therefore, Americans tend to decompose complex things and study them one by one, with analytical logic their preference.
Aristotle believes that analysis is the basic form of dialectical thinking. He confirms that analytics is the instrument of all subjects. Compared to the American thinking patterns, the Chinese pays more attention to connotation and stress synthesis. Because Chinese and American thinking patterns focus on quite different aspects, there must be many differences in people's understanding and outlooks of the whole world. Different cultures identify different thinking characteristics, which in turn manipulate people's cross-cultural communication.
The origin of the difference between synthetic and analytical thinking can be traced back to philosophy. The Ancient Chinese philosophy had three prepositions: \emotion and scene\Yijing was the first book to bring nature for phenomena and human life together, which laid a foundation for Chinese traditional thinking. Early in the spring and Autumn Period, Taoism and Confucianism developed the synthetic thinking patterns from different angles. Confucianism made nature humanized, and Taoism made human naturalized, both of which considered that human beings and nature are of one unity. Synthetic thinking classifies human and nature as an integral whole.
As for unity of nature and human beings; the Chinese believe that nature and humans are inseparable. Only through cooperating with nature, can humans survive, which explains the fact that for so many years, the Chinese have preferred to coordinate with nature rather than manipulated it. The issue of the relationship between knowledge and action concerns the relationship between knowledge about moral matters and doing what the knowledge calls for. Traditionally, Chinese thought in general maintained that once one acquired knowledge, one should do one's best to put such knowledge into practice. \personal feeling and situation. Chinese synthetic thinking is indeed trying to realize harmony between subjectivity and objectivity as a whole. The Chinese tend to believe that the universe is a vast and multidimensional organism of many interrelated components. It puts nature, society, and humans into a whole organism and cares more about their relation aspects rather than to decompose them organism and cares more about their relation aspects rather than to decompose them into many parts.
2.2 Unitary Vs Opposite
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
Another difference in thought patterns is found in the Chinese tendency toward unity and in the American inclination toward opposite. Chinese people tend to emphasize unity between the subjective and the objective realms of the inner and the outer conditions. It does not mean that Chinese people ignore the existence of the opposites only that incline to view the opposites as a unity, namely, a unity of opposites accentuating the inseparability of the relations between the subject and the object. People tend to view a concept as both “A” and \
American's thinking tendency is to see the world in terms of dichotomies, to divide the world into human and nature, material and spiritual, society and nature. Each one is opposite to the other. This characteristic is illustrated by the terms of good-evil, right-wrong, true- false, beautiful一ugly, work一entertainment, peace-war, success-failure and cause-effect. (John 1994: 14) A concept is viewed as either \or” not A. The Americans do not deny unity, but they emphasize more on the struggle and transformation of the opposites, namely, their opposite is the opposite of unity. They like to break the whole into parts.
Americans tend to view human and nature as two opposites rather than unity. Human is the master of the nature, and they must conquer and control nature.1 ,heir \一effect, for they always require a cause to explain a behavior or an event or an object. They think in Chinese people's thinking the subjective experience and the objective facts are always substituted for each other. Chinese unity leads to the seeking of the commonality; American opposite thinking leads to the seeking of difference. Chinese people put great emphasis on harmony so they seek the identity and the agreement of human with nature, of human with society, of individual with group and of individual with others. When one conflicts with the authority or the group, he will obey the authority and conform to the group to attain agreement. Therefore, Chinese people cautiously express personal opinions and modify their opinions to be consistent with those of others around them. In Chinese language, there is an idiom (seeking commonality common ground while reserving the differences) which has been a diplomatic strategy when handling affairs with foreign countries. This clearly indicates the tendency of seeking commonality.
In contrast to Chinese people, the Americans, unrestricted by habitual patterns, dare to deny the established conclusions or regulations. They pursue differences一differences in speech, behavior and thought from the others, challenge tradition and convention and they freely express their own opinions. They believe that “the
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
squealing wheel gets oil.”
2.3 Imaginative and Abstractive
Chinese people are used to thinking in images. While the American people pay
more attention to the use of the abstract thinking ability. 2.3.1 Imaginative Thinking
Imaginative thinking also called associative thinking. It is a holistic process that looks for relationships even though no causal link is apparent. Based on the direct experiences with the outside world, imaginative thinking gets the understanding of the world through observation, summarization, analogy and imitation. Abstractive thinking, regulated by logics, can reason and make judgments following concrete concepts. Glenn (1981:65) notes in his article: \“arbitrary\the definition of information that is relevant to a given situation, and (2) the definition of the relationship between informational units.\
Obviously, imaginative thinking emphasizes direct experience while abstractive thinking stresses concepts. These two kinds of thinking are prevalent in all cultures, but the Chinese culture focuses on imaginative thinking and the American culture on abstractive thinking. Rather than looking for ways of reducing facts or premises into categories, eliminating what does not logically fit, imaginative thinking looks for ways of associating them into meaningful patterns. It also makes connections rather than choices and has a greater tolerance of ambiguity and contradiction than Westerners are used to. Chinese imaginative thinking tends to use metaphor, analogy and symbolism, but American abstractive thinking is characterized by logical thinking. The Differences are shown in the common use of expressions between Americans and Chinese.
As we all know, metaphor, analogy and symbolism belong to figures of speech in literary circle. However, the thesis applies them in a sense of thinking widely used by Chinese people. Concepts, feelings and ideas are expressed perfectly with the help of concrete images.
2.3.2 Abstractive Thinking
As Fung (1948:6) notes in the history of China, especially in the early stages of our civilization, analogy offered a familiar, quick and easy way to comprehend the
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
world. However, in modern time, now that abstract science has achieved such advances, mere reliance on analogy without formal logic makes any reasoning process unreliable. It can result in far-fetched outcomes since it overlooks or blurs differences in the particulars and specifics.
Americans do use metaphor, symbolism and analogy in their words and expressions. However, they are not as widely and frequently used as they are with Chinese. “Americans? thinking ways are characterized with the logic, philosopher Aristotle, who started \basic laws of formal logic, proved the three elements (conception, judgments, and reasoning), and put forward two ways of thinking(induction and deduction).His formal logic system has a big influence on the whole western world, which Americans can hardly ignore. They advance from idea to idea, from conclusion to conclusion, inducing differentiating, integrating” (Gulick, 1988:12). Americans on one side take good advantage of the objective reality. On the other hand, they are building an abstractive and applicable reality. They rely more on numbers and written documents. The American's thinking style is not close to direct perception of impermanent forms. They stress action and performance. They believe their reasonable and effective thinking pattern. The American's abstractive thinking can be found in words and expressions where abstractive nouns are used rather than verbs in order to explain some vivid feelings. You may find examples in literature books, Legal documents, business documents, science magazines and so on.
2.4 Past Orientation Vs Future Orientation
Time is a basic element of organization system in life, for each behavior under certain circumstance is restricted by time. Different cultures perceive time from different perspectives and this leads to different time orientations which indicate different thought patterns principles and methods are still used today to prescribe people's behavior.
When doing something, people always ash whether it has been done before, for \fruit of the past experiences of people arouses in the Chinese mind a sense of validity\(Nakamura, 1964: 20). People are less interested in new ideas that in conforming to the old, and in appreciating tile achievements of the past. They try to discover in advance the laws governing life. For Chinese people, learning implies full Knowledge of the precedents of a past age, i.e.，searching out the ancient ways. In close relation to this, Chinese language has abundant historical allusions and set literary phrases, for example:
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
三顾茅庐 make three calls at the thatched cottage - repeatedly request someone to take up responsibility
四面楚歌hear the sounds of the Chu all around -be besieged on all straits 画蛇添足add fact to a drawing of a snake —gild the lily
In contrast to this, Americans are predominantly future-orientated (the coming future instead of far future or ideal future). They don't rely on past experiences or established norms. They are not restricted by conventions or social habits. They think their future will be happier Even in the Great Depression in the 1920s一1930s. People still believed that \ Safely, we can say that the Americans live more in the future than in the past.
The following details show the differences concerning this fact between the Chinese and the Americans. Since Chinese people cling to the past experience stress precedents and attach great importance to past events, they do not seek change; instead, they pursue stability. “Ancestor?s principles cannot be changed.” There were veritable whirlwinds of surface conflicts in Chinese history, but they very little affected floe basic structure and value system of the people. China did witness great changes in recent years, still we always insist that \the presupposition of development.\People like to live and work in peace and contentment. They do not like adventure. Most of them take up only one occupation in their lives.
Americans value future highly, so they endeavor to seek change. American people are remarkable for irrepressible action, experiment, invention, adventure and progress. They are adaptive to changes other than being restricted by conventions. American society is mobile. Instead of clinging to one occupation, they frequently change their jobs. They migrate from one place to another, travel a lot. According to a report from China Daily, about 40 million Americans change residences every year. In average, an American moves fourteen times in his life time.
So far, a number of basic aspects of Chinese thought patterns and American thought patterns have been examined. Based on a circular perspective, Chinese have developed synthetic, associative, unitary past-oriented thought patterns which emphasize direct, immediate aesthetic components in human's experience of the world. Based on a linear perspective, Americans have developed thought patterns of analysis, abstract, opposite and future orientation which encourage a rational and indirect outlook.
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
However, we should be aware that the Chinese and Americans are differences in thought differences in thought patterns between relative. Chinese and Americans both have all the above-mentioned thought patterns, and the differences only lie in which ones predominate in one of the two cultures. That is only a question of “more or less” other than that of “having or having-not”
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
Chapter 3 Influences of Different Thought Patterns
upon Intercultural Communications
3.1 Ambiguity Perplexity, Anxiety and Conflicts Caused in Intercultural Communication
Chinese associative and synthetic thinking is based on intuition and experience instead of theoretical proofs. Associative thinking emphasizes direct perception of the concrete image and neglects the exact facts, thus imprecision and ambiguity in verbal expressions arises. Synthetic thinking takes priority of the whole over the parts, which also leads to ambiguity and imprecision of the verbal expressions. Tao Yuanming once said, ``I am fond of reading, but 1 don't always try to understand them thoroughly. Whenever 1 find any agreeable passages l will often gladly forget to eat. I always enjoy myself by writing.\between human and society, human and nature and human themselves, as a result, the Chinese tend to concern more with the overall emotional quality of the interaction than with the meaning of particular words or sentences. The primary function of speech is to maintain social harmony; therefore. Courtesy often takes precedence over truthfulness. In order to avoid leaving an assertive impression .Chinese speaker limit themselves to implicit an assertive impression, Chinese speakers limit and even ambiguous use of words. For example, qualifier such as 可能、或许、也许、大概、没准、说不定are frequently used . The imprecision and ambiguity imply constant interpretation, testing, probing, second guessing. (As the cases always are. a Chinese person will let other people guess what he really means instead of speaking a direct and frank way.)
In comparison with the Chinese, influenced by the analytic and abstractive thinking, the Americans use direct, explicit, exact and straightforward verbal expressions. They call for attention and emphasis on accuracy, exactness, and truthfulness. English language is logical and tightly structured as the following:
“Reflecting the cultural value of precision, American?s tendency to use explicit words is the most noteworthy in their communicative style .they prefer to employ such categorical words as \English syntax and sentence indicates that the absolutely be placed at the beginning of the sentence in most cases .and that the subjective -predicate relation to be constructed
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湖南涉外经济学院本科生毕业论文（设计）
in an ordinary case”
When communicating intercultural, Americans are inclined to regard Chinese who speak dubiously or evasively with respect to important matters as unreliable, insincere, and they are strongly impatient with those who talk for hours without clearly expressing their opinions. On the contrary, the Chinese view the Americans who speak directly and straight forward as impolite and inconsiderate without saving face for the others.
Chinese favor ornate diction. Due to synthetic chinking, the Chinese pursue the formal conformity. \character in a sentence are often arranged in patterns of Four each, especially those tour-word idioms and parallel sentences are frequently used (Articles in the old days are the best examples.)
Meanwhile, Chinese thinking is associative. \ concepts by concrete images- A great number of analogies similes metaphor, symbolism, and allusions are used for the purpose of vividness even newspapers and radio broadcasting Adopt ornate style.
Thus, if we have no idea thought patterns between Chinese and Americans, maybe we cannot attain the expected intercultural communicating intercultural communication effect.
3.2 Influences on Business Setting
Business is not conducted in an identical way from culture to culture. Never before in history has the business arena portrayed such global qualities. The cooperation between China and America in the business context becomes more and more frequent .These numerous international business activities often involve individuals from one culture working with or for corporations from another culture. The most successful firms must have people who can communicate effectively with their cross-cultural counterparts.
Chinese synthetic and imaginative thinking patterns are based on experience arid intuition. Imaginative thinking stresses the direct perception of concrete images and ignores numbers and facts; synthetic thinking emphasizes the whole rather than the individual parts; which will lead to ambiguity and vagueness among business people in their intercultural communications. As we know, the Chinese have relational thinking styles that hugely depend on experiences. Thus, it is hard for them to distinguish which are more important-experience or numbers and facts. On the contrary, Americans are analytical thinkers; to them the Chinese people seem to be a
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