%0 Journal Article
%T English and Chinese Culture Differences from Linguistic Viewpoint
%A Fen XIAO
%J Canadian Social Science
%D 2007
%I Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture
%X According to the idea of some Anthropologists, i.e., Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf, Sapir¡¯s student, the unique organization of universe that is embodied in each language might act as a determining fact or in the individual¡¯s habits of perception and of thought, thus forming and maintaining particular tendencies in the associated nonlinguistic culture. The idea provides us with a refreshing angle in understanding one of the important underlying causes for the difference between English and Chinese people in their ways of thinking, and thus induced ways of behavior toward their surroundings and some linguistic light on the historical myth mentioned by the famous British sinologist Joseph Needham and on why Chinese science ceased its development after Middle Ages. Key words: Whorfian hypothesis, language, culture difference R¨¦sum¨¦: D¡¯apr¨¨s certains anthrologues comme Edward Sapir et son ¨¦tudiant, Benjamin Lee Whorf, l¡¯organization unique de l¡¯univers implant¨¦ dans chaque langage peut ¨ºtre servie comme un d¨¦terminant sur l¡¯habititude individuelle d¡¯observation et de la pens¨¦e, qui d¨¦termine et maintient une tendance particuli¨¨re dans la culture non-linguistique. L¡¯id¨¦e nous permet de comprendre une des raisons implicites des diff¨¦rences dans la pens¨¦e entre les chinois et les fran ais, et induit des maini¨¨res de comportement envers leur environnement et donne une lumi¨¨re sur le mythe histoire mention¨¦ par le fameux sinologist Joseph Needham et explique pourquoi le d¨¦veloppement de la science chinoise a arr¨ºt¨¦ apr¨¨s le Moyen age. Mots-Cl¨¦s: Hypoth¨¨se de Whorf, langage, diff¨¦rence culturelle
%U http://cscanada.net/index.php/css/article/view/556