How the National Way of Thinking Shapes the Grammar of its Language: A Critical Review of The Temporality of English and the Spatiality of Chinese: A Contrastive Analysis
Abstract：Abstract: In his monograph entitled The Temporality of English and the Spatiality of Chinese: A Contrastive Analysis, Professor Wang Wenbin proposes the hypothesis that English is temporally oriented in thinking while Chinese is spatially oriented in thinking and that, accordingly, English is a temporality-prominent language while Chinese is a spatiality-prominent language. The author makes a convincing case for the hypothesis, based on a variety of evidence concerning the differences between the two languages in lexicon, syntax, tense and aspect marking and discourse. Evidence also comes from the analogy between language and music and painting, and from the behavior of English learners. This is the first attempt so far to make a comprehensive and systematic study of the fundamental differences between English and Chinese in terms of temporality and spatiality in thinking. On the theoretical level, the book will help to reverse the emphasis on the search for language universals in the mainstream research, encouraging more linguists to work toward a grammatical system that truly reflects the individual characteristics of Chinese, free from the constraints of Western linguistic theories. On the applied level, the book is of great value for the learning of English or Chinese as a foreign language, helping learners avoid negative transfer.
Key words: English; Chinese; temporality; spatiality; contrastive linguistics
