In my essay, I will be defending my position that there is a universal definition of ‘word’ that can be applied to all languages. For proving my point, I will provide example of two totally different languages systems: Chinese and English. These two languages are considered to be used by the most number of people in the world (Wan & Yim 507). First, I will discuss the case that the origin of these two languages system is similar. Both languages originate with similar rules: hieroglyphic words and eye movement. I will provide many interesting examples about eyes movement in from “Comparative Patterns of Reading Eye Movement in Chinese and English” (Sun, Morita & Stark, 1985).
The multicharacter Chinese word communicates complex significance utilizing blends of single characters. They are similar to compound words in English, except that in Chinese they are still written as discrete characters. On the average, the Chinese character group may be composed of approximately 1.5 characters, with the usual size being, perhaps, between one character (55%) and two characters (40%), with rather few three-character groups (5%).
Similarities in reading eye movement for Chinese and English are noted in the general stereotypical pattern and in the fixation durations, even without using the 1.5 factor. With the 1.5 factor, other quantitative measures also come into line. The spans are about 1.7 Chinese equivalent words and 1.8 English words. The reading rates were about 385 equivalent words per minute for Chinese and 380 words per minute for English for the same scientific textual material. This comparability is reading eye-movement patterns and quantitative measure was established by having similarly scientifically trained readers reading Chinese translations or original semi popular scientific text from Scientific American articles that might be expected to cut across cultural boundaries.
In the past three years, Chinese printing has shifted from a vertical-line format to a horizontal-line format. In the 1920s, several studies (Chen & Car, 1926; Shen, 1927; Tu, 1930) found Chinese readers to be more skillful in reading the vertical format; we found out readers to be much less adept at reading vertically: 256 equivalent words per minute versus 386 equivalent words per minute horizontally. That the equivalent vertical text was read more slowly, even by skilled (horizontal) readers, suggests the highly skilled nature of reading Chinese.
Also of interest was the considerable comparative lack of skill in reading Chinese by native Chinese readers who had immigrated to California and had read mainly English for the previous 5 years. Their reading rate was only 240 equivalents words per minute versus 386 for native Chinese in California for 2 years or less.
What account for the close similarity in reading eye-movement patterns for such different languages as Chinese and English? Eye movement is probably optimized by evolution to serve the visual processes that occur while successively glancing or scanning a scene. The linguistic visual processes may be assumed to be derived from that subservient general vision (Sun, Morita & Stark, 1985).
Second, I will discuss that the case of rules of pronunciation of two languages’ word, in particular English word and French word. Both two languages systems have similar pronunciation rules (Low 107). Comparative Stylistics of French and English: A Methodology for Translation by Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet provides us many examples of similarity of structures and lexical aspects about similar meaning of words. The first plane is occupied by the signs considered in their own right, disregarding the messages in which they normally appear. The repertoire of signs, or the lexicon, is examined by substituting units of translation within the syntactic framework of comfortable structure. It is not our purpose to explain the contents of the SL and the TL Lexicon separately, each lexicon having its own structure. The aim is to draw out certain lexical categories from their juxtaposition, in order to define the units of translation more sharply. The parallels in the middle of SL and TL are once in a while striking and we can conveniently abuse them. At different times, the two dialects unmistakably contrast and interpreters must break down their disparities on the off chance that they need to comprehend and connect them. The more two languages are alike in structure and civilization, the greater the risk of confusing the meanings of their respective lexicons. But even words not burdened with coincidental and misleading resemblances present semantic differences which translator must be wary of. For example, the American usage of ‘street’ can convey the idea of the French ‘chaussée’, as well as that of ‘rue’. Within certain syntactic structures units of translation can be interchanged, giving paradigmatic sequences in vertical order such as:
We could hear a noise :On entendait un bruit
a bang − une detonation
a thud − un bruit sourd
a hiss − un sifflement (Vinay & Darbelnet, 1995).
Finally, I will discuss the similarity of writing mode between Chinese and Japanese as many words from the two languages are similar. A historical event published by Technological Information Article in 2012 (Edition 32) by Fang Ling Wu states that there is a famous study conducted abroad from Japan to China. Japanese students learn a lot of Chinese words’ syntax in order to develop Japanese words. Amid the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese government acquainted an arrangement with settle 5 million Japanese in Manchukuo. Taking after the end of the war, roughly 2,800 Japanese vagrants in China were deserted by families repatriating back to Japan. The greater part of Japanese deserted in China were ladies, and these Japanese ladies, for the most part, wedded Chinese men and got to be known as "stranded war wives". As of October 2009, the quantity of Japanese nationals living in China is 127,282 (counting 21,518 in Hong Kong and Macau) as indicated by a report by the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the third biggest gathering of Japanese individuals outside Japan after Brazil and United States. In these ten years, Japanese nationals living in China expanded approximately three times from 46,000 to 127,000 in extents to the development in exchange volume between the two nations. Gubei, Shanghai has the biggest centralization of Japanese nationals in Mainland China (Fang Ling Wu, 2012).
Japanese really has a significant substantial impact upon present day Chinese vocabulary. As generally, one Chinese character typically has an entire arrangement of implications which is not sufficiently particular now and then, cutting edge Chinese received numerous Japanese vocabularies on the grounds that they limited down the implications and bode well to Chinese in the meantime. In any case, as dialects, Chinese and Japanese are very surprising. Despite the fact that it is regularly accepted to be similarly simpler for individuals of both nations in realizing each other's dialects, it is not generally the situation. Japanese local speakers might discover some elocution (t and d, h and f; the - ng sounds) of Mandarin greatly hard, yet from my own perception, it appears to be much less demanding for those Japanese with great learning of English. Ok and it can be entirely agonizing in decreasing the alleged average Chinese-inflection (otherwise known as those slight contrasts in vowels such as "u" and Chinese "wu", and also diminishing all the good and bad times when talking).
Annotated Bibliography:
Comparative Patterns of Reading Eye Movement in Chinese and English by Fushun Sun, Michon Morita and Lawrence W. Stark (p. 503-504) provide an interesting subject experiment that people have similar habits in reading several Chinese and English words providing us evidence that both languages have similar morphology. The reading suggests that capable native readers of both languages demonstrated an identical eye-movement pattern when given similar identical reading materials and tasks.
Comparative Stylistics of French and English: A Methodology for Translation by Jean-Paul Vinay & Jean Darbelnet (p. 93-96) illustrate the similarity of French and English words structure by explaining the simple way to translate the difference between two structures. The translation-oriented distinguishable analyses of the grammar and style of the two languages are comprehensively epitomized through the examples of texts, phrases, and expressions.
Technological information’ academic paper in 2012 (Edition 32) by Fang Ling Wu illustrates an interesting historical event whereby one thousand years ago, many Japanese students visited China for studying the Chinese words’ syntax and phonology. This source can help me in proving my point that both Chinese and Japanese have similar syntax and phonology. The adaptation of characters from Chinese for the representation of Japanese language helped in the emergence of many homophonic and phonologic representations.
Works Cited
Fang Ling Wu. Technological information’ academic paper. 32th. 2012. Print.
Fushun, Morita and Stark. “Perception & Psyhologic.” Comparative Patterns of Reading Eye Movement in Chinese and English. 37 (1985): 502-506. Web. 27 Mar. 2016. < https://www.gwern.net/docs/1985-sun.pdf >.
Low, Ee Ling. Pronunciation for English as an International Language: From Research to Practice. London: Routledge, 2014. Print.
Vinay, Jean-Paul, and Darbelnet, Jean. Comparative Stylistics of French and English: A Methodology for Translation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1995. Print
Wan, Song, and Anthony P. C. Yim. Cardiothoracic Surgery in China: Past, Present, and Future. Hong Kong: Chinese UP, 2007. Print.
