Abstract

    Philosophical statements are a language phenomenon. It is known to all that culture and language are mutually dependent. Language reflects its culture while the culture’s development influences the language. The wisdom in philosophical statements guides people in their social activities for thousands of years throughout the world. This thesis discusses the philosophical statements by classification, trying to analyze their connotation from culture perspective. Meanwhile the thesis analyzes the philosophical statements in Chinese and English comparatively from these four aspects: living environment, social customs, religion beliefs and historical allusions,with some insight into their underlying causes.

Key words: philosophical statements   thoughts  culture difference  

摘  要

    哲理性语句是一种语言现象。众所周知，文化和语言是相互依存的，一个民族的语言反映了它的文化，同时文化的发展影响着语言。哲理性语言的智慧在人们上千年的社会活动中起着引导作用。本文对哲理性语句进行分类探讨，从文化的视角分析它们的内涵。同时通过对英汉哲理性语句的对比研究，从环境、风俗、宗教及历史典故四个层面加以分析，探讨它们的深层次原因。

关键词：哲理性语句  思想  文化差异

1.Introduction

    In an era of globalization，the relationship between communication and culture has become one of the hottest issues discussed widely，and it is universally accepted that language simultaneously reflects culture,and is influenced and shaped by culture. Chinese and English belong to two different languages, representing two different cultures, respectively embodies the two kinds of language users of social system, cultural environment, productive labor, religion, way of thinking, etc.
To define philosophical statements, firstly let’s see what philosophy is. Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.  As we know, philosophy originated from ancient Greek, and the word "philosophy" has the meaning of “ love of wisdom”, thus somehow we can say philosophical statements  have something to do with “wisdom”. As "philosophy" can refer to "the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group”, philosophical statements are such statements which reflect thoughts, values or beliefs of an individual or group. In this way, philosophical statements seem to have a broad sense.