【正文】 ically, this kind of munication is called intercultural munication. Intercultural munication is so omnipresent that we especially need to focus on it. Besides, only through petently interacting with those who are different than ourselves, can we ensure the survival of the global village. Successful intercultural munication sounds ideal, but it actually demands a lot of knowledge of other people and their cultures and background. Language barrier is obviously one part of unsuccessful intercultural munication, but the most important one is cultural barrier, which is not simply learned as a kind of language. Jixianlin (1998:6) points out that the basic difference between Chinese and western culture lies in the thought pattern. Therefore, this thesis aims to discuss the differences of thought pattern between Chinese and Americans, explores its impacts upon intercultural munication, and finally, suggests some methods to deal with the possible negative influences caused by the differences on the munication between the Chinese people and American people. Many researchers made their devotions to the study too, especially to the impacts upon intercultural munication on our culture。 but most of them focus on culture and intercultural munication。 Frost, 1976: 6). For them, culture is not geically predetermined or instinctive but is transmitted and maintained solely through munication and learning. Some other researchers, like Harry Triandis, define the culture with distinct boundaries. He suggests that culture can be” distinguished as having both objective (. broads, tools) and subjective (. norms, laws, values) aspects 湖南涉外經(jīng)濟學(xué)院本科生畢業(yè)論文（設(shè)計） 4 Geert Hofstede views culture from a psychological perspective, defining it as” the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one category f people from another. This definition stresses the mental conditionings that cultural experiences impose. From the perspective of the crosscultural munication, the generally accepted definitions of culture are proposed by Daniel Batesamp。 Stefani respectively. Daniel Batesamp。 Stefani, 20xx:36) describe culture as: Culture is a system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors and artifacts that the members of a society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning. This definition includes not only patterns of behavior but also patterns of thought (shared meanings that the members of a society attach to various phenomena, natural and intellectual, including religion and ideologies), artifacts (tools, pottery, houses, machines, works of art), and the culturally transmitted shills and techniques used to make the artifacts. And using this description as a starting point, Samovar, Porteramp。s speech act and behaviors are all determined by patterns of thinking。 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 munication. Based on their research, this thesis is going to make a detailed parison of Chinese and American patterns of thinking in this chapter, and try to analyze the impacts that they have on intercultural munication. 湖南涉外經(jīng)濟學(xué)院本科生畢業(yè)論文（設(shè)計） 7 Chapter 2 Different Thought Patterns between Chinese and American With longterm 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。 American thinking is predominantly analytic which lays emphasis on reductionism and logic. Analytical Thinking In the western world, Plato is the first man to advocate SubjectObject Dichotomy. Analytical thinking patterns perceives the world by distinguishing subject and object, moral and material, thinking and being, soul and body, meanwhile。s understanding and outlooks of the whole world. Different cultures identify different thinking characteristics, which in turn manipulate people39。 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 one39。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 goodevil, rightwrong, true false, beautiful 一 ugly, work一 entertainment, peacewar, successfailure and causeeffect. (John 1994: 14) A concept is viewed as either A or” not A. The Americans do not deny unity, but they emphasize more on the struggle and transformation of the opposites, namely, the