The coming year of the 羊(Yang) seemed to have excited among the press a slight interest over the actual identity of the very “holy mascot” which is supposed to represent the entire coming year. Do the Chinese refer to a sheep, a goat or a ram when they talk about 羊(Yang)? To wit, here are some articles written on this topic (Author’s Note: Lost the links in a migration) :
Chinese New Year 2015: Is it the year of the ram, sheep or goat?
Happy lunar new year! But is it the year of the sheep or something else? (The year of the “Ovicaprid”, gosh.)
Lunar New Year celebrations to welcome year of ‘any ruminant horned animal’ (ruminant horned animal… well, can’t wait for the year of the Ox to come around.)
Or for those who preferred a Chinese vantage point:
外媒：你们中国人过的羊年究竟是哪种羊啊
While I thoroughly enjoy and support this kind of cultural exchange over harmless trivia, I believe that this phenomenon of what seemed on the surface like a simple translation issue, deserves to be considered further, as it can and should reveal to any careful reader a profound difference in thinking between the Chinese civilization (and those traditionally affected by it) and the western one as represented by the English speaking world.
Language is mind. Therefore, a difference in language reveals a fundamental difference in the way one thinks, and many of these differences are subconscious.
In this case, it boils down to how the two cultures treat different entities with overt similarities. Essentially, sheep and goats are different animals, albeit closely related. (I am taking Ram out of the discussion because a ram is basically an uncastrated male sheep, although common image associated with ram has led the Chinese press I quoted above to associate it with a bighorn sheep, which can be another interesting topic on its own)
While both belonged to the subfamily of Caprinae, they have very different characteristics.
Now let me describe how these two languages treat these two animals. And for those of us who are blessedly effectively bilingual (you are effectively bilingual when you can give an impromptu speech in either language), either activate your imagination or recall those days when you were blissfully unaware of the intricacies of other languages.
For a child raised in an English environment with English as its first language, sheep and goats are two different animals. That they look somewhat alike is purely incidental. Such a person will instinctively look for differences between these two animals first, and relationships between these two animals are likely to be established only after more commonalities are found.
On the contrary, a child raised in a Chinese environment with Chinese as its first language, will most likely learn about an animal called 羊(Yang), regardless of what it is actually referring to. Sometime later in his life, he’ll realize that there are different types of Yang, such as the 绵羊 (Woolly Yang), or 山羊 (Mountain Yang), or 羚羊 (gazelle or antelope). These different Yangs may have different characteristic, but as far as a Chinese speaker is concerned, they are all one type of animals. In fact, many Chinese speakers will not be aware that these three are different animals in one subfamily. They instinctively look for the commonalities, and most saved the biologists or herders will live with the blissful illusion that Yang is an actual animal instead of an approximation of a physical appearance.
So what are the implications of this observation? Before I share my thoughts, please be aware that since I am following inductive reasoning, my conclusions are necessarily probable, instead of certain. Read them as conclusive at the risk of your own learning.
The first implication I concluded from this observation, is that English speakers are generally more aware of differences, and can thus be better at classifying things based on differences in the details. It might or might not be related to the fact that the scientific revolution began in England, but I tend to think it is not a mere coincidence. To many English speakers, differences among objects are instinctive, whereas for Chinese speakers, they must be learned. The reverse is also true: for English speakers, commonalities among objects must be established and if necessary, proven, whereas for Chinese speakers, they are instinctive. Which brings me to my second conclusion:
English, as far as lexical efficiency goes, is highly inefficient, because English speakers tend to go overboard with giving a different lexicon for every noticeable difference. A Chinese native speaker will be shocked to learn that not only sheep and goats are different, a ram (male sheep) is also different from an ewe (female sheep), just as a buck (male goat) is also different from a doe (female goat). There are six lexicons involved. In Chinese, only five are involved: 公、母、羊、绵、山。You may think one lexicon is not much of a difference, but number isn’t the only difference. In English, the relation among these lexicons are not immediately obvious: a person who first encounter the word “ram” will not associate it with sheep or buck, although these words are related. Also, in English, these words are rarely reused outside of their specific context. Whereas in Chinese, a ram is a 公绵羊(male woolly Yang), and an ewe is a 母绵羊 (female woolly Yang). Not only is the relationship and logic behind the word immediately apparent, the lexicons are reused frequently elsewhere too, especially lexicons like 公 (male) or 母 (female). Not convinced? For the English speakers, I challenge you to tell me what is a “wether” without resorting to a dictionary or the internet. For those of you who also knew Chinese, the Chinese word would be telling: 阉羊. And literally translated, it is the very explanation of “wether”: a castrated Yang.
What a minute. Which Yang? A goat or a sheep? Well, a wether refer to a castrated ram or buck. And here is the third observations I want to make. Due to its nature to seek generalization, it is easier for the Chinese to create “collapsed concept”. As in, “a male sheep or goat” will simply be 公羊 (Male Yang) in Chinese. “Mutton”, which in an English dictionary would be a mouthful “meat of a sheep or goat”, will simply be 羊肉 (Yang meat), in which the lexicon 肉 (meat) is reused in the Chinese words for beef, pork and poultry, unlike mutton. And you’ll never find an entry for 羊肉 in a Chinese dictionary, because the term is self-explanatory. While on the topic of meat, to add to the English confusion, the meat of a young goat is sometimes referred to as “kid”, same as the live animal. You’ll never have such confusion in Chinese.
These observations led to a conclusion I’ve long held: It is easier for a Chinese to learn about the world through literature than an English speaker, and it is thus more useful to learn Chinese. Imagine you are someone who have only seen sheep in your life and learned its respective word (“sheep” or “羊”). One day, you read on some article about this new animal called the goat, or “山羊”. If you are an English speaker, it is impossible for you to establish any idea of the new animal without somehow coming across its picture or its definition. For a Chinese reader, you can immediately established two things: one, it looks similar to a sheep, and that it is somehow related to a mountain. These, you establish as you read. This is especially important for casual readers who aren’t likely to break away from their reading to check references. It’s not all good for the Chinese readers though. While easier to associate new concepts with existing ones, the Chinese reader is also in a higher risk of establishing a wrong association, thereby having a wrong impression of the new concepts, which can take a lot of effort to correct.
The last thing I want to say in this article, is that this is not one of those “Which is better, English or Chinese” article. Having used both languages over a long period of time, I’ve come to appreciate the idiosyncrasies and beauty of these two languages. The observations I’ve made above, are simply one aspect of language, which I hope to bring to the attention of more people. Chinese has its moment of confusion as well. For example, 阉羊(a wether), pronounced Yan Yang, sounds exactly the same as 腌羊, which means preserved mutton (although in Chinese preserved mutton always comes with 肉 as in meat). No chance you’ll get that confusion in English.
Finally, I wish all who read this article a happy year of the Young (And this is my personal preferred translation of Yang, although it has got nothing to do with sheep/goat/ram/ovicaprid/horned ruminant animal) ahead.