Abstract:

There are some significant differences of the locative word order between Chinese and English, including two-word derivatives, three-word derivatives and four-word derivatives. The reasons include the differences in geography, culture and cognition. Chinese firstly mentions the reference and then the target; however, English firstly mentions the target and then the reference, which also is one kind of different cognition process strategy. We think the basic reason is that Chinese and English speakers face differently. Chinese speakers are facing towards the north while English speakers are facing towards the south. Therefore, it has formed the differences of Chinese and English locative expressions. The differences of the locative word order between Chinese and English show that Chinese and English speakers are facing contrarily.

Key words: north, south, east and west, word order, contrast, difference