A Comparative Study Of TIME AS SPACE Metaphor In English And Chinese

"We conceptualize the world using metaphor, so commonly, automatically, and unconsciously that we're not aware of it. As a result, we think metaphorically a large part of the time, and act in our everyday lives on the basis of the metaphors through which we understand the world" (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). Consequently,conceptual metaphor has attracted the attention of scholars interested in language.The contemporary theory of metaphor claims that abstract concepts are at least in part understood and expressed metaphorically in spatial terms. It has already been noted in various languages that the abstract notion of time is understood and expressed in terms of space (e.g. Clark 1973, Traugott 1978, Malotki 1983, Lakoff 1990, 1993, 1994, Alverson 1994). It is proposed that the metaphorical understanding of time in terms of space is a universal cognitive process (Alverson 1994). However, most study on this phenomenon has been done in English, while research on it in China seems to be insufficient. Therefore, on the basis of the contemporary theory of metaphor this paper attempts to make a comparative study of TIME AS SPACE metaphor in English and Chinese in order to make some contribution to the universal status of this cognitive phenomenon, and thus give a support to the contemporary theory of metaphor from Chinese perspective.In addition to an introduction and a conclusion, this paper covers three chapters. Chapter One discusses the theoretical background of this paper, which involves the contemporary view on metaphor and the relationship between conceptual metaphor and the concepts of space and time. Traditionally, metaphor is viewed as a matter of language, while contemporary theory views metaphor as a matter of thought. This contemporary view is evidenced from three aspects: the nature of metaphor, its working mechanism, and its main feature. In terms of its nature, metaphor is fundamentally conceptual. The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another." (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980:5). In terms of the working mechanism, metaphors are mappings across conceptual domains from a source domain (usually a concrete one) to a target domain (usually an abstract one). Metaphorical mappings are not created without any basis, but grounded in Image Schemas (such as CONTAINER, PATH, FRONT-BACK, UP-DOWN, etc.), which are in turn grounded in the body, environment, and everyday experience and knowledge. On this image-schematic basis, metaphorical mappings are not arbitrary, but obey certain principles: the Invariance Principle and Target Domain Overrides. The nonarbitrary mappings result in the main property of conceptual metaphor: systematicity. On the basis of the contemporary view on metaphor, the relationship between conceptual metaphor and the concepts of space and time is explored. Space and time are concepts very tightly interwoven with each other. It has been noted that the impact of spatial orientation on human thought and, in particular, (Miller & Johnson-Laird 1976, Lyons 1977) our understanding of time. It seems that the TIME AS SPACE metaphor has a universal status. Chapter Two attempts to make a comparative study of the TIME AS SPACE metaphor in English and Chinese, two linguistically remote and culturally distinct languages, to see in what way they are similar to and different from each other in the conceptualization of time in terms of space, thus to make a humble contribution to the universal status of this metaphor, and thus, to give a support to the contemporary theory of metaphor from Chinese perspective. In general, time is conceptualized as things in motion, which leads to the general metaphor TIME PASSING IS MOTION. This general metaphor may be exemplified on two axes: horizontal and vertical. On the predominant horizontal axis, Lakoff and Johnson (1999) uses locative terms of Front-Back to represent how we view time and space. Lakoff outlined two special cases in English: Case 1 Time-Moving metaphor and Case 2 Ego-Moving metaphor. Bes...