A Comparative Study Of TIME AS SPACE Metaphor In English And Chinese From The Perspective Of Cognitive Linguistics

Metaphor has been an object of rhetorical device for more than two thousand years. From the cognitive linguistics point of view, metaphor is the basic way and means of human cognition. The cognitive approach to metaphor replaces all the traditional approaches to metaphor, for although they have been able to shed light on various aspects of metaphorical phenomenon, they have all failed to recognize the fundamental conceptual nature of metaphor and the indispensable role metaphor plays in human conceptualization. Following the experiential view, the key to metaphor is to transfer our experience of well-known objects and events to less familiar categories, especially abstract categories like "time". Metaphors are no longer regarded as ornamental devices used in rhetorical style, but powerful tools for our conceptualization of abstract categories.The reason why this thesis focuses on the TIME AS SPACE metaphor is that space has a predominant position in the field of cognitive linguistics. Space is an ontological category. Humans often use the category of space to approach and construct other abstract and complicated category. As time is often held to be the example of a so-called "abstract" concept, it is virtually impossible for us to conceptualize time without metaphor. Most of our understanding of time is a metaphorical version of our understanding of motion in space. As language reflects conceptual structure in important ways, it accordingly represents a crucial window into the human conceptual system. By examining the way in which language lexicalizes time, we will gain important insights into the conceptualization of time, the nature and organization of time, and the similarities and differences between the ways different people develop their concepts via temporal metaphors.This thesis falls into six parts. Chapter one is an introduction which gives an overview of the cognitive study of metaphor and also covers the significance of writing this thesis. Chapter Two sets up the theoretical framework through the cognitive linguistic approach to metaphor. The theoretical framework of metaphor is mainly based on the theory of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. Chapter Three introduces the concepts of time and space and the relationship between them is also briefly outlined. Chapter Four is the most important part of this thesis as in this chapter the comparison of TIME AS SPACE metaphor between English and Chinese is analyzed. The category of time is constructed through the linear model. The linear model provides at least two possibilities. One is that time passing is motion along horizontal axis, the other is that time passing is motion along vertical axis. In Chinese the two possibilities seem to enjoy more or less the same level of popularity, whereas in English, the first possibility, i.e. the horizontal version of the metaphor, appears to be dominant and has been taken for granted as the only possibility by many researchers. Therefore in the first part of this chapter, the horizontal axis will be discussed. Actually, in Chinese time is conceptualized systematically in terms of space just as in English. Specifically, we have found that the two special cases (Case 1: time moving model and Case 2: observer moving model) specified by Lakoff for the metaphor system of time in English are properly applicable in Chinese.In Chinese lexicon, the words for "past" literally mean either "something that has passed by the stationary observer" or "something left behind by the traveling observer". The words for "present" characterize as "right with the observer", especially as "right before the observer's eyes or face." Therefore, the present is the time the observer is "seeing" right before him. This characterization of the present time is suitable to both Case 1 and Case 2. The words for "future" have the literal senses of either "something that has not yet come but will come to the stationary observer", or "something toward which the observer is traveling". It is worth noting that the future is conceptualized as in front of the observer and the past behind the observer, which is evidenced by the verbs collocating with the words of "future" and "past". One always "looks forward or ahead to the future". As for the past, one always has to "turn around" in order to recall or recollect it. Sometimes, in order to "reach" the past, one has to "run after" it so as to "catch up with" it.Lakoff also observes the "duality" phenomenon where simultaneous mappings may mix the two special cases in a single expression. In addition, it is worth noting that in Chinese "qian" can also denote past and "hou" can denote future. In the second part of this chapter the vertical axis will be analyzed. In this axis we also have two special cases. In Chinese the two special cases are consistent with each other, while in English the two special cases present an unharmonious contradiction. Chapter five focuses on the answer to the question: What leads to such great similarity between the two linguistically remote and culturally distinct languages? You can also find the answer to the question why there are also differences existing between these two languages. Chapter Six is the conclusion.Based on the contemporary theory of metaphor, through special study on TIME AS SAPCE metaphor, this thesis is vital for revealing and proving modern metaphor theories. At the end of this thesis, it must be pointed out that in terms of both breadth and depth, this study is still very limited. It is necessary to do further studies to testify the conclusion, and some experiments, questionnaires as well as spoken and written discourses could be designed to provide the concrete data to provide the study with a sound base.