The Contrast Between "up" And "Down" In Expressing Tendencies In Chinese And English

It is no surprise that we notice some fitting correspondence between the expression of exact upward and downward in English and Chinese because of the commonality in human cognition of spatial movement. However, there are many incongruous places when we focus on the perspective of observation and structure of language, and it is more clear as we burrow deeper into the field of abstraction.The tendency of"up and down"in English was usually expressed by using verbal phrases.. This type of verbal phrases in general indicate following meanings: a) the upward or downward tendency of a movement; b) the static existence of an object in relatively higher or lower place; c) a variety of abstract meanings deduced from, as above, moving tendency and static existenceThe counterpart usages of phrases and formats in Chinese that we are going to compare are"上","下","起";"上来","下去","下来","下去".In previous researches and studies,the metaphor meanings representing upward and downward tendency are put into five classes by such viarables as time, condition, quantity, social status, and horizontal movement. Benefited by studies already done, this text tries to outline a more detailed and specific meaning grid of metaphores,for meanings such as starting, ending, adding, adhereing, dismantaling, continuing and arriving.Then the internal relations between these meaning entities are analysed and their evolving pathes are constructed, and also classified in the process. The part about deducing meaning differs much in Chinese and English, especially in cases concerning certain meaning expression, where one language is lacking what the other language is having, and vice versa. This text, through the efforts of making comparisions with language phenomena while seaking common ground, tries to reveal the perspectives regarding sptial cognition for both groups of speakers.The cognition of spatial movement is an important part of cognitive linguistics. The expressions deduced from spatial movement are more than usual difficult points in second language teaching, no matter English as the second language or Chinese as the second language. So this article tries to serve both as a provider of lively materials for cognitive linguistics and as a reference for English teaching or teaching Chinese as a foreign language, thus hopefully will have some theoretical and applicable value.