The Analytical Study Of Representation Forms Of Spatial Metaphors Of Time In English And Chinese In Linguistic World View

Language activity is the unit of linguistic world view (LWV). Each language has recorded its own unique world view and cognitive model. The Linguistic World View theory refers to Linguistics research, in which it regards "human factor" as its core substance and deals with interactive relationships among languages, thinking/cognition and reality. That is the cognitive summation of simple concepts or ideas of external world which is perceived by cognitive subject:human. Such summation bases on humans’own perception, experience. It considers language with national cultural characteristics as intermediary.Our social activities are accomplished in certain space-time. Because of time’s unique feature, we are not equipped with organs to see or touch it. Thus, we demand other semantic categories to represent or project to temporal concept. The spatial metaphor of time comes into being when we project the spatial category to temporal category. Although Chinese and English act in different ways to express temporal concept, they share the same metaphor:"the time is the space". Human constructed temporal vocabulary constantly through the social activity, meanwhile, they constructed simple world view.Guided by linguistic World View Theory and Metaphor Theory, this thesis explores a comparative study to try to attribute the spatial metaphor of time to several representation forms according to features of these two languages. At the same time, it analyses the spatial metaphor of time mechanism emphatically so that we can take a look at depth of operational model of whole time mechanism. In addition, we can see rich linguistic world view and cross-cultural universality and individuality of the spatial metaphor of time in Chinese and English. In some degree, it proves that language is a tool of human’s thinking. Meanwhile, the spatial metaphor of time is one kind of personification category with human-centered values. And then we are able to know every nation’s psychology, personality, cognition and culture.