Chinese Spatial Metaphors And Its Expression Forms In English

The early study to spatial concept focused on how to code the different spatial relations. With the development of cognitive linguistics, people take it seriously that the function of spatial concept is very important in constructing and understanding the human experiences. Because of the differences of culture and experience, the cognitive styles are not always same with one another. The contrast research of spatial metaphors between Chinese and English is helpful to reveal the general character of the language and the similarities and differences of the cognitive styles, it is helpful to teach words for the students of learning the second language, it is also helpful to translate.In Chinese, spatial terms "上-下" ( up-down etc.), "前-后" ( front-back etc.), "左-右" (left-right) vary with the observer's visual angle, and "上-下" ( up-down etc.) is vertical, "前-后" ( front-back etc.) is horizontal while facing squarely, "左-右" (left-right) is horizontal crossing with " 前-后 " ( front-back etc.). On the other hand, "内(里)-外" ( in-out etc. ) doesn't vary with the observer's angle. However, in English, some prepositions and adverbs are in charge of the expression of space. It usually depends on people's cognition to choose which word.lt is well thought in cognitive linguistics that spatial metaphors are very important to understand human's concept because it structures our abstract experiences ~[1]This paper is about the contrast of "上-下" ( up-down etc.) , "前-后" ( front-back etc.), "左-右" (left-right), "内(里)-外" (in-out etc) between Chinese and English. Through the analysis of words and sentences, it tries to discuss the regularities of the metaphors.