A Contrastive Study Of Chinese And English Temporal Expression-Within The Framework Of Motion Event

Time is fundamental to the existence of mankind, which explains why numerous philosophers, psychologists and linguists have been attracted to probe into it from different perspectives for centuries. We human beings live in time and feel the existence and passage of time every moment and hence seem to be very familiar with it. Nevertheless, due to its being abstract, we are at a loss when asked to tell what time exactly is. The abstraction of time renders the understanding of it perfectly impossible without resorting to something concrete. Cognitive linguistics is what human beings need to understand temporal concept for the reason that it holds that our knowledge of the world starts from where is close to us. Therefore, understanding the abstract concepts is based on the concrete concepts, so is time. The abstraction of time prevents human beings, who can only perceive the existence and passage of it through the motion of the objects in space, from being able to see or feel it directly.This dissertation intends to make a contrastive study of temporal expression of Chinese and English by adopting some theories of cognitive linguistics involving the Bounded and Unbounded theory, the Prototype theory, the Figure-Ground theory, the Image Schema theory and the Iconicity theory. This paper will be developed by sticking to one framework and two principles, i.e. the framework of motion event, the trinity of time, space and motion together with the trinity of language, culture and thought. The dissertation aims to investigate the differences and similarities of temporal expression of English and Chinese, the causes leading to them by examining the interface between the four inner elements, which involves Motion, Path, Figure and Ground and temporal expression of Chinese and English.The questions addressed in this paper include:1. Does interface exist between temporal expression and the four inner elements of Talmy’s motion event framework? How do the words and expressions encoding the four elements in Chinese and English refer to time?2. What are the differences and similarities of temporal expression between Chinese and English? What are the cognitive methods and models of time adopted by Chinese and English-speaking people? What is the time view of Chinese people and English-speaking people respectively? Is there relationship among temporal expression, culture and thought? Is there relationship between temporal expression and cognitive method?3. What are the causes leading to the differences and similarities of temporal expression of Chinese and English language?Initiated by the investigation of temporal expression of Chinese and English, this paper adopts combined approaches, including quantitative and qualitative approach, synchronic and diachronic approach and so on to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the study. The data, on which the analysis in the research is based, mainly involve Contemporary Corpus of Center for Chinese Linguistics from PKU (CCL), British National Corpus (BNC), Baidu, A Dream of Red Mansions, New Star, The Analects, The Book of Songs, poetry of the Tang Dynasty and some other Chinese classics, the editorial of China Daily (Chinese version), Jane Eyre, The Sun Also Rises, and so on. This research, which is done within the framework of motion event, aims at discovering the similarities and differences of temporal expression of Chinese and English and then probing into the causes contributing to the similarities and differences by adopting the theories of cognitive linguistics,Major findings of the study are summarized below.1. The similar physiological base and the similar environment these two peoples inhabit in lead to the similarities between Chinese people and English-speaking people in the cognitive method and model of time.;2. Interface exists between Motion of the motion event framework and temporal expression. Motion verbs encoding Motion in both Chinese and English can be used to express time, and more similarities than differences are found in this respect. There is close relationship between time and motion. Some other questions like cognitive method and model of time, time view of Chinese and English-speaking people are also answered through the survey of the interface between Motion and time expression.i.e. The two cognitive models of the Time-Moving model and the Ego-Moving model are found in Chinese and English temporal expression. So far as time view is concerned, the dominant time view of Chinese Han people in ancient China and that of the common people in modern China is circulatory, while in modern China, the time view advocated in social culture is linear time view. Furthermore, the fact that parataxis adopted in Chinese and hypotaxis in English makes difference in temporal expression of Chinese and English. Compared with English, the arrangement of the elements in Chinese sentence structure follows the Temporal Sequence Principle more frequently.3. Interface exists between Path of the motion event framework and time expression. Directional verbs in Chinese and particles including preposition and adverb in English can be used to express time. Compared with the directional verbs encoding Path in Chinese, the grammaticalization of the preposition and adverb encoding Path in English is higher. This research also finds that temporal category corresponds with spacial category..4. Interface exists between Figure-Ground of the motion event framework and temporal expression. Temporal words and temporal event expressions can be used to encode Figure and Ground within the motion event framework, however, both similarities and differences are found when temporal words and temporal event expressions are used to encode Figure and Ground within Talmy’s basic motion event framework and the extended motion event framework, from which cognitive models of Chinese and English-speaking people are found. Though both Chinese and English-speaking people adopt the Time Moving model and the Ego Moving model, comparatively speaking, Chinese people adopt the Time Moving model more, whereas English-speaking people adopt the Ego Moving model more. The study finds that this division is far from adequate, for further division can be made concerning cognitive time model of Chinese and English-speaking people. Actually, so far as the cognitive time model of Chinese people is concerned, it can be further divided into the model of the folk culture and that of the contemporary social political culture. Hence, the time model mainly adopted in the literary works reflecting folk culture is the Time Moving model, while that adopted in the social political text reflecting social political culture is the Ego Moving model, i.e. in the former culture, time words tend to be used to encode Figure, human beings Ground; while in the latter culture, human beings tend to encode Figure, time words Ground. Simultaneously, the study also proves that, at least to a certain extent, Chinese people incline to practice overall thinking, English-speaking people individual thinking.5. Temporal expression corresponds with spacial expression, which reflects the close relationship between space and time.6. The similarities and differences of temporal expression between Chinese and English people are not only attributed to language type, but also to culture and thought. Consequently, interface exists among language, culture and thought.Conclusion drawn from the above findings:Generally speaking, there are more similarities than differences in the understating of time and temporal expression between Chinese and English-speaking people. Nevertheless, due to the differences in the language type, the social culture and thought, the type of civilization and the life style, differences do exist in the cognitive model of time, temporal expression and time view between Chinese and English-speaking people. Time, space and motion are closely intertwined. Interface exists among language, culture and thought. Most importantly, the findings of the study lead to the conclusion that what is adopted in this paper is the effective research model of temporal expression, i.e. the principles which include the trinity of time, space and motion together with the trinity of language, culture and thought; the motion event framework and the theories of cognitive linguistics.Theoretical and pedagogical significance of the findings:The study found the similarities and differences in the temporal expression and the cognitive time model of Chinese and English-speaking people, explaining the reasons accordingly. The findings listed above helps better the understanding of time, which also proves the effectiveness of the research model of time adopted in the study and thus improves the theory of cognitive linguistics. Pedagogically, the study sheds light on second language acquisition, especially English temporal expression acquisition for Chinese students. Furthermore, the study also offers guidance for the translation of English temporal expression into Chinese.