A Comparative Study On Spatial Metaphor In English And Chinese

All of our actions take place in space, so the most basic domain in cognitive domains is the space domain. Spatial metaphor will take its shape when spatial relations are mapped onto non-spatial concepts. This thesis aims to compare spatial metaphor between English and Chinese within the framework of cognitive linguistics to reveal the similarities and the differences in cognitive style and it is also helpful for second language teaching and translation. "Time and space are the most basic concepts. Space can define itself; however, time must be defined with the help of spatial metaphor. Spatial metaphor is completely reflected in temporal concepts, so this thesis mainly focuses on the comparative study of spatial metaphor in expressing temporal concept. The study shows that there are many differences between the two languages, such as, shang and xia in Chinese can be used to describe the past and the future, while both "up" and "down" can be used to express the future time; qian in Chinese mean both the past and the future, according to different perspectives; sometimes there will be ambiguity when qian and hou are used to express temporal concept; body-part nouns in Chinese can be used to describe time, however the body-part nouns in English can only be used to express space, etc.Shang/xia (up/down), qian/hou (front/back) and zuolyou (left/right) are three pairs of basic categories in indicating space, so this thesis also presents a comparative study of the three pairs between English and Chinese synchronically to discuss the regulation in metaphorical extension. Most of the spatial meanings of the three pairs are the same, however, "up" and "down" have not the meaning as contact "up" and contact "down", and ambiguity will be produced when qian and hou are used to...