A Cognitive Approach To Temporal Metaphors In English And Chinese

Metaphor is not merely a matter of language, but a mode of thought and an effective cognitive tool for humans to know abstract things in terms of concrete ones. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphoric in nature. Metaphor is a systematic and partial mapping from the source domain to the target domain. Time is one of our fundamental abstract concepts, which is invisible and untouchable and thus it can't be perceived directly. However, it can be perceived and expressed through other concrete terms metaphorically. Using different concepts such as SPACE, ENTITIES and SUBSTANCES, etc. as the source domain to perceive the target domain– TIME, we get different temporal metaphors.According to the different source domains concerned, conceptual metaphors can be divided into three types, i.e. spatial metaphor, ontological metaphor and structural metaphor. In metaphorization of time, these three types of concepts are all used as the source domain. Thus there are corresponding three types of temporal metaphors. Different types of temporal metaphors show our cognization and conceptualization of different aspects of time. The thesis carries out a contrastive study of temporal metaphors in English and Chinese from these three perspectives respectively. Meanwhile the motivations for the similarities and differences between temporal metaphors in English and Chinese are explored. Metaphorical mapping is not arbitrary but rather grounded on our bodily experiences, daily knowledge and also constrained by cultures. Due to the commonalities in bodily experiences, thinking process and some shared encyclopedia knowledge and social experiences, the conceptualization of time in the two languages is universal in some aspects. For example, they both use spatial, ontological and highly-structured concepts to conceptualize time. Temporal metaphor taking SPACE as the source domain is the prototype. Such images as CONTAINER, PERSON and MONEY are used in ontological and structural metaphorization of time. However, because of the differences between cultures, values, traditions, beliefs, living environment and experiences, there exist differences between temporal metaphors in English and Chinese. For example, they have different time orientations in spatial metaphorization of time. The two languages have their own unique temporal metaphors. Using the same temporal metaphor, they may highlight different aspects of time.