A Cognitive Contrastive Study On Spatial Metaphor In English And Chinese

During the past 2,000 years, much attention has been given to the study of metaphor by language scholars. But, traditionally, metaphor was viewed simply as a figure of speech in language use. With the increasing advance of cognitive linguistics, people begin to reconsider the multi-dimensional functions and effects of metaphor. What is more, metaphor plays a central role in the new-rising cognitive linguistics. The structure, mechanism, functions and cognitive features of metaphor have become heated topics in linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, pedagogy, among which the cognitive function of metaphor is acknowledged universally as a new force suddenly coming on the scene. Cognitivists hold that metaphor is more than a figure of speech, and is a mode of thought, by which human beings recognize and understand abstract things. There is a close relationship between metaphor and human beings' thought as well as their culture. Spatial metaphor is utilized to understand abstract concepts by using spatial relations, so the close relationship between human beings and space results in the important role of spatial metaphor in the development of human beings' cognition. On the basis of the previous studies of metaphor, the present thesis tries to identify and analyze the differences and generalities between English and Chinese cultures and aims at making a contrastive study on spatial metaphors from a cognitive point of view.