A Cognitive Analysis Of Time Metaphor

Metaphor is not only a rhetoric device but a way for thinking and cognition. "It (metaphor) is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language, but also in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. " (Lakoff & Johnson1980:3) Time is abstract and intangible concept, so we must comprehend it by the projection or mapping of concepts from relatively familiar and concrete domains onto it.The present thesis attempts to further cross-cultural studies in cognitive linguistics by giving a comparison of temporal metaphor in English and Chinese. On one hand, it is found that in both English and Chinese, (a) there are three universal models for time, namely, the Moving time model, the Moving ego model and the Time-RP model, and (b) future times are in front of the observer, and past times are behind the observer. On the other hand, there are also differences of temporal metaphors in these two languages. On the horizontal axis, the "front" refers to the "future" and the "back" the past in English; while in Chinese, "前", besides denoting the "future", sometimes refers to the "past", and "后", besides denoting the "past", sometimes refers to the "future", as in the examples like "前天", "后天". On the vertical axis, "up" refers to "past" or "future", and "down" refers to "future" or "past" in English; while in Chinese, "±" refers to "past", and "T" refers to "future". Cognitive linguistics believes that these similarities and differences can be explained by cognitive universality and cultural relativity.The present thesis is an attempt to make a relatively complete and detailed study on temporal metaphors between English and Chinese, from the cognitive perspective instead of the traditional view of metaphor, which reinforces and develops some theories of the contemporary metaphor. This study sheds new light on understanding the relation between metaphor and culture, as well as metaphor and thought, which will be significant for understanding the process of human cognition.