A Cognitive Research On Zuo (Left)/You (Right) Orientation In The Chinese Language

This thesis attempts to make a cognitive research on zuo (left) / you (right) orientation in the Chinese language, especially in the domains of"space"and"non-human natural entities, quantitative approximation, honoring zuo (left) and humiliating you (right) and vice versa". The experiential grounding and working mechanisms behind the understanding and using of zuo (left) / you (right) orientation in the Chinese language will be touched upon to throw light on the universal metaphorical thinking of human beings. Accordingly, the present study will support and develop the cognitive theory of metaphor in the Chinese language.Zuo (left) / you (right) orientation arises from human beings'bodily experience of space."Zuo (left)"and"you (right)"in the Chinese language primarily appear in the oracle bone inscription as the figures of a left hand and a right hand respectively. With the evolution of human cognition and intelligence, the concept of zuo (left) / you (right) orientation expresses not only the concrete concepts but also abstract ones.In Levinson's spatial frames of reference, zuo (left) / you (right) orientation is the relative frame of reference. The elementary reference framework of zuo (left) / you (right) orientation is the spatial reference frame, which is quite simple, explicit and convenient, and is one of the starting points for further experience.Human thinking is metaphorical in essence as well as the understanding of the concept of zuo (left) / you (right) orientation in the Chinese language. In addition, the study of spatial metaphor is important in metaphor research. Many other physical and mental entities are endowed with zuo (left) / you (right) orientation in order to get a better interpretation. Furthermore, such spatial sense of zuo (left) / you (right) orientation in the Chinese language is projected onto the domains of non-human natural entities, quantitative approximation, honoring zuo (left) and humiliating you (right) and vice versa, in which the spatial implications of its abstract features will be given a relatively comprehensive analysis.This thesis studies the conceptualizing process of zuo (left) / you (right) orientation in the Chinese language in the domains of"non-human natural entities","quantitative approximation, honoring zuo (left) and humiliating you (right) and vice versa."The aims are to discover metaphorical paths of the two concepts of zuo (left) and you (right) orientations in the Chinese language. The structural capability of non-spatial concepts through spatial metaphor is another research in the thesis. The conclusion of the study is, most abstract concepts are expressed and understood by spatial metaphor. Spatial metaphor is a kind of schematic metaphor, among which spatial concepts of the source domain are mapped onto the abstract target domain. In this process, spatial image schemas and inner logic are reserved.The study of this thesis shows that zuo (left) / you (right) orientation in the Chinese language is embodied and metaphorical; in the process of conceptulization of zuo (left) / you (right) orientation, metaphor plays an indelible role.