A Cognitive Study Of Temporal Expressions In English And Chinese Based On Temporal Frames Of Reference

The thesis constructs Temporal Frames of Reference as the theoretical basis.By applying qualitative method, it takes Modern Chinese Dictionary, OxfordAdvanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary，the website of Center forChinese Linguistic Peking University and the website of Corpus of ContemporaryAmerican English as the data sources. Finally, through the analysis of thecognitive mechanisms of time, the thesis summarizes similarities and differencesbetween English and Chinese temporal expressions.The thesis takes Levinson’s spatial frames of reference as the foundation,through metaphorical mapping, constructing Temporal Frames of Reference:Relative Frame of Reference, Intrinsic Frame of Reference and Absolute Frame ofReference. Temporal Relative Frame of Reference has the observer as thereference point. According to different perspectives of the observer, there are twosituations:(1) the observer faces the past, so the past is in the front of theobserver and the future is at the back;(2) the observer faces the future, so the pastis at the back of the observer and the future is in the front. Temporal IntrinsicFrame of Reference takes a temporal event as the reference point. The event thathappens earlier than the reference point is marked in the front and the one laterthan the reference point is marked at the back. Temporal Absolute Frame ofReference takes an absolutely fixed temporal event or the earth rotation andrevolution as the reference point. From the application of Temporal Frames ofReference, the thesis analyzes the following English and Chinese temporalexpressions in detail:(1) the temporal expressions involving the concep ts ofBEFORE/AFTER in English and C hinese;(2) English tenses and aspects;(3) Chinese aspect markers LE, GUO, ZHE, and ZAI;(4) adverbial clause of timein English;(4) the cognitive motivation of calendar; and (5) the causes of Chinesecharacters with the component RI.Through the research it is noticeable that three Temporal Frames of Referencegenerally exist in English and Chinese temporal expressions. To be more specific,lexical temporal expressions in English and Chinese share something in common.However, in grammatical temporal expressions, the tenses in English do notappear in Chinese. Tenses do not only reflect the temporal sequence of past,present and future, but also show the cognition of the known reality, theimmediate reality and the impossible reality. Aspects exist in both English andChinese. The essence of aspects is the length of an action’s process. And aspectsdescribes in a process, which state or stage the action is in. English aspects cannotbe separated from tenses; tenses and aspects consist of a two-level organization ofa sentence. The perfective aspect in English usually has a current relevance.However, Chinese aspects are used alone. The perfective marker LE emphasizeson the state of perfectivity, but another perfective ma rker GUO concentrates onexperience in the past time. Generally speaking, analyzing the cognitivemotivations of English and Chinese temporal expressions based on TemporalFrames of Reference, the thesis discusses similarities and differences betweenEnglish and Chinese temporal expressions, helping to better understand thetemporal concepts and having applied value. The thesis broadens the newthoughts of temporal cognition.