Cover not available
Part of
Conceptualizations of Time
Edited by Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk
[Human Cognitive Processing 52] 2016
► pp. 187–204

Metaphor and thought

Conceptualization of time in Chinese

The paper focuses on the issues within the paradigm of Contemporary Metaphor Theory, concerning significant differences in the ways time is conceptualized in Chinese and English. Although it is still true that time is understood through space via metaphor, the paper provides evidence that time and space in Chinese present a blended form, rather than what is widely assumed to be conceptualization of one dimension in terms of another one. For instance, the Chinese word for the universe, conventionally referred to by the form entailing both space and time in its Chinese morphology, is now blended into one. Furthermore, the paper will argue that time, as a culturally sensitive entity, is more distinctly conceptualized as water in Chinese.

Keywords: conceptual metaphor, language and culture, language and cognition, time, time and place, time and water
Published online: 14 June 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.52.09su
References
Ahrens, K., & Chu-Ren H
2002 Time Passing is Motion. Language and Linguistics 3(3), 491–519.Google Scholar
Boroditsky, L
2000 Metaphoric structuring: Understanding Time Through Spatial Metaphors. Cognition 75(1), 1–28. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001 Does Language Shape Thought? Mandarin and English Speakers’ Conceptions of Time. Cognitive Psychology 43(1), 1–22. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 How Language Construct Time. In S. Dehaene & E. Brannon (eds.), Space, Time, and Number in the Brain: Searching for the Foundations of Mathematical Thought (pp. 333–341). London: Elsevier. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bowerman, M
1996 The Origins of Children’s Spatial Semantic Categories: Cognitive vs. Linguistic Determinants. In J.J. Gumperz & S.C. Levinson (eds.), Rethinking Linguistic Relativity (pp. 145–176). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bowerman, M., & Choi, S
2003 Space under Construction: Language-specific Spatial Categorization in First Language Acquisition. In D. Gentner & S. Goldin-Meadow (eds.), Language in Mind: Advances in the Study of Language and Thought (pp. 387–427). Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Chan, W
1963 A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Chatterje A
2001 Language and Space: Some Interactions. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 5(2), 55–61(7). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chen, J.-Y
2007 Do Chinese and English Speakers Think About Time Differently? Failure of Replicating Boroditsky (2001). Cognition 104, 427–236. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dong, W
2004 The Chinese Conceptualization of Time Revisited. Contemporary Linguistics 6(2), 110–115.Google Scholar
Fang, Th. H
1957 The Chinese View of Life. Hong Kong: The Union Press.Google Scholar
Gentner, D
2001 Spatial Metaphors in Temporal Reasoning. In M. Gattis (ed.), Spatial Schemas and Abstract Thought (pp. 203–222). Cambridge: Massachusetts University Press.Google Scholar
Gentner, D., & Imai, M
1992 Is the Future Always Ahead? Evidence for System-mappings in Understanding Space-time Metaphors. Proceedings of the 14th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society , 510–515.
Henderson, J.B
2006 Premodern Chinese Notions of Astronomical History and Calendrical Time. In Ch. Huang & J.B. Henderson (eds.), Notions of Time in Chinese Historical Thinking (pp. 97–113). Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press.Google Scholar
Huang, Ch
2006 “Time” and “Supertime” in Chinese Historical Thinking. In Ch. Huang & J.B. Henderson (eds.), Notions of Time in Chinese Historical Thinking (pp. 19–41). Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press.Google Scholar
Huang, Ch., & Zurcher, E
1995 Cultural Notions of Space and Time in China. In Ch. Huang & E. Zurcher (eds.), Time and Space in Chinese Culture (pp. 3–16). Leiden; New York: Brill.Google Scholar
Kant, I
2014/1788 The Critique of Practical Reason. Trans. by Thomas Kingsmill Abbott. Project Gutenberg E-book of Kant’s 1788 book.Google Scholar
Lakoff, G
1990 The Invariance Hypothesis. Cognitive Linguistics, 1 (1). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1993 The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor. In A. Ortony (ed.), Metaphor and Thought, 2nd ed, (pp. 202–251). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Langacker, R.W
2012 Linguistic Manifestations of the Space-time (dis)analogy. In L. Filipovic & K.M. Jaszczolt (eds.), Space and Time in Languages and Cultures: Language, Culture and Cognition (pp. 191–215). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lin, L
1995 The Notions of Time and Position in the Book of Changes and their Development. In Ch. Huang & E. Zurcher (eds.), Time and Space (pp. 89–113). Leiden; New York: Brill.Google Scholar
Liu, S
1990 On the Functional Unity of the Four Dimensions of Thought in the Book of Changes . Journal of Chinese Philosophy 17(3), 359–385. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 On the Formation of a Philosophy of Time and History Through the Yijing . In Ch. Huang & J.B. Henderson (eds.), Notions of Time in Chinese Historical Thinking (pp. 75–94). Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Press.Google Scholar
Lucy, J.A
1997 Linguistic Relativity. Annual Review of Anthropology 26: 291–312. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McGlone, M.S., & Harding, J.L
1998 Back (or Forward?) to the Future: The Role of Perspective in Temporal Language Comprehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 24(5), 1211–1223. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Radden, G
2003 The Metaphor TIME AS SPACE Across Languages. In C.B.N. Baumgarten, M. Motz & J. Probst (eds.), Uebersetzen, Interkulturelle Kommunikation, Spracherwerb und Sprachvermittlung. Das Leben mit mehreren Sprachen Festschrift fuer Juliane House zum 60. Geburtstag. Vol. Zeitschrift fuer Interkulturellen Fremdsprachenunterricht 8 (2/3), 226–239.Google Scholar
Richards, I.A
1936 The Philosophy of Rhetoric. Cambridge: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Shinohara, K
1999 Epistemology of Space and Time: Analysis of Conceptual Metaphors in English and Japanese. Tokyo: Kwansei Gakuin University Press.Google Scholar
Slobin, D
1996 Two Ways to Travel: Verbs of Motion in English and Spanish. In S. Masayoshi & S. Thompson (eds.), Grammatical Constructions: Their Form and Meaning (pp. 195–219). Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Sun, Q
2013 Confucian Educational Philosophy and Its Implications for Lifelong Learning and Lifelong education. In W. Zhang (ed.), Conceptions of Lifelong Learning in Confucian Culture: Their Impact on Adult Learners, (pp. 60–79). Oxford: Routledge.Google Scholar
Tai, J. H-Y
1989 Toward a Cognition-based Functional Grammar of Chinese. In Functionalism and Chinese Grammar, Monograph Series of the Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association 1, 187–226.Google Scholar
Yu, N
1998 The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor: A Perspective from Chinese. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Su, Lily I-wen
2021. Our metaphorical minds. Cognitive Linguistic Studies 8:1 ► pp. 85 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 21 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.