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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
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