Paper Keywords: English-Chinese Cognitive Time Metaphor Abstract: As an abstract time, cognitive science and scholars' research show that metaphor is the most effective way for people to understand and express abstract concepts. The use of metaphor shows its universality in human language and cognition. At the same time, the concept of metaphor is also influenced by national culture and other factors, so there are certain cultural differences. ?

Metaphor is a very important concept in cognitive linguistics, which refers to the reflection or projection of familiar, concrete and tangible semantic domain concepts on abstract and intangible concepts. It is not only a rhetorical device in language, it actually expresses the interaction between two concepts that are not similar or in different fields, and it exists in people's extensive cognitive system. Leikauf and Johnson (1980, 1999) emphasized that conceptual systems in people's minds are mostly composed of metaphorical relationships. The conceptual metaphor of time is a metaphor to express time. Because time is very abstract, people have to use some familiar, concrete and tangible concepts instead of expression when they know and express time, that is, to express time with the help of a related concept and expression in another semantic category, such as? Time is money? 、? Time flies? Wait a minute. Of course, if cultures are different, then the conceptual metaphor of time is also different; Even though the conceptual metaphor of time is the same, the corresponding language expressions are different. English and Chinese cultures? Time is an entity? 、? Time is space? The conceptual metaphor of ",",but the corresponding language expressions are not exactly the same. Leikauf and Johnson's research shows that? The essence of metaphor is to use one thing or experience to understand and experience another. ? The most basic function of metaphor is to express things and thoughts that cannot be expressed. Metaphors listed by Leikauf in Metaphors People Live by can be roughly divided into three categories: orientation metaphor, ontological metaphor and structural metaphor. What is its basic form of structure? A is b? A is the object to be described, that is, the goal; B is an object used to describe the object, which is the source of metaphor. Conceptual metaphor projects the structural framework of the source domain onto the target domain, which is based on image schema.

1. Similarities between English and Chinese time conceptual metaphors

Because of the similarity in the formation of human concepts, many languages have similar metaphorical expressions, and many time metaphors in English and Chinese are common to both cultures, which reflects the same cognitive style. (Wang Shaohua, 2006) There are three conceptual metaphors of time: time is money, time is entity and time is space.

(a) Time is a structural metaphor of money.

Structural metaphor refers to the construction of another concept with the structure of one concept, so that the two concepts are superimposed and the other concept is discussed with words that talk about all aspects of one concept. Usually, concrete or familiar concepts in the source domain are used to compare abstract or unfamiliar concepts in the target domain. The objective things expressed by the two concepts are different, but the cognitive structure remains unchanged, and their respective components have the same corresponding relationship. Comparing time to money or something of value is also a common structural metaphor. Labor is a way for people to create value. Taking labor time as a measure of value, time becomes something of value, especially after goods, time and money have a closer relationship. Example 1: Time is money; Example 2: an inch of time and an inch of gold can't buy an inch of time; Example 3: Time is precious. Save time, plan time well, waste time, spend time and run out of time. In Chinese, such as 1 and in Chinese, such as Example 2, time is directly compared to money, and the other two languages treat money and time the same. Money? This metaphorical concept to build? Time? This goal concept. All the words about money can be used to talk about time, which is considered as precious as money. Like money, time can also be spent, wasted, saved and planned.

L 1: How did you spend these days?

Han: It took him two days to finish his homework.

Both languages compare time to money, which illustrates the essence of human thinking from another side. That is, it is no accident that time is money in English and Chinese.

(2) Time is an ontological metaphor.

People's initial existence is material, and people's experience of objects expresses abstract concepts for us. Entity? It provides a material basis for another metaphorical entity metaphor (Shu, 2000). In this kind of metaphorical concepts, people regard abstract and vague intangible concepts such as thoughts, feelings, psychological activities, events and states as concrete and tangible entities, so they can be discussed and quantified, and their characteristics and reasons can be identified. Just as the basic experience of human spatial orientation leads to orientation metaphor, related objects provide reference for various ontological metaphors. The time is the same, like? Time played a joke on him? This sentence compares time to a person; ? Time seems to stand still? This sentence regards time as a moving entity. There are so many metaphors in language that we don't realize that they are metaphors. The most typical and representative entity metaphor is container metaphor. Man is an entity independent of the world around him. Everyone is a container, with a body interface, an inside and an outside, and so on. People project this concept on other objects outside the human body, such as houses, jungles, fields and regions, and even regard some intangible and abstract events, behaviors, activities and states as containers. Although time is invisible, intangible and endless, people imagine time as an entity with boundaries. We can see that relative time has boundaries and can be measured. For example, in the middle of the night, three hours away, today, a week (in), a year.

1, in the middle of the night, the bell in the temple kept ringing.

In the past two years, the school has been preparing for a new round of undergraduate evaluation.

3. The world exists in space and time.

He ran a mile in record time.

(3) Time is an orientation metaphor.

Orientation metaphor is a metaphorical concept based on spatial orientation. Space defense comes from the interaction between man and nature, and it is the most basic concept on which man lives: up and down, front and back, depth, middle edge and so on. The concept of orientation is relatively early and can be directly understood by people. On this basis, people project other abstract concepts, such as mood, physical condition, quantity, status and so on. On these specific concepts of orientation, an abstract expression is formed by words expressing orientation, which is used to express time, such as:

Yesterday afternoon, there was a public performance in Tiananmen Square.

Two days later, I received the admission notice from Guangxi University.

Time is up.

Michael Jackson is a little earlier than my time.

Just like Grunberg, Caesar &; Mcglon said:? A universal feature of human language, even a universal feature of human thinking, is the systematic use of space concepts and vocabulary to refer to the concept of time. ? We have found such examples in both English and Chinese, and there are more such expressions in our lives.

Second, the differences between English and Chinese time conceptual metaphors.

Time metaphor refers to the metaphor that projects the non-time conceptual structure onto the time conceptual structure. Time is invisible and intangible, and human beings have no organs that can perceive time, so time must be expressed by other specific concepts, and understood metaphorically by concepts such as things, movement and direction, which is the physiological basis for the formation of time metaphor. Understanding different sources of time has different ways of time metaphor. English and Chinese are similar in this respect, just like the three metaphorical models mentioned above. At the same time, although the metaphor patterns are similar, the differences in culture, values and experiences lead to many different expressions of time metaphors, such as time metaphors in Chinese. Arrow? , is it? How time flies. Say and compare the time? Bird? , is it? How time flies. 、? Bird of time? Statement. For example, according to the observation of clouds in natural cycles, such as the alternation of day and night, the cycle of months and seasons, the birth and death of human beings, the growth cycle, and the changes of work and rest, the orientals summed up the concept of self-regression of time (time is a circle that keeps moving), and the corresponding human activities and ways of thinking, personality and communication behavior (strategy, mode and style). On the other hand, westerners believe that time has a starting point, and it must have an end point, either from the God who created everything or from Genesis. In this way, time is a straight line, constantly moving in one direction: time is advancing, passing away and flying? How time flies. ; ? My life journey? ; ? Time has just ended its process? . This concept of time is obviously far from the concept of time in oriental culture, which naturally shapes people's way of life, way of thinking, national character and communication behavior (Jia Yuxin, 1997).

Three. Concluding remarks

The above examples prove to some extent that metaphor is a basic cognitive phenomenon of human beings, which is different due to the differences of human language, thinking and culture. There are similar expressions about time in Chinese and English, which shows that metaphor is universal as a basic cognitive activity of human beings. The difference is that the cognitive activities of different nationalities are based on their cultures and different ways of thinking, so the understanding of metaphor depends on their own cultural background.

(Author: College of Foreign Languages, Guangxi University)

refer to

Zhao Yanfang 1. Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics [M]. Shanghai Publishing House, 2000.

2. Jia Yuxin. Cross-cultural communication [M]. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 1997.

3. Guan Shijie. Cross-cultural communication improves foreign communication ability [M]. Peking University Publishing House, 1995.

4. Zhuang enping. Oriental differences and foreign exchanges [M]. East China University of Science and Technology Press, 1998.

5. Johnson M. Body in the mind: the physical basis of meaning, imagination and rationality [M]. University of Chicago Press, 1957.

6, Leikauf & Johnson metaphor we live by [M]. University of Chicago Press, 1980.

7. Shu Fang Ding. Metaphor research [M]. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2000.

8. Wang Shaohua. On the duality of metaphor from the perspective of time metaphor [J]. Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 2006(2).

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