Spatial―Temporal Metaphor of“qian/hou”in Chinese and English

【Abstract】Spatial-temporal metaphor is adopted to understand the abstract temporal concept which is the basic domain of human cognition. Lakoff has contributed to the distinction of temporal metaphor， that is， Ego-moving Metaphor and Time-moving Metaphor. Thus， with the data from the Chinese and English languages， this paper puts forward some models concerning temporal metaphors， like Moving Ego Metaphor-Front-Back Model， Ego-centered Moving Time Metaphor-Front-Back Model and Sequence-centered Moving time Metaphor. By comparing the space-time concepts of orientation words front， back in Chinese and English， the similarities and differences of Spatial-temporal metaphors are been found that both of the two languages view time within Ego-moving metaphor and Time-moving metaphor. While， Chinese prefer to view time as a stabled object which sequentially arranged， English prefer to view time as a moving object.

【Key words】space； time； space-time concept

【摘要】时空隐喻是理解时间概念这一人们认知的基本范畴的一种主要方式，Lakoff将其分为自我移动隐喻和时间流动隐喻两个子类。本文在此基础之上并结合英、汉两种语料，根据时间空间化的横向和纵向模式，提出了自我移动隐喻的“前/后”模式、以观察者为中心的时间流动隐喻的“前/后”模式、以事件先后顺序为中心的时间序列喻等模式。由此进一步探讨英汉时空隐喻异同，认为英汉语中都存在自我移动隐喻及时间流动隐喻，但汉语时间认知偏向时间的序列性特征而英语侧重时间流动性。

【关键词】空间 时间 时空概念

1. Introduction

People are aware of time， but unable to make it a clear complete definition. And lots of linguists and philosophers have studied time based on various theories. Lakoff and Johnsen in their book Metaphors We Live By claim that we comprehend the world around us metaphorically base on our experiences and point out that we conceptualize and describe time through the domain of space. Metaphor has been recognized as a useful cognitive approach in explaining one thing through another. Time orientation metaphor is a basic and efficient approach to conceptualize and describe time. Therefore， spatial-temporal metaphors research becomes extremely popular and lots of achievements have been made. Now there are two different cognitive approaches of time in the metaphorical system of space and time. One is Time-moving Metaphor， under which the observer’s position is fixed， outside of time and the time is regarded as an independent moving object that moving from future to past. The other is Ego-moving Metaphor， under which the observer is treated as a traveler traveling from past to future in the long endless river of time.

2. Literature Review

In addition to the often-discussed MOVING TIME and MOVING EGO metaphors， Lakoff and Johnson （1999：140） discuss another “most basic metaphor for time”， the TIME ORIENTATION metaphor. Alverson（1994） claims to have discovered two important differences between English and Chinese. The English ego takes the front-to-the-future orientation while it is the back-to-the-future for the Chinese and that the Chinese ego remains stationary all the time facing toward the past.

In contrast， Yu （1998） concludes that the Chinese data largely fall into the patterns outlined by Lakoff （1993） for English. Yu （2012） reinforced that the metaphorical orientation of time in Chinese is realized by the pair of conceptual metaphors FUTURE IS IN FRONT OF EGO and PAST IS BEHIND EGO， which happens to be the parametric setting held by most of the languages studied. He argued that it is important to make two crucial distinctions with regard to Reference Point （RP） and Referent （R） in temporal reference frames for data analysis. Zhang （2003） divided the time cognition model in Chinese into right-sight approach and left-sight approach. Ye （2012）， opposite to the theory of Zhang’s， argues that in Chinese， time is cognized only under the right-sight approach. The illusion of the existence of left-sight approach is due to the confusion of reference point of ‘前’ and ‘后’ in Chinese.

3. “Front （前）” in Chinese and English

In Chinese， ‘前’ can express three kinds of spatial concepts： the orientation that human or other things facing， position that closing to the top of a sequence line and the moving direction. In English， different words are used to express the three concepts of ‘前’ in Chinese. While in the domain of time， there exist great differences. In Chinese， ‘前’ can stand for time in the future， in the past and a relatively earlier time.

1） 前途 （future）

2） 以前 （ past）

3） 前天 （a relatively earlier time）

In English， orientation words like before， forward， ahead and forth also used to represent both space and time. When mapping into time domain， they can be used to refer to two types of time. First， they can refer to the future and a relatively earlier time.

4） from this time forward， look forward to

5） the day before yesterday

4. “Back （后）” in Chinese and English

For the time metaphors of word “Back （后）” in English and Chinese， great differences can be found. In Chinese， “后” can be used to refer time in the future， such as 我以后再告诉你； a relatively later time， such as 饭后吃药.While in English， words back， after， and behind can be used to refer time in the past or a relatively later time：

6） My school days are far behind me.

7） The train is ten minutes behind time.

5. Ego-RP vs. Time-RP and Time-R and Human-R

5.1 Ego-RP and Time-RP

Lakoff and Johnson （1980：41） note that there is an apparent contradiction in English in the metaphorical conceptualization of time， as illustrated below：

a. In the weeks ahead of us…（future）

b. That’s all behind us now. （past）

c. In the following weeks… （future）

d. In the preceding weeks…（past）

Thus， in （a） and （b）， the future is in front and the past is behind us， but （c） and （d） appear to suggest that the future is behind and the past in front of us. Lakoff and Johnson （1980）， however， point out there is an actually metaphorical coherence here considering that in （c） and （d） times conceptualized as moving objects receive a front-back orientation， with the front being in the direction of motion. In other words， ‘preceding weeks’ takes place earlier in the past， whereas ‘following weeks’ takes place later in the future， both of which are independent of the ego. Thus， the reference point of （a） and （b） is the ego， but that of （a） and （b） is ‘this week’， which happens to be ‘collocated’ with the ego. Indeed， the distinction between Time-RP and Ego-RP can account for the seemingly contradictory data， such as in （a） and （b）.

5.2 Time-R and Human-R

Yu （1998 & 2012） proposed the necessary of distinguishing Time-R from Human-R and claimed that a clear distinction between them can avoid misinterpretation of a set of data. It has not received its due attention till now. Humans live in and through time， which is conceptualized metaphorically in terms of space， as objects， locations and motion in space. All humans can be ‘located’ along the imaginary time-line because humans and events alike ‘take place’ in time. In our conceptual systems， therefore， we place people of various generations or ages in various positions to form a ‘spatial’ sequence， with earlier ones in front of later ones， on a parallel with the sequence of events， along the time-line. This conceptualization is called the ‘human sequence’， in contrast with the ‘event sequence’， both of which are parallel to the ‘time sequence’. It follows that in all three cases， namely， time， event， and human， the front-back spatial relationship is mapped onto the earlier-later temporal relationship Yu （2012）. With the distinction between Time- and Human-R， and between Time-， Human- and Ego-RP， we can distinguish the following four frames of reference： （a） the sequential time frame， （b） the deictic time frame， （c） the sequential human frame， and （d） the deictic human frame.

6. Conclusion

In Chinese， word ‘前’ can refer to time in the future， past and a relatively earlier time. While in English words of the same space concepts as ‘前’ lack the ability to refer time in the past. As for the word ‘后’ in Chinese， it refer to time in the future. But word ‘back’ in English refers to time in the past. The existence of those great differences lies in the adaptation of different reference point in the process of conceptualization of time. In Chinese， people are preferred to take the Time-RP， regard time as a sequentially arranged thing. While in English， people tend to take Ego-RP， treat time as a moving object and themselves running in an opposite direction of time. With a clear distinction between Time- and Human-R， and between Time-， Human- and Ego-RP， the contradiction within either one language and between the two languages can be clearly understand and lots of misinterpretation can be avoided.

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作者简介：肖丽红（1991-），女，汉族，湖南邵阳人，硕士研究生，海南大学外国语学院英语语言文学专业，研究方向：英语语言学。