Commonality and Individuality of Spatio-Temporal Metaphorical Representations in Chinese and English

Ample studies at home and abroad have shown that the understanding and mental representation of time by native speakers of English and Chinese are accomplished through the mapping of spatial concepts. This metaphorical model of “TIME IS SPACE” is characterised by two types of metaphors: “time-moving” metaphor and “ego-moving metaphor”. Based on the theoretical and empirical studies on spatio-temporal metaphors made previously, we find that in terms of orientation, English native speakers tend to face the future and turn their backs to the past; Chinese native speakers face the past more frequently than they would face the future. Direction-wise, both English and Chinese native speakers tend to conceptualise time on a horizontal plane but whereas Chinese native speakers also possess the ability to talk and think about time vertically. The commonality and individuality of spatio-temporal metaphors used by native speakers of English and Chinese are grounded in both intra-linguistic factors (eg. idioms) and extra-linguistic elements (eg. physical structure).