The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor: A Perspective from Chinese (Human Cognitive Processing)

The primary objective of this volume is to contribute to the contemporary theory of metaphor from the viewpoint of Chinese, so as to help place the theory into a wider cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective. It explores two major questions faced by the contemporary theory: if abstract reasoning is at least partially metaphorical in nature; and what conceptual metaphors are universal, widespread or culture-specific. The book focuses on metaphors of emotion, the "time as space" metaphor and the Event Structure Metaphor. It studies how Chinese is similar to and different from English with regard to these metaphor systems and image schema involved, and what reasons (cognitive or cultural) can account for the similarities and differences between these two languages. The empirial studies presented in this monograph seek to reinforce the view that metaphor is the main mechanism through which abstract concepts are comprehended and abstract reasoning is performed. It argues that certain conceptual metaphors are grounded in some basic human experiences that may be universal to all human beings.