A Contrastive Study of Time as Space Metaphor in English and Chinese

Time is an abstract concept which is invisible and intangible. The cognitive linguistics holds that the temporal concept is originally projected through the spatial concept. In the spatial temporal metaphor aspect, the traditional cognitions and theories are based on dynamic mode with facing the future: the time moving metaphor and the ego moving metaphor. Such cognition is generalized and not exact enough, unable to explain many English and Chinese temporal metaphors. Therefore, based on this problem, according to the cognition to the spatial position and the different visions of the observer, on the one hand a supplement is made to analyze the identifications and differences in English and Chinese temporal metaphors at the horizontal level with the static spatial-temporal mode in which the observer facing the past; on the other hand at the vertical level the spatial temporal metaphors are expounded with different observation points and the observer’s states.