英汉远近称指示词心理距离指示对比研究

Mental Referent of English and Chinese Distance Demonstratives: A Contrastive Analysis

英汉远近称指示词用法的主要区别在于心理距离指示方面,文章运用认知语言学理论,探讨了心理距离形成的认知根源,起点——路径——终点意象图式是空间距离、时间距离和篇章话语距离形成的共同认知基础,当观察起点从现在某点向过去或未来某点迁移时便形成心理距离。汉语远近称指示词在指称心理距离方面使用范围较广,频率较高,这是由于英语受到严格的形式限制,而汉语无形式束缚所造成的。

The major distinction between English and Chinese distance demonstratives is mainly found in the aspect of mentality. This paper, after exploring the cognitive origin of mental distance from the perspective of cognitive linguistic theory, comes to the conclusion that Source-Path-Goal Schema is the general cognitive foundation on which the concepts of spatial, temporal and discourse distance are based. It is believed that mental distance comes into being when the position of the observer shifts from the present to the past or the future. The reason why Chinese distance demonstratives are used in terms of mental distance more widely and frequently than those of English is that English is always bound by rigid rules of hypotaxis while the opposite is true in Chinese.