汉、英本族语者的时间思维方式:语言-思维关系研究的新进展

Representations of Time by Chinese and English Speakers: New Trends in the Study of Language-Thought Relationship

汉、英本族语者的时间思维方式是21世纪以来西方心理语言学领域的热点课题,反映了语言-思维关系这一重大科学问题研究的最新进展。本文系统梳理了相关实证研究,重点从理论取向和实验方法两个层面对其存在的争议和不足进行评析。鉴于以往研究都是以语言相对论为理论基础展开的,且该理论不足以解释汉、英本族语者时间思维方式中存在的个体差异,本文建议未来研究可从具身认知视角考察和阐释人类的时间思维方式,以深化和完善针对语言-思维关系的研究。

The language-Thought relationship in general and the representations of time by Chinese and English speakers in particular has become one of the most important research topics in the field of cognitive psychology.This paper systematically reviews the relevant empirical studies,with a specific focus on their theoretical and methodological controversies and limitations.This paper also suggests that future research can explore Chinese and English speakers’temporal thinking patterns via the embodied theory perspective,which may help to deepen our understanding of the language-thought relationship.