时空隐喻对中国高水平英语学习者时间认知的影响

The Effects of Spatio-temporal Metaphors on Chinese Advanced English Learners’ Time Cognition

以往大多数有关时间隐喻影响时间认知的研究主要关注不同语言和文化中的母语者,少有人关注二语学习者。实验1表明,在中性语境下,中国高水平英语学习者使用时间在动和自动在动隐喻没有差异,说明第一语言和第二语言均对中国高水平英语学习者的时间认知方式产生了影响;实验2表明,在语义加工难度较大的任务中,中国高水平英语学习者倾向于使用汉语思维对时间关系做出推断。结果显示,对语言关联性假设的考察,应当注意到语言对不同概念范畴的不同影响,以及不同语境可能抵消语言对认知的影响。

The vast majority of previous studies on the influence of time metaphors on time cognition have mainly focused on natives speakers of different languages and cultures.Little attention has been paid to second language learners.This study examined the effects of spatial metaphoric representation of time on Chinese advanced English learners’time cognition through two experiments.Experiment 1 showed that,in neutral context,Chinese advanced English learners’use of time-moving/ego-moving time metaphor had no difference,suggesting that both L1 and L2 have influence on time cognition.Experiment 2 showed that,in a difficult semantic processing task,Chinese advanced English learners tended to depend on Chinese time thinking to infer temporal relationship.The results indicate that,when testing the Language Relativity Hypothesis,we should pay attention to the different influence of language on different conceptual categories and that context may offset the influence of language on cognition.