Psychological Science ›› 2015, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (5): 1081-1086.

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A brief analysis of the Embodiment and Culture of Metaphor

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  • Received:2015-04-21 Revised:2015-07-29 Online:2015-09-20 Published:2015-09-20

隐喻的具身性与文化性

尹新雅1,鲁中义2   

  1. 1. 河北师范大学
    2. 河北师范大学教育学院
  • 通讯作者: 尹新雅

Abstract: Lakoff and Johnson (1980,1999) put forward the Conceptual Metaphor Theory ,which has been completely different from the traditional sense of the metaphorical concepts. According to Conceptual Metaphor Theory, there is both embodiment and culture in metaphor, and neither of them can live without each other. Hence, it is important for us to understand how embodiment and culture works for metaphor, and how embodiment and culture affect metaphor through their close and seamless cooperation. The construction of Metaphor is based on our physical experience, the physical experience is not only closely related with our state of mind, also shape the nature of metaphor. In the process of metaphorical mapping, its "source domain" comes from the our sensorimotor system, and the sensorimotor system plays a more crucial role in shaping the concepts than the other systems , it is the involvement of the sensorimotor system in the conceptual system that keeps the conceptual system very much in touch with the world. The production of conceptual metaphor is a process metaphorical link, which is formed in human body by neurological contact, each metaphor concept based on the experience of the body is a kind of neural structure, and it is the neural structures formed the metaphorical links in the process of metaphor . Based on our cultural background, metaphor is an integral part of the world of culture. In most of time, how we understand of the concept of metaphor will be influenced by the culture we lived in. Metaphor is the reflection of culture in language, and heritage in the cultural through language. Different nationalities and different regions have their shared culture or unique culture, it has formed the different forms of metaphor, and the same or different connotation of metaphors. In different cultures, the same connotation of the concept of metaphor is likely to be the same or similar, and the same metaphor meaning may also be taken up by different metaphorical expressions. The relationship of embodiment and culture of metaphor is inseparable .There is always have a participation of culture in the process of metaphor , and experience of our body is exist based on the broad background of the cultural, Culture is involved in all of the things we experiences, we are using cultural experience our world by way of experiences .And embodied experiences and the metaphorical thinking is conditioned by culture all the time, culture affects how embodiment experiences metaphorical thinking. The embodiment and culture of metaphor is not only mutual fusion, but also inseparable, culture is responsible for the preparation work before physical experience, and the embodiment is responsible for the process of physical experience. We can hardly apart the embodiment of metaphor from the cultural foundation, and which embodied foundation will be chose is closely linked with the culture coherence. Our physical and cultural experience provides many possible foundation for metaphor, but it is depending on the culture to choose which or in which give priority to. Under different cultural background will not only produce the same metaphorical concept, also can produce the different ways of understanding and experience metaphor.

Key words: metaphor, embodiment, culture

摘要: 自从Lakoff和Johnson在《Philosophy in the Flesh —The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought》一书中将认知科学划分为第一代认知科学与第二代认知科学以来,隐喻成为了心理学家、语言学家和哲学家研究的热点领域之一。隐喻的构造基于我们的具身体验,基于我们的文化背景。隐喻的具身性与文化性是相互融合、不可分割的。

关键词: 隐喻 具身性 文化性