Verticality, Horizontality, and States of the Self: Cognitive Metaphors for the “Spatial Self” in Chinese Autobiographical Writings

Abstract

This article examines spatial metaphors for the self in autobiographies by Chinese writers. Past studies on conceptual metaphors for the self in Chinese have focused primarily on metaphors based on body organs such as heart and brain. Using data from nine autobiographies by Chinese writers, this study focuses on exploring motion in space as a source domain in structuring various states and understandings of the self in Chinese literary texts. The analysis shows that Chinese writers consistently draw on both vertical and horizontal motion in space in writing about themselves, and that the processes of representing states of their selves through motion verbs involve approaching or leaving normal states of the self. It is also shown that while spatial metaphors for the self used by the Chinese writers are multiple, diverse, and creative, which provides varied and meaningful systems for writers in writing about their experiences, they can be explained on the basis of the same cognitive mechanisms for metaphors in ordinary language. Finally, by examining conceptual metaphors in Chinese literary language, this study also demonstrates the need of examining conceptual metaphors in their meaningful and purposeful contexts as well as the ability of the conceptual metaphor theory in accounting for examples from stylistically marked language.