Cognitive Comparative Study on Temporal Deixis in Russian and Chinese

Abstract

Based on the Figure-Ground Theory, the Bounded-Unbounded Theory and the Iconicity Theory in the field of cognitive linguistics, this article gives a theoretical interpretation and comparative analysis of the relevant phenomena of temporal deixis in Russian and Chinese. The research of “time” in linguistics is mainly conducted at the semantic and grammatical levels. Cognitive factors should be taken into account in the attempt to elaborate the phenomenon of temporal deixis with strong subjectivity clearly. Similar temporal cognitive models and the close relationship among time, space and movement contribute to the commonness between Russian and Chinese temporal deixis in spatial conceptual metaphors and the iconicity of temporal sequence expression, forming a similar sentence structure pattern of “ground” followed by “figure”. The antithesis in spatial metaphorical meanings, the difference of temporal deixis in the expression of boundary characteristics, the incomplete compatibility in sentence structure patterns and the incomplete correspondence in the principle of temporal sequence expression all reveal the personalities of Russian and Chinese in language type and cognitive thinking. The purpose of this article is to reveal the similarities and differences between Russian and Chinese in temporal deixis and the corresponding causes from several aspects including language type, cultural thinking and cognitive mode, to deepen the understanding of the universal and unique characteristics of different languages in time positioning expression, to outline the general linguistic image of temporal deixis, and to promote the improvement of cross-lingual and intercultural communication.