This comparative study of Chinese and English metaphor contributes to the search for metaphoric universals by placing the contemporary theory of metaphor in a broad cross-linguistic and cross-cultural perspective. The author explores to what degree abstract reasoning is metaphorical and which conceptual metaphors are culture specific, wide spread or universal in a cognitive and cultural context. The empirical studies presented reinforce the view that metaphor is the main mechanism through which abstract concepts are comprehended and abstract reasoning is performed. They also support, from the perspective of Chinese, the candidacy of some conceptual metaphors for metaphorical universals. These include, for instance, the ANGER IS HEAT metaphor, the HAPPY IS UP metaphor (emotions), the TIME AS SPACE metaphor, and the Event Structure Metaphor. It seems that these conceptual metaphors are grounded in some basic human experiences that may be universal to all human beings.
Apresjan, Valentina, Alexander V. Orlov, Kirill Koncha, Vladislava Loshchinina & Anastasiya Lopukhina
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Banaruee, Hassan & Omid Khatin-Zadeh
2026. Structure and Function of Metaphoric Language. In Embodied Language across Cultures, ► pp. 37 ff.
Bao, Rong
2026. Age and Language Effects on Temporal Cognition in Chinese and English. PsyCh Journal 15:1
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2026. Wine words, cultural worlds. Terminology. International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Issues in Specialized Communication
2019. Event-Based Time in Three Indigenous Amazonian and Xinguan Cultures and Languages. Frontiers in Psychology 10
Jin, Taian
2026. Divergent reference frames in Chinese and Japanese spatiotemporal metaphors: a cross-cultural study of multidimensional mapping in Qian/Hou and Mae/Ato. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 13:1
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Moser, David
2026. The Whorfian Question. In Thinking in Chinese and English, ► pp. 1 ff.
2026. Framing medical encounters through metaphor: a cognitive and cultural account of Chinese doctor–patient discourse. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Booth, Emma Teresa, Virginia J. Flood & Benedikt W. Harrer
2025. Using representational gesture to enact instants in collaborative problem solving in physics. Physical Review Physics Education Research 21:2
Gaskins, Dorota Katarzyna, Gabriella Rundblad & Michael Flor
2025. Budding metaphors: Input-output effects in metaphor production. PLOS One 20:6 ► pp. e0323420 ff.
Kumcu, Alper
2025. It's High Time. In Exploration of the Intersection of Corpus Linguistics and Language Science, ► pp. 223 ff.
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2025. It’s Time to Move: The Influence of Whole-Body Motion on Time Cognition in Mandarin Speakers. Metaphor and Symbol 40:4 ► pp. 343 ff.
Paul, Jing, Lauren J. Stites & Şeyda Özçalışkan
2025. Learning to comprehend and explain spatial metaphors for time in Chinese. Journal of Child Language► pp. 1 ff.
Paula, Ronaldo Rodrigues de & Kondwani Inoque Bewala
2025. Estratégias de nominalizações deverbais de classes não humanas no Cinyanja. Revista Científica da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Série: Letras e Ciências Sociais 5:2
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Wang, Wenbin & Jiamin Wang
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2024. Comparative Study of Metaphors and Metonymies of Russian and Chinese Related to Word "Hand" . Journal of Chinese Language and Culture Studies 3:1 ► pp. 35 ff.
Chen, Yi-Zhong & Te-Hsin Liu
2024. Metaphorical Mapping and Cultural Significance in Chinese Death-Related Idiomatic Expressions. Metaphor and Symbol 39:3 ► pp. 149 ff.
Fiddler, Michael
2024. Conceptual metaphor in areal perspective: time, space, and contact in the Sinosphere. Language and Cognition 16:2 ► pp. 452 ff.
Guan, Yue
2024. Ning Yu: The Moral Metaphor System: A Conceptual Metaphor Approach
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Hozharossadat, Sepideh
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Kahumburu, Monica & Yo Matsumoto
2024. A Corpus-Based Study of the Externality of Emotions in Swahili and Japanese. In Cultural Linguistics and (Re)conceptualized Tradition [Cultural Linguistics, ], ► pp. 119 ff.
Koca Helvaci, Zeynep Cihan
2024. Emotional Conceptualization in Turkish and English Body Idioms. Dil Araştırmaları 18:34 ► pp. 249 ff.
2023. Emotion recognition support system: Where physicians and psychiatrists meet linguists and data engineers. World Journal of Psychiatry 13:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
Ajayi, Daniel Oluwafemi
2023. Alcoholic herbal sex drinks and the construction of masculinities in Nigeria. Discourse & Communication 17:2 ► pp. 115 ff.
2023. To each their own: a review of individual differences and metaphorical perspectives on time. Frontiers in Psychology 14
Lane, Diarmaid, Oliver McGarr & Bill Nicholl
2023. Unpacking secondary school technology teachers’ interpretations and experiences of teaching ‘problem-solving’. International Journal of Technology and Design Education 33:1 ► pp. 123 ff.
Yu, Yajing & Lu Shao
2023. A cognitive stylistic approach to the translation of spatial metaphors in Alai’s Chen’ai luoding. Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies 10:1 ► pp. 20 ff.
2022. OLAY YAPISI METAFORLARININ BİR GÖRÜNÜMÜ: ZORLUKLAR HAREKETİN ENGELLERİDİR. Çukurova Üniversitesi Türkoloji Araştırmaları Dergisi 7:2 ► pp. 1091 ff.
Schulte, Michael, Jakob Halfmann, Hans Goebl, Wenfeng Wang & Heinrich Ramisch
2022. Besprechungen – Comptes rendus – Reseñas – Reviews. Dialectologia et Geolinguistica 30:1 ► pp. 151 ff.
Wu, Shuqiong
2022. A corpus-based study of the time orientation of qian “front” and hou “back” in Chinese. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 18:3 ► pp. 447 ff.
Yang, Yancheng
2022. SPACE, TIME and NUMBER as a holistic unity in the Yijing. Cogent Psychology 9:1
Zhong, Lingli & Zhengguang Liu
2022. Metonymic event-based time interval concepts in Mandarin Chinese—Evidence from time interval words. Frontiers in Psychology 13
Bamidele, Olalekan
2021. Conceptual Metaphor Theory in Bible Translation and Interpretation. SSRN Electronic Journal
Chen, Zhong
2021. Cognitive Styles Underlying the Contradiction of Temporal Direction Between Chinese Qián/Hòu and Their English Counterparts Forward/Back. In Chinese Lexical Semantics [Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 12278], ► pp. 837 ff.
2021. Retracted: Data visualization technique to study the conceptual metaphors inDivan of HafizandBustan of Sa'adi. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 36:4 ► pp. 971 ff.
Mannoni, Michele
2021. Rights Metaphors Across Hybrid Legal Languages, Such as Euro English and Legal Chinese. International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique 34:5 ► pp. 1375 ff.
Mannoni, Michele
2021. A corpus-based approach to the translation of conceptual metaphors in legal language: Chinese Yuān (冤) and English ‘Injustice’, ‘Wrong’ and ‘Tort’. Perspectives 29:2 ► pp. 199 ff.
Mannoni, Michele
2022. 冤 Yuan! Conceptual metaphors for INJUSTICE in Chinese. Asiatische Studien - Études Asiatiques 76:4 ► pp. 711 ff.
McLachlan Jeffrey, David
2021. Ancient Daoist Wisdom and Its Associated Principle of Yin-Yang for Contemporary Classrooms as Foundations for a Harmonious World. Philosophical Inquiry in Education 28:3 ► pp. 237 ff.
2021. A Study of kind Metaphors and Simile Annotation Using Dependency Parsing and ConceptNet. In Chinese Lexical Semantics [Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 12278], ► pp. 525 ff.
Yang, Huilan, J. Nick Reid, Albert N. Katz & Dandi Li
2021. The Embodiment of Power as Forward/Backward Movement in Chinese and English Speakers. Metaphor and Symbol 36:3 ► pp. 181 ff.
金, 叶
2021. The Semantic Change and Mechanism of Change for the Spatial Word Shang (上) in Archaic Chinese. Modern Linguistics 09:05 ► pp. 1174 ff.
Forker, Diana
2020. Elevation as a Grammatical and Semantic Category of Demonstratives. Frontiers in Psychology 11
2020. The spatial conceptualization of time in Spanish and Chinese. Yearbook of Phraseology 11:1 ► pp. 107 ff.
Rajaram, Kumaran
2020. Characteristics and Complexity of Cultural Values. In Educating Mainland Chinese Learners in Business Education, ► pp. 21 ff.
Shao, Xing-Yu & Mohammad Reza Mahmoudi
2020. Retracted: Statistical comparison between the alternatives of love in the poems of Sa'adi and Moulana. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 35:3 ► pp. 635 ff.
Tay, Dennis, Jin Huang & Huiheng Zeng
2020. Prompting Strategies and Outcomes in Picture-Based Counseling. In Expanding Horizons in Health Communication [The Humanities in Asia, 6], ► pp. 29 ff.
2020. Retracted: Statistical approaches in literature: Comparing and clustering the alternatives of love inDivan of Hafiz. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 35:4 ► pp. 886 ff.
Yang, Wenhui
2020. News Discourse and Cognitive Studies. In A Cross-Cultural Study of Commercial Media Discourses, ► pp. 9 ff.
Zhou, Yanyun & Chi-Shing Tse
2020. The Taste of Emotion: Metaphoric Association Between Taste Words and Emotion/Emotion-Laden Words. Frontiers in Psychology 11
Мигун, Юлия
2020. Гипотеза метафорической относительности: признать нельзя отвергнуть . Психологические исследования 13:73
许, 翠玲
2020. A Corpus-Based Study on Economy and Trade Metaphors—A Case Study on the Speeches by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the U.S. Department of State. Modern Linguistics 08:06 ► pp. 925 ff.
Chen, Yi-chen
2019. Teaching figurative language to EFL learners: an evaluation of metaphoric mapping instruction. The Language Learning Journal 47:1 ► pp. 49 ff.
Gandolfo, Stefano
2019. Metaphors of Metaphors: Reflections on the Use of Conceptual Metaphor Theory in Premodern Chinese Texts. Dao 18:3 ► pp. 323 ff.
Gu, Yan, Yeqiu Zheng & Marc Swerts
2019. Which Is in Front of Chinese People, Past or Future? The Effect of Language and Culture on Temporal Gestures and Spatial Conceptions of Time. Cognitive Science 43:12
Khatin-Zadeh, Omid, Hooshang Khoshsima, Nahid Yarahmadzehi & Fernando Marmolejo-Ramos
2019. The Impact of Metaphorical Prime on Metaphor Comprehension Processes. Australian Journal of Linguistics 39:3 ► pp. 375 ff.
Lai, Huei-ling & Yi-chen Chen
2019. Chinese Metaphorical Expressions in Talking About the End-of-Life Journey. In Chinese for Specific and Professional Purposes [Chinese Language Learning Sciences, ], ► pp. 189 ff.
2019. On comparing and clustering the alternatives of love in Saadi's lyric poems (Ghazals). Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 34:1 ► pp. 146 ff.
Batoréo, Hanna Jakubowicz
2018. Metaphorical Competence in Multilingual Context of Language Acquisition and Learning. Psychology of Language and Communication 22:1 ► pp. 534 ff.
Gathigia, Moses Gatambuki, Daniel Ochieng Orwenjo & Ruth Wangeci Ndungu
2018. Puppets, Compatriots, and Souls in Heaven: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Chiang Kai-shek's Early Wartime Rhetoric. Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 47:2 ► pp. 87 ff.
Landau, Mark J., Chen‐bo Zhong & Trevor J. Swanson
2018. Both Earlier Times and the Future Are “Front”: The Distinction Between Time‐ and Ego‐Reference‐Points in Mandarin Speakers’ Temporal Representation. Cognitive Science 42:3 ► pp. 1026 ff.
Yap, Foong Ha, Ariel Shuk-ling Chan & Brian Lap-ming Wai
2018. Constructing Political Identities Through Characterization Metaphor, Humor and Sarcasm: An Analysis of the 2012 Legislative Council Election Debates in Hong Kong. In Not Just a Laughing Matter [The Humanities in Asia, 5], ► pp. 147 ff.
Barchard, Kimberly A., Kelly E. Grob & Matthew J. Roe
2017. Is sadness blue? The problem of using figurative language for emotions on psychological tests. Behavior Research Methods 49:2 ► pp. 443 ff.
2017. Personal attitudes toward time: The relationship between temporal focus, space‐time mappings and real life experiences. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 58:3 ► pp. 193 ff.
Li, Heng & Yu Cao
2019. Moving at the Speed of Life: How Life Pace Influences Temporal Reasoning. Metaphor and Symbol 34:3 ► pp. 158 ff.
Lu, Wei-lun
2017. Cultural Conceptualisations of death in Taiwanese Buddhist and Christian Eulogistic Idioms. In Advances in Cultural Linguistics [Cultural Linguistics, ], ► pp. 49 ff.
2024. Cultural Metaphor and Cultural Metonymy in Taiwanese Mandarin. In The Handbook of Cultural Linguistics [Springer Handbooks in Languages and Linguistics, ], ► pp. 731 ff.
Lu, Xiaofei & Ben Pin-Yun Wang
2017. Towards a metaphor-annotated corpus of Mandarin Chinese. Language Resources and Evaluation 51:3 ► pp. 663 ff.
MOORE, KEVIN EZRA
2017. Elaborating time in space: the structure and function of space–motion metaphors of time. Language and Cognition 9:2 ► pp. 191 ff.
Tay, Dennis
2017. Exploring the Metaphor–Body–Psychotherapy Relationship. Metaphor and Symbol 32:3 ► pp. 178 ff.
Tay, Dennis
2022. Navigating the Realities of Metaphor and Psychotherapy Research,
Tay, Dennis
2023. Turning metaphor on its head: a “target-to-source transformation” approach in statistics education. Frontiers in Psychology 14
Yu, Ning, Lu Yu & Yue Christine Lee
2017. Primary metaphors: Importance as size and weight in a comparative perspective. Metaphor and Symbol 32:4 ► pp. 231 ff.
Sinha, Chris, Vera Da Silva Sinha, Jörg Zinken & Wany Sampaio
2011. When time is not space: The social and linguistic construction of time intervals and temporal event relations in an Amazonian culture. Language and Cognition 3:1 ► pp. 137 ff.
Yu, Ning, Tianfang Wang & Yingliang He
2016. Spatial Subsystem of Moral Metaphors: A Cognitive Semantic Study. Metaphor and Symbol 31:4 ► pp. 195 ff.
2014. The influence of cultural universality and specificity on EFL learners' comprehension of metaphor and metonymy. International Journal of Applied Linguistics 24:3 ► pp. 312 ff.
Duffy, Sarah E.
2014. The Role of Cultural Artifacts in the Interpretation of Metaphorical Expressions About Time. Metaphor and Symbol 29:2 ► pp. 94 ff.
2014. Metaphorical conceptualizations of vertical and horizontal space in English press articles and their Greek translations. Across Languages and Cultures 15:2 ► pp. 177 ff.
Sidiropoulou, Maria & Efpraxia Tsapaki
2014. Conceptualisations across English–Greek parallel press data: a foreign language teaching perspective. The Interpreter and Translator Trainer 8:1 ► pp. 32 ff.
2013. Walking the Walk While Thinking About the Talk: Embodied Interpretation of Metaphorical Narratives. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 42:4 ► pp. 363 ff.
Voinov, Vitaly
2013. ‘Seeing’ is ‘trying’: The relation of visual perception to attemptive modality in the world's languages. Language and Cognition 5:1 ► pp. 61 ff.
Gravengaard, Gitte
2012. The metaphors journalists live by: Journalists’ conceptualisation of newswork. Journalism 13:8 ► pp. 1064 ff.
Lu, Yanying
2012. Water Metaphors in <i>Dao de jing</i>: A Conceptual Analysis. Open Journal of Modern Linguistics 02:04 ► pp. 151 ff.
Lu, Yanying
2016. ‘The Great Mother’. International Journal of Language and Culture 3:1 ► pp. 34 ff.
Abbott, Michael & Charles Forceville
2011. Visual representation of emotion in manga: Loss of control is Loss of hands in Azumanga Daioh Volume 4. Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 20:2 ► pp. 91 ff.
Gao, Youmei
2011. Cognitive Linguistics–Inspired Empirical Study of Chinese EFL Teaching. Creative Education 02:04 ► pp. 354 ff.
Jin, Lixian & Martin Cortazzi
2011. More than a Journey: ‘Learning’ in the Metaphors of Chinese Students and Teachers. In Researching Chinese Learners, ► pp. 67 ff.
Miles, Lynden K., Lucy Tan, Grant D. Noble, Joanne Lumsden & C. Neil Macrae
2011. Can a mind have two time lines? Exploring space–time mapping in Mandarin and English speakers. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 18:3 ► pp. 598 ff.
Pannhorst, Kerstin
2011. Jenseits der Chronologie? Zeit im Museum. EAZ – Ethnographisch-Archaeologische Zeitschrift 52:2 ► pp. 239 ff.
Li, Juan
2010. Verticality, Horizontality, and States of the Self: Cognitive Metaphors for the “Spatial Self” in Chinese Autobiographical Writings. Metaphor and Symbol 26:1 ► pp. 68 ff.
Cortazzi, Martin, Lixian Jin & Wang Zhiru
2009. Cultivators, Cows and Computers: Chinese Learners’ Metaphors of Teachers. In Internationalising the University, ► pp. 107 ff.
Evans, Vyvyan
2009. How Words Mean,
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Evans, Vyvyan
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Evans, Vyvyan
2009. 1 Words and meaning. In How Words Mean, ► pp. 3 ff.
Evans, Vyvyan
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Cienki, Alan & Cornelia Müller
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Pritzker, Sonya
2007. Thinking Hearts, Feeling Brains: Metaphor, Culture, and the Self in Chinese Narratives of Depression. Metaphor and Symbol 22:3 ► pp. 251 ff.
Santiago, Julio, Juan Lupáñez, Elvira Pérez & María Jesús Funes
2007. Time (also) flies from left to right. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 14:3 ► pp. 512 ff.
Wilson, Nicole L. & Raymond W. Gibbs
2007. Real and Imagined Body Movement Primes Metaphor Comprehension. Cognitive Science 31:4 ► pp. 721 ff.
Zhou, Chang-Le, Yun Yang & Xiao-Xi Huang
2007. Computational Mechanisms for Metaphor in Languages: A Survey. Journal of Computer Science and Technology 22:2 ► pp. 308 ff.
Gibbs, Raymond W., Jessica J. Gould & Michael Andric
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Kovecses, Zoltan
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Kövecses, Zoltán
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Kövecses, Zoltán
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2006. With the Future Behind Them: Convergent Evidence From Aymara Language and Gesture in the Crosslinguistic Comparison of Spatial Construals of Time. Cognitive Science 30:3 ► pp. 401 ff.
Huang, Xiaoxi, Yun Yang & Changle Zhou
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Danesi, Marcel
2004. Metaphor and conceptual productivity: Results of a pilot project. Semiotica 2004:148
Maalej, Zouhair
2004. Figurative Language in Anger Expressions in Tunisian Arabic: An Extended View of Embodiment. Metaphor and Symbol 19:1 ► pp. 51 ff.
2003. Body-Part Metaphors: A Cross-Cultural Survey of the Perception of Translatability Among Americans and Japanese. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 32:4 ► pp. 381 ff.
Vandaele, Sylvie
2003. Métaphores conceptuelles en traduction biomédicale et cohérence1. TTR : traduction, terminologie, rédaction 15:1 ► pp. 223 ff.
Özçalskan, Seyda
2003. Metaphorical Motion in Crosslinguistic Perspective: A Comparison of English and Turkish. Metaphor and Symbol 18:3 ► pp. 189 ff.
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