Abstract:

Metaphor is a ubiquitous cognitive style in everyday life. Ordinary conceptual systems are fundamentally metaphorical in nature. Spatial metaphors and weight metaphors play an important role in human cognition. Spatial metaphor is the mapping of spatial concepts to non-spatial concepts. Similarly, weight metaphor is mapping the concept of weight onto the concept of non-weight. By studying a large number of corpora, researchers found that many abstract concepts are constructed and understood through spatial and weight concepts, such as time, quantity, emotion, moral, power, importance etc. Kinship, as an initial social relationship, is formed on the basis of blood relationships and marriage. In each language, there is a corresponding vocabulary to represent kinship terms, which are called kinship words. Kinship words include a wealth of genetic, marital, sociological and cultural information. The purpose of this study is to investigate and explore whether kinship words which belong to the same generation could be represented by concrete concepts, such as up-down, and heavy-light concepts. Generally speaking, “up” implies higher authority, upper social status and more respect, “down” means lower authority, lower social status and more care; “heavy” implies higher authority and more importance; “light” means lower authority and less importance. In this study, three experiments were explored. The participants were college students of the Chinese Korean Nationality and the Han Nationality. Kinship word judgment task and priming task were introduced to examine the metaphorical effects of kinship words. Every experiment included 2 sub-experiments. In experiment 1a, 30 Korean kinship words (18 the elder kinship words and 12 the younger kinship words) were used to survey the role of up-down metaphor in Korean subjects. In experiment 1b, 24 Chinese kinship words (12 the elder kinship words and 12 the younger kinship words) were used to survey the role of up-down metaphor in the Han subjects. Experiment 2 was constructed to explore whether weight can be primed by seniority rules. In experiment 2a, 12 Korean kinship word pairs (an elder kinship word paired with a younger kinship word, like “older brother-younger brother”) and a tilted balance were used to inspect the role of heavy-light metaphor in Korean subjects. Experiment 2b was a corresponding experiment carried out in the Han subjects. Experiment 3 was constructed to explore whether weight can prime seniority rules. The procedures and stimulus were similar to those from experiment 2. Results suggested that: (1) Seniority rules hidden in kinship words and vertical dimension of space existed implicit contact: the elder kinship words corresponded to the space "up" and younger kinship words corresponded to the space "down". The results of the Chinese Korean Nationality and the Han Nationality were similar. (2) Seniority rules hidden in kinship words and weight existed implicit contact: the elder kinship words corresponded to "heavy" and younger kinship words corresponded to "light". The process of kinship words affected the process of weight. The weight metaphor of kinship words only existed in the Chinese Korean Nationality other than the Han Nationality. (3) The process of weight affected the process of kinship words in return. The same as experiment 2, this priming effect was only found in the Chinese Korean Nationality. To sum it up, “up-down” spatial metaphor of kinship words which belong to the same generation of the Han Nationality and the Chinese Korean Nationality were similar. “Heavy-light” weight metaphor of kinship words existed in the Chinese Korean Nationality other than the Han Nationality. The difference between the two nationalities lies in their respective cultural schemas and body experiences. These results suggested that the Chinese Korean Nationality value seniority rules more than the Han Nationality.

Key words: the Chinese Korea, seniority rules, kinship words, spatial metaphor, weight metaphor