Abstract:

A large number of research has confirmed the psychological reality of two types of spatial- temporal metaphoric systems: the ego-moving metaphor and the time-moving metaphor. They are often used to represent the way how time move and also represent two perspectives people used to comprehend the relative motion between self and time. In daily life, many factors such as spatial motion experience, emotion, language and culture as well as individual differences can influence the individual choice between the two perspectives, which further reflects the flexibility of its cognitive process. Research focusing on detecting further factors explaining which metaphoric system a speaker uses not only enhances our comprehension of the relationship between language and thought, emotion, and sensorimotor experience, but also provides further experimental evidence to embodiment cognition.

Key words: spatial-temporal metaphor, perspective of time movement, psychological reality, embodiment cognition