“时空”概念隐喻的哲学基础与萨丕尔-沃尔夫假说

以往的萨丕尔—沃尔夫假说的反对者大多是就假说的内在论证过程及方法的不足进行批评,本文拟从一个外在角度对假说加以驳斥。通过对英汉"时空"概念隐喻的对比研究揭示英汉两种不同语言在概念隐喻化方面表现出巨大的相似性,表明在抽象概念隐喻化的背后存在某种共性的东西使人们具有相似的抽象思维,即体验——概念隐喻的哲学基础。根据体验哲学的观点可以推论出不同的语言并未影响或决定不同的隐喻化思维,而是思维影响或决定语言。因此,体验哲学理论为萨丕尔—沃尔夫假说提供了有力的否定佐证。

The Philosophical Basis of Temporal-Spatial Metaphor and the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Most of the objections to the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis are focused on the defects in the inner elaborating process and method of the hypothesis.While this article is intended to make a disapproval of the hypothesis from an outer perspective.By making a comparative study on the temporal-spatial metaphor between English and Chinese,the article finds there are great similarities in conceptual metaphorization between the two distinct languages,which reveals that there is something in common behind this Abstract conceptual metaphorization which makes it possible for people to have similar Abstract thought.That is embodiment——the philosophical basis of conceptual metaphor,from which it can be inferred that it is thought that affects or determines language.Therefore,the theory of embodiment provides a negative support for the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis.