Cognitive Study on Chinese Time Conceptual System of“Shang-Xia”

In Chinese,there is a metaphor mode in the time conceptual system ofshang-xia,which includes four kinds of systematic structures.By means of analyzing meanings in dictionaries,phrases and corpora in reality,this paper has revealed some characteristics of this time conceptual system.From ancient times to the present,the status of the metaphorical meanings referring to the time has got a trend of decline in the meaning cognitive structure ofshang,however,as forxia,its status of the metaphorical meaning referring to the time has stabilized in the meaning cognitive structure.In four kinds of systematic structures ofshang-xia,the descending order of the word-formation ability of these structures is:ray of time,subsection of time,point of timeandtime period.Compared with ancient Chinese language,the frequency in usingtime periodofshanghas increased greatly,and the frequency in usingpoint of timeofxiahas also increased enormously,in the meanwhile,four kinds of time systematic structures ofshangandxiaare used in a dissymmetry way.