Models of downward motion and their metaphorical potential (in Russian and Chinese)

The paper analyses the hypothesis of a mental structure as movement models to categorize the changes by the example of variable representation of performance indicators of the downward direction in Chinese and Russian. The research materials are the lexical and semantic variants of indicators xia and c-1, including the dictionary definitions and semantic features described by Chinese and Russian scholars. By reconstructing the physical causation processes represented by two indicators, we found that in the Chinese language consciousness, a human body is a landmark for determining “the TOP”/“the BOTTOM.” In Russian, it is another object. The principal figure in the anthropic-oriented model is the subject of cognition, combining the role of a landmark for determining “the TOP”/“the BOTTOM.” During the metaphoric implementation, SOMETHING “placed” originally in the area of “anthropic-oriented TOP” appears in the area of “anthropic-oriented BOTTOM” as a result of the manipulation. Depending on the nature of SOMETHING, the correlations are formed: “the BOTTOM - the zone under control,” “the BOTTOM - the zone of certainty,” “the BOTTOM - the zone of embodiment,” “the BOTTOM - the zone of passivity.” Three variations of the object-oriented model implementation were revealed: changes destroying the current situation, changes towards “decreasing,” and repositioning of SOMETHING. In general, when implementing an object-oriented model, the correlation between the idea of “being on something” and understanding “being” prevails. Thus, the variability of metaphorization of changes is explained by different motion models being implemented and is due to spatial localization being a landmark-dependent operation and variability of a landmark choice.

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