近年來，認知語言學已逐漸被語言學家用來解釋自然語言與真實生活經驗之間的連結關係。許多語言學家主張：人類共同的生活經驗與記憶皆隱藏在我們使用的語言之中，透過表達的機制與反應，我們可以發掘出這些隱藏在語言背後、用來建構知能的抽象機制。換句話說，要解構語言真正的含意，也必須透過經驗法則的處理，才能使訊息更接近語義中心。
以「隱喻」（metaphor）為例，「時間就是金錢」（Time is money）之所以被瞭解，是因為我們的生活經驗提供「金錢等同於貴重」這樣的訊息，因此，當有人把時間比喻成金錢，訊息接受者便會自動將其相近的語意特徵抽離出來（即[+貴重性]）以完成隱喻的機制。以認知語言學的觀點來講，這個過程會牽涉到兩個範疇：「來源範疇」（source domain）和「目標範疇」（target domain），透過映照關係（mapping），以來源範疇中的元素（element in source domain）—「金錢」映照目標範疇中的元素（element in target domain）—「時間」，隱喻的機制便形成。

在許多關於映照關係的學說中，Gilles Fauconnier所提出的心理空間結構（Mental Spaces）最能表現認知架構與自然語言間複雜多樣的互動關係，他以空間建構者（space-builder）、來源空間（source space）與目標空間（target space）等組成最基本的架構用以解釋語言中關於認知語意的現象。在本篇論文中，我們便採用Fauconnier的心理空間結構，以國語為研究語料，觀察在國語中同樣豐富多變的心理認知活動，主要研究結果呈現在第二、三、四章，討論的主題依序為「語用作用下的映照關係」（Mapping by Pragmatic Function）、「角色與其價值的映照關係」（Mapping of Role and its Values）和「隱喻的映照關係」（Mapping by Metaphor）。

Cognitive linguistics is gradually a pervasive method to survey our daily language which is perceived and realized on the basis of our experience of the world. Many cognitive linguists assert that our shared experience of the world is stored in our everyday language and can be gleaned from the way we express our ideas. So, it is practical and empirical to decode language through our wide and varied experiences. For example, the metaphor TIME IS MONEY can be realized since “money” is a general model for “preciousness” and people take “time” as “money” to represent that it is as precious as money. Academically, the metaphor can be illustrated with the mapping procedure of the so-called ‘target’ category TIME via the ‘source’ category MONEY. In other words, from a cognitive perspective a metaphor is a mapping of the structure of a source model (domain) onto a target model (domain).
Among the various linguistic structures for cognitive mapping, Gilles Fauconnier’s work on Mental Space gives a general model for studying the rich interplay between cognitive constructions and natural language. Fauconnier set up mental space structure with space builders, source domain (space) and target domain (space). Space-builders generally come with linguistic clauses, which typically predict relations between elements in source and target spaces. In the classic sentence “in the picture, the girl with blue eyes has green eyes”, the prepositional phrase “in the picture” is a space builder because it connects the two images of the girl separately in the picture (“green eyes”, the target domain) and in speaker’s reality (“blue eyes”, the source domain). That is why we can understand the sentence and cognitively take it reasonable.

In this study, we utilized Mental Space structure to survey the relative data in daily use of Mandarin Chinese and analyze the abstract linkage between the source and the target with concrete illustration based on mental space configuration. These interesting language data were mainly dug from Chinese fictions, idiom dictionaries, language corpus, etc. and classified as Mapping by Pragmatic Function, Mapping of Role and its Values and Mapping by Metaphor. We would illustrate these specific language expressions and prove that the assumption and configuration of Mental Space provided by Fauconnier and other linguists can be attested in Mandarin Chinese.

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