"Self" in language, culture, and cognition

196 Pages·2019·1.47 MB·English

by  Lu, Yanying

clscc
c “Self” in Language,
o
g
n
it Culture,
i
v
e

l
in and Cognition
g
u
i
s
t
i
c

s
t Yanying Lu
u
d
i
e
s

i
n

c
u
l
t
u
r
a
l

c
o
n
t
e
x
t
s
10
John Benjamins Publishing Company
“Self” in Language, Culture, and Cognition
Cognitive Linguistic Studies
in Cultural Contexts (CLSCC)
issn 1879-8047
This book series aims at publishing high-quality research on the relationship between
language, culture, and cognition from the theoretical perspective of Cognitive
Linguistics. It especially welcomes studies that treat language as an integral part
of culture and cognition, that enhance the understanding of culture and cognition
through systematic analysis of language – qualitative and/or quantitative, synchronic
and/or diachronic – and that demonstrate how language as a subsystem of culture
transformatively interacts with cognition and how cognition at a cultural level is
manifested in language.
For an overview of all books published in this series, please see
http://benjamins.com/catalog/clscc
Editors
Ning Yu and Farzad Sharifian
Pennsylvania State University / Monash University
Editorial Board
Antonio Barcelona Charles Forceville Zouhair Maalej
Universidad de Córdoba University of Amsterdam King Saud University
Erich A. Berendt Roslyn M. Frank Fiona MacArthur
Assumption University, University of Iowa Universidad de Extremadura
Bangkok
Raymond W. Gibbs, Jr. Todd Oakley
Alan Cienki University of California, Santa Case Western Reserve
VU University Amsterdam Cruz University
& Moscow State Linguistic
Masako K. Hiraga Chris Sinha
University
Rikkyo University Hunan University
Alice Deignan
Zoltán Kövecses Gerard J. Steen
University of Leeds
Eötvös Loránd University University Amsterdam
Vyvyan Evans
Graham Low Hans-Georg Wolf
Bangor University
University of York Potsdam University
Volume 10
“Self” in Language, Culture, and Cognition
by Yanying Lu
“Self” in Language,
Culture, and Cognition
Yanying Lu
Monash University
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
doi 10.1075/clscc.10
Cataloging-in-Publication Data available from Library of Congress:
lccn 2019036979
isbn 978 90 272 0469 1 (Hb)
isbn 978 90 272 6177 9 (e-book)
© 2019 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Company · https://benjamins.com
In memory of my father, who always
made me feel loved for being myself

Table of contents
List of figures xi
Acknowledgement xiii
Preface xv
Chapter 1
Migrating the Chinese self 1
1.1 The contemporary concept of self 1
1.2 Contemporary Chinese immigrants 4
1.3 The discourse of contemporary Chinese identity 5
1.4 An overview of the present research 7
Chapter 2
Self-referential pronouns in Mandarin Chinese 11
2.1 Pronominal references in Mandarin Chinese 11
2.2 A discursive examination 13
2.2.1 Assertion 14
2.2.2 Mitigation 19
2.2.3 Persuasion 24
2.2.4 Accommodation 29
2.3 Summary 34
Chapter 3
Performing identities: Presenting the flawed self 37
3.1 Performing identities 38
3.2 Idealised self-representation 39
3.2.1 Evaluating the private self 40
3.2.2 Reflecting upon independence 44
3.2.3 Assessing the real me 48
3.3 From flawed to ideal 54
3.4 Conclusion 56
viii “Self” in Language, Culture, and Cognition
Chapter 4
Becoming Chinese: A discursive exploration 59
4.1 Defining Chineseness in the global context 60
4.1.1 Where is zhongguo ‘China’ 60
4.1.2 Who are Chinese people 63
4.1.3 Representing the non-Chinese 65
4.2 The emerging contemporary Chinese immigrant identity 70
4.2.1 The Huaren ‘ethnic Chinese people’ 71
4.2.2 Australian born Chinese 73
4.2.3 The guoneiren ‘people from within the country’ 77
4.3 Summary 81
Chapter 5
Chinese conceptualisations of personhood 83
5.1 The split self 85
5.1.1 The controlling subject 85
5.1.2 The unbounded self 88
5.2 Image-schematic dyads 91
5.2.1 Deep-shallow 91
5.2.2 interior-exterior 93
5.2.3 balance-imbalance 95
5.3 Relationship metaphors in Mandarin Chinese 97
5.3.1 The interpersonal path 97
5.3.2 Interpersonal proximity 99
5.3.3 The social container 104
5.4 Conclusion 109
Chapter 6
The self within: On the Chinese embodied self 111
6.1 The embodied view of self 111
6.2 The embodied self metaphor 113
6.2.1 The metonymy of the inner heart 114
6.2.2 the heart stores thoughts 116
6.2.3 the heart accommodates feelings 118
6.2.4 the heart brain bone eyes 123
6.3 Discussion and conclusion 128
Table of contents ix
Chapter 7
Conceptualisations of the migrant identity 131
7.1 A bounded area 132
7.1.1 A cultural group is a bounded area 132
7.1.2 The exclusiveness of the bounded area 134
7.2 Viewpoints and perspectives in space 136
7.2.1 The space in discourse 136
7.2.2 Social proximity across cultural groups 139
7.2.3 From the perspective of women zhebian ‘we here’ 141
7.2.4 From the perspective of “others” 143
7.3 The exemplar identity 145
7.4 The exemplar identity and beyond 150
Chapter 8
From perceptual to socio-cultural cognition 153
8.1 The self in language and culture 154
8.1.1 The self in language 154
8.1.2 The cultural self 157
8.2 Cognition of the self in discourse 158
8.2.1 The representational principle 159
8.2.2 The intersubjective principle 160
8.2.3 The emergent principle 161
8.3 Chinese self in diaspora discourse 161
References 165
Index 173