Communications in Humanities Research

- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences


Communications in Humanities Research

Vol. 7, 31 October 2023


Open Access | Article

A Proposal of Body-Specificity Hypothesis in Chinese Culture: Does Mandarin Have Different Metaphors in Handedness??

Xuanchen Liu * 1 , Xingtong Chen 2
1 Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College
2 DEPU Foreign Language School

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Communications in Humanities Research, Vol. 7, 38-42
Published 31 October 2023. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by EWA Publishing
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Citation Xuanchen Liu, Xingtong Chen. A Proposal of Body-Specificity Hypothesis in Chinese Culture: Does Mandarin Have Different Metaphors in Handedness??. CHR (2023) Vol. 7: 38-42. DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/7/20230760.

Abstract

This paper shows the different results of the Body-Specificity Hypothesis in Chinese culture. Chinese have other metaphors on the left and suitable compared to western countries, which may affect their choice of the “dominant hand side as the positive side.” In this paper, we settle an experiment, and the results show that culture will influence people. A Chinese person, even a right-handed person, will think that the left side symbolizes the positive side (And different ages will have different degrees of cultural influence). Chinese participants show the opposite result due to their diverse culture from western countries.

Keywords

body-specific analysis, handedness, dominant hand, Chinese culture

References

1. Casasanto, Daniel. (2009). “Embodiment of Abstract Concepts: Good and Bad in Right- and Left-Handers.” Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, vol. 138, no. 3, pp. 351–67, https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015854.

2. de la Fuente, Juanma, et al. (2015), “Observed Actions Affect Body-Specific Associations Between Space and Valence.” Acta Psychologica, vol. 156, pp. 32–36, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2015.01.004.

3. Casasanto, D., & Jasmin, K. (2010). Good and evil in the hands of politicians: Spontaneous gestures during positive and negative speech. PLoS ONE, 5(7), e11805. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0011805.

4. Casasanto, D. J. (2011). Different bodies, different minds: The body specificity of language and thought. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(6), 378–383.

5. Casasanto, D., & Henetz, T. (2012). Handedness shapes children’s abstract concepts. Cognitive Science, 36(2), 359–372.

6. Corballis, M., & Beale, I. (1976). Psychology of left and right. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

7. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). The metaphorical structure of the human conceptual system. Cognitive Science, 4, 195–208.

8. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh: The embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Educational Innovation and Philosophical Inquiries
ISBN (Print)
978-1-83558-037-0
ISBN (Online)
978-1-83558-038-7
Published Date
31 October 2023
Series
Communications in Humanities Research
ISSN (Print)
2753-7064
ISSN (Online)
2753-7072
DOI
10.54254/2753-7064/7/20230760
Copyright
31 October 2023
Open Access
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Copyright © 2023 EWA Publishing. Unless Otherwise Stated