CHINESE CONCEPTUAL MODELING OF TIME AND SPACE: A HEURISTIC APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF SEMIOTICS AND SEMIOLOGY

Using Semiology as a theoretical framework, this paper tries to have a perception of time and space as they are depicted inter alia in linguistic and literary forms. This work tries to analyze how mental images are formed and translated into concepts which in turn are translated into conceptual models. Such models assist man to reason and solve problems by observing his environment and the objects in them in a given time: past, present and future. As our case study we shall study the Chinese worldviews. This paper tries also to study the influence of time, space and distance on communication and how this effect differs from one society to the other. This study has the goal of alerting the reader of the social distancing that emanate from the use of time and space and the need to avert misunderstanding between initiates and noninitiates.