Chinese Residential Names Reflect Deep-Rooted Spatial Metaphors

Researchers analyzed 1,672 officially registered residential names from Tianjin, China, spanning 1970 to 2019, to understand how metaphors shape language around housing. The study focused on the “[X + Li]” construction, identifying eight types of metaphors falling into four cognitive domains. State metaphors proved most common in these names.

The analysis also compared “[X + Li]” to the “[X + Yuan]” construction, revealing that category metaphors appeared much more frequently in “[X + Yuan]” names. Multidimensional scaling revealed that state metaphors remained consistently popular across the five decades studied.

This research suggests that “[X + Li]” represents a conventionalized way of associating abstract concepts with physical space, grounded in a “container schema.” Understanding these patterns offers insight into the cognitive processes behind naming conventions and linguistic landscapes.