“生命”概念隐喻的英汉比较研究（英文）

1、本科生毕业论文“生命”概念隐喻的英汉比较研究a comparative study of the conceptual metaphors of life in english and chinese院 （系）名 称：外 语 系专 业 名 称：英 语学 生 姓 名： 指 导 教 师： acknowledgementsfirst, i must express the heartiest gratitude to my supervisor, professor bao liying. her patient help makes it possible for me to write the

2、thesis under this topic. i am extremely grateful to her persistent guidance and correction along the writing process. without her help, i cannot finish the thesis completely.secondly, my gratitude goes to the foreign languages department of heu, which has provided a good study environment through my

3、 college years. the teachers here are always ready to give hearty help and care. i have learned from them not only knowledge of english, but also the strict and earnest study spirit.moreover, my special thanks are due to my friends and classmates. they have been urging me in the process and our comm

4、unication has brought me unexpected help with the thesis.last but not least, i want to thank my parents who have been kindly encouraging me along the writing process. i feel indebted to their wholehearted spiritual and economical support for my higher education. abstractmetaphor has long been a focu

5、s of linguistics. the thesis firstly introduces some different theories of metaphor proposed by distinct branches of linguistics, since aristotle began the western traditions systematic investigation of metaphor. then, the thesis gives a specific explanation of the perspective to study metaphor put

6、forward by cognitive linguistics which argues that metaphor is rooted in human cognition and that human experience in the world plays a decisive role in formation of metaphor. with the cognitive linguistic approach to metaphor, this thesis compares some of the conceptual metaphors of life in english

7、 and chinese, analyzes the resemblance and distinction in the specific aspect between the two languages, and finally draws the conclusion that the similarities and differences of human experience and cognition result in those of linguistic expressions between english and chinese. this thesis mainly

8、selects familiar linguistic expressions as analysis object, and hopefully provides a better understanding of metaphors of life from a cognitive perspective.key words: metaphor; cognitive linguistics; metaphors of life摘 要隐喻，一直以来都是语言学研究的重点。该论文首先介绍了自亚里士多德开创了西方知识界系统研究隐喻的先河以来，各个时期不同语言学分支提出的一些不同的隐喻理论。然后，该

9、论文详细阐释了认知语言学提出的隐喻理论。认知语言学认为，隐喻植根于人类认知之中，人类认知经验在隐喻形成过程中起到了决定性的作用。本论文用认知语言学的方法对比分析英、汉语言中有关“生命”的概念隐喻，发现英语和汉语在这个方面的相似点和不同点，最后得出结论，英汉不同文化之中的人们在体验和认知上的相似点和不同点会导致其语言的相似点和不同点。该论文主要选择常见的英汉语句作为分析对象，并期望认知语言学的隐喻理论能为人们理解“生命”隐喻提供更好的方式。关键词：隐喻；认知语言学；“生命”隐喻contentsi. introduction1ii. an overview of different theorie

10、s of metaphor32.1 the traditional theories of metaphor32.1.1 the comparison theory of metaphor42.1.2 the substitution theory of metaphor42.2 the interaction theory of metaphor52.3 cognitive perspective of metaphor62.3.1 the experiential hypothesis62.3.2 conceptual metaphor62.3.3 a cross-domain mappi

11、ng82.3.4 comments on cognitive theory of metaphor10iii. the key conceptual metaphors of life in english and chinese123.1 life as a journey133.2 life as a play163.3 life as a day183.4 other conceptual metaphors of life203.4.1 some other metaphors of life in english203.4.2 some other metaphors of life

12、 in chinese223.5 summary23iv. conclusion25works cited27i. introductionin recent decades, along with the development of cognitive science, there emerged an important approach to linguistic studycognitive linguistics. it attempts to study language from the perspective of human cognition. this new appr

13、oach argues that language results from the cognition of human species and that language is in turn the driving force of human cognition. linguistics is therefore one of the cognitive sciences, alongside philosophy, psychology, neuroscience and artificial intelligence (evans and green 16). since the

14、birth of cognitive linguistics, more and more scholars have given their attention and begun to study language from an interdisciplinary view. in 2006, china cognitive linguistics association was founded. it brings together many scholars and their works, which have further developed the new approach

15、and helped to arouse the interest of students and teachers in linguistics. moreover, metaphor is held in high regard in cognitive linguistics, which argues that metaphor is a significant instrument for human cognition and plays a crucial role in human conceptual system. since the 1990s, linguists in

16、 china have done a lot of work on metaphor both of english and chinese with the cognitive linguistics approach. their works and findings stimulate and promote the study and development of cognitive linguistics in china.however, most scholars findings are limited to english, so the cognitive theory o

17、f metaphor calls for further supportive research. in order to obtain more evidence, the author makes a cross-language study. this thesis focuses on one abstract and abundantly meaningful conceptlife, analyzes some familiar linguistic expressions of both english and chinese and makes a comparative st

18、udy of the conceptual metaphors about life in english and chinese. there are four chapters in the thesis that are organized as follows: chapter one is a brief introduction to the background of the study; chapter two gives a specific explanation of metaphor from different branches of linguistics whil

19、e mainly from the cognitive linguistics theory; chapter three is the main part, which compares the key conceptual systems of metaphors of life in english and chinese and analyzes the similarities and differences between them of the two languages; chapter four is the conclusion of this study.ii. an o

20、verview of different theories of metaphornormally, when we think of metaphor, we tend to regard it simply as a kind of rhetorical device. however, metaphor is a rather complex concept. there has never been an agreed definition of metaphor because of the distinct viewpoints of great intellects and pe

21、oples varied understandings along the history. “what is metaphor?” has long been a controversial issue, not only in the study of linguistics but also in the field of philosophy. max black classified main theories of metaphor in history into the comparison theory, the substitution theory and the inte

22、raction theory (273-294). this chapter will give a brief introduction to these different theories of metaphor, and then stress on the main viewpoints in cognitive linguistics.2.1 the traditional theories of metaphoramong western intellects, aristotle is regarded as the first great thinker that had s

23、tudied metaphor systematically. and what aristotle put forward had not been strongly challenged until last century, with the ever popular trend of metaphor study (冯小虎 1). his principal arguments are as follows: metaphor is a kind of divergence from normal linguistic rules; metaphor is used as decora

24、tion to make expressions more interesting. in this sense, the meaning of a metaphorical expression can be presented by an expression without metaphor. the proposals of aristotle have greatly influenced his inheritors. what are later called the comparison theory and the substitution theory can both b

25、e traced back to him.2.1.1 the comparison theory of metaphoraccording to the comparison theory, metaphor is based on some common characteristics, so it is a way to present the hidden analogy or similarity. this argument means that metaphor can be understood as a reduced form of the corresponding sim

26、ile. for example, he is a fox in business. with the comparison theory of metaphor, this sentence can be viewed as he is as cunning as a fox in business.2.1.2 the substitution theory of metaphorthe roman rhetorician marcus fabius quintilian advocated another important theory of metaphor, which is kno

27、wn as the substitution theory. quintilian chose to treat metaphor as a member of the tropes, which involve “the artistic alteration of a word or phrase from its proper meaning to another” (301). he held the view that in a metaphorical expression, the metaphorical word is a substitution of its litera

28、l meaning. for example, in the sentence he is a fox in business, a fox actually substitutes a cunning man and the sentence is understood as he is a cunning man in business. 2.2 the interaction theory of metaphorin a long term, the view that the essence of metaphor is either comparison or substitutio

29、n had been held as a determinate theory, which caused the neglect of further study of metaphor (胡壮麟 50). in 1936, i. a. richards put forward the interaction theory of metaphor that if placed together, two concepts that represent different things can interact with each other, thus producing metaphori

30、cal meaning (王寅 405). his ideas have been developed later on by some great linguistics like max black. the interaction theory of metaphor suggests that the essence of metaphor is interaction between the primary subject and the secondary subject. the interaction of the two subjects activates a system

31、 of associated commonplaces in the audiences mind. for example, in the sentence he is a fox in business, he is the primary subject and a fox is the secondary subject. metaphor projects the associated implications of a fox to he, thus finding the metaphorical meaning he is cunning. the interaction th

32、eory of metaphor is a big challenge to the traditional theories of metaphor. both the comparison theory and the substitution theory limit metaphor to the linguistic level, and they both view metaphor as additional polish to clear literal expression. however, the interaction theory argues that metaph

33、or is pervasive in language and that the metaphorical meaning is from the interaction of two concepts in mind, thus bringing the study of metaphor to human mind. the interaction theory laid foundation for the cognitive study of metaphor.2.3 cognitive perspective of metaphordifferent than the above a

34、pproaches, cognitive linguists study metaphor from the perspective of human cognition and they have proposed many innovative ideas and assumptions.2.3.1 the experiential hypothesis according to lakoff (146), we conceptualize the world on the basis of how we experience it. the core idea of cognitive

35、linguistics is the experiential property of language and thought. both language and thought have their basis on human physical and psychological experience. and the formation of experience does not necessarily need language, which is to say experience is pre-linguistic. for example, when we describe

36、 a mountain, we use words like “top”, “waist”, “foot”, etc. which are from the experience of our bodies. our body experience sets a system of hundreds of primitive metaphors that “we learn automatically just by living in the world everyday” (lakoff 70). 2.3.2 conceptual metaphorin their remarkable w

37、ork metaphors we live by, lakoff and johnson argue that (5) “the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another”. people acquire direct body and social experience from their interaction with the world, which can form primary concepts in their mind. when p

38、eople come into abstract or unfamiliar things, they tend to understand them by making use of those already existing primary concepts or direct experience. “the less clearly delineated (and usually less concrete) concepts are partially understood in terms of the more delineated (and usually more conc

39、rete) concepts, which are directly grounded in our experience.” (lakoff & johnson 109)there is a line in the film valentines day that goes like this, “she is summer sunshine”. i suppose we can agree that this is very touching and easily understood. but how can a man compare a girl to summer sunshine

40、? it is impossible to understand this if we try to find any resemblance in physical appearance between a girl and sunshine. however, cognitive linguistics offers another way of comprehension. normally, in our interaction with the world, we get the experience that sunshine gives us warmth and makes u

41、s comfortable and happy. therefore, if a girl makes a man feel warm and joyful, it is very likely he relate the two together in mind. on the other hand, when we read this sentence, our experience and feelings about sunshine make it easy for us to understand what feelings the girl gives the speaker.

42、yet both the speaker and the listener are usually unaware of the above thinking process. people use the metaphorical language naturally, while as we can see from the example, metaphor is not merely in language, rather it is in our mind. we think and understand a concept metaphorically. therefore, me

43、taphor is regarded as conceptual metaphor and concept as metaphorical concept in cognitive linguistics. 2.3.3 a cross-domain mappingmetaphor, as lakoff defined (43), is “a cross-domain mapping in the conceptual system”. mapping is the activity that we project some of the properties of the more concr

44、ete concept to the other concept so that we can understand the abstract concept in terms of those properties. the source domain can be regarded as a collection of the properties of a concept that helps with understanding, and the target domain, on the other hand, is what we can understand about the

45、less concrete concept in the mapping process. in this sense, it is not difficult to understand that there is a set of correspondences between properties of those two concepts.for example, the metaphor referred to by lakoff and johnson “argument is war” (5) (in what follows, whenever necessary, conce

46、ptual metaphor and certain elements of them, will be written in capital letters) shows the following cross-domain mapping correspondences:war (source domain) argument (target domain)warriors arguing people weapon strong distinct opinions attack criticism to counterparts opinion defense assertion of

47、ones own opinion battlefield the topic argued aboutvictory winning of supportfailure losing of supportin everyday language, it is common that we say “attack his opinion” or “defend his opinion”, or we see the person we argue with as an opponent. however, most of us are not conscious of the cross-dom

48、ain mapping hidden in these expressions. just as lakoff and johnson argued (1), “metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action”. the metaphorical thinking pattern allows us to conceive and talk about argument in terms of war. however, although the concept of

49、war helps with the understanding of argument, it only exposes some not all of the contents of argument. to fully understand an abstract concept needs not only one conceptual metaphor. different metaphors work together to form a more comprehensive understanding of a concept.2.3.4 comments on cognitiv

50、e theory of metaphorcognitive theory of metaphor is so significant that it overthrows the traditional idea that metaphor is merely a kind of rhetorical device. nevertheless, there are several arguments that need more proof.in metaphors we live by, lakoff and johnson argue that (9) “metaphorical enta

51、ilments can characterize a coherent system of metaphorical concepts and a corresponding coherent system of metaphorical expressions for those concepts”. to illustrate this viewpoint, they give the example of metaphors about time. there are three related metaphors that time is money, time is a limite

52、d resource, and time is a valuable commodity (lakoff and johnson 7-8). they then argue that time is money entails time is a limited resource, and the latter entails time is a valuable commodity, thus the three metaphors form a consistent unity that makes it easy for us to understand time. however, t

53、he collection of metaphors about time is merely a typical example of their argument. more evidence and study are needed to testify the argument that different metaphors concerning one concept can form a systematic network. moreover, how does the network is formed also demands further study. besides,

54、 how mapping work is another question. how comes that our mind relate argument to war rather than, for example, robbery? how many can we take from the structures of war to understand argument? how much does the mapping have to do with the concepts themselves and how much does this has to do with con

55、text? in order to comprehend these interesting questions, i need to pursue further learning and study in this regard.iii. the key conceptual metaphors of life in english and chinesethe cognitive theory of metaphor argues that metaphor is a vital means of cognition as people comprehend a less concret

56、e concept with a more concrete one, and that human get primitive metaphors from direct experience through the interaction with the world. however, the theory still needs support of more hard evidence. lakoff and johnson proposed that “since metaphorical expressions in our language are tied to metaph

57、orical concepts in a systematic way, we can use metaphorical linguistic expressions to study the nature of metaphorical concepts and to gain an understanding of the metaphorical nature of our activities” (7). with this cognitive approach, this chapter focuses on one conceptlife and tries to make a c

58、omparative study of the related conceptual metaphors in english and chinese linguistic expressions. even though different cultures do not hold the same view about life, most people get similar experience from ordinary everyday life. a man gets born, reaches the prime of life, becomes older and at the end, dies. inevitably, each one of us has to be confronted with death some day. throughout the one and only life, a person ma