中英爱情的隐喻对比

Contents

Abstract (1)

Ⅰ. Introduction (3)

Ⅱ. Literature Review (3)

A. The cognitive study of metaphor (3)

B. Conception of structural metaphor (4)

Ⅲ. Homogeneity of Chinese and English structural metaphors of love (4)

A. Love is a journey (4)

B. Love is war (5)

C. Love is a physical force (5)

D. Love is fluid (5)

E. Love is plant (5)

Ⅳ. Heterogenity of Chinese and English structural metaphors of love (6)

A. The difference caused by the diversity of ecomomic structure (6)

B. The difference caused by the diversity of culture (6)

C. Emotional expression in a different way (7)

Ⅴ. Conclusion (7)

Notes (7)

Bibliography (9)

Acknowledgements (9)

Abstract: Love, one of human's deepest and strongest passions, is expressed in hundreds of ways in human civilization.The abstract concept of love can not be fully elucidated without metaphors. Structural metaphor is a mapping from one conceptual structure to another. Chinese and English structural metaphors of love share a similar central conceptual system because of the cognitive similarity. However, the diversity of national cultures makes differences between them. This paper analyzes the homogeneity of Chinese and English structural metaphors of love; and meanwhile it expatiates the heterogeneity of them through comparing the cultural diversities.

Key words: love; structural metaphor; cognition; culture

摘要: 在人类繁衍生息的漫长历史进程中，爱情是人类最厚重久远的感情之一。没有隐喻，爱情这一抽象概念就得不到充分阐释。结构隐喻是指以一种概念的结构来构造另一种概念。由于人类认知的相似性,中英文惯用的爱情结构隐喻有着惊人的相似之处; 而中英不同的民族文化又导致了中英爱情结构隐喻的差异性。本文分析了中英爱情结构隐喻表达的趋同性; 同时通过对中英文化背景异的比较, 阐述了中英爱情结构隐喻表达的异质性。

关键词: 爱情; 结构隐喻; 认知; 文化

Comparison Between Chinese and English Structural

Metaphors of Love

Ⅰ. Introduction

Love is a beautiful but abstract thing. Over the course of history it has been artists, poets and playwrights who have made the greatest progress in humanity's understanding of love. Romance has seemed as inexplicable as the beauty of a rainbow. This beauty is visible gragually after metaphor used in this special field.It seems to be a perfect progress in literature that metaphor has become a poetic way to express the nebulous concept—love. Metaphor is not only a rhetoric device, but a matter of thought and action. Without metaphor,people can not fully understand love. People often use specific or tangible things to describe love, through metaphor, people can express love more visually.

Metaphors have been being studied since the age of Aristotle. Aristotle believes that metaphors exists everywhere anytime in human beings’ life. However, we must know that metaphors can help human beings better understand the new things, categories and concepts. In 1980, scholars George Lakoff and Mark Johnson published the book Metaphors We Live By. It is claimed that metaphor is one of our most important tools for attempting to understand partially what cannot be comprehended totally.1Lakoff and Johnson first put forward conceptual metaphor theory in this book, and try to study human metaphor from the view of human cognition. This paper will focus on studying Chinese and English structural metaphors of love.

Ⅱ. Literature Review

A. The cognitive study of metaphor

The cognitive status of metaphor has been pointed out by many a researcher. Lakoff and Johnson argue that the language of the imagination, especially metaphor is the most significant aspect of our experience as it transcends rationality and objectivity. Thus, meaning is the sum of objective and subjective personal experience with categories, which makes the study of figurative language insightful and enriching.

The creative nature of metaphor suggests that metaphor making is not reliant on