A Comparative Study Of Conceptual Metaphors In Chinese And American Economic News Headlines

Metaphor has always been a heated topic under discussion for linguistic studies. Up to now, researchers have established various theories about metaphor. Among the studies of metaphor, there is no systematic comparative study of conceptual metaphors in Chinese and American economic news. Therefore, this thesis made a comparative study of conceptual metaphors commonly used in American and Chinese economic news headlines.The main goal of the present study is to find out the similarities and differences between the conceptual metaphors in Chinese and American economic news headlines. It also aims to support the conceptual metaphor theory of cognitive linguistics with specific language evidence.Firstly, this thesis introduced studies of metaphor at home and abroad. Then it elaborated some related concepts and ideas about conceptual metaphor theory: THE GREAT CHAIN OF BEING, the universality of conceptual metaphor, the partial nature of metaphorical mapping and the cultural differences of conceptual metaphor. Based on THE GREAT CHAIN OF BEING proposed by Lakoff and Turner in 1989, this thesis classifies the conceptual metaphors into five basic categories.The significant findings of the study can be summarized as follows:(1) All the five sub-categories of conceptual metaphors can be found in both Chinese and American economic news headlines. It shows that the conceptual metaphors in both Chinese and American economic news headlines include five categories. This also supports the universality feature of conceptual metaphor in economy.(2) The frequencies of different categories of conceptual metaphors in Chinese and American economic news headlines are different.(3) Due to the differences of broader cultural context and natural physical environment, there are cross-cultural variations between the conceptual metaphors in American and Chinese economic news headlines.(4) According to Kovecses, economy system is the human body. Kovecses also claimed that it is not really the entire person that serves as the source domain of this metaphor but only the body of the person. But this is not the real case according to our study in this thesis. Not only the human body but also the entire person can serve as the source domain.(5) In the American economic news headlines and the Chinese economic news headlines, at least there are five kinds of conceptual metaphors to structure and comprehend the economy system.Though the findings of the investigation have been obtained, there are still limitations in my study.(1) In this thesis, the main theory we adopt is conceptual metaphor theory. In future studies, some other theories can be used in the discussion too.(2) This study only made a comparative study between the American and Chinese economic news headlines. More newspapers should be investigated.