Chinese-english Word "brain" Of Cognitive Metaphor

In the traditional linguistic study, metaphor and metonymy are considered asrhetorical devices and variations in the conventional language. With the development oflinguistics in recent years, especially the constant advances in cognitive linguistics makemetaphor and metonymy gradually accepted by more people as a way of thinking.Nowadays, in both Chinese and English there are quantities of metaphor expressions of thehuman body, on which many domestic scholars have carried out studies, but nobody hasconducted an all-round study of metaphor on the “brain” by searching and collecting therelevant expressions comprehensively, especially in terms of the contrast between Chineseand English. In view of this, this thesis, taking the “brain” word group for example, makesa study of popular metaphor expressions about the human body in cognitive linguistics，mainly taking advantage of some theories in cognitive linguistics and lexicology andcombining description with analysis.Based on consulting four authoritative dictionaries, the second chapter of the thesissummarizes and contrasts the development process and sense division of the semanticmeaning of the word “brain” in the languages of Chinese and English. It also makes anin-depth analysis of the semantic change of the word “brain” in the two languages.Furthermore, in the third chapter, the entire “brain” word group will be listed. Then itcontrasts the cognitive model and word formation in Chinese and English and analyzes thesimilarities and differences between them. In the fourth chapter, combined with a greatdeal of language material, the thesis will give a detailed analysis of the cognitive style ofmetaphor on the “brain” word group searching for similarities, differences and theirreasons in metaphorical cognition between the two languages. In conclusion, in the fifthchapter, the thesis concludes the achievements in the preceding chapters, explains theimperfections of the thesis and anticipates the possible developmental prospect.This thesis, specially starting with the relation between metaphorical cognition withlanguage, culture, thinking, national mentality, geography, historical development andother aspects, attempts to take a supplement to the present situation of human cognition study from the side. Meanwhile, I hope this study may be of some help to teaching Chineseas a foreign language, translation, word study and intercultural communication.