A Comparative Study Of Metaphors In Animal Idioms Between English And Chinese

Metaphor, a cognitive phenomena, has gone through thousands of years’ study. Ithas significant role in linguistics. The study of metaphor can be traced back toAristotle who brought a great upsurge in studies of metaphor. Starting from rhetoricalpoint of view, Aristotle reveals the characters of metaphor and its important role inpoetry. Besides, he realizes its cognitive function, however, his study of metaphor isconfined to rhetoric.Later on, scholars like Roman rhetorician Quintillian and I. A. Richard studymetaphor from different angles and viewpoints. Quintillian puts forward “SubstitutionTheory”. He regards metaphor as rhetorical ornaments, which can be substituted by anequivalent literal name. While, in year of1936, I. A. Richard proposes his theory of“Interaction”. In his works, Richard reveals the relationship between metaphor andthinking. Later, Max Black improves his theory by claiming that metaphor is theinteraction between a metaphorical expression and the context in which it is used.During the past two decades, cognitive science has tremendously challenged thestudy of metaphor as a literal, direct correspondence to external world. Lakoff andJohnson, among a lot of scholars, have put forward a new prospect for the study ofmetaphor from cognitive angle. They propose the idea that our understanding of theworld is experiential, and the categories of our everyday thought are largelymetaphorical and imaginative. Their work Metaphors We Live By (1980) is regardedas a significant milestone in cognitive linguistics. Human languages are full ofmetaphors, as Lakoff and Johnson call it conceptual metaphor. The understanding of ametaphor rely on Cross-domain Mapping from source domain to target domain.In China, the study of metaphor can be traced back to Pre-Qin dynasty. Mo Zigives the first definition of metaphor in his book Mo Zi: Xiaoqu (“辟也者，举他物而以明之也”).“辟” means using one thing to substitute another. Later, scholars inancient times like Xun Zi, Confucius, and Liu Xie study metaphor from differentangles. Xun Zi refers in his works that metaphor is a substitution of another thing.According to Confucius,“譬” is a kind of rhetoric. Liu Xie, a theorist in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, refers “隐喻” in his literary review. In modern times, thestudy of metaphor in cognitive perspective begins to flourish. Liu Ningsheng’stranslation of Lakoff&Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By brings the study of metaphorin China to a new stage. The study of metaphor begins in cognitive perspective. Lateron, Lakoff and Johnson’s another work Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things isintroduced into China. Shu Dingfang’s Studies on Metaphor in2000proves its greatimportance in the study of metaphor. Professor Hu Zhuanglin published his Metaphorand Cognition in2004, which is a cornerstone to domestic study of metaphor incognitive perspective.This thesis makes a comparative study of metaphors in animal idioms in Englishand Chinese from a cognitive perspective. Idioms which are quoted from The Factson File Dictionary of Proverbs, A Dictionary of American Colorful Idioms, OxfordDictionary of Idiom, Sterling Dictionary of Idioms, and 《汉语成语辞海》 arecollected and placed together, aiming to find out the similarities and differences incognitive metaphors between two language systems.This thesis mainly concerns about three aspects. To begin with, how do theuniversality and contradiction of the animal idioms embody in English and Chinese isthe first thing that should be considered. Different language systems are unique andexclusive. Whether English and Chinese have university and contradiction arouses theauthor’s interest to explore. Secondly, the influence of language on the understandingof English and Chinese idioms is another problem that is worth studying. Thirdly,according to Lakoff, the meanings of metaphors are highlighting and hiding, therefore,whether all the characters of animals are mapped onto human beings and to whatextent.According to Lakoff’s CMT, the author conducts a comparative study ofmetaphors in animal idioms between English and Chinese. To conclude, first, thereexists university and similarities between English and Chinese. From the analysis wecan see that metaphors animal idioms work in a similar way both in English andChinese because of the same animal archetypes. Second, there are many factorscausing the difficulty in understanding animal metaphors. They include distinct cognitive pattern and cultural exclusiveness. This thesis mainly explains from theangle of religion, culture, as well as customs. We can understand human beings’appearance, behavior, characters, emotions, or biological states in terms of animalsand also understand animals in terms of humans. Last, according to Lakoff andJohnson’s masterpiece, Metaphors We Live By, the meanings of metaphors arehighlighting and hiding. Not all the meanings that belong to animals are mapped ontohuman beings. Only part of them do map on human beings.In the thesis, the author, to some extent, mainly focuses on the study ofmetaphors in animal idioms from cognitive perspective, comparative perspective,together with cultural perspective. Based on the Lakoff and Johnson’s ConceptualMetaphor Theory, the mapping process is one-way direction. Besides, knowing thecultural differences will help understand metaphors. This thesis not only provides a lotof evidence for the study of metaphors in animal idioms, but helps English learnersunderstand the working mechanism, the formation, and culture of animal metaphors.Furthermore, it enhances learners’ translation skills and cross-cultural communicationas well.