Contrastive Study Of Animal Metaphor In Idioms Between Japanese And Chinese

The language phenomenon of Animal Metaphor have attracted interests ofresearchers from Semantics, Pragmatics and Cognitive Linguistics, and have becomemore and more popular in recent years. The studies on Animal Metaphor mainlyfocus on the introduction and explanation of international studies, including thestudies of language phenomenon in Animal Metaphor with reference to connectionalblending theory. Besides, the present studies are about the Animal Metaphorphenomenon in Chinese and English as well as the contrast between the twolanguages, while little efforts have been made to the contrast between Chinese andother languages. All these limitations work as bottleneck, hindering the developmentof Animal Metaphor research in China.Based on materials from China Idioms Dictionary, Japanese Idioms Dictionary,Extensive phraseology Dictionary and Japanese-Chinese Idioms and ProverbsDictionary, this dissertation tries to make empirical research on Animal Metaphors inboth Chinese and Japanese, trying to explore the characteristics in both Chinese andJapanese idioms, and pushing forward the development of cognitive linguistictheories. The dissertation is threefold: first is the type characteristic analysis ofChinese and Japanese idioms. Second is the conceptual characteristic analysis ofChinese and Japanese idioms. Third is cognitive theory analysis of Chinese andJapanese idioms. After analysis on dog, cat, insect and horse metaphor, it is foundthat: first, the animal metaphor in Chinese and Japanese are different in physicalcharacteristic, ecological characteristic and mental characteristic. Second, the AnimalMetaphor in both Chinese and Japanese follow equal principle and diversity principle,among which the former reflects the basic characteristic of animal, the latter reflectsthe culture difference between Chinese and Japanese. Third, the linguistic study onAnimal Metaphor idioms found that the language phenomenon adapt fromconceptual metaphor, which reflect language optimality and is related the context of the metaphor. Forth, researchers in China should emphasize both empirical andtheoretical study on Animal Metaphor, enriching the theoretical framework ofcognitive linguistics. Besides, the theories of cross-cultural study should be used inthe analysis of Animal Metaphor.All these findings will contribute to the further understanding of idioms in bothChinese and Japanese as well as the culture difference. The findings will also beuseful to the practical application of cognitive linguistics, the deepening of AnimalMetaphor study aspects, and the promotion of related studies on animal metaphor.