A Comparative Study On Cold-sensation Metaphors In Chinese And English

Metaphor is an omniprensent linguistic phenomenon in our daily life. The study of metaphor witnesses a long history, which can be traced back to over two thousand years ago. Since the 1970 s, the study of metaphor has expanded its traditional territory from rhetoric and literary criticism to various fields on the common ground of cognitive science. The publication of Lakoff and Johnson’s book Metaphors We Live By in 1980 marked the beginning of studies on metaphor from the cognitive perspective. Since then, many scholars have made their contribution to the study of metaphor from the cognitive perspective.Temperature-sensation is a sort of human being’s perceptive experience by which people can perceive the world around them. Since temperature is a common phenomenon which affects the lives of human being, temperature-sensation words appear frequently in our daily life. The usages of temperature-sensation words are quite complicated, and they are used metaphorically sometimes. However, fewer studies are done on temperature-sensation metaphors compared with color metaphors, body metaphors and animal metaphors. Temperature-sensation words can be categorized into four categories: hot, warm, cool and cold. Among the four categories, the metaphorical use of cold-sensation words appears to be plentiful and flexible. Cold-sensation metaphors refer to conceptual metaphors of cold-sensation words.This thesis makes a comparative study on cold-sensation metaphors in Chinese and English by applying Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory. In order to make an intensive study, the most representative cold-sensation words leng(冷), han(å¯'), and cold are chosen as the research objects. Two authoritative corpora are used as data sources: the on-line corpus designed by Center for Chinese Linguistics, Peking University(CCL) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English(COCA). Cold-sensation metaphors in two languages are studied in terms of their target domains and mapping to find similarities and dissimilarities.This thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter One gives a brief introduction to the whole thesis. Chapter Two presents previous studies on metaphor and previous studies on temperature-sensation words from different perspectives, summarizing what they have already done and what should be further explored. Chapter Three offers the theoretical framework of this thesis: Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Chapter Four makes a comparative study on cold-sensation metaphors in Chinese and English, exploring their similarities and dissimilarities in terms of their target domains and mapping. Chapter Five discusses the motivation underlying the similarities and dissimilarities reflected in the previous chapter. Chapter Six is the conclusion, summarizing the major findings of this thesis and offering some suggested topics or issues for further study.After a careful study, we come to the conclusion that Chinese and English cold-sensation metaphors share many target domains though these two languages are developed in different nationalities. Compared with similarities, there are not many dissimilarities between Chinese and English cold-sensation metaphors. Motivations for similarities attribute to two aspects: consistency in objective conditions(including consistency in objective reality and consistency in physiology) and consistency in subjective conditions(including consistency in psychology and consistency in cognition). Motivations for dissimilarities are in three aspects: distinction of cultural values, distinction of philosophical views, and distinction of thinking modes. This thesis helps us understand the use of cold-sensation words better and can also offer some guidance in the process of English-Chinese translation and English teaching and learning.