A Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor On Chinglish

Chinglish is ubiquitous in the English writings of Chinese college students.Since the causes of Chinglish are complicated,there has been no systematic research to explore the causes of Chinglish at home and abroad.In recent years,studies on second language acquisition(SLA)based on theories of cognitive linguistics have shown considerable concern about the mechanisms of mental interaction between the native language(L1)and foreign language of second language(L2)learners,and one of the major research findings is the explanation of the causes of Chinglish and some other similar issues from the perspective of conceptual metaphor.This thesis discusses the differences between Chinese and English conceptual metaphors and explores the mental and psychological mechanisms of Chinese learners of English generating Chinglish by analyzing their writings and semi-structured interviews.This study first reviews the literature home and abroad on Chinglish,conceptual metaphor transfer and translanguaging,and then based on the result of the literature review,the author perceives translanguaging as the root cause of Chinglish psychological mechanisms and formulates the theoretical framework for the study.Following the guideline of this theoretical framework,the author sets out to collect a large number of English writings by college students.The sources of the writings collected include corpus,books and CET-4 compositions by students from North China Electric Power University(NCEPU).Semi-structured interviews are carried out as a pilot study.The subjects interviewed are non-English major freshmen and sophomores at NCEPU.The interviews are assisted with examples from their own CET-4 compositions.The results from the data analysis show:(1)When there are distinct differences between English and Chinese conceptual metaphors,Chinese learners of English do employ Chinese conceptual metaphors in the formation of English expression and produce Chinglish caused by conceptual metaphor transfer.(2)The traditional classification of conceptual metaphors is not tailored to analysis of Chinglish.Classification from the differences of conceptual metaphors between languages can show more clearly the Chinglish caused by conceptual metaphors.(3)From a deeper level,conceptual metaphor transfer is rooted in the soft-assembled mechanism in translanguaging and enabled by both linguistic repertoire and language practice assembling in English learners' mind.In light of the aforementioned findings,the author puts forward several suggestions on college English learning and teaching:(1)when there is uncertainty about an English expression,students can avoid using conceptual metaphors so as to reduce Chinglish mistakes.(2)Teachers should help students fortify the understanding of conceptual metaphor and to accumulate English conceptual metaphors through teaching students English culture,English vocabulary,and western allusions,etc.Teachers should also apply individualized teaching in accordance of students' aptitude,helping students acquire better usage of English conceptual metaphor for expression through practicing listening,speaking,reading and writing and so on.(3)Teachers can use text analysis method of this paper to analyze students' Chinglish mistakes with suiting their methods to the situation,which will help students to organize language by English conceptual metaphors and improve their writing level at length.