A Comparative Study Of The Conceptual Metaphors Of Smell Nouns Between English And Chinese

Nose,as one of the important sensory organs,has different meanings in different contexts.Within the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory,both quantitative and qualitative methods are adopted to study the metaphorical extensions of "bi" in Chinese and"nose" in English,on the basis of the corpus of Center for Chinese Linguistics PKU(CCL)and British National Corpus(BNC).This thesis explores the similarities and differences of the metaphorical expressions on "bi" and "nose" and their causes.The major findings are as follows:There are both similarities and differences between the metaphorical extensions of"bi" and "nose".The similarities are:"bi" and "nose" have six target domains in common:the domains of emotion,vital part,distance,perceptibility,person and protrusion;both "bi" and"nose" are frequently used to indicate emotion;all the metaphorical usages are consistent and systematic.In the meanwhile,the percentage of metaphorical extensions on "bi" is higher than that of "nose";the domains of beginning,setback,appearance,decisive factors for the existence,face,and tiny hole only occur in Chinese,while the domains of probe and direction only occur in English;and even the domains in common may occupy different percentages.The author finds that similarities are caused by similar physical experiences and cognitive mechanisms,while differences result from their unique natural environments,cultures and historical backgrounds.This study may arouse the cultural awareness of a language learner.Besides,it has some practical value in the learning and teaching of expressions on nose in Chinese and English.