A Study Of Idioms Containing Morphemes Of Internal Organs

The internal organs are very secretive and not prominent because they are located inside the body.The language expression involved may be relatively small compared to other body parts,but these words have their own unique features.In Chinese idioms,there are many idioms with internal organs.This paper selects all four-character idioms containing internal morphemes(heart,liver,gallbladder,intestine,spleen,lung,stomach,kidney)in the Dictionary of Chinese Idioms(Dictionary of Cihai Edition)of Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House as the research object.A total of 668 idioms containing internal organ morphemes are collected.Firstly,the source and evolution of these 668 idioms are explored from a diachronic perspective.Secondly,they are classified from stereotypes and structures from the perspective of synchronicity.Finally,systematically analyzes the inner cognitive mechanism,strive for all-round end type of examining these idioms.The results show that idioms with visceral organs have not only the universal characteristics of idioms,but also their distinctive characteristics.In terms of origin,many idioms containing morphemes of internal organs come from expressions of Buddhism,Taoism and philosophy,which are closely related to Chinese religious culture and ideological beliefs.In terms of evolution,the form change is the most obvious,showing the unique characteristics of many different internal organs morphemes replacing each other,and the idiom semantics are unchanged.It is mainly because the heart,liver,gallbladder,intestine,spleen,lung,stomach,kidney are in the abdomen,they are introverted and all belong to the category of internal organs,part of the semantics of “heart” is radiated to other internal organs,so the morphemes of different internal organs are replaced by each other,but the meaning is unchanged,which further forms a rich joint structural idiom.In terms of structure,there are many subject-predicate forms.People’s emotions change because of the stimulation fromoutside,and the internal organs will produce corresponding physiological changes,so they also have certain initiative.At the same time,the ancients thought that the heart is the source of thinking,so they used the thought generated to develop human initiative to describe human behavior or psychological feelings and other attributes.So there are a lot of subject-predicate idioms.In terms of cognitive mechanism,idioms containing visceral organ morphemes are basically based on the physiological functions of the visceral organs themselves.First construct abstract metonymic paths,then construct a complete cognitive mechanism through visualized thinking mode,with the help of entity metaphor,spatial metaphor,container metaphor and their own cultural constraints,and point to the final meaning to be expressed.Therefore,the cognitive mechanism of idioms containing morphemes of internal organs is the product of the combination of implicit and metonymic and cultural factors.