A Contrastive Study Of Illness Metaphor In Ancient And Contemporary Chinese ——Taking The Story Of The Stone And The Things Only Doctors Know As Examples

Lakoff and Johnson pointed out that metaphor is not only a powerful tool for human cognition and expression of abstract concepts,but also a cognitive mechanism based on human physical experience in The Metaphor We Live by（1980）.Illness is one of the most common experiences of human beings.It not only endangers individual health,affects family and social development,but also reflects the course of human civilization.Illness,as an important concept in The Story of the Stone and The Things only Doctors Know,is inserted in the whole novel.Based on the conceptual metaphor theory,this thesis selects the illness metaphors in The Story of the Stone and The Things only Doctors Know as the research objects and attempts to make a contrastive study of illness metaphors between ancient and contemporary Chinese from the perspective of cognitive linguistics.Data analysis shows that 1)Ten major similar illness metaphors are found in The Story of the Stone and The Things only Doctors Know,including ILLNESS IS NATURE,ILLNESS IS PLANTS,ILLNESS IS ANIMALS,ILLNESS IS PEOPLE,ILLNESS IS CONDUIT,ILLNESS IS DIET,ILLNESS IS PHILOSOPHY,ILLNESS IS DOWN,ILLNESS IS A CONTAINER and ILLNESS IS AN ENTITY.2)Seven different illness metaphors are discovered including ILLNESS IS WAR,ILLNESS IS WEAPONS,ILLNESS IS PRODUCTS,ILLNESS IS CONSTRUCTION,ILLNESS IS A JOURNEY,ILLNESS IS COMMUNICATION,and ILLNESS IS AN UTENSIL.3)Through the contrastive analysis of the same illness metaphors in ancient and contemporary Chinese,it is found that the shared physical experience is the basis for the appearance of illness metaphors.The same landscape culture,diet culture and philosophical background make people have the same cognitive experience.Therefore,the illness metaphors in ancient and contemporary Chinese have their similarities.Through the contrastive analysis of different illness metaphors in ancient and contemporary Chinese,it is found that people’s understanding of the body and disease has been improved through the integration of Western medicine,and people’s attitude towards disease has changed through the ideological modernization.Meanwhile,the development of science and technology modernization and industrial modernization has greatly enriched material production.Therefore,the integration of western medicine and the development of modernization add new content to the expression of disease metaphor.Finally,the research findings,limitations and suggestions of this thesis are summarized.Although illness is one of the most important experiences of human body,few illness metaphor corpora have been studied and analyzed.By analyzing the disease metaphors in The Story of the Stone and The Things only Doctors Know,this thesis,on the one hand,provides a new perspective for the study of The Story of the Stone and The Things only Doctors Know,and on the other hand,attempts to provide a reference for the development of conceptual metaphor theory.