A Comparative Study Of English And Chinese Mouth Metaphor From The Theoretical Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor

As a rhetorical device, metaphor has always attracted extensive attention at home and abroad. And with the emergence of cognitive linguistics in the 1980s, people's understanding of metaphor has reached the cognitive level. According to the conceptual metaphor theory put forward by Lakoff and Johnson, metaphor is a way of thinking, a way of understanding the unknown things through the things already known. Though studies and researches on metaphor have been fruitful, yet most of them focus on the nature, functions and the working mechanism of metaphor and few focus on one specific kind of metaphor—mouth metaphor or mouth metaphors in English and Chinese. This thesis makes a comparative analysis of English and Chinese mouth metaphors with Lakoff and Johnson's conceptual metaphor theory as its theoretical framework. Through analyzing and comparing, the author finds out that there are both similarities and differences in English and Chinese mouth metaphors. Since these two peoples are living on the same earth and they have the same body structure and cognitive competence, thus there are some similarities in mouth metaphors of the two different languages. The reasons for the differences are that the two peoples, English and Chinese, have differences in their geographical conditions, in their national values and in their cultures.To sum up, the study made in this thesis is a try for the comparative studies between English and Chinese metaphors and it is also a supporting document to pave the way for the further studies on metaphor theories. In addition, it is helpful for translation practice and English teaching and learning, thus having some theoretical and practical significance.