A Study Of Chinese Campus Catchwords: A Conceptual Metaphor Perspective

With the development of mass media and high technology, popular culture has stirred a rising cacophony throughout the world. Language is closely attached to culture and is a mirror of the latter. Popular language is an essential part in the dynamic change of popular culture. The newly emerged popular expressions have received attention from scholars in various disciplines including sociology, philosophy and linguistics. As the youth is a major community of popular culture and campus students is a typical representative group, Chinese campus catchwords is chosen as the object of this study.This thesis aims to explore the meanings of current Chinese catchwords on campus so as to provide a platform for westerners to know about our popular culture among college students. Based on the literature review of relevant studies, this study tries to conduct an empirical survey on Chinese catchwords on campus with the instruments of questionnaire and interview. Furthermore, it will discuss about their meanings from the perspective of cognitive linguistic metaphor, aiming to analyze the conceptual metaphors among the current campus catchwords as well as the features and context of these catchwords.Researching along the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, a large proportion of metaphors is used among the Chinese campus catchwords. Ordinary conversation contains various metaphors which is not just a rhetoric device but moreover a way of thinking. The strange-looking catchwords actually have some motivation based on conceptual metaphors. In the current 75 Chinese campus catchwords surveyed among the four universities in Wuhan, China, 56 metaphorical expressions can be categorized into 12 conceptual metaphors, subdivided into 5 ontological metaphors, 5 structural metaphors and 2 orientational metaphors. Under each conceptual metaphor, there are pairs of metaphorical expressions. The metaphorical catchwords cover a wide range, including different codes for people, classroom studying, different states of mood, expressions of supporting and opposing, courtship with the other gender and expressions to describe certain situations. Half of the metaphors are human-centered, with source domains varying from plants, animals, food and natural phenomenon. A number of campus catchwords reveal the psychological emotions of the youth. Several are about their curricular and extracurricular activities. These catchwords develop in the context of college life with the unceasing spreading of popular culture.