The Metaphorical And Metonymic Study On English And Chinese Idioms

This thesis is a cognitive study on English and Chinese idioms in the framework of conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy. It aims at exploring the cognitive mechanisms of the formation and understanding of English and Chinese idioms.Idioms form a common phenomenon existing in every language in the world. They are rich in meaning, unique in grammar and immense in numbers, arousing interest of many scholars. However, scholars in different fields view idioms from different perspectives. Therefore, diverse ideas and theories concerning idioms arise. Generally speaking, there are two views on idioms, i.e., traditional view and cognitive view. Traditionally, idioms are regarded as"dead metaphors"and they are noncompositional in nature, which emphasizes arbitrariness of idiomatic meanings. In contrast, cognitive linguists take a new approach to idioms. They hold the view that idioms are compositional and conceptual in nature. Idioms are forms of language expressing human conceptual structure based on human experiences. Cognitive mechanisms, such as conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy, provide semantic motivation for idioms.Different types of conceptual metaphors: structural metaphor, orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor, together with conceptual metonymy serve as cognitive mechanisms for the study of English and Chinese idioms. Based on these theories, a great number of idioms in English and Chinese have been given to prove that idioms are analyzable and motivated by human cognition. In sum, this thesis reviews the studies of metaphor and metonymy in the past, and then applies the cognitive theory to the understanding of idioms in English and Chinese. Such a study is expected to shed some insightful light on idiom learning and understanding.