| The study of metaphor has undergone a long history. According to the traditional rhetoric, metaphor is regarded as a kind of rhetoric or ornamental device. However, with the rising of cognitive linguistics in the recent two decades, metaphor is treated as an essential means of thinking and a common cognitive phenomenon which is pervasive and essential in language and thought. Where there is language, there is metaphor. In essence, metaphor is a cognitive tool, by which human beings understand the world around themselves.In cognitive linguistics' view, conceptual metaphor is experiencing and understanding one thing (concept) in terms of another. Conceptual metaphors are something existing deep in human thought and action; while linguistic metaphors are derived from metaphorical concepts. In other words, the daily used linguistic metaphors are the realization of conceptual metaphors. The working mechanism of conceptual metaphor is the mapping from the source domain to the target domain, which is characterized by being systematic, asymmetric, and so on.Emotion is not only the most omnipresent and important experience of human beings but also a vital subject of cognitive linguistics. Cognition and emotion are interactive. The research of emotion is also an important part of exploring human cognition. Abstract though it was, emotion is conceptualized and expressed in metaphorical terms. Metaphor plays an important role in the conceptualization of emotions.Romantic love is commonly regarded as a kind of special emotion which is abstract and hard to describe. Without metaphor, love would be notoriously difficult to pin down. This thesis is a comparative study of love metaphors from the cognitive perspective. Because of the universality in human's thought and behavior, there are similar love conceptual metaphors in both English and Chinese, such as LOVE IS A JOURNEY, LOVE IS WAR and so on. However, influenced by separate culture, philosophy, religion and mode of production, the two languages have their unique ways to conceptualize love, such as LOVE IS COMMODITY in English and LOVE IS MOON in Chinese. Metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also an essential mode of thinking and behavior. Based on the comparative study of love metaphors in English and Chinese from the perspective of cognitive linguistics, this thesis finds that love metaphors in the two languages bear the characteristics of cognitive universality and cultural relativity. At the same time, the contemporary theory of metaphor has been well supported by this thesis. At last, the author hopes that it is instructive to facilitate intercultural communication and foreign language teaching. |
PDF Full Text Request