A Cognitive Contrast Of Conceptual Metaphors In English And Chinese Economic Discourse

Cognitive linguistics believes that metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also a cognitive tool for people to talk and think about abstract concepts. According to the Conceptual Metaphor Theory put forward by Lakoff & Johnson, metaphor is a mapping from one domain of concept to another. Most of our concepts are metaphorical, and these metaphorical concepts reflect and determine our perception of the physical world and understanding of relevant people and things. Metaphor is pervasive in human languages, and also a process in which people use the familiar and concrete experience to construct the complex and abstract concept. The new theory of conceptual metaphor opens a new area for the cognitive research, and meanwhile it provides us with a new method of studying metaphor in the actual language.So far, systematic studies of conceptual metaphor in the economic discourse have been far from enough. In the economic field, the operation and development of economy is quite abstract for most people. The abstract concepts are always realized through conceptual metaphors. We have found that, in English and Chinese economic discourses, metaphor is often used to map economic concepts and phenomena, which gives us a new perspective to understand the economic phenomena. Metaphors in the economic discourse have become a cognitive activity for people to explain and interpret the concept of an unfamiliar field through a more familiar one. The identification and understanding of metaphor has become an important aspect of comprehending the economic domain, and consequently it has been of great practical significance to study metaphors in the economic discourse.This study attempts to apply the conceptual metaphor theory to the economic field. Corpora are made by the economic discourses selected from the authoritative financial websites both in Chinese and English. With quantitative and qualitative analyses, the study has compared the similarities and differences between the two languages in terms of the conceptual metaphor and metaphorical expressions. Through classification of the metaphorical expressions, the systematicity of conceptual metaphors in economic discourse are verified. Furthermore, the cross-cultural comparison of conceptual metaphor in Chinese and English economic discourse reveals the existence of cognitive universality and cultural relativity. Implications of this study are reflected in promoting ESP teaching and translation practices between the two languages. It also provides a new perspective of studying conceptual metaphor in other types of discourse, such as law, religious, sports and advertising discourse, etc.