A Cognitive Analysis Of Chinese Idioms Based On The Theory Of Image Schema

Idioms, an important component of C hinese that have fixed structures, concise linguistic forms and integrated meanings, always draw the attention of numerous scholars. In the linguistic area, there is a recent tendency that idioms are investigated from cognitive perspective, which underscores the inseparable association between language and language users‘ embodiment. Since the structure, acquisition and usage of language are believed to derive from the basic conceptual system on the basis of the daily bodily experience, the meaning of most idioms should be non-arbitrary and defined by the patterns existing in the conceptual system, e.g., image schemas.The image schema, as a schematic representation, emerges from human embodied experience through daily interactions with the external world. It lays the foundation for metaphoric mappings between concrete experience and abstract concepts, and helps us understand various kinds of abstract concepts and semantic phenomena. The analysis of idioms based on image schemas can consolidate the link between embodied experience and the meaning, and deepen our knowledge of the cognitive attribute of idioms.This thesis aims to explore how experience-based cognitive structures serve as the schematic basis for idioms and how image schemas function in the meaning-construction and comprehension of idioms. The Chinese idioms in this study are selected from CCL and Hydcd(an online dictionary of idioms) as research materials. Mainly the qualitative research method is adopted to interpret idioms in terms of image schemas. The result indicates that both structures and meanings of most idioms reflect the seven basic categories of schematic structures and logic. Applying experience-based image schemas to the meaning-construction and comprehension of idioms helps to reveal the connections between the literal meaning and metaphoric meaning, and then establish the mappings between different cognitive domains in the interpretation of idioms. This study offers some theoretical and practical significance. It not only provides evidence on the feasibility of image schemas in interpreting idioms, but also offers a supplementary perspective on the relationship between cognition and language. Meanwhile, it also promotes the cognitive research and mea ning comprehension of idioms.