Comparative Study Of Conceptual Metaphors In Chinese And American Economic News Headlines From Cross-cultural Communication Perspective

Cognitive linguistics holds that metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon,but human beings'cognitive activity.So based on which,human beings can employ the concrete familiar experience to comprehend the more abstract and unfamiliar experience in their life.Lakoff and Johnson's conceptual metaphor theory provides a new angle for metaphor research.During these years,the conceptual metaphor theory has been applied in various fields,including economic field.Then,grounded on the conceptual metaphor theory and the predecessors'research results,through data analysis,this thesis combines the exemplification analysis and cultural interpretation,aiming to make a contrastive research of conceptual metaphors in both American and Chinese economic news headlines and their working mechanisms,then probes the cultural factors influenced their application.The materials are selected from authoritative economic news websites and newspapers from 1st September 2016 to31st December 2017.The Chinese economic news headlines are mainly chosen from The Economic Observer(?????),China Daily(????),People's Daily(????)and the the American news headlines are taken from The Washington Post,USA Today and The Economist.Through the data collection and analysis,the conceptual metaphors in the selected news headlines are classified and the similarities and differences in the application are analyzed.After that,four typical conceptual metaphors are analyzed in detail:HUMAN BEING metaphor,WAR metaphor,WEATHER metaphor and GAME metaphor.Finally,this thesis probes the cultural factors in three aspects:the geographical environment,religious beliefs and value orientations.Based on the analysis,it can be found that conceptual metaphors are pervasive in both Chinese and American economic news headlines,and that they can be classified into 11 types according to different source domain,in which the frequently used conceptual metaphors are HUMAN BEING metaphor,UP-DOWN metaphor,WAR metaphor and JOURNEY metaphor.HUMAN BEING metaphor,UP-DOWNmetaphor,WAR metaphor,PLANT metaphor and WEATHER metaphor are frequently used in Chinese and HUMAN BEING metaphor,UP-DOWN metaphor,WAR metaphor,JOURNEY metaphor and SPORTS/ GAME metaphor are frequently used in English.The similarities and differences in application of conceptual metaphors in the two languages are closely related to the thinking mode,cognition and physical experience in western and eastern cultural background,meanwhile,it is the resultant of interaction of different cultural systems and values.According to linguistic study,language,culture and society are inseparable with each other.Different thinking modes and cognitive patterns are embodied incisively and vividly based on different cultural background.Moreover,with the help of conceptual metaphor theory,the analysis of cultural factors behind different economic phenomena contributes to people's understanding of abstract economic activities,the development of news media as well as the further study of intercultural business communication.