A Study On The Contrastive Analysis Of Prototypical Metaphorical Words In Moyan’s Frog From The Perspective Of CMT

FROG is a novel written by Mo Yan who is a contemporary Chinese writer.As the first novel to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in China,it has important research significance.This thesis makes a comparative analysis of the conceptual metaphor of the two texts by studying the Chinese and English versions of FROG.The first chapter is the introduction of the research background,and explains the purpose and significance of this thesis,as well as the research methods and means used in the thesis.The second chapter is an overview of conceptual metaphor research at home and abroad,discovering some existing research problems.The thesis finds that conceptual metaphor is more and more frequently used in both domestic and foreign literary works and plays an important role in literary works.The third chapter is the basic theories of this thesis.It included that four schools of conceptual metaphor which contained Aristotle’s comparison theory,Quintilian’s substitution theory,Max Black’s interaction theory,and the most important theory in this thesis that is Lakoff & Johnson’s experiential theory.As for the contrast and analysis of conceptual metaphor between Chinese and English versions of FROG,the thesis makes a detailed analysis from the three types and two attributes of conceptual metaphor.The fourth chapter,as the core chapter of this thesis,it is the focus of the whole thesis.This thesis makes an analysis of four typical metaphorical words,wa(frog,baby,nvwa and wow),compares the similarities and differences of conceptual metaphors between the two cultures,and explains the reasons for this situation.At the same time,this thesis illustrates the different dimensions of correspondences between source language and target language.As the last chapter of this thesis,the findings of the thesis are presented as follows:(1)Conceptual Metaphor theory is a very effective cognitive tool for digging out the metaphorical thoughts in Mo Yan’s work.(2)A comparative study is carried out in the thesis.The research resultdisplays the fact that there are some similarities between source language and target language,such as whether in Chinese or English,the working mechanism of cognitive metaphor system is unchanged,and the commonness between languages is not in the form of language expression,but in people’s cognitive psychology.Meanwhile,there are some differences between source and target languages,which forms the barriers for understanding Chinese culture.(3)This thesis explores the motivations for giving rise to the differentmetaphorical mechanism between Chinese and English in Mo Yan’s work such as thinking styles,religious beliefs and social systems.(4)The thesis also finds out some strategies for understanding Chinese classic literary works for the reader of English-speaking countries.This thesis hopes that the contrast and analysis of conceptual metaphor between the Chinese and English versions of FROG will enable students to have a deeper understanding of the differences and similarities between the two cultures in literary works,and thus make a reasonable use of conceptual metaphor theory.