| Love is one of the most special emotions in the world of human emotions.It can neither be seen nor touched,and exists truly in our body with an abstract form.As the experience and understanding of other abstract concepts,people often use familiar and concrete things to understand the abstract emotion LOVE and describe it with metaphorical expressions.Therefore,a detailed examination of the metaphorical expressions related to LOVE can help us to explore the conceptualization process of this abstract emotion.According to cognitive linguistics,metaphor is not only a kind of rhetoric device,but rather an important means for people to understand the world.Conceptual metaphor theory provides strong theoretical support for the elucidation of abstract concepts like LOVE and has a wide range of explanatory power.A Folk song,which is an important way for people to express feelings,can be regarded as a combination of poetry and music.A lot of metaphors are often used in the folk song lyrics to describe the abstract emotion of LOVE vividly.At present,folk songs have been studied from different perspectives,such as sociology,linguistics,and cross-culture,but little attention has been paid to investigate the metaphorical expressions implied in these lyrics.For this reason,based on the conceptual metaphor theory(CMT)and the conceptual extended metaphor theory(ECMT),this thesis makes an attempt to delve into the types and cognitive mechanisms of LOVE metaphors in Chinese and American modern folk song lyrics from the perspective of embodied cognitive linguistics(ECL),trying to explain the sociocultural factors that lead to the similarities and differences of these metaphors between two countries.Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used in this thesis.Firstly,200 Chinese and American modern folk songs are randomly selected in the “Net Ease Cloud Music” app with the number of comments above 999 as a restriction and built a closed corpus of Chinese and English modern folk song lyrics with a total of 59205 words.According to the classification of LOVE conceptual metaphors on the basis of the source domains in these lyrics,it is noteworthy that there are mainly 13 types of LOVE conceptual metaphors,which are “LOVE IS MAGIC POWER,LOVE IS BODY ORGANS,LOVE IS A JOURNEY,LOVE IS A PLANT,LOVE IS A CONTAINER,LOVE IS A UNITY OF TWO INSEPARABLE PARTS,LOVE IS THE MOON,LOVE IS A FATE,LOVE IS A UNITY OF TWO COMPLEMENTARY PARTS,LOVE IS THE SUN,LOVE IS A FIRE,THE OBJECT OF LOVE IS AN ANGEL and LOVE IS A COMMODITY”.Besides,it is discovered that the universalities of five types of LOVE conceptual metaphors can be attributed to the similar physical experience and cognitive models of human beings,while the different national characteristics,ways of thinking,and religious beliefs account for the variations of the other eight types of LOVE conceptual metaphors.This thesis offers a new perspective to probe into the lyrics of Chinese and American modern folk songs based on the conceptual metaphor theory and the extended conceptual metaphor theory.Besides,it not only deepens people’s understanding of folk song lyrics and strengthens their cognitive and aesthetic abilities,but also helps to further explore people’s views about LOVE conceptual metaphors in these two countries. |
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