A Comparative Study On The Mutual-metaphorical Lexicon Relating To Body-terms Or Outside Objects Between Chinese And English

Concepts, which can only be expressed in the form of language, find their basic existence in vocabulary. While interacting with the outside world, human beings, based on their own body experience, inevitably borrow terms from their own body to describe the world; hence, a large number of words relating to body are formed. The formation of metaphorical lexicon with body-terms is just the case in point. With the improvement of human cognitive ability and language ability; with the extension of human contact with the outside world; the more knowledge human knows and understands about the world, the more concepts human needs. Thus human gradually interjects the outside world to themselves. Therefore, a lot of concepts and words formerly used to describe the outside world are transferred to name and refer to human body parts and organs in the language system. The formation of metaphorical lexicon with objects is quite natural and understandable.The characteristics of a language are always shown in the comparison or contrast with other languages. A contrastive or comparative study, aiming at the disclosure of similarities and differences of two languages, will benefit language teaching and cross-cultural communication. According to Halliday, two basic principles are to be followed in comparative study. The first one is from description of language to contrast or comparison while the second one is comparing or contrasting language structure not the whole language system. There is no theory which can include all and explain all and a theory can only contrast or compare specific items or structures. This dissertation, beginning from Chinese and English words, employs the method of literature retrieval and classification, comparative or contrastive study, description and explanation, combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis, on the basis of comprehensive reference of morphology, cognitive linguistics and comparative linguistics. Under the guidance of the methods, it makes a comparative study of mutual-metaphorical compounds, idioms and idiomatic expressions with body-terms or objects between Chinese and English. It falls into five chapters. The first chapter is An Introduction in which the concerned terms are defined, then literature review about the latest relevant research is made, and lastly the explanation is given about the background of this topic selection, the target of this research, theoretical foundation, research methods, and the source of research materials.The second chapter is A Comparative Study of Chinese and English Compounds Relating to Mutual-metaphor between Body-terms and Objects in which a definition of Chinese and English compounds is supplied first and after the clarification of their respective functions and positions in their own language system, compounds relating to mutual-metaphor between body-terms and objects in both languages are academically explained. The following research starts with the selection of five common human organs and parts (head, eye, mouth, hand and foot), with a collection of language materials from Chinese-English dictionaries. Based on the materials, an observation and description cover the formative patterns of Chinese and English metaphorical terms with body as vehicle. Then the paper observes and describes the metaphorical compounds from such aspects as animals, plants, dresses and other objects. Thus deductions and analysis to the similarities and differences are from the above observations and descriptions, also the reasons for which are presented. Lastly, a safe periodic conclusion comes out naturally.The third chapter, A Comparative Study of Chinese and English Idioms Relating to Mutual-metaphor between Body-terms and Objects, after clarifying the respective definition of idioms both in Chinese and English in reference to some authoritative dictionaries and scholars, points out the differences and similarities in scope and expression while the author's own ideas are presented as well. Then the definition of idioms relating to mutual-metaphor between body-terms and objects is given. Specific human organs and parts are selected, namely, head, face, eye, hand and heart, and idioms with this five body-terms as vehicle are observed and described and also explained from recognition and culture aspects. Metaphorical idioms based on objects cover fours divisions.The first type is metaphorical idioms based on animals, in which ox, horse, rat, fish and bird are chosen to make a comparative analysis. Description and explanation on similarities and differences on the frequency and style of Chinese and English idioms with animal vehicle are made as well.The second type is metaphorical idioms based on plants. A contrastive study finds that due to different geographical location and life style, metaphorical idioms based on plants in English mainly use vegetables and fruits as vehicle while in Chinese flowers and wood are used.The third type is metaphorical idioms based on dresses. In ancient China, the dress system is very much complicated hence metaphorical idioms based on dresses are used more frequently than that in English and also greatly outnumbered. Metaphorical idioms based on dresses are similar in formation pattern both in Chinese and English, but differ in the types of vehicle. In English the idioms are more concerned with finished clothes whereas in Chinese different parts of the clothes are referred to, which may trace back to the different political system and historical background.The fourth type is metaphorical idioms based on the other objects. Objects from life and work also influence the formation of idioms because of geographical location, life style and religion. The differences lie in the selection of vehicles. Take food as example, in Chinese, wine, meat and rice are common while in English, beer, cheese and egg take the priority. In the end, all these get theoretical illustration.The fourth chapter, A Comparative Study of Chinese and English Idiomatic Expressions Relating to Mutual-metaphor between Body-terms and Objects, starts with the definition of the relevant terms, and points out that in Chinese, such idiomatic expressions always show up in three Chinese characters, with certain statistic data as evidence. While in English, there is no such evident mark, it is suggested that a stylistic consideration can be taken as one of the criteria in defining English idiomatic expressions. After defining the concept and scope of this chapter, it comes to the comparative analysis of Chinese and English idiomatic expressions with body-terms as vehicles in the three aspects of human facial parts, extremities and inner body organs. On the other hand, Chinese and English idiomatic expressions with objects as vehicles are analyzed from animals, plants and the other. From the analysis, a conclusion is safely made that the vehicles are restricted by national culture and connected with different life and working style in both nations which lead to some difficulties in understanding.The fifth chapter is naturally the concluding part. The mapping mode of mutual metaphorical lexicon is summarized which features in mutual interaction; on the one hand, mapping from human domain to non-human domain, on the other hand, from non-human domain to human domain.A deduction goes to the comparison or contrast to compounds, idioms and idiomatic expressions between Chinese and English. The conclusion is that in the formation of metaphorical lexicon based on human body, similarities outnumbered differences while vice versa in metaphorical lexicon based on objects. Metaphorical and metonymical thinking are common for all human beings, but different culture and language types reflect that language and culture are indispensable. In the meantime, Mutual Metaphorical lexicon reflects the interaction between human and the outside world and it is the result of recognition of the world and themselves in both Chinese and English cultures and differences come out naturally from their different metaphor pattern and filtering of their languages and cultures.The research helps to explain the similarities and differences resulting from the formation and manifestation of mutual metaphorical lexicon and it also guides vocabulary acquisition, vocabulary teaching, translation practice between Chinese and English or vice versa, cross-cultural communication etc. The value of the research goes to dictionary compilation as well.