A Comparative Study On Common Word-creation From Figures Of Speech Between Chinese And English

Any word is not only related to the law of structure but also to how it is created. Word-formation and word-creation are two important aspects of words, and they are the very fundamental perspectives in words research. However, in the past, we tended to pay close attention to the inner laws of the word-formation about the existing words in word-formation system, which has caused the ignorance of word-creation research. Too little attention has been attached to word-creation from the perspective of rhetoric word-creation, so the research has become lagged behind so far.In the study of modern Chinese, we often regard that the rhetoric is to organize, adjust and modify speech in order to reinforce the effect of speech communication. However, in fact, the rhetoric is not only used to choose a word, a phrase or a sentence, but also to create new words. In recent years, the phenomenon of rhetoric word-creation is increasing and has pushed more researchers to pay attention to it, but these researches are more concentrated on single rhetoric word-creation than on the systemic research; diachronic study methods and qualitative methods are often employed but comparative approaches are not frequently used in systemic research. It is of great significance theoretically and realistically how to reveal the inner relation between rhetoric and word creation as well as the general process and its characteristics.Comparison is the basis to know about the world and also the usual way of thinking in distinguishing things. Using Chinese-English comparative methods, we distinguish and explain their similarities and differences on the basis of fully observing and describing Chinese-English rhetoric word-creation. We analyze their own characteristics with reference to two languages, which can not only help to promote communicate between two languages, but also reveal their own characteristics of nature. In addition, with the guide of the rhetoric, lexicology, comparative linguistics and cognitive linguistics, we intend to study rhetoric word-creation in more perspectives and provide it with diversified theory platform.The paper consists of 8 chapters. Chapter 1 is the introduction, which introduces the research review of Chinese rhetoric, English rhetoric and the comparison between them. Based on the research review, the achievements and insufficiency are reviewed in these researches. Then the paper introduces its research purposes, research methods, theory foundations and its corpus. At last the two important concepts, word-creation and word-formation, rhetoric and rhetoric-creation are analyzed.Chapter 2 studies Chinese-English metaphor word-creation. Firstly, the paper defines the important terms about metaphor word-formation, and clarifies metaphor and metaphor word-creation, as well as the relationships between metaphor word-creation and metaphor definition. Secondly, the paper sums up the basic types of Chinese metaphor word-creation, and explores the similarity of its whole and part, as well as the link to human body. Thirdly, the paper sums up the basic types of English metaphor word-creation, and discusses the similarity of its whole and part as well as the links of parts of human body. At last, the differences and similarities of Chinese-English metaphor word-creation are summarized. The similarities lie in the cognitive methods and the key constituent elements, and the differences occur to the frequency, figurative bodies and choice the similarity.Chapter 3 studies Chinese-English metonymy word-creation. Firstly, the paper defines the important terms about metonymy and metonymy word-creation, and clarifies the relationship between metonymy and metonymy word-creation. Secondly, the paper sums up the basic types of Chinese metonymy word-creation, and explores the similarity of its whole and part, as well as the links of human body. Thirdly, the paper sums up the basic types of English metonymy word-creation, and discusses its method as well as the links of parts of human body. At last, the differences and similarities of Chinese-English metonymy word-creation are summarized. The similarities lie in the cognitive methods and the key constituent elements, and the differences occur to the frequency, metonymy body and its method in different types.Chapter 4 studies Chinese-English antithesis word-creation. Firstly, the paper defines the important terms about antithesis and antithesis word-creation. Secondly, the paper sums up the basic types of Chinese antithesis word-creation, and discusses the order of antithesis word-creation morpheme as well as relation between it and the meaning of word. Thirdly, the paper sums up the basic types of English antithesis word-creation, and discusses the order of English antithesis word-creation morpheme as well as relation between it and the meaning of word. At last, the differences and similarities of Chinese-English antithesis word-creation are summarized. The similarities lie in the inner structure and order of morpheme, and the differences lie in the frequency and method.Chapter 5 studies Chinese-English parody word-creation. Firstly the paper defines the important terms about parody and parody word-creation. Secondly, the paper sums up the basic types of Chinese parody word-creation, and discusses its phonetic feature and semantic feature. Thirdly, the paper sums up the basic types of English parody word-creation, and discusses its phonetic feature and semantic feature. At last, the similarities and differences of Chinese-English parody word-creation are summarized. The similarities lie in the basic types and process of parody word-creation, and the differences mainly lie in the frequency and inner language structure in different types.Chapter 6 studies Chinese-English onomatopoeia word-creation. Firstly the paper defines the important terms about onomatopoeia and onomatopoeia word-creation. Secondly, the paper concludes the basic types of onomatopoeia word-creation, and discusses its methods and phonetic material. Thirdly, the paper sums up the basic types of English onomatopoeia word-creation, and discusses its methods and phonetic material. At last, the similarities and differences of Chinese-English onomatopoeia word-creation are summarized. The similarities lie in the basic type and the relationship between phonetic and semantic, and the differences can be found in the onomatopoeia word-creation methods and results in different types.Chapter 7 explains the reasons why there are similarities and differences between Chinese and English rhetoric word-creation. The similarities are mainly due to rhetoric common feature, pragmatic rules and cognitive mechanism similarities. The differences are mainly due to different national tradition, language systems and psychological thinking.Chapter 8 is the conclusion. Firstly it concludes the mainly content of the paper, which describes the profile of Chinese-English five kinds of rhetoric word-creation, compares their similarities and differences and reveals the inner causes of them. Finally, the paper points to its own weakness and future research.