A Comparative Study Of Chinese And Thai "Eat" And Its Related Structural Metaphors

In our daily life,we will encounter various of problems related to metaphor inadvertently.The metaphors behind each language are different because of various factors,such as culture,custom,language,religion,or the way of thinking.Therefore,when we study the metaphor behind a certain language,we not only study the language itself,but also analyze the culture,custom,way of thinking,religion and other related factors behind the language.Each country,region and nation has certain similarities and differences in various aspects,causing the metaphors behind each language to have both similarities and differences.These similarities and differences will undoubtedly influence the second language learners,so the study of linguistic metaphor will be favorable for beneficial to language teaching.There is a Chinese proverb,called “food,clothing,housing and transportation”Food is an important part of people's life,and it is also a part of culture.It reflects the uniqueness of human culture.Eating habits and characteristics are different from place to place,so the language used in eating is also different.The eating habits and characteristics of each place are different,so the language used in food is also different.Whether in language or in daily diet,the word “eat” appears frequently.Therefore,people link the concept of “eating” with “metaphor”.“Eating” doesn't just means “putting food in your mouth and swallow it”.It can also be used as a metaphor for many other things.For people who are learning a second language,this will be a common mistake because they don't comprehend it,and it will be more difficult for them to learn.Traditional metaphors are different from modern metaphors.Traditional metaphor regards metaphor as a figure of speech,which is a violation and deviation of language convention,but modern metaphor regards metaphor as a cognitive phenomenon and a way of human thinking.This article adopt the modern concept of metaphor in cognitive linguistics and the container schema to analyze the word of “eating” in Thai-Chinese word usage and its metaphorical meaning,“eating” metaphor meaning of generalized,find out Thai-Chinese to “eating” the concept of similarities and differences in cognitive and thinking way,at the same time to find society,culture,geography,religion and other factors that affect the metaphorical meaning of the word“eating”.Metaphor is not only a way of rhetorical,but also a way of human thinking.The language research in this paper is beneficial to the learning of second language.Second language learners can apply container schema in the teaching process to improve the teaching effect.The main research content of this article is divided into 5 chapters,and the specific arrangement are as follows:The first chapter is the introduction.This chapter mainly talks about the reason for the topic selection and the significance of the research.It gives a general introduction to the current research status of the topic selection.On this basis,it determines the research methods and research theories,research objects and data sources of this article,and proposes the innovation of the researchThe second chapter is the semantic comparison of Chinese “eating” and Thai “(?)(Kin)?”.In this chapter,the author combs and compares the dictionary definitions of “eat” in Chinese and “(?)(Kin)?” in Thai.According to the perspective of cognitive linguistics theory,the author uses container metaphor to find out the metaphorical meanings of “eating” in Chinese and Thai,and compares the similarities and differences between the metaphorical meanings of “eating” in Chinese and Thai.