A Cultural Approach To English And Chinese Metaphors

This paper attempts to explore the question of the relationship between culture models and metaphor. To achieve this, the author, on the basis of the comparative study of metaphor definitions and theories in English and Chinese, gives a close and systematic examination to the different manifestations of metaphor in English and Chinese. The whole paper develops from two hypotheses: (1) such a universal cognitive phenomenon as metaphor must tell us a lot about the universalities and individualities of the diverse cultures in the world, including English culture and Chinese culture; (2) as a way of living and looking at the world, metaphor would cause problems in cross-culture understanding and communication.This paper is composed of four chapters. Chapter one begins with the comparison of metaphor definitions and theories in English and Chinese. By doing this, the author advocates that the English word "metaphor" shares much in common with the Chinese "Pi Yu". Chapter two elaborates on the point that metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also a cognitive phenomenon, and it has the property of being asymmetric, systematic and non-arbitrary. Chapter three focuses on the relationship between metaphor and culture models. A large amount of data collected in comparison study from Chinese and English proves the point that metaphor and culture models share a relationship of mutual constraint and promotion. Chapter tour tackles some problems in cross-culture communication caused by metaphors, and otters some working strategies to overcome these problems.It is hoped that some of the ideas in this paper could be of some practical significance in cross-culture communication, and the author would further the research work in this field.