A Comparative Study Of English And Chinese Idioms: A Cognitive Linguistic Approach

This thesis is an attempt to make a comparative study of English and Chinese idioms conveying emotions with a cognitive linguistic approach. Metaphor in traditional theories is only a figure of speech, or a rhetorical device, which is only a matter of language, used to reinforce the expressive effect of linguistic expressions. In the cognitive view, metaphor is not merely a matter of words but is rather a fundamental mode of cognition affecting all human thought and action. Besides, metaphor is closely related to people's experiences. The experience behind each metaphor is specific to a culture, so metaphor reflects cultural accumulations of specific speech communities. Idioms are an important part of language and culture, so the universal human metaphorical thinking is inevitably reflected in idioms; on the other hand, these metaphorical concepts are culture-specific in many aspects.The present thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter one discusses the definition, sources and characteristics of English and Chinese idioms. The idiom means a kind of set phrases or sentences, which, like a stock expression, are often quoted by the common people. The chief sources of idioms are speech of the common people, ancient legends and fables, historical events, classical works, and foreign languages. Both English and Chinese idioms have the features of semantic unity, structural stability, terseness in diction, pervasiveness and strong vitality in use.Chapter two first reviews the study of metaphor from rhetorical and cognitive perspectives. The traditional view treats metaphor merely as a figure of speech with no cognitive function. In the cognitive view, metaphor is not to be seen as merely a matter of words, but a cognitive phenomenon. The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980:5). Our ordinary conceptual system by means of which we live, think and act is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. The cognitive view is developed in two major theories, namely Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and BlendingTheory (BT), which are largely complementary. In this thesis the author adopts CMT as the cognitive approach to study idioms. Then the conceptual metaphors in English and Chinese are analyzed. Orientational, ontological and structural metaphors exist pervasively in both languages, which are illustrated by English and Chinese idioms. Like metaphor, metonymy is not just a figure of speech in literature, but a powerful cognitive tool for our conceptualization of abstract categories. People are able to make sense of the figurative meaning of many unfamiliar idioms precisely because they can rely on the metaphorical interpretation of these expressions. Setting out from culture, the origins of most metaphorical expressions can be identified, and some of the differences can be explained by cultural specificity.In chapter three, a cognitive comparison of "emotion" metaphors in English and Chinese idioms is made. The author analyzes the metaphorical expressions of four basic human emotions (happiness, anger, fear and sadness) in idioms. The analysis reveals that there are same conceptual metaphors for emotions in English and Chinese idioms. This is caused by the universal cognitive mode and experience of human beings. On the other hand, the "emotion" metaphors in idioms are to a great extent nation-specific and culture-loaded.In summary, this thesis reviews the studies of metaphor in the past, and then applies the cognitive theory to the understanding of idioms. On the basis of this theory, conceptual metaphors in English and Chinese idioms conveying emotions are collected and analyzed to find out the reasons for their existence and similarities and differences in different languages.