A Contrastive Study On The Metaphor Of Temperature

Etymologically, the word'metaphor'originates from the Greek word'metaphora', which consists of two roots:'meta (whole)'and'phora(transfer)', indicating the expression of the entailments of one meaning in terms of another. As a rhetorical approach, metaphor is not something new or strange. However, it hasn't been taken into account in the study of cognition until the beginning of the 20th century. The conceptualization power of metaphor is universal. Instead of being a rhetorical approach, metaphor is cognitive in nature, a concept realized through language. In general, it is an indispensable tool in people's cognition.The metaphor of temperature possesses a very special position in our cognitive process. Different from other metaphors, the realization of the concept of temperature requires the utilization of the'up-down'orientational metaphor. Meanwhile, the four sub-concept of metaphor: hot, warm, cool, cold and all other things and phenomena related to them form a gestalt of the temperature concept, which can be used as a source domain to metaphorize other concepts.The dissertation initially deducts the hypothesis of the metaphorical construction of the concept of temperature based on the source domain of the'up-down'orientational metaphor. Then an analysis of the Chinese and English data of the metaphors related to the concept of temperature is made. According to the analysis, it can be concluded that the orientationally metaphorized concept of temperature can be used as a source domain to be mapped into other fields.