A Comparative Study Of ECONOMY-AS-CREATURE Metaphors In English And Chinese

With the development of cognitive linguistics, the perception of metaphor has changed drastically in recent years. In the traditional rhetoric, metaphor is regarded only as a figure of speech, while in cognitive linguistics it is studied as systems of human conceptualization, operating in human thought and cognition and, at the same time, surfacing in everyday language in a systematic manner. As an important cognitive tool concerned with the way we construct reality, metaphor is so important to help us understand the world that it has become the metaphor we live by.This thesis is intended to apply the contemporary cognitive theory of metaphor to economic discourse, which, for its complex and abstract nature, is rife with metaphors. From a cognitive perspective, it is virtually impossible to think of or talk about economy in any serious way without conceptualizing it metaphorically, because metaphor is"the main mechanism through which we comprehend abstract concepts and perform abstract reasoning"(Lakoff, 1993: 244)For the above purpose, a comparative study is conducted, which focuses on one principal conceptual metaphor, namely ECONOMY-AS-CREATURE in both English and Chinese. The aim of this comparative study is, apart from supporting the cognitive theory of metaphor, to place metaphor in a wider cross-cultural perspective, which"is a weak link in the study of metaphor and a great deal of work needs to be done for further study"(Shu Dingfang, 2004: 439).In this comparative study a great number of ECONOMY IS CREATURE metaphors in both English and Chinese are investigated to reveal the conceptual systems behind. It is found that three sub-categorizations, namely ECONOMY IS A PERSON, ECONOMY IS A PLANT and ECONOMY IS AN ANIMAL do exist in both languages. This accounts for the similar cognitive mechanisms used by English and Chinese speakers to conceptualize economy as a whole. It is also found that the conceptualization of economy in both two languages is strongly influenced by the English and Chinese cultures. Such culturally related elements as gardening, medicine and myth determine the differences in the way people use specific metaphorical expressions.This thesis will demonstrate metaphor's role in making abstract concepts accessible to those without specialized knowledge of economy. Therefore, it will offer further evidence for the contemporary theory of metaphor in cognitive linguistics, particularly from the perspective of Chinese. At the same time, understanding the significance of metaphor will lead to useful and motivating applications to the teaching of the English language, not only in those areas where economics and business are concerned, but also in many other contexts as well.