A Contrastive Study On The Linguistic Expressions Of Love Between Chinese And English: A Cognitive Perspective

With the general procedure of"Reality– Cognition– Language"in Cognitive linguistics, it is believed that linguistic study can provide access to the way people perceive the world, since language is the cognitive product of human experience on the basis of interaction with the outside world. Emotion in essence is the special subjective feelings of individuals, accompanied by certain manifestations in appearance and physiology. Yet it is to a large extent conveyed through the medium of language. Thus, the most readily available non-phenomenal access to cognitive studies of emotion is by means of language.Cognitive studies towards emotion conceptualization were initiated at the end of 1980s, with Lakoff and Kovecses as representative figures. All their studies are characterized by the fact that cognitive models of metonymy and metaphor play a pivotal role in the conceptualization process of abstract emotion.Against such a background, this thesis attempts to give an account and comparison of the cognitive models of metonymy and metaphor of LOVE in Chinese and English from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. The present study further testifies the conviction of previous researchers that metonymy and metaphor are powerful cognitive tools for our conceptualization of emotion. On one hand, both of the two languages resort to metaphorical and metonymic cognitive models in LOVE conceptualization in that physiological, behavioral and expressive responses, as well as body organs like heart, eye and hand are used metonymically for reference to LOVE; the semantic development of literal LOVE terms like love,爱is a process of metonymical conceptualization; eight concepts are applicable to both English and Chinese for the metaphorization of LOVE. On the other hand, distinct ways of conceptualization are also identified in the two languages. In Chinese more physical organs are employed to stand for LOVE than in English. And Chinese and English make use of their specific source domains to understand LOVE. We claim that the overlaps in LOVE conceptualization are grounded in human's universal biological capacities, neural structures and bodily experience whereas the variations can be accounted for in different cultural framework. In addition, LOVE metonymy and metaphor are found to be interactive with each other at the conceptual and contextual levels rather than mutually exclusive.