A Contrastive Study Of Metaphor In Basic Color Terms Between English And Chinese

Metaphor is not only a figure of speech but also a mode of thought, a universal cognitive mode. It involves itself in people's cognitive activities. We human beings are living in a colorful world. Color cognition plays an important role in people's daily life. As a universal cognition, color metaphors in English and Chinese have much in common. However, color metaphor is also a reflection of different social psychology, customs and religious beliefs, etc.. With profound cultural connotations, color metaphors have caused great obstacles in cross-cultural communication between English-speakers and Chinese. Therefore, it is significant to make a contrastive study on color metaphor between English and Chinese.This thesis focuses its study on six basic color terms in English and Chinese and makes use of inductive and paradigmatic methods. It places its emphasis on analysis of connotations of basic color metaphors between English and Chinese. By the analysis, we can easily find their similarities and dissimilarity and their causes which mainly lie in culture. Through the contrastive study, we may have a deeper understanding of cultures and histories of English and Chinese, which may contribute to our foreign language teaching, bilingual teaching and translation.