Contrastive Analysis Of Plant Metaphors In Chinese And English

Plants have a very close relationship with human beings and affect our life in many aspects for a long time. Therefore, there are numerous plant expressions existing in English and Chinese, most of which have metaphorical meanings. By now, many linguists have researched into plant metaphors from the different perspectives. Unfortunately, they are all limited:some of them analyze the embellishing effect of plant metaphors, and others prefer to discuss the differences of plant metaphors in two languages. Nowadays, we should analyze the plant metaphors from a new perspective.As the development of metaphor study, we realize that metaphor is not only a linguistic, but also a cognitive phenomenon which is rooted in human language, thinking and culture. The conceptual metaphor theory and its mechanism proposed by Lakoff & Johnson provide the scientific method for understanding metaphor. Within the framework of conceptual metaphor theory, the paper is intended to analyze the plant metaphors in English and Chinese, try to find out a relatively well-defined criterion for classifying plant metaphors and explain their cognitive operating processes. Special attention has been paid to the model which emphasizes the mapping from the source domains to the target domains, and also to the experiential grounding of these hundreds of typical metaphorical expressions collected from dictionaries, novels, poems and the internet and so on. The contrastive study of plant metaphors in English and Chinese as well as the analysis of their differences can not only help to overcome the obstacles of communication, but also promote the mutual communication and integration between two cultures.Through the research we prove that the plant metaphor is not only a matter of language as figure of speech, but a mode of thought. The paper gives the evidence to support the scientific conceptual metaphor theory. Meanwhile, by cross-cultural comparison and analysis, we find that there are many similarities and differences in English and Chinese plant metaphors and they embody the similar body experience and different cultures. Therefore, besides the cognitive theory, we'd better comprehend the metaphors with the help of cultural elements. To sum up, the paper proves that plant metaphors are characterized by cognitive universality and cultural variation. It may supplement the study of plant metaphor.