Study On Plant Idioms In Chinese

Idioms are essential parts of Chinese vocabularies, plant idioms areimportant parts of them. Plant idioms root in intimate connection betweenhuman and plants, they are distinctive. Plant idioms are widely used indaily communication, especially in written language. As a phenomenonof cognition, we can find the characteristics of metaphor in plant idioms.The characteristics of plants are mapped from plant domain to othertarget domains with metaphor. On the basis of previous studies, this papercollects all plant idioms in Chinese. Using cognitive metaphor theory, thispaper classify plant idioms into source domains and target domains, thenanalyze the mechanism and the features of metaphor in plant idioms. Atlast, this paper analyze the rhetorical function and cultural function ofmetaphor in plant idioms.It’s a new perspective to study plant idioms with the theory of cognitive metaphor. With this study, we can deepen our knowledge toplant idioms and cognitive metaphor. Furthermore, we can find thecharacteristics of thinking among Chinese. From this paper, we can alsounderstand traditional culture、customs and habits、aesthetic standards inChina.