A Comparative Study Of Dog Idioms In English And Chinese From The Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor

Since Lakoff proposed The Conceptual Metaphor Theory in the seventies,metaphor is not merely viewed as a simple linguistic phenomenon but also as a wayof thinking and cognition. Lakoff defined metaphor as a way of understanding onething in terms of another. And he believed that the metaphorical expressions in thelanguage are the surface representations of metaphorical thinking.Animal plays a vital role in human life and so is the case with animal idioms inlanguage use. L.P. Smith (1925) has pointed out that the “dog” and the “horse” playthe most important roles among all animal idioms. Taking The Conceptual MetaphorTheory as the theoretical foundation, this thesis compares the conceptual metaphors indog idioms in English and Chinese, trying to answer the following three questions:(1)What is/are the conceptual metaphor(s) in dog idioms in English and Chinese?(2)What are the similarities and differences in the conceptual metaphor(s) of the dogidioms in English and Chinese?(3) What are the reasons for these similarities anddifferences?In this thesis, the data are mainly collected from English and Chinesedictionaries, altogether twenty three. After classifying, analyzing and comparing thedata collected, the present thesis yields the following findings:(1) Metaphors inChinese dog idioms boil down to one conceptual metaphor, i. e.,“PEOPLE AREDOGS”, which can be further divided into eight sub-categories, carry six negativemetaphorical meanings and two positive metaphorical meanings. Metaphors inEnglish dog idioms can also be summarized as one conceptual metaphor “PEOPLEARE DOGS”, which is divided into thirteen sub-classes, including seven negativemetaphorical meanings and six positive metaphorical meanings.(2) We come to theconclusion that the conceptual metaphors about the dog idioms in English andChinese languages can both be described to “PEOPLE ARE DOGS”, in which bothpositive and negative metaphorical meanings are found. There are five sameconceptual metaphorical meanings in the two languages, which are stubbornness, lewdness, inferiority, degeneration and loyalty. Different places lie in the fact thatthere are more positive metaphorical meanings in English than in Chinese. Andsemantic discrimination against women is more obvious in English dog idioms than inChinese dog idioms.(3) The similarities can be accounted for by the cognitive modelof animal metaphors proposed by Lakoff and Turner in1989, that is, The Great Chainof Being, while the differences are mainly due to the different life experiences andcultural motives.In conclusion, the findings not only enrich the scope of application of TheConceptual Metaphor Theory, but also benefit English-Chinese translation, foreignlanguage teaching and cross-cultural communication.