A Contrastive Study Of The Metaphorical Use Of English And Chinese Basic Color Terms-from The Theoretical Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor

Within the framework of Lakoff and Johnson’s conceptual metaphor theory, thisthesis is designed to make a contrastive study on the metaphorical use of English andChinese basic color terms, taking “black” and “white” as examples, which enjoyuniversality in all languages. Based on a great quantity of data, this study focuses onthe categorization of the target domains of those metaphorical expressions with“black” and “white”, and the exploration of the factors leading to the similarities anddifferences of the mappings.The research findings are as follows: the target domains of the color metaphorstaking “black” and “white” as the source domain in English and Chinese sharesimilarities and enjoy exclusiveness at the same time; the similarities shared by thetarget domains of English and Chinese basic color metaphors are the inevitableoutcome of the identical physiological conditions and similar bodily experience; theexclusiveness English or Chinese enjoys is under the influences of distinctive livingenvironments and peculiar social cultures.Since the study of color metaphors at home and abroad is still at the initial stage,the immaturity can be reflected in both the theoretical construction and the practicalexploration. Therefore, this research enjoys some significance, theoretically andpractically. In theory, this research makes some contribution to a relatively systematicstudy of target domains and mappings of color metaphors. In practice, this study maybetter people’s understanding of color metaphors, which possibly improves theircommunicative competence, facilitates English teaching and leaning and enhancestranslators’ capability.