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

Idioms are the gist of languages. They carry more cultural connotation.Idioms are the results of the accumulation of daily life of our human beings. Theyreflect the geographical features, religions, histories, thinking mode, socialcustoms and habits, and social relationships，etc. By the study of idioms, languagecan be deeply understood, so the study of idioms has become a hot topic in thefield of linguistics. However, traditional linguists who study idioms from thesemantic, pragmatic and syntactic perspective hold that the structure of idioms isfixed and indecomposable. Since the publication of the work Metaphors We LiveBy written by Lakoff and Johnson, cognitive linguistics have become prevalent inlinguistics, which provides a new perspective for the study of idioms.This thesis is about the study of Chinese and English idioms from theperspective of conceptual metaphor. By cognitive analyses, the Chinese andEnglish idioms from the aspects of conceptual metaphor----structural metaphor,orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor are studied, and the similar anddifferent features between Chinese and English idioms are discussed, which issignificant for the search work in the field of Chinese and English languages.Firstly, the research significance and methodology is introduced in ChapterOne. Then, in Chapter Two the literature about the knowledge of idioms isreviewed and the theoretical basis is provided. Moreover, in Chapter Three, themeaning of idioms is explored from the perspective of conceptualmetaphor---structural metaphor, orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor.Several categorizations are given in detail for further explanation of each kind ofmetaphors. In structural metaphor, LIFE IS JOURNEY, SITUATION ISWEATHER, and ARGUMENT IS WAR, are all testified with lots of Chinese and English idioms. In ontological metaphor, animals and plants are regarded as thesource domains and many examples are listed to illustrate the point. Inorientational metaphor,“up” and “down” is used to metaphorically mean socialhierarchy, time, state, and quantity. In addition, container metaphor, as a specialkind, is studied, including regarding human bodies and things as source domains.On the basis of former chapters, Chapter Four tells the main similarities anddifferences of Chinese and English idioms and tries to explore the reasons behindthem. Finally, the conclusion is given in Chapter Five that it is a new method tostudy the idiomatic expressions of Chinese and English languages, which dependson people’s experience and cognition, and can be analysed and serves as acomplementary to traditional method. Therefore, the study of Chinese and Englishidioms from the perspective of conceptual metaphor will be of much help forlanguage learners to have better understanding and mastering of the idiomaticexpressions of both Chinese and English languages.