A Comparative Study Of "happiness" Metaphors In English Idioms And Chinese Chengyu

English idioms and Chinese chengyu play an important role inlanguages, because they are the crystal of people’s long production andlife experience and carry distinctive cultural characteristics. In the past,many linguists paid their attention on the origin, linguistic structure,meaning and rhetorical character of English idioms and Chinese chengyu.However, since George Lakoff and Mark Johnson published MetaphorsWe Live By in1980, cognitive linguistics starts to draw more and morepeople’s attention. In cognitive linguists’ opinions, metaphor is pervasivein everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action, which is acognitive phenomenon. As abstract concepts, human emotions areexpressed metaphorically, so that we can understand emotionalexpressions in a vivid way. The thesis tries to pick up “happiness”metaphors from a Chinese and an English dictionary and then analyzesthese English idioms and Chinese chengyu from the perspective ofconceptual metaphor theory which includes structural metaphor,orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor. The research finds thatthere are similarities and differences between English idioms and Chinesechengyu in expressing “happiness” metaphors and it tries to find outfactors that cause the similarities and differences between them. Because of similar psychological features and emotional experience, both Englishidioms and Chinese chengyu express “happiness” metaphors from theabstract to the concrete. On the other hand, since there are differenthistorical cultures, customs, values and so on,“happiness” metaphorshave their own characteristics in English idioms and Chinese chengyu.The thesis will help foreign language learners have a better understandingof English idioms and Chinese chengyu and master how to use themcorrectly. Besides, it will contribute to the teaching, writing andtranslation of English idioms and Chinese chengyu.