A Comparative Study Of English And Chinese Basic Taste Words From The Perspective Of Lakoff’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory

Metaphor is always a hot topic in linguistic study. The earliest research on metaphor can be traced back to Aristotle. However, metaphor was only regarded as a rhetorical device at that time. With the rapid development of linguistics, cognitive linguistics has became a new course and aroused many scholars’ attentions since 1970 s. In 1980, Metaphor We Live By published by Lakoff and Johnson opens a new page on metaphor study. The theory proposed by them has became what we know as Conceptual Metaphor Theory, which holds the idea that metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also a cognitive mode, a way of human’s basic thinking and conceptualizing the outside world. Metaphor is a mapping process from a concrete domain onto an abstract domain, and it complies with some regularities during the process.Taste is one of human beings’ most fundamental and important perceptual abilities. The creation and extension of the metaphorical meanings of basic taste words are closely connected with human’s cognizing and experiencing the outside world. Thus, studying the five basic taste words is equal to studying human’s cognitive mechanism. There are large numbers of metaphors of taste words in two language systems, with abundant senses and extensive ranges, which are comprised of mappings from basic taste domain to various target domains, such as the person domain, the emotion domain, the life domain, the time domain, the weather domain, etc.. However, the two language systems are affected by different culture and thinking mode, leading to different metaphorical expressions between English and Chinese language systems. Consequently, the author selects metaphors of these five pairs of basic taste words, sweet&tian, sour&suan, bitter&ku, spicy/hot&la, salty&xian as representatives both in English and Chinese, based on Lakoff’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory, aiming to reveal similarities and differences between English and Chinese cognitive mode and analyze the reasons underlying them, from a comparative perspective.For the organization, the paper is divided into three sections, an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. Its main contents are as follows:The first section is introduction, which provides a brief introduction to the research topic, significance and purpose of the research, questions needing to be solved, as well as the layout of the whole thesis.The second section is the main body, which consists of four chapters:Chapter One first reviews the previous studies on metaphor and conceptual metaphor both at home and abroad, and then offers an overview of the historical researches on metaphors of taste words at home and abroad, finally, it makes a summary.Chapter Two is mainly concerned with the theoretical foundation and methodology of the thesis.Chapter Three is the key part of the thesis. This chapter respectively makes a comparative research on metaphors of sweet&tian, sour&suan, bitter&ku, spicy/hot&la, salty&xian, between English and Chinese. It aims to classify and illustrate a large number of examples choosing from taste words corpora, to show similarities and differences between two language systems and to make a clear and direct comparison. The findings indicate that English and Chinese metaphors of basic taste words share some similarities, meanwhile, they bear differences. There are mappings from the same source domains onto various target domains between English and Chinese, however, the metaphorical senses are not totally the same. There are not one to one corresponding usages of some metaphorical expressions between two language systems. The author finds that there are three kinds of relations in the transformation of metaphorical meanings in taste words between English and Chinese. Meanwhile, the author summarizes that the metaphorical meanings of English and Chinese taste words obey four regularities when they are mapping.Chapter Four explores the deep causes which bring universality and individuality of metaphors in five pairs of basic taste words between English and Chinese. It proposes that common physical experience and common cognitive mode are the main reasons to bring similarities; while, different food culture, thinking mode, historical factor and religion factor are main reasons leading to differences.The last section acts as a conclusion.This thesis makes a comparative study of English and Chinese metaphors of basic taste words based on Lakoff’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory, which is of great importance for theoretical and practical significance. For the theoretical values, it helps us to explore and master two language systems, to know more about the characters of culture and thinking mode between English and Chinese, to study cognitive linguistics from a cultural perspective deeply. Studying metaphors of basic taste words can prove that Lakoff’s theory is feasible to explain particular language phenomenon. Simultaneously, the paper broadens the applied scope of Lakoff’s conceptual metaphor theory, especially on English and Chinese basic taste words. It also provides a theoretical method for related studies. For the practical values, the research findings can be directly used in vocabulary teaching and translation. The understanding of metaphorical expressions makes cross cultural communication more effective. It is easier for English and Chinese people to understand each other and reduce misunderstandings, thus it strengthens the communication and the integration of two nations.