A Corpus-based Study Of Taste Metaphors In English And Chinese From A Cognitive Perspective

Taste metaphors perform an essential role in our daily life. Five fundamental tastes include sour, sweet, bitter, peppery and salty. Human beings are inclined to associate abstract concepts or images with authentic things we are familiar with and conceptualize abstract images into concrete matters. Taste metaphors come into being in this way. Life experience reveals that people tend to relate sweet with happiness and goodness, like sweet sleep, sweet smile and sweet song while bitter is always linked with confrontation or hardship, such as bitter fight/campaign/competition. This thesis studies taste metaphors in English and Chinese on the basis of synaesthesia metaphor theory. The factors for the commonalities and specialties of taste metaphors between English and Chinese are probed into from Experience Philosophy Perspective and Culture Relativism Perspective respectively. A comparative analysis of taste metaphors between two languages is beneficial for learners and scholars in two aspects. Practically, it could deepen our understanding of taste metaphors, facilitate intercommunication among us, and improve language learning. Theoretically, the relationships between language and culture, language and body experience will be clarified. A qualitative analysis of taste metaphors in English and Chinese is provided according to the data collected from dictionaries and Internet, which clearly presents the linkage of each taste and its corresponding association. All in all, researches on taste metaphors are popular in cognitive field recently. This thesis is a supplement for previous surveys and a reference for future studies.