A Comparative Study On Metaphors Of Basic Taste Words Between English And Chinese Languages

The study of metaphor has already had more than two thousand years of history.Traditionally,metaphor is regarded as a figure of speech,only the ornament of language.However,with the development of cognitive linguistics,linguists start to study metaphor from the perspective of cognition and its iconic work is Metaphors We Lived By published in 1980.Conceptual Metaphor Theory is put forward in the book,which believes that metaphor is not only a matter of language but also a cognitive phenomenon and a basic way of thinking,cognition and conceptualization.The metaphorical study of taste words is also regarded as the study of cognitive abilities of human beings in that taste is one of the most direct and familiar bodily experiences.The thesis adopts the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and its working mechanism proposed by Lakoff and Johnson to study the metaphors of English and Chinese basic taste words including sour/suan,sweet/tian,bitter/ku,salty/xian1 and xian2,uses qualitative research method and collects data mainly from CCL Corpus and British National Corpus(BNC)together with some from authoritative dictionaries in order to enrich the data.The focus of the thesis is the comparative study of the conceptual expressions of five basic taste words,aiming to find out the conceptual metaphors and target domains of them in attempt to get similarities and differences between the conceptual metaphors of English and Chinese taste words,the reasons for the similarities and differences,and the evidence of the extension of meaning of taste words.The result of research shows that sour/suan,sweet/tian,bitter/ku and salty/xian1 have many metaphorical uses.First,In the process of analyzing the target domains of them,the author finds that these four one-to-one corresponding taste words show many similarities to some extent and they get different metaphorical meaning,though they are mapped onto the same domain,which indicates that individuality exists in commonness.Among the four basic taste words,the similarity degree of metaphors is sweet/tian first,bitter/ku second,sour/suan third and salty/xian1 last.The similarities of taste words are derived from the similarities of cognitive patterns and common bodily experience.Second,corresponding taste words can be mapped onto different domains or get different metaphorical meanings on account of the differences between different cultures including word-formation rules,histories,regions,thinking patterns and values and so on.Third,the study shows that as the fifth taste word,there is no word for taste of umami in English,which is a transliteration of a Japanese word.Nevertheless,taste of xian(?)in Chinese has a long history and many metaphorical uses,which is very energetic.Another finding of the thesis is that there is no taste of umami in English,which has nothing to do with the differences between physiology,but is determined by the simplified degree of western and eastern cookery.In theory,the comparative study of metaphors of five basic taste words further verifies the Conceptual Metaphor Theory and bears certain significance for the understanding of cognitive basis.At the same time,the thesis explores salty/xian1 and umami/xian2,which enrich the study of taste words to some extent.In practice,the results of the analysis have a certain reference function for dictionary compilation,vocabulary teaching,translation and cross-cultural communication.Meanwhile,they can better promote the communication between two countries,raise the awareness of culture differences,reduce misunderstanding and finally realize efficient communication.