A Contrastive Analysis On The Conceptual Metaphors Of "Leng" Between Tang Poems And Song Lyrics

With the development of economic globalization in recent years,cultural globalization has sprung up rapidly.As a nation steeped in culture,the extensive and profound Chinese culture has attracted more and more foreigners to learn it.The comprehension of Chinese ancient literature is the basic and inevitable element of learning Chinese culture.As an important part of Chinese ancient literature,Tang poems and Song lyrics faithfully reflect people's life styles,social customs and national situations at the time when they were produced,in that sense,the value of Tang poems and Song lyrics is on only aesthetic,but also social and historical.However,language,cultural background and thinking habits set up a huge gap for foreigners to understand and accept Chinese ancient literature.Understanding the metaphors in Tang poems and Song lyrics can make it easier and better to fully understand the artistic conception of them.Over the years,there are plenty of studies about metaphors in Tang poems and Song lyrics.However,the studies on temperature metaphors in them are rare,especially on the word “Leng(?,which means cold in English)”.This thesis takes “Leng” in Tang poems and Song lyrics as the object,and makes a systematic corpus-based study of it under the guidance of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory.This thesis aims to address three research questions:(1)What target domains are “Leng” mapped onto in Tang poems and Song lyrics?(2)What are the similarities and differences between the target domains of “Leng” in Tang pomes and Song Lyrics?(3)Why do those similarities and differences exist in Tang poems and Song lyrics?In order to answer the above questions,this thesis makes a quantified study on the conceptual metaphors of “Leng” in Tang poems and Song lyrics based on Quan Tang Shi and Quan Song Ci,and the works of sixteen well-known poets are chosen in our data.Among them,Li Bai,Bai Juyi,Du Fu,Liu Yuxi,Du Mu,Cen Shen and Wang Wei are the poets of the Tang Dynasty,and Su Shi,Xin Qiji,Zhang Xiaoxiang,Liu Guo,Li Qingzhao,Liu Yong,Zhou Bangyan and Cao Xun are the poets of Song Dynasty.The gender of poets,different poetry schools and themes are also taken into consideration in the selection.So the typicality and generalization of the study can be guaranteed.By analyzing the conceptual metaphors of “Leng” in their works,the major findings of this systematic thesis are as follows:First,according to their own life experiences,human beings express their images and emotions by means of metaphors of “Leng”.With the concept of “Leng” as the source domain,there are multiple metaphor mappings,whose target domains in Tang poems are vision,emotion,attitude,social and economic status and state of things,and target domains in Song lyrics are vision,emotion,attitude,social and economic statues,state of things and relationship.Most of abstract target domains reflected in metaphors of “Leng” in Tang poems and Song lyrics are the same,except the relationship domain which exists in Song lyrics but not in Tang poems.Second,when reflecting the same target domain,different mappings are showed between Tang poems and Song lyrics.Third,“Leng” is used more frequently in Song lyrics than in Tang poems.Finally,according to the previous studies,the similarities and differences of metaphors of “Leng” in Tang poems and Song lyrics are presented.These similarities are caused by the following reasons: coincident human experience,the universal cognition of the world and the inheritance of language.While the different historical backgrounds,personal experience and styles of poetry cause the differences between metaphors of “Leng” in Tang poems and Song lyrics.This thesis provides theoretical basis of cognitive linguistics for further studies on Tang poems and Song lyrics to some extent.In addition,comprehending the metaphors of “Leng” in Tang poems and Song lyrics can help foreigners understand those poems better,and it can also contribute to transmitting Chinese ancient culture and deepening the influence of Chinese culture on the world.