A Cognitive Study Of "?(Fu)" And "?(Mu)" Metaphors In Modern Chinese

Cognitive metaphor has been a core issue in recent years and has been studied in many fields.In 2000,Mark Turner,in his book Death is the Mother of Beauty,gave a thorough investigation on kinship metaphor based on literary texts in the English language.As a matter of fact,kinship metaphor is in general use in modern Chinese,such as“???????(Failure is the mother of success)”and“????(peer colleges)”.The present study,with the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory proposed by Lakoff and Johnson,aims to explore the formation,operation and interpretation of “?(fu)” and “ ?(mu)” metaphors collected from the CCL corpus of Peking University.The exploration is conducted from linguistic,cognitive and cultural perspectives.To begin with,we use “?(fu)” and “?(mu)” as key words to collect relevant data from the CCL corpus,and adopt Steen's MIPVU method to identify metaphorical expressions in the collected data.In this way,we obtain 3647 “?(fu)” metaphors and 11390 “?(mu)” metaphors.According to image schemas of the source domains,we categorize “?(fu)” and “?(mu)” metaphors into four types of schemas,namely,creator,reproductive organ,leader,and fosterer schema.With the help of Concept Metaphor Theory,the study makes a cognitive analysis on “?(fu)” metaphors and “?(mu)” metaphors,probing into the symmetrical features of metaphor formation and factors that influence the formation of the metaphors.The study finds that in the process of constructing metaphors,“?(fu)” “?(mu)” metaphors of the four schematic types feature symmetry,asymmetry and incomplete symmetry.Specifically speaking,1)the feature of symmetry mainly lies in the metaphorical expressions of creator and fosterer schema;2)the feature of asymmetry is generally manifested in all of the four schematic types;3)the feature of incomplete symmetry is embedded in the leader schema.The formation of these features and the formation of the two metaphors are mainly motivated by the analogical thinking and the traditional way of conceptualizing “?(fu)” and “?(mu)” in Han culture.The present study can provide a different approach to researches of Chinese kinship metaphor and help Chinese learners to comprehend “?(fu)” and “?(mu)” metaphors.What's more,the study can offer enlightening insight into lexicography.