A Comparative Study Of Conceptual Metaphors In Chinese And American News Discourses On The 19th CPC National Congress

Metaphors We Live By,written by Lakoff and Johnson,was published in 1980.It played a vital role in rising researches about metaphors to the level of cognitive function.Lakoff and Johnson advocated that metaphors were modes of thinking and cognitive means.They believed that metaphors penetrate in every aspect of life.News discourses have no exceptions.The thesis takes the Conceptual Metaphor Theory as the theoretical framework which was put forward by Lakoff and Johnson.25 English news discourses of China Daily and 25 news discourses of Cable News Network?CNN?which span from October 2017 to April 2018 are chosen as research objects.The study mainly aims to make a comparative analysis of conceptual metaphors in these two corpora,and find out the similarities and differences of them,which can reveal the hidden social and cultural basis and ideologies,so as to analyze different functions of conceptual metaphors in both news discourses.The research questions of the thesis are as follows:Firstly,what are the main types of conceptual metaphors used in Chinese and American news discourses about the 19^th CPC National Congress?Secondly,what are the similarities and differences between Chinese and American news discourses on the 19^th CPC National Congress?What lead to similarities and differences?Thirdly,what are the similarities and differences in the functions of conceptual metaphor in the news corpora of the 19^th CPC National Congress?Actually,the study combines quantitative research with qualitative research.Quantitative research mainly about times and frequency of different conceptual metaphors.It is found that a large number of conceptual metaphors are used in both Chinese and American news corpora,which indicate that conceptual metaphors are universal.There are 133 metaphorical expressions and 10 different types of conceptual metaphors in the news discourses selected from the English version of China Daily.And in the selected CNN news corpus,there are 203 metaphorical expressions and 9 types of conceptual metaphors.As for the qualitative research,the employment of Critical Metaphor Analysis which proposed by Charteris-Black,can help to find out the similarities and differences of conceptual metaphors in the Chinese and American news discourses on the issue of the 19^th CPC National Congress,which can reveal the hidden social and cultural basis and ideologies of China and America,so as to analyze different functions of conceptual metaphors in both news discourses.Through the analysis,the main findings of the thesis mainly include:Firstly,the main conceptual metaphors are construction metaphors,journey metaphors,war metaphors,circle metaphors and family metaphors in the news discourses selected from the English version of China Daily,while in CNN,the dominant conceptual metaphors are war metaphors,human metaphors,journey metaphors,religion metaphors and container metaphors;Secondly,the similarities of the conceptual metaphors in Chinese and American news discourses rely in the application of journey metaphors and war metaphors.It is mainly because of the similar embodied experiences of people;While the differences exist in the frequency and the different target domains of the same conceptual metaphors,for example,the war metaphors.What's more,each corpus has its unique conceptual metaphors,such as the core metaphors and color metaphors in China Daily,and the religion metaphors in CNN.The reason relies in the different political stances,and the different ideologies which Chinese and American governments hold;Thirdly,functions of conceptual metaphors in Chinese news discourses are mainly motivation and simplification,while in American news discourses,the main functions are persuasion and filter.To some extent,the thesis can materialize the employment of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory,and can help to cultivate English learners'metaphorical thinking ability and ability to understand news discourses.Besides,it may have a positive impact on foreign language teaching,and can help English learners to better grasp the language and to better understand foreign culture and ideology.