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摘 要隐喻不仅是语言的一种修辞手段, 而且是一种思文方式。英汉语言包含大量的动物隐喻, 承载着丰富的文化内涵, “蛇”在中英文化中有着很深的根源，如中国神话故事中的女娲和圣经中的撒旦。本文以动物词语“蛇”作为研究对象，学习隐喻概念的普遍性，并对英汉语言中“蛇”的隐喻意义的异同以及其产生的原因进行了对比分析, 这不仅有利于我们更好地了解彼此文化异同促进外语学习, 而且能够促进民族之间的交流与融合。28767
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毕业论文关键词：动物隐喻；蛇；对比分析
Abstract Metaphor is not only a rhetorical device of language, but also a way of thinking. English and Chinese languages have long history, including a large number of lively and vividly animal metaphors, which carry rich cultural connotations. As we all know that the image of snake has rooted in both Chinese and British culture at the very beginning of each civilization, and we can trace these back to the Chinese legend story of Nü Wa and Satan in the Bible. I choose animal words “snake” as our object to study the pervasiveness of metaphor in conceptualization. Analyzing the similarities and differences of snake metaphors in English and Chinese metaphors and its causes, we can better understand the cultural similarities and differences between them, enhance foreign language acquisition and promote exchanges and fusion between nations.
Key words: animal metaphor; snake; comparison and analysis
A Cognitive Analysis of Animal Metaphors in Chinese and in English—Take “Snake” as an Example
Contents
摘 要.i
Abstract.ii
I. Introduction1
II.Metaphor Theories..2
2.1 Conceptual Metaphor Theory.3
2.2 Conceptual Blending Theory3
2.3 The Exemplified Application of CMT and CBT4
III.Snake Metaphors in Chinese and English7
3.1 Overview of Snake Metaphors7
3.2 Snake Metaphors in Chinese .8
3.3 Snake Metaphors in English .9
3.4 The Differences Between Snake Metaphors. 10
IV. Causes of Universality and Variation of snake metaphors 12
V. Conclusion14
Bibliography16
Acknowledgments.17
I. Introduction
The earliest study of metaphor owning to Aristotle, who put the metaphor as a figure of speech, to make the article more beautiful. In 1980, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson brought metaphor at the height of cognitive science through their book Metaphors We Live By. Now the study of metaphor has gone beyond the category of rhetoric, and therefore, metaphor is regarded as a way of cognition and a way of thinking about things. Metaphor is to use a concept to replace another concept. A lot of metaphors exist in the process of human cognition, in which animal metaphor is an important part. Human beings and animals contact frequently. In this process, people will find some similarities between characteristics of animals and people or other things. Using imagination, human beings map these characteristics of animals to people and other objects, then achieving the conversion of meaning between different concepts.
This thesis begins by emphasizing the importance of metaphor to human beings’ thought, and then it highlights the lack of studies on animal metaphors, particularly the metaphors concerned with animals in Mandarin Chinese and British English cross linguistically. In order to address this lack, this paper targets three objectives to locate the similarities and differences between Mandarin Chinese and British English on snake metaphorical expressions.
As an important section of cognitive semantics, metaphor fails to receive just treatment neither from most people nor from the non-cognitive linguists. The former regard it as a device of poetic imagination and rhetorical flourish on the one hand and a feature of language on the other, which result in their belief that they can handle things without paying heed to metaphor. The latter only regards it as one figure of speech which is only an ornamental device used in rhetorical style.