英汉味觉隐喻对比分析.pdfVIP

Abstract The earliest study of metaphor can be traced back to Aristotle’s times. During that period, metaphor was regarded as a figure of speech, which was used as ornamental devices in rhetorical style. In 1980, the publication of Metaphors We Live By, written by Lakoff and Johnson, made metaphor study a branch of cognitive linguistics. Metaphor is an indispensable tool for us to construct the world. Cognitive linguists maintain that “metaphor is cognitive in nature, and that metaphors are powerful cognitive tools for our conceptualization of abstract categories” (Ungerer Schmid 1996: 114). Our ordinary conceptual system and the mode of living, thinking and acting by which we live are fundamentally metaphorical in nature (Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 3). A number of studies have been made to research on metaphor both in China and abroad. However, only few studies involve taste metaphors, so further study is needed based on the analysis of a large amount of linguistic data of English and Chinese taste metaphors. Taste is indispensible in our daily life, and we often use “taste” words to express what we know in the world. Based on previous studies on conceptual metaphor, this thesis attempts to make a systematic corpus-based investigation into the theoretical basis and cognitive characteristics of English and Chinese taste metaphors including the process, function, organs of taste perception and the physical condition of taste. According to the study, there are more similarities of taste metaphors between English and Chinese than their differences. The similarities come from the fact that taste metaphors are basically rooted in our common cognitive models and common bodily experiences. Our common cognitive models ar