Abstract

Language and culture are inseparable, language is the carrier of culture, is the most direct form of external manifestations of culture, and metaphor in the language is a common language phenomenon. Metaphor is a king of artistic rhetoric which is vivid, used frequently and rich on the effect of expression, it is one of the important ways of human cognitive world and oneself. Through the color to express new concepts, something has a color reference it will be formed a color metaphor. Because of cognition commonality of human and human having the same visual mechanism and the nervous system, therefore between Chinese and English, knowledge of color metaphor must be largely common. However, due to various ways of thinking, background cultures, customs, and social systems, there are still differences. This paper first introduces the definition and function of metaphor, briefly introduces the general situation of metaphor research at home and abroad, and further discusses the cognition of color and color metaphor, analyzes the similarities and differences of English and Chinese color terms in the use of metaphor and the reasons for similarities and differences.

Key words:  Color; metaphor; color terms metaphor

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1. Introduction-1

2. Metaphor-2

2.1 The definition of metaphor-2

2.2 Research status and results of metaphor-3

3. Cognition of Color Metaphor-6

3.1 Color-6

3.2 Color terms-7

3.3 Color metaphor-8

4. Comparison of Color Metaphors between English and Chinese-9

4.1 Cognitive commonplace of English and Chinese color terms metaphor-9

4.1.1 The metaphor common features of color terms-9

4.1.2 The common function features of color terms metaphor-11

4.2 Differences and causes of color terms metaphor between English and Chinese-13

4.2.1 The differences in natural environment and historical background-14

4.2.2 The differences in religious beliefs-14

4.2.3 The differences in the way of cognition-15

4.2.4 The differences in literature and art-16

5. Conclusion-17

References-19