Abstract:Metaphor, as a kind of common phenomenon in human’s daily life, is largely applied in both literary works and daily conversations. Metaphor has been long studied. Studies of metaphors can be divided into three parts, the rhetoric approach, the philosophical approach and the linguistic approach. The rhetoric metaphor originated from Aristotle. The philosophic approach of metaphor can date back to Plato, while E. Benveniste from French and S. Ullmann from England are representative figures of the linguistic approach.

-In Lakoff and Johnson’s Metaphors we live by, they point out that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, and our ordinary conceptual system is fundamentally metaphorical in nature. They define metaphor as a tool to understand one-thing in terms of another's properties. The process of metaphor is to understand one conceptual domain (the target domain) in terms of another (the source domain). For the first time in human history, they point out that metaphors have close relationship with human cognitive system from a cognitive view. Metaphors we live by symbolizes the beginning of cognitive metaphor. This cognitive view to metaphors which process great significance has been widely accepted in linguistic and rhetoric circles. This thesis focuses on metaphors with animal images by taking the cognitive approach to metaphor, comparing similarities and differences between English and Chinese metaphors with animal images. Also, elements that cause these similarities and differences will be discussed. 

Through a comparative study of metaphorical expressions with animal images in English and Chinese, this thesis discovers: some animal images have similar metaphorical meanings in Chinese and English, while some possess different metaphorical meanings. In terms of cognitive linguistics, cognitive route shared by all human beings give evidence to the existence of similarities of metaphorical meanings of expressions with animal images in English and Chinese. Different living environment and cultural backgrounds, which also have influence on cognition, make it possible to explain the existence of different metaphorical meanings of expressions with animal images in English and Chinese.

Keywords: metaphor; animal images in languages; comparison between English and Chinese

Contents

中文摘要

Abstract

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

Chapter 2 Metaphor-3

Chapter 3 Comparison of Animal Images in English and Chinese-5

3.1 Animal Images with Similar Metaphorical Meanings in Both Chinese and English-5

3.2 Animal Images with Different Metaphorical Meanings in English and Chinese-6

3.3 Different Animal Images with Similar Metaphorical Meaning in English and Chinses-7

Chapter 4 Causes of Similarities and Differences-9

4.1 Cognitive Effect-9

4.2 Environmental Effect-10

4.3 Cultural Effct-11

Chapter 5 Conclusion-13

References-15

Acknowledgements-16