英汉“人是物体”概念隐喻的对比分析

An English-Chinese Study of the Conceptual Metaphor HUMANS ARE OBJECTS

认知语言学认为,隐喻是普遍存在的,是人类的一种认知工具。语言中遍布的隐喻表达是由于人类概念系统中存在着概念隐喻,但不同文化中的概念隐喻是否相同需要跨文化的研究。语料表明在英汉中都存在"人是物体"这个概念隐喻,而对比由此衍生出来的隐喻表达,可以为概念隐喻提供跨文化方面的依据,并为一词多义现象提供了合理的解释,这对语言的教与学都有帮助。

Cognitive linguists argue that metaphors are pervasive in everyday hte and act as cognluve instruments. And currently it is generally agreed that these widespread metaphoric expressions in language derive from conceptual metaphors which are believed to exist in our conceptual system. However, we need the cross - culture study to prove the universality of conceptual metaphors in different cultures. Linguistic materials reveal that there exists the conceptual metaphor HUMANS ARE OBJECTS in English and Chinese. By contrasting these English and Chinese metaphoric expressions which originate from this conceptual metaphor, we can find cross - cultural evidences for conceptual metaphor theory. Meanwhile, the study provides sound explanations for polysemy and is beneficial to language teaching and learning .