隐喻跨语言表征的可接受性实证研究

An Empirical Study on the Acceptability of Cross Language Metaphoric Expressions

这是一个小规模定量和定性语料研究。我们收集了本校英语专业研究生毕业论文答辩的语料,在美国普渡大学征集到了65位英语母语志愿者,请他们对语料中的隐喻表达式的可接受性进行评价。结果发现,汉语和英语共享的概念隐喻在语言表征层面上有差异,即:共享的隐喻内核与异化的语言表征外壳之间存在差异。调查结果显示,英语母语者对这一差异的接受程度不同。我们提出概念隐喻的跨语言表征异化这一概念,基于根隐喻的跨语言表征异化与基于复杂隐喻的相比所造成的交际阻碍较小。我们探究了异化的原因以及对语言教学的意义。

The present paper reports a small-scale quantitative and qualitative study on cross-language deviation of shared conceptual metaphors by English and Chinese languages. The data are from the academic thesis defense context of our English major post-graduates. 65 respondents are volunteers from Purdue University, USA. The findings are, although Chinese and English share some common con- ceptual metaphors, there are cross-language deviations in Chinese native speakers＇ oral output of English metaphors, that is, there is difference between internal shared metaphors and external linguistic representations. The results of the questionnaire show that English native speakers show discrepancy in the acceptance of this deviation. Those metaphoric expressions based on primary metaphors eause less communicative difficulty compared with those based on complex metaphors. In the light of the latest theories and approaches in the field of cognitive linguistics, we probed into the causes for this deviation. This study is of significance to English language research and teaching.