英语习语中的概念隐喻

Conceptual Metaphor in English Idioms

习语是英语的重要组成部分,其最大来源是人类本身的各个部位。Lakoff&Johnson提出的概念隐喻理论认为隐喻是人们思维、行为和表达思想的一种系统的方式,是通过一个概念去理解另一个概念,即源域向目标域的单方向性映射,也就是跨域映射实现的,在这一过程中,目标域概念的某一(些)元素被凸显,而其他元素则会被隐藏。本文用概念隐喻理论分析了英语中的人体部位习语,发现英语习语里的隐喻使用非常广泛,认为认知语境对于跨域过程中的凸显和隐藏有很大影响,制约着习语的形成和我们对英语习语的运用和理解。

Idiom is an important part in English language whose resource is mainly human body parts.Lakoff Johnson proposed the theory of conceptual metaphor,believing that metaphor resides at the level of conceptual domains.It is a process of mapping from source domain to target domain,in which certain aspects of the target are highlighted while simultaneously other aspects are hidden.This paper analyzes the idioms composed of human body parts on the base of conceptual metaphor,finds out that metaphor is widely used in English idioms,and concludes that cognitive context has an important influence in the cross-domain mapping process of highlighting and hiding and constrains our expressing and understanding of English idioms.