Abstract

Metaphor traditionally is regarded as a figure of speech. Yet, according to the cognitive linguistics, metaphor is more of an essential way of thinking than merely a common language phenomenon. In the book Metaphors We Live By, Lakoff and Johnson propose the conceptual metaphor and point out that most concepts in human minds are metaphorical.
Because of the same brain structure(which is the organ of thought) and external environments, people with various cultural backgrounds may share common understanding of most concepts, i.e. metaphors in different nations may have similar cultural interpretations. Meanwhile variations do exist due to specific social history and geography.
Against the background of cross-cultural communication and with the aid of relevant theories of metaphors in cognitive linguistics and Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, this thesis tries to make a general classification of metaphors concerning color, animal, plant and body part words. A contrastive study of metaphors between these Chinese and English words are then followed in terms of cultural connotation and interpretation. For instance, the color red calls up the image of blood and revolution in both cultures, but in China, it more often than not embodies positive meanings like happiness, brightness and progress while in English culture it indicates violence and rebellion. The auspicious animal dragon in China is a symbol of supremacy while English people deem it as evil. Again,  the pet dog in English culture has a much lower and humble position in China. Cultural similarities and differences can also be found in plant metaphors as well as in metaphors concerning body parts and they further generate inspiration on the cognitive role metaphor plays in SLA, the vocabulary learning in particular. In general，we should cultivate our cognitive metaphor competence and cultural sensitivity in the process of vocabulary learning as to make the latter more interesting and effective.

Key words: metaphor, culture, Chinese-English comparison, vocabulary

摘要

传统上隐喻被看作是一种修辞手段，而根据认知语言学观点，隐喻本质上是人类一种重要的认知模式。在《我们赖以存在的隐喻》一书中莱考夫和约翰逊提出了概念隐喻命题，并指出人类头脑中的概念大部分是隐喻的。
人类思维器官大脑的结构相同，加之共同的外部生存环境，为不同文化背景的民族提供了对大部分概念具备共同认识的基础，即隐喻有着近似或相同的文化共性，然而受各自社会历史发展水平和自然地理环境等具体因素影响，不同民族的隐喻理解也烙有显著文化差异。
本文置于跨文化交际这一大背景下，主要从认知语言学角度，运用隐喻的相关理论研究及萨丕尔与沃尔夫假设中的语言文化关联理论来分析比较中英词汇中隐喻的文化内涵异同，通过截取两者语言中的颜色词汇，动植物词汇及相关人类身体部位的词汇，对其中的隐喻文化差异进行一个相对直观和形象的认识。如在对基本颜色词“红”的讨论中发现，红色尽管能唤起两个民族对流血和革命的联想，但在中国文化中红色更多的时候代表喜庆及革命中正面进步的意义，而英语文化中红色往往带着暴力叛乱等负面色彩。而在对动物词汇的隐喻比较中，也可以发现中英两个民则对同一动物往往持有不同乃至截然相反的褒贬态度，在中国文化中象征吉祥和无上皇权的龙在西方文化中则被看成邪恶的力量，而西方人视为亲密伙伴的狗，在中国则是比较低贱卑微的动物。这样的文化共性和差异还存在于中英植物词汇及身体器官的相关词汇的隐喻表达中并借此发现和探讨隐喻思维能力培养在外语（英语）词汇学习中的重要性，通过隐喻加深文化理解，透过文化来理解隐喻，使外语词汇学习和文化学习结合起来，从而摆脱机械单一的模式，使学习过程更具趣味和效率。

关键词：隐喻  文化 中英比较  词汇