Abstract

Traditional metaphor studies often focus on its composition and rhetoric function, regarding it as a linguistic ornament used in a special way in the special time and place. However, modern metaphor theory views it as a cognitive phenomenon and a way for human to understand and to conceptualize the world.
There is a certain resemblance between animals’ appearances, habits, characteristics and some phenomena in human society, which has led people to think the similarities between them. One natural outcome of such reflections is that people create idioms connecting the human world and the animal world.
Based on the above factors, this paper makes a comparative study of Chinese and English ‘dog’ related idioms from the perspective of conceptual metaphor, to find the sameness and differences, and discuss the causes of similarities and differences from the cultural model.
In conclusion, the conceptual metaphor that lies behind the “dog” idioms in English and Chinese is the same, that is, “PEOPLE ARE DOGS”. On the one hand, the two languages have sameness of this conceptual metaphor in “dog” idioms, which can be accounted for by people’s similar bodily experiences around the world. on the other hand, the differences reflected in these metaphors related with “dog” idioms are linked with the different cultural models. The findings not only enrich the scope of application of The Conceptual Metaphor Theory, but also benefit English-Chinese translation, foreign language teaching and cross-cultural communication.

Keywords: “dog” related idioms  conceptual metaphor  similarities and differences

摘要
    
传统的隐喻研究主要关注隐喻的构成方式与修辞功能，认为隐喻是人们在特殊的时间和场合以特殊的方式使用的语言装饰物。而现代隐喻理论则认为隐喻是一种认知现象，是人类认识世界、将世界概念化的一种思维方式。
动物的形象和某些习性与人类社会中的一些现象存在着某种相似之处，这引发了人们对两者之间的相似性进行思考。在人类与动物的两种世界范畴中搭建联系的平台，创造了充满哲理、满含意趣的习语。
基于以上因素，本文拟从概念隐喻角度对比分析汉英关于狗的习语，通过对汉英关于狗的概念隐喻进行系统的对比研究，找到其中的相同点和不同点，并从文化模式方面，探讨这些共性和差异产生的原因。
总而言之，在汉英有关狗的习语中，都存在一个共同的概念隐喻,即 “人类是狗”。一方面，汉英两种语言在关于狗的习语方面有相同的概念隐喻模式，这与东西方人们相同的身体体验紧密相关；另一方面，汉英关于狗的概念隐喻的差异性又与不同的文化模式紧密相关。上述研究发现不仅丰富了概念隐喻理论的应用范围，同时也有利于汉英两种文化之间的交流、两种语言之间的翻译以及外语教学。

关键词：狗的习语；概念隐喻；异同