英语习语中的隐喻现象

摘 要

本论文围绕英语习语中的隐喻现象展开，先介绍了隐喻的概念和习语的概念，比如隐喻的含义，从古至今，就有不同的人，不同的学派对此做过研究。至于隐喻和习语之间存在着怎么样的关系，许多学者也对此进行了研究。本文例举了几位比较有名的学者的研究，比如Lakoff和Gibbs这两位学者。本文的重点是介绍习语的隐喻特征，这部分是通过3个方面来论证的：本位隐喻，方位隐喻和结构隐喻。这三方面有其不同的特点，主要是以例子来说明。通过举例的方式可以让读者能更直接地了解英语习语中的隐喻现象。

关键词：习语；隐喻；派别

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ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the metaphorical phenomenon in English idioms, firstly introducing the concepts of metaphor and idiom. Take the definition of metaphor for example, since the old times, many scholars of different schools have different ideas. In terms of relationship between metaphor and idiom, many scholars carried out their own studies. This paper cites the viewpoints of several famous scholars, like Laoff and Gibbs. This paper emphasizes the metaphorical features of idioms from the

ontological metaphors, orientational metaphors and structural metaphors. These three kinds of metaphors have different characteristics, which are explained through examples. The way of citing examples enables the readers to get access to the metaphorical phenomenon in English idioms more directly.

Keywords：idioms; metaphor; schools

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Contents

1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 4 2. The concept of idioms and metaphors ......................................................................... 3 2.1The concept of metaphors ................................................................................................. 3

2.1.1The definition of metaphors ............................................................................................ 3 2.1.2The classification of metaphors .................................................................................................. 4

2.2The concept of idioms ....................................................................................................... 4 2.2.1The definition of idioms................................................................................................. 4 2.2.2The features of idioms ................................................................................................... 5 3.Research on the relationship between metaphors and idioms ...................................... 6 3.1Lakoff's study .................................................................................................................... 6 3.2The Gibbs's study .............................................................................................................. 7 3.3 Other scholars’ study ........................................................................................................ 8 4.Metaphorical features of idioms ...................................................................................... 8 4.1Ontological metaphors and idioms ................................................................................... 8 4.1.1Personification ............................................................................................................... 9 4.1.2 The container metaphor ................................................................................................ 9 4.1.3.A case study of ontological metaphor ......................................................................... 11 4.2Orientational metaphors and idioms ............................................................................... 11 4.2.1 The analysis of metaphoric meaning about UP-DOWN ............................................. 12 4.2.2 The analysis of metaphoric meaning about FRONT-BACK ...................................... 13 4.2.3 A case study: idioms denoting the concept of love ..................................................... 14 4.3 Structural metaphor and idioms ..................................................................................... 15 4.3.1 The internal systematicity ........................................................................................... 15 4.3.2 The external systematicity among the different structural metaphors ........................ 16

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4.3.3 A case study................................................................................................................. 18 5. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 19 6.Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... 20 7.References ........................................................................................................................ 21

1． Introduction

In our study of English, we always come across metaphor, which is widely

used in English sentences and can indicate vivid meanings. However, we don’t have a clear understanding of this rhetoric. Traditionally, metaphor is a figure in which one thing is compared to another by saying that one is the other. But according to cognitive linguistics, metaphor is defined as understanding one conceptual domain or cognitive domain in terms of another conceptual domain. The study of metaphor has attracted the attention of many scholars. In the West there have been many different approaches to the study of metaphor. In 1457, Aristotle studied metaphor as a transference of name, which was known as Aristotelian Approach. The traditional linguistic approach studies metaphor as a deviant phenomenon in language which produces either a false statement or an ungrammatical sentence. The pragmatic approach takes metaphor as a special speech act and metaphorical understanding as the interplay between knowledge of the language system, knowledge of context, and background schematic knowledge about the world and the society, and the interaction approach understands metaphor as an interaction between two subject systems. Nietzsche, Shelly, Werner, Cassirer and Reddy all reflects on metaphor as cognitive phenomenon from the perspectives of philosophy, literary criticism, psychology, anthropology and linguistics respectively. The Knowledge and Language was written by Ankersmit in 1993,which briefly introduced the theories of metaphor, the research ways to metaphor. Kirsten Malmkjaer compared the constructive theory and replacement theory in The Linguistics Encyclopedia. In The Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1967), Beardsley introduced many kinds of metaphoric theories in particular. In China, the dominant approach over the centuries has been the rhetorical

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approach that studies metaphor as a figure of speech. Lan Chun once said “This approach pays a special attention to distinguishing metaphor from other figures of speech and to dividing metaphor into incessantly increasing sub-groups.” [8]49

Idioms are frequently used in our language, both in English and Chinese. Idioms

are special kinds of phrases whose meaning can not be grasped from the superficial perspectives. According to the statistics, an adult uses more than 20 million idioms all over his life, which means 7000 idioms per week. It sounds unbelievable, but it is true. In this way, we may have a better understanding of the important status of idioms in the language. In 1994, the scholar Nunberg divided the idioms into three kinds: decomposable idioms, abnormal decomposable idioms and nondecomposable idioms. In The Comprehensive of Idioms, Cacciari and Tabossi divided the idioms into transparent idioms, opaque idioms according to the degree of transparency. However, in the eyes of Fernando, idioms are composed of pure idioms, semi-idioms and literal idioms. In the understanding of mechanism of idioms, two explanations have been brought up: compositional view and noncompositional view. On the basis of noncompositional view, in 1973, Bobrow and Bell put forward Idiom List Hypothesis, which means the literal meaning of idioms exists prior to the rhetoric meaning. However, Swinney and Cutler were against it, so Lexical Representation Hypothesis came up.On the other hand, on the basis of compositional view, Gibbs and Nayak put forward Idiom Decomposition Hypothesis in cognitive psychology. In China, Zhang Peiji studied the construction and meaning of idioms. In 1998,Chen Daoming issued an article in Foreign Language, talking about the development of understanding idioms. Also, there are many other scholars who contribute to the research of idiom in China, like Hua Xianfa, Lin Weiyan, etc.

This study, based on the previous studies, is expected to make clear the definition of idiom and metaphor from different perspectives, what is more, the relationship between them is also the focus of the study.

The use of idioms can achieve better communicative effects and are conceived to be a sign of language proficiency. This study has theoretical significance, and it may confirm the learnability of idioms through conceptual metaphor approach. In the process of learning idioms, people can not only remember and imitate, but also get access to its deep constructions, especially the metaphorical significance of the English idioms.

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