概念隐喻理论关照下的英汉习语对比分析
摘要
习语是语言的结晶,每种具有悠久历史的语言都蕴含着丰富的习语。英语和汉语中的习语丰富多彩。一般来说,本族语言使用者比外语学习者更熟悉习语,这是因为习语往往承载着深刻的文化内涵。
著名语言学家莱考夫的《我们赖以生存的隐喻》一书发表以来,人们对隐喻的关注与日倍增。本文尝试运用概念隐喻理论研究习语,以英汉习语为语料,用概念隐喻对其进行对比分析,寻找出相似点和不同点,进而探索这些相似点和不同点背后的原因。
习语是语言中的特例。习语往往反映人们居住的自然环境,生活习惯和风俗传统,宗教信仰以及历史背景,蕴含着丰富的文化内涵和民族特色。习语是语言中较为复杂的成分,正是这种复杂性吸引了许多学者进行各种各样的研究。
由于习语的复杂性,人们对习语的看法可谓莫衷一是。传统上,人们从纯语言的角度观察习语,习语具有一定的语法属性和特殊意义的词汇类型,兼备模糊、不可分割、不可分析的特性。这种传统的观点无法解释习语在句法和意义上的灵活性,忽视了习语和概念系统的联系。而认知语言学家认为,习语是概念性的;语言不仅仅是获得认知途径和语言的意义,而是事件在人们认知心理上的反映。
对概念隐喻理论主要从结构隐喻、方位隐喻和实体隐喻三方面进行论述,我们发现英汉习语之间有许多相似之处,当然差异也是显而易见的。通过对比,我们可以从新的视角来分析、研究、学习习语。英汉两种语言在认知理据,哲学依据,文化根源上的异同是语言认知特别是习语认知的重要环节。
Idioms are the crystal of languages. Every language with a long history is rich in idioms. English and Chinese abound with idioms. In practice, native speakers are familiar with idioms than foreign language learners because idioms carry profound cultural implications.
After the publication of The Metaphor We Live By written by Lakoff, people had been paying increasing attention to metaphor. The thesis aims to apply conceptual metaphor theory to the study of idioms. Based on English and Chinese idioms, the study is intended to making a contrastive study on idioms based on conceptual metaphors in order to find similarities and differences. And the factors underlying these similarities and differences will be explored.
Idioms are a special case of language. They reflect the natural environment, living habits and customs, religious beliefs as well as historical background of the people and are thus always rich in cultural connotation and national flavor. As a result, idioms are the most complicated elements in language, thus attracting many scholars to do various studies on them.
Due to complicatedness of idioms, we could say idioms are not just expressions as normal words, phrases and even sentences, they are a symbol of society to be said exaggeratedly. A problem has long being existed– understanding of idioms properly. Until now, there is still not a once and for all key to the problem. Views diverse on what idioms are. Traditionally, idioms are observed from pure linguistic perspective as a larger category of words with certain syntactic properties and special meaning, and they are taken to be items of lexicon being semantically opaque, non-compositional or un-analyzable. They fail to account for the syntactic and semantic flexibility of idioms and neglect the relationship between idioms and our conceptual system. On the contrary, cognitive linguists argue that idioms are conceptual, language is just the access to cognition and the meaning of the language just the happenings reflected in our psychological cognition.
In this thesis, structural metaphor, orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor are discussed, and similarities and differences are obvious. Through contrast, it is a new way of learning idioms under metaphorical theory. And it is cognitive, philosophical, and cultural reasons that deserve our attention in the process of idiom cognition.
著名语言学家莱考夫的《我们赖以生存的隐喻》一书发表以来,人们对隐喻的关注与日倍增。本文尝试运用概念隐喻理论研究习语,以英汉习语为语料,用概念隐喻对其进行对比分析,寻找出相似点和不同点,进而探索这些相似点和不同点背后的原因。
习语是语言中的特例。习语往往反映人们居住的自然环境,生活习惯和风俗传统,宗教信仰以及历史背景,蕴含着丰富的文化内涵和民族特色。习语是语言中较为复杂的成分,正是这种复杂性吸引了许多学者进行各种各样的研究。
由于习语的复杂性,人们对习语的看法可谓莫衷一是。传统上,人们从纯语言的角度观察习语,习语具有一定的语法属性和特殊意义的词汇类型,兼备模糊、不可分割、不可分析的特性。这种传统的观点无法解释习语在句法和意义上的灵活性,忽视了习语和概念系统的联系。而认知语言学家认为,习语是概念性的;语言不仅仅是获得认知途径和语言的意义,而是事件在人们认知心理上的反映。
对概念隐喻理论主要从结构隐喻、方位隐喻和实体隐喻三方面进行论述,我们发现英汉习语之间有许多相似之处,当然差异也是显而易见的。通过对比,我们可以从新的视角来分析、研究、学习习语。英汉两种语言在认知理据,哲学依据,文化根源上的异同是语言认知特别是习语认知的重要环节。
Idioms are the crystal of languages. Every language with a long history is rich in idioms. English and Chinese abound with idioms. In practice, native speakers are familiar with idioms than foreign language learners because idioms carry profound cultural implications.
After the publication of The Metaphor We Live By written by Lakoff, people had been paying increasing attention to metaphor. The thesis aims to apply conceptual metaphor theory to the study of idioms. Based on English and Chinese idioms, the study is intended to making a contrastive study on idioms based on conceptual metaphors in order to find similarities and differences. And the factors underlying these similarities and differences will be explored.
Idioms are a special case of language. They reflect the natural environment, living habits and customs, religious beliefs as well as historical background of the people and are thus always rich in cultural connotation and national flavor. As a result, idioms are the most complicated elements in language, thus attracting many scholars to do various studies on them.
Due to complicatedness of idioms, we could say idioms are not just expressions as normal words, phrases and even sentences, they are a symbol of society to be said exaggeratedly. A problem has long being existed– understanding of idioms properly. Until now, there is still not a once and for all key to the problem. Views diverse on what idioms are. Traditionally, idioms are observed from pure linguistic perspective as a larger category of words with certain syntactic properties and special meaning, and they are taken to be items of lexicon being semantically opaque, non-compositional or un-analyzable. They fail to account for the syntactic and semantic flexibility of idioms and neglect the relationship between idioms and our conceptual system. On the contrary, cognitive linguists argue that idioms are conceptual, language is just the access to cognition and the meaning of the language just the happenings reflected in our psychological cognition.
In this thesis, structural metaphor, orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor are discussed, and similarities and differences are obvious. Through contrast, it is a new way of learning idioms under metaphorical theory. And it is cognitive, philosophical, and cultural reasons that deserve our attention in the process of idiom cognition.
引文
1. Aristotle. (1987). Poetics. Translated by Hutton. London: Penguin.
2. Cameron, L & Low, G. (Eds). (2001). Researching and applying metaphor. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
3. Fernando, C., (1996). Idioms and Idiomaticity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4. Fiumara, C. G. (1995). The metaphoric process: Connections between language and life. London/New York: Routledge.
5. Johnson, M. (1987). The Body in the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
6. Katz & Postal, J. & Postal, P. (1963).The semantic interpretation of idioms and sentences containing‘them. MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics Quaterly Progress Report 70: 275-82.
7. King, B. (1989). The Conceptual Structure of Emotional Experience in China. Ohio: The Ohio State University Press.
8. Kittay, E. (1987). Metaphor: Its cognitive force and linguistic structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
9. Kovecses, Z. (1986).Metaphors of anger, pride, and love: A lexical approach to the structure of concepts. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
10. Kovecses, Z. (1990). Emotion Concepts. New York: Spring-Verlag.
11. Kovecses, Zoltan. Happiness: A Definitional Effort. Metaphor and Symbolic Activity 6 [J]:29-46, 1991.
12. Kovecses, Z. (2002). Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
13. Kovecses, Zoltan. Metaphor and Emotion: Language, Culture, and Body in Human Feeling [M]. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002a.
14. Lakoff, G., and M. Johnson. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
15. Lakoff, 1987.Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
16. Nuyts, Jan. (1993).“Cognitive Linguistics.”Journal of Pragmatics No 20, 269-290.
17. Lakoff. G. (1993). The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor. In A. Ortony (ed.), Metaphor and Thought, pp. 202-251.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
18. Lakoff and M. Johnson. (1999). Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books.
19. Lakoff, G.. & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. [M]Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
20. Lakoff, G. (1987).Women and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
21. Lakoff, G., (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. In Otorny A. (ed.) Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
22. Lan Chun. (2003). A Cognitive Approach to Spatial Metaphors in Chinese and English. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press.
23. Longman Dictionary of English Idioms (1979)
24. Lyon, J. Language and Linguistics [M]. Cambridge University Press, 1982: 34-78.
25. Makkai, A. (1972). Idiom Structure in English. The Hague: Mouton.
26. Nida, Eugene. A. Towards a Science of Translating [M]. Leiden: E. J.Brill. 1964:145-177.
27. Yu Ning. (1995). Metaphorical Expressions of Anger and Happiness in English and China. In Metaphor and Symbolic Activity 10, (2): 59-92.
28. Ning Yu. (1998). The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor: A Perspective from Chinese. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
29. Oxford Idioms Dictionary, 2005:426
30. Reddy, Michael. (1979). The Conduit Metaphor. In A. Ortony (ed.), Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
31. Richards, I. A. (1965). The Philosophy of rhetoric. New York: Oxford University Press.
32. Strassler, J.(1982). Idioms in English: A Pragmcatic Analysis. Tubingen: Verlag
33.程琪龙.认知语言学概论.北京:外语教学与研究出版社, 2002.
34.蓝纯.从认知角度看汉语的空间隐喻[J].外语教学与研究,1999, (4):7-15.
35.蓝纯.从认知角度看汉语和英语的空间隐喻[M].北京:外语教学与研究出版社2003.
36.李福印.介绍《当代隐喻理论:从汉语的视角谈起》[J].外语教学与研究,2000,(5):233-235.
37.李福印.当代国外认知语言学研究的热点一第八届国际认知语言学大会论文分析[J].外语研究,2004, (3): 1-9.
38.林书武.《隐喻与认知》评价[J].外语教学与研究,1995,(4):70-72.
39.林书武.国外隐喻研究综述[J].外语教学与研究,1997,(1):11-19.
40.林书武.隐喻研究的基本现状、焦点及趋势[J].外国语,2002, (1):38-45.
41.束定芳.试论现代隐喻学的研究目标、方法和任务,外国语,1996,(2).
42.束定芳.隐喻学研究[M].上海:上海外语教育出版社, 2000.
43.覃胜勇,张长颉. Lakoff和Johnson体验哲学述评[J].国外外语教学,2004, (2): 6-17.
44.王文斌、姚俊.汉英隐喻习语ICM和CB的认知对比考察一以汉语的四字格隐喻习语为基点[J].外语与外语教学,2004, (5): 36-40.
45.文旭,罗洛.隐喻·语境·文化[J].外语与外语教学,2004, (1):11-14.
46.严世清.《隐喻论》,苏州大学出版社, 2000.
47.赵艳芳.语言的认知结构--《我们赖以生存的隐喻评价》[J].外语教学与研究,1995, (3):6 7-72.
48.赵艳芳.《认知语言学概论》,上海外语教育出版社,2001.
2. Cameron, L & Low, G. (Eds). (2001). Researching and applying metaphor. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.
3. Fernando, C., (1996). Idioms and Idiomaticity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4. Fiumara, C. G. (1995). The metaphoric process: Connections between language and life. London/New York: Routledge.
5. Johnson, M. (1987). The Body in the Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
6. Katz & Postal, J. & Postal, P. (1963).The semantic interpretation of idioms and sentences containing‘them. MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics Quaterly Progress Report 70: 275-82.
7. King, B. (1989). The Conceptual Structure of Emotional Experience in China. Ohio: The Ohio State University Press.
8. Kittay, E. (1987). Metaphor: Its cognitive force and linguistic structure. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
9. Kovecses, Z. (1986).Metaphors of anger, pride, and love: A lexical approach to the structure of concepts. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
10. Kovecses, Z. (1990). Emotion Concepts. New York: Spring-Verlag.
11. Kovecses, Zoltan. Happiness: A Definitional Effort. Metaphor and Symbolic Activity 6 [J]:29-46, 1991.
12. Kovecses, Z. (2002). Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
13. Kovecses, Zoltan. Metaphor and Emotion: Language, Culture, and Body in Human Feeling [M]. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002a.
14. Lakoff, G., and M. Johnson. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
15. Lakoff, 1987.Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
16. Nuyts, Jan. (1993).“Cognitive Linguistics.”Journal of Pragmatics No 20, 269-290.
17. Lakoff. G. (1993). The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor. In A. Ortony (ed.), Metaphor and Thought, pp. 202-251.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
18. Lakoff and M. Johnson. (1999). Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books.
19. Lakoff, G.. & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. [M]Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
20. Lakoff, G. (1987).Women and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
21. Lakoff, G., (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. In Otorny A. (ed.) Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
22. Lan Chun. (2003). A Cognitive Approach to Spatial Metaphors in Chinese and English. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching & Research Press.
23. Longman Dictionary of English Idioms (1979)
24. Lyon, J. Language and Linguistics [M]. Cambridge University Press, 1982: 34-78.
25. Makkai, A. (1972). Idiom Structure in English. The Hague: Mouton.
26. Nida, Eugene. A. Towards a Science of Translating [M]. Leiden: E. J.Brill. 1964:145-177.
27. Yu Ning. (1995). Metaphorical Expressions of Anger and Happiness in English and China. In Metaphor and Symbolic Activity 10, (2): 59-92.
28. Ning Yu. (1998). The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor: A Perspective from Chinese. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
29. Oxford Idioms Dictionary, 2005:426
30. Reddy, Michael. (1979). The Conduit Metaphor. In A. Ortony (ed.), Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
31. Richards, I. A. (1965). The Philosophy of rhetoric. New York: Oxford University Press.
32. Strassler, J.(1982). Idioms in English: A Pragmcatic Analysis. Tubingen: Verlag
33.程琪龙.认知语言学概论.北京:外语教学与研究出版社, 2002.
34.蓝纯.从认知角度看汉语的空间隐喻[J].外语教学与研究,1999, (4):7-15.
35.蓝纯.从认知角度看汉语和英语的空间隐喻[M].北京:外语教学与研究出版社2003.
36.李福印.介绍《当代隐喻理论:从汉语的视角谈起》[J].外语教学与研究,2000,(5):233-235.
37.李福印.当代国外认知语言学研究的热点一第八届国际认知语言学大会论文分析[J].外语研究,2004, (3): 1-9.
38.林书武.《隐喻与认知》评价[J].外语教学与研究,1995,(4):70-72.
39.林书武.国外隐喻研究综述[J].外语教学与研究,1997,(1):11-19.
40.林书武.隐喻研究的基本现状、焦点及趋势[J].外国语,2002, (1):38-45.
41.束定芳.试论现代隐喻学的研究目标、方法和任务,外国语,1996,(2).
42.束定芳.隐喻学研究[M].上海:上海外语教育出版社, 2000.
43.覃胜勇,张长颉. Lakoff和Johnson体验哲学述评[J].国外外语教学,2004, (2): 6-17.
44.王文斌、姚俊.汉英隐喻习语ICM和CB的认知对比考察一以汉语的四字格隐喻习语为基点[J].外语与外语教学,2004, (5): 36-40.
45.文旭,罗洛.隐喻·语境·文化[J].外语与外语教学,2004, (1):11-14.
46.严世清.《隐喻论》,苏州大学出版社, 2000.
47.赵艳芳.语言的认知结构--《我们赖以生存的隐喻评价》[J].外语教学与研究,1995, (3):6 7-72.
48.赵艳芳.《认知语言学概论》,上海外语教育出版社,2001.