英汉基本颜色词黑隐喻对比研究.docx

英汉基本颜色词黑隐喻对比研究.docx

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英汉基本颜色词黑隐喻对比研究

AComparativeStudyonColorMetaphorof

“hei”and“black”

HuangHuimin

Abstract:

Thispaperaimstomakeacomparativeanalysisofthemetaphorsofbasiccolor“black”inEnglishand“hei（黑）”inChinese.InthelightofLakoffandJohnson’sconceptualmetaphortheoryandwithreferencetopreviousstudyresults,thepaperrevealsthesimilaritiesanddissimilaritiesofthemetaphoricalmeaningsofbasiccolor“hei”and“black”betweenthesetwolanguages,andthenprobesintothecausesleadingtothem.Finally,aconclusionarisesthatthestudyofbasiccolormetaphorsof“hei”and“black”willbegreatlyhelpfulforcross-culturalcommunicationandEnglishteaching.

Keywords:

metaphor;black;hei;comparativestudy

英汉基本颜色词“黑”与“black”

隐喻对比研究

摘要：

本论文旨在对基本颜色词“黑”和“black”隐喻意义进行对比分析。

根据莱考夫和约翰逊的概念隐喻理论以及前人对此方向的研究，该论文通过举例呈现“黑”和“black”相同隐喻意义和不同隐喻意义后并对其相同和相异产生的现象进行讨论原因。

最后，笔者总结全文，表明该项对英汉基本颜色词隐喻的研究有利于跨文化交际和英语教学。

关键词:

隐喻；黑；对比研究

AComparativeStudyonColorMetaphorof

“hei”and“black”

1.Introduction

Colorisakindofnaturalphenomenon.Nomatterwhatthelanguageis,colortermsreallyplayanimportantroleinvocabularyorinanation’slanguage.Besides,almostcolorsaresocloselyrelatedtohuman’slivesthattherearevariousmeaningsonthesamecolor.Soitisabsolutelymeaningfultoimplementresearchoncolorforpeopletobetterunderstandcolorandusecolorterms.

Accordingtopreviousstudiesofcolor,theauthorfoundthatresearchersreallystudiedalotaboutcolorfrommanyaspects.ZhangZongjiuthoughtthatcolortermshaveanessentialrhetoricalfunction,andreflectthetraditionalcultureofonenation.HemadeacontrastiverhetoricalstudyofcolortermsinChineseandEnglishviabasiccolor,expressionalcolor,associationalcolor.SongPingnoticedthatinfluencedbydifferenttraditionalculture,historyandsoon,therearegreatdifferencesoncolorclassification,languageuse.Soshemainlystudiedcolorfromdifferentcultures.SunRenjiestudiedcolorfromthisaspectofcross-culturalcommunication.Besides,FanJiachengadoptedanotherperspectivetoanalyzedcolor.Hisstudyhelpslearnersfurtherunderstandcultureexchangesbetweencountriesthroughcontrastivestudyofcolorsemantics.Moststudiesofcolorarefromsocialandculturalperspective,sotheauthorwillmakeastudyofcolorfromcognitiveperspectiveonthebasisofconceptualmetaphor.

Asformetaphor,traditionally,peopleviewedmetaphorasasetofextraordinaryorfigurativelinguisticexpression.In1980,LakoffandJohnson,theauthorsofaninfluentialbookMetaphorWeLiveBywhichfirstlyshowedthestudyofcognitivemetaphor,pointedoutthatmetaphorispervasiveineverydaylife,notjustinlanguagebutinthoughtandaction.（LakoffandJohnson,1980）Itisnotonlyasafigureofspeech,butalsoawayofthinkingacceptedbyalmostpeople.LiAihuaprovedthattherearenotonlydifferencesbutalsosimilaritiesinthewayofhuman’sthinkingontheunderstandingofcolormeaningsbasedonconceptualmetaphortheory.AndCaoXiaopingalsoputforwardherviewthattheexpressionofcolor’smeaning,toagreatextent,dependsonpeople’scognition.

Therefore,enlightenedbyafewresearchoncolorfromcognitiveperspective,theauthorwillfurtherunderstandcolormeaningsthroughtheanalysisofthemetaphorsofcolor“hei”inChineseand“black”inEnglish,withtheaimsofsupportingthecognitivetheoryofmetaphor.Theauthorbelievesthatwiththeincreasingunderstandingofcolormetaphors,itiscertainlybeneficialforlearnerstodevelopcross-culturalcommunicationsmoothly.AndteacherscanalsoreapthebenefitfortheirEnglishteachingformthisstudy.

Thispaperconsistsoffourparts.Thefirstpartisintroduction.Inthesecondpart,thereistheliteraturereviewtoprovideabriefintroductionofconceptualmetaphorandbasiccolor“black”andanaccountofpreviousstudiesofblackmetaphorsathomeandabroad.Inthebodypart,theauthorwillindicatethesimilaritiesanddifferencesbetween“black”and“hei”，andanalyzethereasonsbothintwoaspects.Thenthelastpartcomestoconclude.

2.Literaturereview

2.1“black”and“hei”

Asfortheexplorationofcolorterms,itbeganwiththisworkBasicColorTerms:

TheirUniversalityandEvolution（1969）,writtenbyAmericanlinguistsBrentBerlinandPaulKay.Inthisbook,theysystematicallysummarizedtheuniversalroleaboutbasiccolorsinhuman’slanguage.Theypointedoutthatthetwocolors“black”and“white”wererecognizedbypeopleattheearliest.

Black,asabasiccolor,existsineverylanguage,bothinEnglishandChinese.InModernChineseDictionary,thefirstexplanationof“hei”inChinesemeansthatsuchacolorlikethatofinkorcoal,thatis,thiscolormeaningisthebasicmeaningof“hei”.AndinCambridgeEnglishDictionary,theexplanationof“black”isthatbeingthedarkestthereis,likethecolorofcoalorofaverydarknight.Itisobviousthatthemeaningsof“black”and“hei”arebasicallysimilarandtheybothbelongtocolorgamut.

However,inhuman’slife,theirunderstandingsabout“black”and“hei”arenotlimitedbycolormeaning.Peoplealwaysmake“black”and“hei”relatewithuncleannessanddirty.Andboth“black”and“hei”standforsolemnity,mysteryandsoon.Inoneword,peopleendowthisbasiccolor“black”and“hei”withalotofmeaningsonthebasisoftheirexperiencesandfeelings.Buttheymaydifferfromeachotherbecauseofpeople’svariouscognition.Therefore,thisphenomenonthatpeopleusesomecolortodescribeotherdomaintoexpresstheirfeelings,iscalledcognitivemetaphoroncolor.

2.2Conceptualmetaphor

Metaphorisacommonphenomenon.Accordingtothestudiesoflinguistics,thereisacertainfactthatmetaphorbelongstoeverylanguage.Intraditionalmetaphor,mostpeopleviewedmetaphorasafigureofspeechtomakearticleslookbetter.Withtherisingofthecognitivelinguistics,metaphorisconsideredasacognitivetooltohelppeoplebetterunderstandalotofabstractobjectsandthisworld.

In1998,LackoffandJohnsonpublishedMetaphorWeLiveBy,whichfirstlyreferredtoconceptualmetaphortheory.Inthisbook,theypointedoutthatmetaphorispervasiveineverydaylife,notjustinlanguagebutinthoughtandaction,andourordinaryconceptualsystemwhichwedependsontothinkandactindailylife,isfundamentallymetaphoricalinnature.（LakoffandJohnson,1980）Basedontheirdefinitionofmetaphor,theybelievedthatactually,metaphorisawaythatpeopleuseanotherthingtounderstandandgothroughsomecertainthing.Inotherwords,metaphorissuchawaythatpeoplerelyonthoseconcertorsimplesourcedomainconcepts,suchasactionortemperature,todescribeandunderstandtheseabstractandcomplextargetdomainconcepts,likemoralityorsocialrelationship,toachievethegoal,beingfamiliarwithtargetdomain’scharacteristics.Metaphoricalmappingdoesnotoccurcasually,butrootsinpeople’sexperience.Tomakethisideaclear,intheirbook,theyadoptedtheconceptualmetaphorARGUMENTISWARasanexample.TheARGUMENT,anabstractconcept,istargetdomainwhiletheWARissourcedomain.Thisconceptualmetaphorisreflectedinoureverydaylanguagebyawidevarietyofexpressionssuchas“Yourclaimsareindefensible”（LakoffandJohnson5）,“I’veneverwonanargumentwithhim”（5）andetc.“Argumentandwararedifferentkindsofthings,butARGUMENTispartiallystructured,understood,performed,andtalkedaboutintermsofWAR.Theconceptismetaphoricallystructured,theactivityismetaphoricallystructured,and,consequently,thelanguageismetaphoricallystructured.”（6）

Inbrief,metaphorisnotjustasafigurativelanguage.Generally,conceptualmetaphorusesoneideaandlinksittoanothertobetterunderstandsomething.Infact,everydaylanguageisfilledwithmetaphorsandwemaynotalwaysnoticethatconceptualmetaphorisusedveryoftentounderstandtheoriesandmodels.Conceptualmetaphornotjustshapesourcommunication,butalsoshapesthewaywethinkandact.

2.3Previousstudiesof“black”and“hei”

Theworldweliveinisfullofcolors.Theskyandseaareblue;thetreeisgreen;themilkiswhite.Whenweusecolortermsbythismeans,weusetheiroriginalmeanings.However,inourdailylife,colortermsareusedmetaphoricallywhenweassociatecolortermswithabstractconceptsorunusualcollocations.

Asthestudyofcolortermsandtheresearchonmetaphordeveloped,manyscholarshavefocusedonthestudyofcolorterms’metaphormeanings.Theyallgainedconsiderableresults.Itisuniversallyacknowledgedthatmetaphorplaysanimportantroleinformingthebasiccolorterms.Onthebasisofthestudiesofcolortermsandmetaphor,thetopicofcolormetaphorsareheartedlydiscussedbyscholars,forexploringtheuseofcolortermsbeyondthevisualrelateddomain.

Althoughlinguistsabroaddidalotofresearchesonmetaphorandcolorterms,therearefewstudiesaboutcolormetaphor.However,scholarsathomedidacertainnumberofstudiesoncolormetaphors.InthearticleofContrastStudiesbetweenEnglishandChineseinSixColortermswrittenbySunXinfa,itmainlydescribesthedifferentculturemeaningsofdifferentcolors.Italsoconcludesthatbecausetherearethedifferencesofthewayofthinkingamongcountries,itleadstodifferentmetaphoronsamecolor.CaoXiaopingmentionscolortermsareexpressedgreatlybasedonhuman’scognition.Sothroughacomparativestudyof“black”metaphors,sherevealsthattherearemoredifferencesthansimilaritiesbetweenChineseandEnglish.Inaddition,inthearticleAComparativeStudyofColorTerms“Red”and“红”Metaphors