英國dissertation網提供留學生作業經典范文：漢語有關愛情諺語的隱喻對比研究
08-05, 2014
隱喻，作為一種重要的思維和認知方式，已經受到人們越來越多的關注和研究。其不僅僅是一種語言形式，更是一種人們不可或缺的認知工具;作為一種認知工具，它使人們可以通過具體、熟知的概念去理解那些抽象的內容;諺語在我們的日常生活和語言使用過程中起著重要的作用，盡管人們還不能給它以具體的定義，但是其已經廣泛地被學者和研究者理解為具有隱喻意義了，無論是在英語文化里還是漢語文化里，諺語都深為人們所關注。愛情，人類最美好的情感之一，在人們的一生中扮演者不可或缺的作用和地位，并不斷為人們所追求著。
本文采用對比分析的方法并借助于現代隱喻理論，著重分析英漢愛情諺語的隱喻內涵，并從文化角度來探索英漢愛情諺語隱喻異同的原因。該文通過對英漢愛情諺語中的隱喻現象的對比研究，使人們了解有關愛情的隱喻含義在英漢文化中的不同之處，從而進一步掌握中英兩種文化的異同。
關鍵詞：隱喻;諺語;愛情;對比研究
A Comparative Study of Metaphor in English and Chinese Proverbs about Love
Thesis Statement
This thesis explores the differences of metaphors in love proverbs between English and Chinese through comparative study in hope that it can make people learn about the differences between Chinese culture and English culture.
Outline
I. Introduction
II. General Survey of Proverb and Metaphor
A. Definitions of Proverb
B. Definitions of Metaphor
III. A Comparative Analysis
A. Data Collection
B. Methods of Classification
1. Metaphor in Love Proverbs between English and Chinese cultures
2. Metaphors Employed in English and Chinese’s love proverbs
C. Comparative Analysis
1. Similar Fields, Similar Meanings
2. Different Fields, Similar Meanings
IV. Summary of the Analysis
V. Conclusion
Abstract
The metaphor, an important style of thinking and cognition, has been paid more and more attention these days and studied by scholars from different perspectives both at home and abroad. It is not only a kind of language style, but also an effective cognitive tool for human beings to understand each other and the abstract concepts in view of concrete. Proverbs, though without definite definition, have been widely accepted as one important metaphorical way by people. Proverbs play a vital role in people's daily life and their usage of language. Both in English and Chinese cultures proverbs get great attention. Love is one of the most important emotions and plays an important role in people’s life. So many people use the metaphors to express and pursuit their goals.#p#分頁標題#e#
This thesis explores the method of contrastive study by use of morden metaphor theory analyzing the inner meaning of metaphors in love proverbs between English and Chinese, pointing out the reasons about the differences of metaphors in love proverbs between English and Chinese from the view of culture. This thesis discusses the differences through comparative study in hope that it can make people learn about the differences between Chinese culture and English culture.
Key words: metaphor; proverb; love; comparative study
A Comparative Study of Metaphor in English and Chinese Proverbs about Love
I. Introduction
Nowadays, proverb is discussed heatedly by people and considered to be the fruits of people’s wisdom, and therefore is paid more and more attention by human beings. They are very easy to understand and contain some very profound philosophical ideas. And whatever languages they belong to, they are greatly appreciated by the natives and other peoples. Some people love proverbs because of the wisdom employed in them, and others treasure the proverbs for their inner meanings and significances, because most proverbs either originate from daily life or from the metaphorical use of the incidents. Proverbs, though they are English or Chinese, can stand an important position in their language usages. However, the study on the proverbs is not given very enough attention and that’s why this paper is given here.
In recent years, the metaphor, especially from the cognitive view, has been studied by many educated scholars at home in various fields. Some people said that nearly 30% sentences we speak everyday can contain one metaphor in them. As a matter of fact, the metaphor is so universal in human daily life that some linguists, philosophers and scholars hold their opinions that all words originated from the metaphor. Proverbs can also be viewed as one part of metaphorical study, and frankly say they don’t interest people’s attention and the research to them. Therefore, a study of such an important topic about the love metaphor from the view of metaphor is wanted. On the basis of a collection of English and Chinese proverbs about love, this paper is a comparative study of the metaphor in proverbs about love in English and Chinese. However, it can be expressed through other concrete terms metaphorically. This is an investigation to answer the questions, such as "What are the similarities between English and Chinese proverbs about love, and what are the differences between Chinese and English proverbs about love ?’’ This thesis explores the method of contrastive study by use of morden metaphor theory analyzing the inner meaning of metaphors in love proverbs between English and Chinese, and point out the reason about the differences of metaphor in love proverbs between English and Chinese from the view of culture. This thesis discusses the differences through comparative study in hope that it can make people learn about the differences between Chinese culture and English culture.#p#分頁標題#e#
II. General Survey of Proverb and Metaphor
A. Definitions of Proverb
Many different definitions are given in various authoritative English dictionaries and by some famous scholars in foreign countries, such as：
Oxford Concise Dictionary of Proverbs: "a proverb is a traditional saying which offers advice or presents a moral in a short and pithy manner.”
Longman Modern English Dictionary: a proverb is "a brief familiar maxim of folk wisdom, usually compressed in form, often involving a bold image and frequently a jingle that catches the memory.
Of course, there are many other definitions of proverbs given by other authoritative books, experts, and scholars in English dictionary. Gregory Titelman (96-97): "Proverbs are the collective wisdom of all nations, of all ages, of all times. A proverb typically expresses a commonplace thought in a succinct, often metaphorical way’. Most of the definitions are not very comprehensive, because some of them focus on the forms, some concentrate on the meanings, and some emphasize the embedded wisdom or philosophy.” Therefore, if the data are collected according to one of those above-mentioned definitions, the data will not be comprehensive and large.
However, in many specialized dictionaries there are also many different Chinese definitions of proverb from different cultural perspectives. The English version is translated by the author himself, so the Chinese version is kept in case there are any mistakes.
《中華諺語大詞典》:“諺語一言簡意賅，富含哲理，以形象生動、簡潔凝練、質樸明快、含蓄雋永的藝術語言向人們揭示真理、傳授經驗，使人們從中獲得智慧，得到啟迪。諺語是人們對客觀事物的認識，認識可以是一種判斷，也可以是一種比較或選擇;認識有的是贊揚或歌頌;也有的是揭露或嘲諷;認識還有一些是封建禮教所強加的。”(Being concise and comprehensive, proverbs disclose truths and impart knowledge, in the manner of vivid, simple, plain, and meaningful words. Thus, people can acquire wisdom and enlightenment from the proverbs. Proverbs are considered as people's cognition of objective substances. The cognitions can be a kind of judgment, comparison, or choice. Some of the cognitions can be either praise or satire. The cognitions can also be imposed by feudalism traditions.)
朱光潛(33):“諺語是勞動人民對生活和生產勞動的經驗總結，是一種廣泛流傳于民間的簡練通俗而富有意義的‘現成語’，它體現了人們對生活和生產的經驗感受，是勞動人民的智慧結晶。"(Zhu Guangqian, a famous Chinese esthetician, literature theorist, and translator, puts forward: proverbs are the conclusions of living and working experience drawn by people. They are a kind of simple and meaningful "ready-made words", spreading from mouth to mouth.)#p#分頁標題#e#
Similar with the definitions of English proverbs, the definitions of Chinese proverbs are also unilateral. Without a definite definition of proverb, the data collection cannot be carried out successfully. As there is no standard or authoritative definition of proverbs nowadays, an effective definition of proverb is needed for this research to select data from the Internet and other channels.
B. Definitions of Metaphor
Richards first puts forward the theory and gives the terms "tenor" and "vehicle" to the two differences in metaphor. In his terminology, the tenor is "the underlying idea or principal subject which the vehicle or figuremeans", and the vehicle is the image or the figure, or the basic analogy, which used to embody or to carry the tenor. According to Richards, when people are using metaphors, the meanings of metaphors can be understood by means of the interaction of the tenor and the vehicle. The reason why the two thoughts can be interacted is that they share the background or similar surroundings.
In other people’s view, there are other many definitions about metaphor. For example, Lakoff and Johnson claim that human conceptual system is metaphorically and defined, and then they show their concept persuasively that a metaphor is very common both in thoughts and in everyday language usages. In their view, a metaphor is not only just a kind of words or linguistic expressions but also of abstract concepts, of thinking of one thing by means of another. On the basis of empiricism, they put forward the theory of conceptual metaphors in their book Metaphors We Live By. The conceptual metaphor is a system of metaphors that lies behind much of everyday language and conducts people's everyday conceptual system, including most abstract concepts. A metaphor is conceptual in its nature meanings, and plays a very important role in people's mental worlds of many abstract concepts.
III. A Comparative Analysis
A. Data Collection
Data used in this thesis can be divided into two parts, the love category which contains thirty English proverbs and fifteen Chinese proverbs respectively. All these proverbs are chosen by means of two steps of narrowing them down. Firstly, all the proverbs which are collected are accessible, only those which concern love are selected for further study. So based on the considerations of all the proverbs are not metaphors and only those linguistic expressions from which metaphors can be originated are talked about here. For example, love me , love my dog is included in the love category by the authors of the proverb collections, but it is not included in this database, for it is a direct expression about love and no metaphorical meanings which can be abstracted from them.
B. Methods of Classification
This study is conducted on the basis of comparing the conceptual metaphors originated from the love proverbs between Chinese and English cultures. Therefore the methods used here in classifying the metaphors need to be clarified. References to Lakoff and Johnson's way of classification in their classical work-Metaphors We Live By，the methods of classification here are made as follows:#p#分頁標題#e#
Firstly, if in the proverbs love is expressed with words or expressions describing human beings, human actions, human emotions and senses, these proverbs are classified under the love is about human category. Secondly, if in the proverbs love is classified as substances or of their features and characteristics, and then these proverbs are classified under love is about substances category. Thirdly, if the love in the proverbs is defined as concepts other than human or substances such as human power, the music, language people used, companionship between people, property, ideas and so on, these proverbs are classified under the field of love is about others.
1. Metaphor in Love Proverbs between English and Chinese cultures
In the love category of the classifications, there are thirty English proverbs and fifteen Chinese proverbs respectively here as examples. Although the numbers of the largest English proverbs collection checked is smaller than those of the Chinese proverbs collection tested, the total number of the English love proverbs collected in the data far advanced than those of the Chinese ones. Giving such puzzling data a second thought and trying to take account of the different characters of the two peoples, the data appear to be out of the question. As is known to us, the western people are badly more open-minded and frank about the feeling of love, but the Chinese people tend to keep the love deeply in their bottoms of hearts as many secret feelings and loves. As a result, the western people will talk about love more openly, and so probably that's why there are more love proverbs in English culture than in Chinese culture. However, this can not show that there must be far more conceptual metaphors in English proverbs than in Chinese ones.
2. Metaphors Employed in English and Chinese’s love proverbs
a. Love is about substances.
Forced love doesn't last.
Absence sharpens love; presence strengthens it
Love should be all on each side.
Love lasts as long as the money endures.
Hasty love is soon hot and also soon cold.
To the world you maybe one person, but to one person you are the world.
Love means you never have to say you are sorry.
The course of true love never did run smooth.
Without respect, love can not go far.
Love’s tongue is in the eyes.
b. Love is about humans
Love is blind before people.
Love is deaf as well as blind.
Love is never without jealousy.
Love is blind, and lovers cannot see the pretty follies that commit
Love laughs at locksmiths.
Love is lawless.
Love you not because who you are, but because of who I am when I with you.#p#分頁標題#e#
Love without an end has no end.
In love folly is always sweet.
Love is the mother of love.
c. Love is about others
Love makes all equal.
Love makes obedience easy.
Love makes one fit for any work.
Love makes a wit of the fool.
Love makes all hard hearts gentle.
Love makes the world go around.
Love can turn the cottage into a golden palace.
Love warms more than a thousand fires.
Love endures only when the lovers love many things together and not merely each other.
The heart that once truely loves never forgets.
d. Ten Chinese proverbs
能為愛情系上永久的保險帶的，不是結婚而是真誠、體貼與尊重。
愛情既不能買，也不能賣，愛情只有用愛來報答。
愛情是感情點燃的火焰，燃燒著愛人純潔的心。
愛情可以使弱者變得勇敢。
愛情應海枯石爛不變，夫妻應白頭偕老不離。
在天化作比翼鳥，在地化為連理枝。
愛情不是親吻和微笑，而是忠誠和純潔。
情人不僅需要相愛，而且有共同愛好時才能長久。
沒有尊重的愛難以久存。
愛情的話語全在雙眼之中。
哪怕是最小的茅舍，對相愛的人來說都有足夠的空間。
金錢彩禮不能帶來愛情的春天，志同道合才能帶來愛情的幸福。
愛情越久越不生銹。
愛情要象一株蒼松，不要象一朵曇花。
戀愛中干傻事總是讓人感到十分美妙。
C. A Comparative Study
A. Similar Fields, Similar Meanings
From the above love proverbs we can see that many Chinese love proverbs have similar meanings in the same fields or different fields, and even some English love proverbs become Chinese love proverbs in some other aspects. What’s more, people begin to accept some English love proverbs as Chinese ones. English love proverbs and Chinese love proverbs are permeating and iterfusing each other constantly. Because of the cultural generalities and differences, English love proverbs and Chinese love proverbs have their similarities and differences. So a comparative study of them can help us to learn a language well and understanding of our different cultures between Chinese and English countries. And here I will analyze the comparion of this study.
Take the followings for example, in the field of Love is about substances, the sentence Love lasts as long as money endures. means 愛情能夠經得起金錢的考驗. In this proverbial sentence it compares the love with money’s endures, it contains the metaphor in its meaning. The metaphorical meanings in this love proverb both mean the substance context. Abviously, they belong to similar fields and have similar meanings. For another example, Love laughs at locksmiths, it means 情人眼里出西施. This sentence lies in the field of Love is about human, these two sentences refer to human’s understanding about love, but the put their meanings in similar fields and name them similar metaphorical meanings. In the sentence The heart that once truely loves never forgets, it means 真愛是難忘的，是刻骨的. In western countries, this love proverb describes one person who loves so deeply that his love is very solid and everlasting, and anyone can not forget their true love. This love proverb should be included in the feild of Love is about human beings. However, in Chinese this sentence has the same meaning to its English meaning. In Chinese, it also describes the true love between lovers, and it belongs to the same field with the Englisn one.#p#分頁標題#e#
In a word, in this case no matter what fields the love proverbs belong to, the Chinese love proverbs and the English love proverbs have similar meanings.
B. Different Fields, Similar Meanings
Under this circumstance, two different love proverbs, the Chinese one and the English one, belong to different fields while having similar meanings. For example, Love should not be all on one side and love is equal in front of anyone.the front sentence belongs to the field of Love is about substance and the later belongs to the field of Love is about human, but we can see that though these two sentences belong to different fields, they have similar meanings, it is 愛情面前每個人的地位是一樣的. For another example, Beauty is in the eyes of beholders and Love laughs at locksmiths, the front sentence is in the field of Love is about substance and the later one belongs to the field of Love is about human. However, from this example we can find that though these two sentences are not in different fields, they have the same meaning in Chinese translation about their love proverbial meaning.
To sum up, in this case though some love proverbs, no matter what similar meanings they have, and no matter love proverbs they belong to, Chinese or English, they may lie in different fields, that’s means different fields, similar meanings.
Of course, there is another case here, that’s similar fields, different meanings. I will give one example to explain this phenomenon. In the sentence Love makes a wit of the fool and Love makes people fool in front of wisdom, we can see that they belong to the field of Love is about human , but they have different meanings, even contrary meanings. So through these classifications we can draw a conclusion that no matter what fields the English love proverbs or Chinese love proverbs belong to, same fields or different fields, they may have different meanings between Chinses love proverbs and English love proverbs or the same meanings of them.
IV. Summary of the Analysis
Having compared the metaphorical meanings about the English and Chinese love proverbs, we can clearly see that both of them have some metaphorical meanings in and also each of them has its own metaphorical significance. As is discussed before, owe to the same material surroundings and those more or less similar bodily experiences encountered, there will be common metaphors in the cross-cultural research. Through the comparisons in the article, we can see that both English and Chinese love proverbs employ these conceptual metaphors.
By comparing the diffrerent metaphorical meanings between the love proverbs of Chinese and English, we can find that different love proverbs are not always clarified into one group. For example, the love proverbs of Chinese which belong to the Human, in some cases, also belong to the Human group of English group; however, in other cases, the love proverbs of Chinese which belong to the Human belong to the love proverbs of English parts.Similarly, love proverbs of Chinese which belong to Substances maybe belong to English love proverbs in metaphorical meanings, and it is the same with the Others clarifications between Chinese love proverbs and English ones about their metaphorical meanings. Metaphor is abstract and conceptual other than simply a kind of tool of literature imagination and rhetorical decoration to language. On the contrary, metaphor of love proverb is based into our everyday life and conducted our understandings of the world around us. Most of our knowledge about the world is achieved by means of metaphor, without which we can not live. By investigating into the love proverbs in both English and Chinese, we find that a great number of the proverbs are metaphors while a number of them are not. Since metaphor is grounded in our daily life, our experiences with the world, including both the physical and cultural experiences, motivate the creation of metaphors. Thus, reasonably different cultures will have different metaphors for the same concept, for experiential and cultural factors interfere with the employment of source domains for the same target concept.#p#分頁標題#e#
So we can not say that they all are results of the fact that English-speaking people and Chinese people encounter similar embodied experiences in love. The reasons lie in the fact that when we begin to refer to the metaphorical linguistic expressions we will find that the same metaphors sometimes convey quite different aspects of love in one language from those in the other specific levels. For example, the Love is human metaphor in English proverbs shows various aspects of humanity or different kinds of personalities while in Chinese proverbs it just refers to human as an entity.
The appearance of the Love is human and Love is substances metaphor in both English and Chinese just add much more contexts to the belief that mankind must understand the world by themselves by means of the metaphor in their words. Only by the way of concretizing the abstract concepts are humans able to identify them. To further demonstrate, when we say love is human, we can understand love better on the basis of our own emotions and characteristics.
However, it may be persuasively to say that the other three metaphors result from the similar embodied experiences that both English and Chinese people go through in love. It is generally agreed that lovers often fail to recognize the side-effects in themselves, especially those in their beloved. Therefore there is the proverb that the love is blind metaphorical inner meaning. On the other hand, lovers usually feel extremely inspired and in high emotions, and also pay little attentions to the difficulties they can endure to pursue their true love as though they were bestowed with unbelievable power. Thus, the love metaphor is incredible strengths which come into being later. Clearly here, love is a common valuable belief shared by both the English and the Chinese peoples.
V. Conclusion
Metaphor is abstract and conceptual other than simply a kind of tool of literature imagination and rhetorical decoration to language. On the contrary, metaphor of love proverb is based into our everyday life and conducted our understandings of the world around us. Most of our knowledge about the world is achieved by means of metaphor, without which we can not live. By investigating into the love proverbs in both English and Chinese, we find that a great number of the proverbs are metaphors while a number of them are not. Since metaphor is grounded in our daily life, our experiences with the world, including both the physical and cultural experiences, motivate the creation of metaphors. Thus, reasonably different cultures will have different metaphors for the same concept, for experiential and cultural factors interfere with the employment of source domains for the same target concept. Metaphor is abstract and conceptual other than simply a kind of tool of literature imagination and rhetorical decoration to language. On the contrary, metaphor of love proverb is based into our everyday life and conducted our understandings of the world around us. Most of our knowledge about the world is achieved by means of metaphor, without which we can not live. By investigating into the love proverbs in both English and Chinese, we find that a great number of the proverbs are metaphors while a number of them are not. Since metaphor is grounded in our daily life, our experiences with the world, including both the physical and cultural experiences, motivate the creation of metaphors. Thus, reasonably different cultures will have different metaphors for the same concept, for experiential and cultural factors interfere with the employment of source domains for the same target concept.#p#分頁標題#e#
Although the study is accomplished through hard work and careful improvement, it is hard to say I can avoid some limitations in the paper. An across-culture study on metaphors about love proverbs seems to make sense of or explain the differences between different thinking patterns. Therefore, in the future people may devote much more efforts to conduct some large investigations in order to generate more convincing and authoritative findings or fruits to improve the possibilities which maybe show up.
In conclusion, similarities between English and Chinese proverbs about love are more significant than their differences culture, that’s the reason why Chinese culture and English culture are melted today. Although the differences are difficult to be explained and expressed, the author tries to give some accounts from the cultural influences about the topic in this thesis.
Works Cited
Black, M. Models and Metaphors: Studies in Language and Philosophy. New York: Cornell University Press, 1993.
Black, M. Models and Metaphors. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Gregory, Y. Titelman. Popular Proverbs and Sayings. Random House Dictionary of America, 2000.
Lakoff, C. & Jonhson, M. Metaphors We Live by. University of Chicago Press, 1980.
Lakoff, G. The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor. Andrew Ortony. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
郭 敏. 英漢諺語中的文化差異及其翻譯[D]. 重慶: 西南大學, 2008.
胡壯麟. 語法隱喻[M]. 北京: 外語教學與研究出版社, 1996.
劉海洋. 英語時間諺語中的隱喻對比研究[D]. 南京: 南京理工大學, 2009.
駱 樂. 英漢語隱喻的跨文化對比[J]. 外語與翻譯, 2000(5): 24-26.
黃玉蘭. 英語愛情和時間諺語中隱喻的比較研究[D]. 蘇州: 蘇州大學, 2003.
朱光潛. 談翻譯[M]. 北京: 北京外語教學出版社, 1984.
本文采用對比分析的方法并借助于現代隱喻理論，著重分析英漢愛情諺語的隱喻內涵，并從文化角度來探索英漢愛情諺語隱喻異同的原因。該文通過對英漢愛情諺語中的隱喻現象的對比研究，使人們了解有關愛情的隱喻含義在英漢文化中的不同之處，從而進一步掌握中英兩種文化的異同。
關鍵詞：隱喻;諺語;愛情;對比研究
A Comparative Study of Metaphor in English and Chinese Proverbs about Love
Thesis Statement
This thesis explores the differences of metaphors in love proverbs between English and Chinese through comparative study in hope that it can make people learn about the differences between Chinese culture and English culture.
Outline
I. Introduction
II. General Survey of Proverb and Metaphor
A. Definitions of Proverb
B. Definitions of Metaphor
III. A Comparative Analysis
A. Data Collection
B. Methods of Classification
1. Metaphor in Love Proverbs between English and Chinese cultures
2. Metaphors Employed in English and Chinese’s love proverbs
C. Comparative Analysis
1. Similar Fields, Similar Meanings
2. Different Fields, Similar Meanings
IV. Summary of the Analysis
V. Conclusion
Abstract
The metaphor, an important style of thinking and cognition, has been paid more and more attention these days and studied by scholars from different perspectives both at home and abroad. It is not only a kind of language style, but also an effective cognitive tool for human beings to understand each other and the abstract concepts in view of concrete. Proverbs, though without definite definition, have been widely accepted as one important metaphorical way by people. Proverbs play a vital role in people's daily life and their usage of language. Both in English and Chinese cultures proverbs get great attention. Love is one of the most important emotions and plays an important role in people’s life. So many people use the metaphors to express and pursuit their goals.#p#分頁標題#e#
This thesis explores the method of contrastive study by use of morden metaphor theory analyzing the inner meaning of metaphors in love proverbs between English and Chinese, pointing out the reasons about the differences of metaphors in love proverbs between English and Chinese from the view of culture. This thesis discusses the differences through comparative study in hope that it can make people learn about the differences between Chinese culture and English culture.
Key words: metaphor; proverb; love; comparative study
A Comparative Study of Metaphor in English and Chinese Proverbs about Love
I. Introduction
Nowadays, proverb is discussed heatedly by people and considered to be the fruits of people’s wisdom, and therefore is paid more and more attention by human beings. They are very easy to understand and contain some very profound philosophical ideas. And whatever languages they belong to, they are greatly appreciated by the natives and other peoples. Some people love proverbs because of the wisdom employed in them, and others treasure the proverbs for their inner meanings and significances, because most proverbs either originate from daily life or from the metaphorical use of the incidents. Proverbs, though they are English or Chinese, can stand an important position in their language usages. However, the study on the proverbs is not given very enough attention and that’s why this paper is given here.
In recent years, the metaphor, especially from the cognitive view, has been studied by many educated scholars at home in various fields. Some people said that nearly 30% sentences we speak everyday can contain one metaphor in them. As a matter of fact, the metaphor is so universal in human daily life that some linguists, philosophers and scholars hold their opinions that all words originated from the metaphor. Proverbs can also be viewed as one part of metaphorical study, and frankly say they don’t interest people’s attention and the research to them. Therefore, a study of such an important topic about the love metaphor from the view of metaphor is wanted. On the basis of a collection of English and Chinese proverbs about love, this paper is a comparative study of the metaphor in proverbs about love in English and Chinese. However, it can be expressed through other concrete terms metaphorically. This is an investigation to answer the questions, such as "What are the similarities between English and Chinese proverbs about love, and what are the differences between Chinese and English proverbs about love ?’’ This thesis explores the method of contrastive study by use of morden metaphor theory analyzing the inner meaning of metaphors in love proverbs between English and Chinese, and point out the reason about the differences of metaphor in love proverbs between English and Chinese from the view of culture. This thesis discusses the differences through comparative study in hope that it can make people learn about the differences between Chinese culture and English culture.#p#分頁標題#e#
II. General Survey of Proverb and Metaphor
A. Definitions of Proverb
Many different definitions are given in various authoritative English dictionaries and by some famous scholars in foreign countries, such as：
Oxford Concise Dictionary of Proverbs: "a proverb is a traditional saying which offers advice or presents a moral in a short and pithy manner.”
Longman Modern English Dictionary: a proverb is "a brief familiar maxim of folk wisdom, usually compressed in form, often involving a bold image and frequently a jingle that catches the memory.
Of course, there are many other definitions of proverbs given by other authoritative books, experts, and scholars in English dictionary. Gregory Titelman (96-97): "Proverbs are the collective wisdom of all nations, of all ages, of all times. A proverb typically expresses a commonplace thought in a succinct, often metaphorical way’. Most of the definitions are not very comprehensive, because some of them focus on the forms, some concentrate on the meanings, and some emphasize the embedded wisdom or philosophy.” Therefore, if the data are collected according to one of those above-mentioned definitions, the data will not be comprehensive and large.
However, in many specialized dictionaries there are also many different Chinese definitions of proverb from different cultural perspectives. The English version is translated by the author himself, so the Chinese version is kept in case there are any mistakes.
《中華諺語大詞典》:“諺語一言簡意賅，富含哲理，以形象生動、簡潔凝練、質樸明快、含蓄雋永的藝術語言向人們揭示真理、傳授經驗，使人們從中獲得智慧，得到啟迪。諺語是人們對客觀事物的認識，認識可以是一種判斷，也可以是一種比較或選擇;認識有的是贊揚或歌頌;也有的是揭露或嘲諷;認識還有一些是封建禮教所強加的。”(Being concise and comprehensive, proverbs disclose truths and impart knowledge, in the manner of vivid, simple, plain, and meaningful words. Thus, people can acquire wisdom and enlightenment from the proverbs. Proverbs are considered as people's cognition of objective substances. The cognitions can be a kind of judgment, comparison, or choice. Some of the cognitions can be either praise or satire. The cognitions can also be imposed by feudalism traditions.)
朱光潛(33):“諺語是勞動人民對生活和生產勞動的經驗總結，是一種廣泛流傳于民間的簡練通俗而富有意義的‘現成語’，它體現了人們對生活和生產的經驗感受，是勞動人民的智慧結晶。"(Zhu Guangqian, a famous Chinese esthetician, literature theorist, and translator, puts forward: proverbs are the conclusions of living and working experience drawn by people. They are a kind of simple and meaningful "ready-made words", spreading from mouth to mouth.)#p#分頁標題#e#
Similar with the definitions of English proverbs, the definitions of Chinese proverbs are also unilateral. Without a definite definition of proverb, the data collection cannot be carried out successfully. As there is no standard or authoritative definition of proverbs nowadays, an effective definition of proverb is needed for this research to select data from the Internet and other channels.
B. Definitions of Metaphor
Richards first puts forward the theory and gives the terms "tenor" and "vehicle" to the two differences in metaphor. In his terminology, the tenor is "the underlying idea or principal subject which the vehicle or figuremeans", and the vehicle is the image or the figure, or the basic analogy, which used to embody or to carry the tenor. According to Richards, when people are using metaphors, the meanings of metaphors can be understood by means of the interaction of the tenor and the vehicle. The reason why the two thoughts can be interacted is that they share the background or similar surroundings.
In other people’s view, there are other many definitions about metaphor. For example, Lakoff and Johnson claim that human conceptual system is metaphorically and defined, and then they show their concept persuasively that a metaphor is very common both in thoughts and in everyday language usages. In their view, a metaphor is not only just a kind of words or linguistic expressions but also of abstract concepts, of thinking of one thing by means of another. On the basis of empiricism, they put forward the theory of conceptual metaphors in their book Metaphors We Live By. The conceptual metaphor is a system of metaphors that lies behind much of everyday language and conducts people's everyday conceptual system, including most abstract concepts. A metaphor is conceptual in its nature meanings, and plays a very important role in people's mental worlds of many abstract concepts.
III. A Comparative Analysis
A. Data Collection
Data used in this thesis can be divided into two parts, the love category which contains thirty English proverbs and fifteen Chinese proverbs respectively. All these proverbs are chosen by means of two steps of narrowing them down. Firstly, all the proverbs which are collected are accessible, only those which concern love are selected for further study. So based on the considerations of all the proverbs are not metaphors and only those linguistic expressions from which metaphors can be originated are talked about here. For example, love me , love my dog is included in the love category by the authors of the proverb collections, but it is not included in this database, for it is a direct expression about love and no metaphorical meanings which can be abstracted from them.
B. Methods of Classification
This study is conducted on the basis of comparing the conceptual metaphors originated from the love proverbs between Chinese and English cultures. Therefore the methods used here in classifying the metaphors need to be clarified. References to Lakoff and Johnson's way of classification in their classical work-Metaphors We Live By，the methods of classification here are made as follows:#p#分頁標題#e#
Firstly, if in the proverbs love is expressed with words or expressions describing human beings, human actions, human emotions and senses, these proverbs are classified under the love is about human category. Secondly, if in the proverbs love is classified as substances or of their features and characteristics, and then these proverbs are classified under love is about substances category. Thirdly, if the love in the proverbs is defined as concepts other than human or substances such as human power, the music, language people used, companionship between people, property, ideas and so on, these proverbs are classified under the field of love is about others.
1. Metaphor in Love Proverbs between English and Chinese cultures
In the love category of the classifications, there are thirty English proverbs and fifteen Chinese proverbs respectively here as examples. Although the numbers of the largest English proverbs collection checked is smaller than those of the Chinese proverbs collection tested, the total number of the English love proverbs collected in the data far advanced than those of the Chinese ones. Giving such puzzling data a second thought and trying to take account of the different characters of the two peoples, the data appear to be out of the question. As is known to us, the western people are badly more open-minded and frank about the feeling of love, but the Chinese people tend to keep the love deeply in their bottoms of hearts as many secret feelings and loves. As a result, the western people will talk about love more openly, and so probably that's why there are more love proverbs in English culture than in Chinese culture. However, this can not show that there must be far more conceptual metaphors in English proverbs than in Chinese ones.
2. Metaphors Employed in English and Chinese’s love proverbs
a. Love is about substances.
Forced love doesn't last.
Absence sharpens love; presence strengthens it
Love should be all on each side.
Love lasts as long as the money endures.
Hasty love is soon hot and also soon cold.
To the world you maybe one person, but to one person you are the world.
Love means you never have to say you are sorry.
The course of true love never did run smooth.
Without respect, love can not go far.
Love’s tongue is in the eyes.
b. Love is about humans
Love is blind before people.
Love is deaf as well as blind.
Love is never without jealousy.
Love is blind, and lovers cannot see the pretty follies that commit
Love laughs at locksmiths.
Love is lawless.
Love you not because who you are, but because of who I am when I with you.#p#分頁標題#e#
Love without an end has no end.
In love folly is always sweet.
Love is the mother of love.
c. Love is about others
Love makes all equal.
Love makes obedience easy.
Love makes one fit for any work.
Love makes a wit of the fool.
Love makes all hard hearts gentle.
Love makes the world go around.
Love can turn the cottage into a golden palace.
Love warms more than a thousand fires.
Love endures only when the lovers love many things together and not merely each other.
The heart that once truely loves never forgets.
d. Ten Chinese proverbs
能為愛情系上永久的保險帶的，不是結婚而是真誠、體貼與尊重。
愛情既不能買，也不能賣，愛情只有用愛來報答。
愛情是感情點燃的火焰，燃燒著愛人純潔的心。
愛情可以使弱者變得勇敢。
愛情應海枯石爛不變，夫妻應白頭偕老不離。
在天化作比翼鳥，在地化為連理枝。
愛情不是親吻和微笑，而是忠誠和純潔。
情人不僅需要相愛，而且有共同愛好時才能長久。
沒有尊重的愛難以久存。
愛情的話語全在雙眼之中。
哪怕是最小的茅舍，對相愛的人來說都有足夠的空間。
金錢彩禮不能帶來愛情的春天，志同道合才能帶來愛情的幸福。
愛情越久越不生銹。
愛情要象一株蒼松，不要象一朵曇花。
戀愛中干傻事總是讓人感到十分美妙。
C. A Comparative Study
A. Similar Fields, Similar Meanings
From the above love proverbs we can see that many Chinese love proverbs have similar meanings in the same fields or different fields, and even some English love proverbs become Chinese love proverbs in some other aspects. What’s more, people begin to accept some English love proverbs as Chinese ones. English love proverbs and Chinese love proverbs are permeating and iterfusing each other constantly. Because of the cultural generalities and differences, English love proverbs and Chinese love proverbs have their similarities and differences. So a comparative study of them can help us to learn a language well and understanding of our different cultures between Chinese and English countries. And here I will analyze the comparion of this study.
Take the followings for example, in the field of Love is about substances, the sentence Love lasts as long as money endures. means 愛情能夠經得起金錢的考驗. In this proverbial sentence it compares the love with money’s endures, it contains the metaphor in its meaning. The metaphorical meanings in this love proverb both mean the substance context. Abviously, they belong to similar fields and have similar meanings. For another example, Love laughs at locksmiths, it means 情人眼里出西施. This sentence lies in the field of Love is about human, these two sentences refer to human’s understanding about love, but the put their meanings in similar fields and name them similar metaphorical meanings. In the sentence The heart that once truely loves never forgets, it means 真愛是難忘的，是刻骨的. In western countries, this love proverb describes one person who loves so deeply that his love is very solid and everlasting, and anyone can not forget their true love. This love proverb should be included in the feild of Love is about human beings. However, in Chinese this sentence has the same meaning to its English meaning. In Chinese, it also describes the true love between lovers, and it belongs to the same field with the Englisn one.#p#分頁標題#e#
In a word, in this case no matter what fields the love proverbs belong to, the Chinese love proverbs and the English love proverbs have similar meanings.
B. Different Fields, Similar Meanings
Under this circumstance, two different love proverbs, the Chinese one and the English one, belong to different fields while having similar meanings. For example, Love should not be all on one side and love is equal in front of anyone.the front sentence belongs to the field of Love is about substance and the later belongs to the field of Love is about human, but we can see that though these two sentences belong to different fields, they have similar meanings, it is 愛情面前每個人的地位是一樣的. For another example, Beauty is in the eyes of beholders and Love laughs at locksmiths, the front sentence is in the field of Love is about substance and the later one belongs to the field of Love is about human. However, from this example we can find that though these two sentences are not in different fields, they have the same meaning in Chinese translation about their love proverbial meaning.
To sum up, in this case though some love proverbs, no matter what similar meanings they have, and no matter love proverbs they belong to, Chinese or English, they may lie in different fields, that’s means different fields, similar meanings.
Of course, there is another case here, that’s similar fields, different meanings. I will give one example to explain this phenomenon. In the sentence Love makes a wit of the fool and Love makes people fool in front of wisdom, we can see that they belong to the field of Love is about human , but they have different meanings, even contrary meanings. So through these classifications we can draw a conclusion that no matter what fields the English love proverbs or Chinese love proverbs belong to, same fields or different fields, they may have different meanings between Chinses love proverbs and English love proverbs or the same meanings of them.
IV. Summary of the Analysis
Having compared the metaphorical meanings about the English and Chinese love proverbs, we can clearly see that both of them have some metaphorical meanings in and also each of them has its own metaphorical significance. As is discussed before, owe to the same material surroundings and those more or less similar bodily experiences encountered, there will be common metaphors in the cross-cultural research. Through the comparisons in the article, we can see that both English and Chinese love proverbs employ these conceptual metaphors.
By comparing the diffrerent metaphorical meanings between the love proverbs of Chinese and English, we can find that different love proverbs are not always clarified into one group. For example, the love proverbs of Chinese which belong to the Human, in some cases, also belong to the Human group of English group; however, in other cases, the love proverbs of Chinese which belong to the Human belong to the love proverbs of English parts.Similarly, love proverbs of Chinese which belong to Substances maybe belong to English love proverbs in metaphorical meanings, and it is the same with the Others clarifications between Chinese love proverbs and English ones about their metaphorical meanings. Metaphor is abstract and conceptual other than simply a kind of tool of literature imagination and rhetorical decoration to language. On the contrary, metaphor of love proverb is based into our everyday life and conducted our understandings of the world around us. Most of our knowledge about the world is achieved by means of metaphor, without which we can not live. By investigating into the love proverbs in both English and Chinese, we find that a great number of the proverbs are metaphors while a number of them are not. Since metaphor is grounded in our daily life, our experiences with the world, including both the physical and cultural experiences, motivate the creation of metaphors. Thus, reasonably different cultures will have different metaphors for the same concept, for experiential and cultural factors interfere with the employment of source domains for the same target concept.#p#分頁標題#e#
So we can not say that they all are results of the fact that English-speaking people and Chinese people encounter similar embodied experiences in love. The reasons lie in the fact that when we begin to refer to the metaphorical linguistic expressions we will find that the same metaphors sometimes convey quite different aspects of love in one language from those in the other specific levels. For example, the Love is human metaphor in English proverbs shows various aspects of humanity or different kinds of personalities while in Chinese proverbs it just refers to human as an entity.
The appearance of the Love is human and Love is substances metaphor in both English and Chinese just add much more contexts to the belief that mankind must understand the world by themselves by means of the metaphor in their words. Only by the way of concretizing the abstract concepts are humans able to identify them. To further demonstrate, when we say love is human, we can understand love better on the basis of our own emotions and characteristics.
However, it may be persuasively to say that the other three metaphors result from the similar embodied experiences that both English and Chinese people go through in love. It is generally agreed that lovers often fail to recognize the side-effects in themselves, especially those in their beloved. Therefore there is the proverb that the love is blind metaphorical inner meaning. On the other hand, lovers usually feel extremely inspired and in high emotions, and also pay little attentions to the difficulties they can endure to pursue their true love as though they were bestowed with unbelievable power. Thus, the love metaphor is incredible strengths which come into being later. Clearly here, love is a common valuable belief shared by both the English and the Chinese peoples.
V. Conclusion
Metaphor is abstract and conceptual other than simply a kind of tool of literature imagination and rhetorical decoration to language. On the contrary, metaphor of love proverb is based into our everyday life and conducted our understandings of the world around us. Most of our knowledge about the world is achieved by means of metaphor, without which we can not live. By investigating into the love proverbs in both English and Chinese, we find that a great number of the proverbs are metaphors while a number of them are not. Since metaphor is grounded in our daily life, our experiences with the world, including both the physical and cultural experiences, motivate the creation of metaphors. Thus, reasonably different cultures will have different metaphors for the same concept, for experiential and cultural factors interfere with the employment of source domains for the same target concept. Metaphor is abstract and conceptual other than simply a kind of tool of literature imagination and rhetorical decoration to language. On the contrary, metaphor of love proverb is based into our everyday life and conducted our understandings of the world around us. Most of our knowledge about the world is achieved by means of metaphor, without which we can not live. By investigating into the love proverbs in both English and Chinese, we find that a great number of the proverbs are metaphors while a number of them are not. Since metaphor is grounded in our daily life, our experiences with the world, including both the physical and cultural experiences, motivate the creation of metaphors. Thus, reasonably different cultures will have different metaphors for the same concept, for experiential and cultural factors interfere with the employment of source domains for the same target concept.#p#分頁標題#e#
Although the study is accomplished through hard work and careful improvement, it is hard to say I can avoid some limitations in the paper. An across-culture study on metaphors about love proverbs seems to make sense of or explain the differences between different thinking patterns. Therefore, in the future people may devote much more efforts to conduct some large investigations in order to generate more convincing and authoritative findings or fruits to improve the possibilities which maybe show up.
In conclusion, similarities between English and Chinese proverbs about love are more significant than their differences culture, that’s the reason why Chinese culture and English culture are melted today. Although the differences are difficult to be explained and expressed, the author tries to give some accounts from the cultural influences about the topic in this thesis.
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