摘 要

语言是人类最重要的交流工具。一般来说，每个民族都有自己独特的语言。习语是语言中的一种特殊现象，是语言和文化的精髓，与人类的日常生活和经历密切相关。中英文语言中都有大量习语，开展汉英习语比较研究有非常重要的价值和意义。

本文以概念隐喻理论为指导，开展英汉情感习语比较研究。研究表明英汉情感习语中存在丰富的概念隐喻，英汉情感习语在很大程度上是通过隐喻来概念化的；由于人们共有的认知思维模式和日常生活中的类似经验，英汉情感习语，如愤怒习语，快乐习语，恐惧习语和悲伤习语存在相似的概念隐喻；由于千差万别的环境条件和多元文化的存在，英汉情感习语中也存在不同的概念隐喻。

本研究为概念隐喻理论提供了跨文化、跨语言的支持性证据，同时，能帮助语言学习者更好地理解语言和文化之间的关系，恰当使用习语。

关键词：习语；概念隐喻；情感习语

Contents

Acknowledgments I

Abstract II

摘要 III

1. Introduction 1
   1. Research background 1
      1. Study abroad 1
      2. Study at home 2
   2. Significance of the study 2
   3. Structure of this thesis 3
2. Demonstration 3
   1. Idiom and Metaphor 3
      1. Idiom 3
         1. Definitions of idioms 3
         2. Classification of idioms 4
         3. Characteristics of idioms 4
      2. Metaphor and conceptual metaphor 5
      3. Relationship between idiom and metaphor 7
   2. Similarities and differences between English and Chinese emotion-related idioms 7
      1. Anger-related idioms 8
      2. Happiness-related idioms 10
      3. Fear-related idioms 11
      4. Sadness-related idioms 12
3. Conclusion 14

Works cited 15

Bibliography 16

A Comparative Study of English and Chinese Emotion-related Idioms from the Perspective of Conceptual Metaphor Theory

Introduction

• 1. Research background 1.1.1Study abroad

Idioms have long been the topic and focus of scholars in the field of linguistics. Early linguists mainly discussed the sources and functions of idioms. Among them, the representative personage is British linguist Smith. According to the sources of literal meanings of idioms, he divided idioms into several kinds related to religion, military etc.. In the early 1930s, on the basis of Structuralist linguistics, linguists gradually began to analyze the lexical structures, syntactic functions and semantic features of idioms. After the 1950s, linguists began to study the deep structure of idioms by using the theory of Transformative-generative grammar. In the 1980s, cognitive linguistics emerged. And linguists wanted to study idioms from this new perspective. They tried to find out the connections between idioms and human

cognition.

Conceptual Metaphor Theory was proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980:3) in their book Metaphors We Live BY. They believe that metaphor is not only a rhetorical device in literary works, but also an important way of human thinking mode, participating in the whole process of human cognition. Lakoff and Johnson (1980:3) argue that “metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.” Based on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, the understanding of metaphor involves the source domain and the target domain. Metaphor is a mapping from a source domain to a target domain. Through the mapping, knowledge in the source domain is mapped onto target domain, so metaphor can help us to understand unfamiliar concepts in the target

domain through familiar ones in the source domain.