Abstract

Emotion is one of the most important parts in human experience. How to realize and conceptualize emotion is the issue people care about. Metaphor is the way we think, also the tool for us to conceptualize abstract concepts. It exists in all kinds of languages. This article is going to have a comparative study between English and Chinese on the basis of fear metaphors. 

Started with Aristotle’s view that metaphor aims to give things a name that belongs to something else, this study restudies the fear metaphor and deliberates over the characteristics and types of fear metaphor. After a comprehensive analysis and comparison, it is found that there are some similar conceptual metaphors in English and Chinese. However, “fear” emotion metaphors also show some differences in English and Chinese. English often use the “whole body” to express fear, while Chinese conceptualizes fear as “organs”. What’s more, English often uses “go to the hell” to describe fear, while Chinese usually employs “the loss of soul” to give a description of fear. Also fear is connected with “nerve” in English, but fear is linked to “gall bladder” in Chinese. Several reasons for the differences are also discussed including different tradition, religion, and geographical environment. 

This article can consist of 5 parts. The first part points out the background and purposes of the study of fear emotion; the second part mainly talks about the literature review; the third part is the comparative study of English and Chinese fear metaphors, as well as the induced factors. The last part is the conclusion of the thesis.

Keywords: metaphor  fear emotion  comparison  culture

Contents

Acknowledgements

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

1.2 Purpose of the Study

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Conceptual Metaphor

2.2 Fear Emotion

2.3 Previous Studies of “Fear” Emotion

Chapter Three A Comparative Study of English and Chinese Fear Metaphor

3.1 Fear Metaphors in English

3.2 Fear Metaphors in Chinese

3.3 The Similarities between English and Chinese Fear Metaphors

3.4 The Differences between English and Chinese Fear Metaphors

3.4.1 Body vs. Organs

3.4.2 Goose vs. Mouse

3.4.3 The Loss of Soul vs. Going to the Hell

3.4.4 Gall Bladder vs. Nerve

Chapter 4 Analysis of Induced Factors

4.1 Tradition

4.2 Religion

4.3 Living Environment

Chapter 5 Conclusion

References