A Study on Metaphor and Its Differences Between English and Chinese Cultures_英语毕业论文.docxVIP

A Study on Metaphor and Its Differences Between English and Chinese Cultures Abstract　Metaphor is one of the most common rhetorical devices.It is widely used everywhere .This thesis is an attempt to illustrate a comprehensive knowledge of English metaphor.The writer elaborates metaphor through six parts： the definition of metaphor，the distinction between metaphor and simile，the categories of metaphor，the application of metaphor ，a contrastive study of metaphorical cognition concerned with English and Chinese cultural backgrounds and the magical effects that metaphor produces.In this way，the writer reveals the importance of metaphor in our daily life. 　Key words： Metaphor； Application； Culture comparison； Proverb； idiom 　1. THE DEFINITION OF METAPHOR 　Metaphor are the most widely used figure of speech.They are like the seasonings in a dish or the flowers in spring that add salt to language.Many new words spring up recently contain metaphors.For example，terms like “down load”， “information highway”， “mouse”， “soft landing”，”bottle neck” and “cyber surfing”are all metaphorical expressions.Besides，some additional meanings of words involve metaphors as well.For instance，the shape of clover leaf resembles a motorway intersection in a pattern，so the phrase “clover leaf” is used to describe a motor intersection.Similarly，people use rabbit-warren to indicate a building or district full of narrow winding passages.Obviously，the examples mentioned above hold the idea that a metaphor serves the purpose of illustrating things which bear close resemblance in their shape or character.So What’s a metaphor？ The Random House Unabridged Dictionary（second edition） defines metaphor as a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance.Metaphor is “characterized by the conceptualization of one cognitive domain in terms of components more usually associated with another cognitive domain”（Taylor， 198