Cheng Yu

ISSN 1798-4769 Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 473-476, July 2010 © 2010 ACADEMY PUBLISHER Manufactured in Finland. doi:10.4304/jltr.1.4.473-476

A Comparative Analysis of English and Chinese Idioms— From the Perspective of Conceptual Metaphor of “Happiness”
Xiuzhi Li
School of Adult Education, Dezhou University, Dezhou 253023, China Email: lcdxlxz@163.com
Abstract—A comparative analysis of English and Chinese idioms is made from the perspective of conceptual metaphor of “happiness”. By comparison, similar and different metaphors and metaphoric idioms in conceptualizing “happiness” are detected at first. Moreover, the reasons for the differences and similarities mentioned above derive from different thinking modes and cultural models. Index Terms—English and Chinese idioms, conceptual metaphor of “happiness”, comparative analysis

I. INTRODUCTION According to traditional view, idioms are treated as a whole semantically speaking and they can not be separated and synthesized. Therefore, idioms are looked on as a special kind of linguistic phenomenon. Many previous studies of idioms fail to recognize their metaphorical roots because scholars tend to detect only a few of these conventional phrases, such as rain cats and dogs. Cognitive view of metaphors shed new light on idiom learning and teaching, which holds that metaphors are not only poetical or rhetorical embellishments, but “in essence, a means of understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980: 42). As a kind of thinking mode, metaphors are so pervasive in our daily life that we are almost not aware of its existence. This is also true with many idioms. As researches go deeper and deeper, scholars find that many idioms are partly analyzable and motivated by conceptual metaphors. Emotions, as one of the most pervasive human experience, are conceptualized and expressed in metaphorical ways as well. Conceptual metaphor plays an...