A Comparative Study of E-C Bodily Metaphors

A Comparative Study of E-C Bodily Metaphors

- In Cases of “Hand”

By Jiang Lulu

In partial fulfillment of the requirement

For the B. A. degree

Department of English

School of Languages and Cultures

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

June 2017

Acknowledgement

I am particularly grateful to my supervisor, Professor Xu Xianwen. He is a teacher of erudition, patience, strictness and humor and he helped me from the beginning to the very end of this research. His guidance not only benefited my thesis writing, but also directed me to the academic way of conducting researches. Besides, he has given me persistent encouragement, patient guidance and valuable suggestions during the process of my composing the thesis. He has spending plenty of precious time reading my manuscripts, from the starting draft, clearing my thoughts and offering me good suggestions. His inspiration, especially on linguistics, sharp comments and modification enable me to do better as it is.

My cordial thanks would also extend to all my teachers for their instructive lessons and generous help in my four-year B.A. studies. Among them are Professor Chen Zhijie, Professor Yang Lincong, Professor Liu Jiehai, Professor Zhou Zhihao in particular.

My sincere thanks go to my classmates and friends, since they offer me advice when I am in help. Last but not least, I am indebted to my parents, because they are at my back all the time.

Content

1. Introduction 6

1.1 Basic concepts of metaphor 6

1.2 Current study of bodily metaphor

2. The Semantic Category of E-C “Hand” Metaphors 8

2.1 Hand in English

2.2 shǒu in Chinese

2.3 Analysis of Hand and shǒu

3. Causes of Similarities and Differences 17

3.1 Cause of similarities 17

3.2 Cause of differences 17

3.2.1 Differences in language and culture.

4. Methods of Translating Hand Metaphors

5.Conclusion 19

Reference

A Comparative Study of E-C Bodily Metaphors

- In Cases of “Hand”

Jiang Lulu

Department of English

School of Language and Culture

Nanjing University of Information Science amp; Technology

Abstract: Metaphor is a thinking and cognitive way. Human’s cognition of the surroundings is based on human bodies. Human’ perceptibility for the outside word is based on the bodily experiences and the same physiological structures of human beings. In this paper, the author attempts to find out the meaning extension of Hand from cognitive approach. First, the metaphor and bodily metaphor would be discussed. Then, Hand is exemplified, and the basic means of Hand reminds translators to notice the differences and similarities in both English and Chinese, otherwise the target language may not be easily understood. For translators, they could use some translation skills to avoid the cultural conflicts and make the transcripts understood to receivers.

Key word: metaphor; Hand and shǒu; differences; similarities; translations

摘 要： 隐喻是一种思考和认知方式，人类对于环境的感知基于肢体和相似的生理结构。在本研究中，研究人员用认知的方法来发现“手”的延伸意义。首先会讨论关于隐喻和肢体隐喻，然后会以“手”为例，总结其“手”在中英文中的隐喻使用。同时，译者也需注意到其中英汉语言的差异性与相似性，否则目标语理解起来不太容易。对于译者来说，他们可以使用一些翻译技巧来避免这种冲突，让受众能够理解翻译文本。

关键词：隐喻；手；相同之处；不同之处；翻译

1. Introduction

Metaphor is an important cognitive model of human, and it is also a tool for people to understand the world. Metaphor reflects the essential features of human thinking system. Thus, the use of metaphor is particularly important in language learning and uses.

It is body that creates the language. In daily life, people's understanding of the individual is the basis of cognizing the world. And the usage of the human body, including human organs, is very important. It has formed a huge system of word system, but its semantic chain is not broken[^[1]]. Its construction motive and construction process can be analyzed. Therefore, exploring the use of human body words has become a valuable research topic. The research of human body words could add semantics related to theory and explain the meaning of words. Hand is the basic human part which human try to understand. The basic meaning of "hand" in both English and Chinese is consistent. Therefore, the study has both practical significance and far-reaching theoretical value.

• 1. Basic concepts of metaphor

Meaning and understanding are to a considerable extent metaphorical, mapping from the concrete to the abstract and linking sensorimotor experience with subjective experience. It also follows that our body, with its experiences and functions, is a potentially universal source domain for metaphorical mappings from bodily experiences onto more abstract and subjective domains [^[2]]. This is because humans, despite their racial or ethnical peculiarities, all share many common bodily experiences and functions, which fundamentally define us as being human. Additionally, traditional metaphoric use focus on particular sides of concrete experience can be used in the development of new abstract representations[^[3]] . According to A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics[^[4]], metaphor is seen as a process of understanding one conceptual domain in terms of another. A typical metaphor is a mapping between a better-known, more concrete conceptual domain and the conceptual domain which it helps to organize. In Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics[^[5]], a metaphor is distinguished from a simile, while a simile expresses that two things are similar, a metaphor implies that the two are equivalent. It cannot be hard to find that each language has its metaphors, and metaphors have accumulated through time. Metaphors carry both semantic and cultural meanings. Thus, it is necessary for second and foreign language learners to learn metaphors.

• 1. Current study of bodily metaphor

Psychology and psychiatry have used a number of metaphors, but most metaphors have been taken from the common-sense metaphors we use in everyday life. One of the oldest metaphors for thinking and cognition is that bits of the outside world, impressions, etc. form associations, networks, or some form of linking with “thoughts” inside the head and this is the material that is then processed [^[6]]. Simile is similar with metaphor but they are also different. The two comparisons are that simile is clear while metaphor is not clear. Metaphor is based on and motivated by our daily experiences. Starting in the 1960s academic world, the “cognitive revolution” totally changed the metaphor of thinking about people into one of “cognitive information processing”, comparing people to mini-computers. Metaphors in nominal sentences are used in two parts: a target and a base. Because human experience the outside by bodies, thus, the study of bodily metaphor has caught many scholars’ and researchers’ eyes both at home and abroad. For instance, Toshiyuki and Fuller (2003) [^[7]]in their article hold that for Bodily metaphors, the similarities between the tenor and the vehicle are mainly in their appearance and function, and the appearance similarities are more translatable. Franklin (2003)[^[8]] analyzes the employment of Bodily metaphors in the names of car parts in his dissertation Some Kewa Metaphors: Body Parts as Automobile Parts. The neural representations of these processes therefore provide a means to determine the neurological basis of creative language [^[9]]. Proverbs, pronouns of power and solidarity, background knowledge in conversations, politeness, the principle of cooperation, and so forth, are just some of the concepts between culture and language [^[10]]. In recent years, many scholars study the roots of metaphor, metaphor in language and so on.

In China, the Bodily metaphor research can be divided into four aspects, as are discussed below: Firstly, some scholars propose a theoretical introduction in detail and discuss the Bodily metaphor theory from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. Secondly, some scholars are interested in comparative studies between two languages with regard to Bodily metaphors. Thirdly, the research of certain body parts from a metaphorical view. In addition, Chinese scholars and researchers have paid attention to the cultural perspective in Bodily metaphor studies such as, Li Jing’ thesis proves that “hand” contains a lot of cultural information, and it is a result of some model of Han nationality[^[11]].

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