A corpus-based study on snake metaphors in Mandarin Chinese and British English

This study is based on the data obtained from the Modern Chinese Corpus compiled by the Center for Chinese Linguistics of Peking University (CCL Corpus) and the British National Corpus (BNC). Via exploring snake metaphors across the two languages within the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory an...

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Main Authors:	Wei, Lixia, Wong, Bee Eng
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Penerbit UKM 2012
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3277/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3277/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3277/1/pp_311_324.pdf

id	ukm-3277
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-32772016-12-14T06:34:10Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3277/ A corpus-based study on snake metaphors in Mandarin Chinese and British English Wei, Lixia Wong, Bee Eng This study is based on the data obtained from the Modern Chinese Corpus compiled by the Center for Chinese Linguistics of Peking University (CCL Corpus) and the British National Corpus (BNC). Via exploring snake metaphors across the two languages within the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the GREAT CHAIN METAPHOR, this study aims to identify the existence of both universality and individuality of metaphors cross-linguistically when the snake is mapped onto human beings. It investigates the snake metaphors from three aspects. The findings show that, first, the metaphorical expressions in Mandarin Chinese and British English are both mainly generated from the snake’s characteristic and appearance. Second, in terms of the conceptual metaphor of HUMAN BEINGS ARE ANIMALS, Mandarin Chinese and British English share the same metaphor of HUMAN BEINGS ARE SNAKES. However, when the gender of human beings is taken into consideration, the specific conceptual metaphors generalized for the man and the woman from these two languages are different. This provides evidence to show that cross linguistically, like other kinds of conceptual metaphors, the universality of snake metaphors exists at the generic level and the individuality of these metaphors exists at the basic level. Third, in terms of evaluation, the snake metaphorical expressions have a much more derogative meaning for the man in Chinese but a more derogative meaning for the woman in English. Penerbit UKM 2012-01 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3277/1/pp_311_324.pdf Wei, Lixia and Wong, Bee Eng (2012) A corpus-based study on snake metaphors in Mandarin Chinese and British English. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 12 (1). pp. 311-324. ISSN 1675-8021 http://www.ukm.my/ppbl/Gema/gemacurrentissues.html
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	This study is based on the data obtained from the Modern Chinese Corpus compiled by the Center for Chinese Linguistics of Peking University (CCL Corpus) and the British National Corpus (BNC). Via exploring snake metaphors across the two languages within the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and the GREAT CHAIN METAPHOR, this study aims to identify the existence of both universality and individuality of metaphors cross-linguistically when the snake is mapped onto human beings. It investigates the snake metaphors from three aspects. The findings show that, first, the metaphorical expressions in Mandarin Chinese and British English are both mainly generated from the snake’s characteristic and appearance. Second, in terms of the conceptual metaphor of HUMAN BEINGS ARE ANIMALS, Mandarin Chinese and British English share the same metaphor of HUMAN BEINGS ARE SNAKES. However, when the gender of human beings is taken into consideration, the specific conceptual metaphors generalized for the man and the woman from these two languages are different. This provides evidence to show that cross linguistically, like other kinds of conceptual metaphors, the universality of snake metaphors exists at the generic level and the individuality of these metaphors exists at the basic level. Third, in terms of evaluation, the snake metaphorical expressions have a much more derogative meaning for the man in Chinese but a more derogative meaning for the woman in English.
format	Article
author	Wei, Lixia Wong, Bee Eng
spellingShingle	Wei, Lixia Wong, Bee Eng A corpus-based study on snake metaphors in Mandarin Chinese and British English
author_facet	Wei, Lixia Wong, Bee Eng
author_sort	Wei, Lixia
title	A corpus-based study on snake metaphors in Mandarin Chinese and British English
title_short	A corpus-based study on snake metaphors in Mandarin Chinese and British English
title_full	A corpus-based study on snake metaphors in Mandarin Chinese and British English
title_fullStr	A corpus-based study on snake metaphors in Mandarin Chinese and British English
title_full_unstemmed	A corpus-based study on snake metaphors in Mandarin Chinese and British English
title_sort	corpus-based study on snake metaphors in mandarin chinese and british english
publisher	Penerbit UKM
publishDate	2012
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3277/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3277/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/3277/1/pp_311_324.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T19:38:21Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T19:38:21Z
_version_	1777405422343290880

A corpus-based study on snake metaphors in Mandarin Chinese and British English

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