Abstract：The booming economy has made economic information flood into everyday life and people are exposed to economic reports at an unprecedented level. It is usually agreed that headlines serve as the eyes of news and rich metaphors are used by journalists to fuel readers’ interest. As a result, a better understanding of metaphors in headlines facilitates people’s economic activity in reality. 

Combining approaches of quantitative and qualitative analysis and on the basis of a detailed and in-depth analysis, this thesis includes a contrastive study between metaphors in English and Chinese economic news headlines in order to find what contributes to their similarities and differences. After the research, it is found that types of metaphors appeared in English and Chinese economic reports’ headlines share a high degree of similarity. However, due to different histories and cultures, there also exist obvious differences in number and range of metaphors used in economic reports’ headlines of different languages. This thesis focuses on five high-frequency metaphors and figures out several characteristics of metaphors in English and Chinese economic reports’ headlines with the aid of some examples. Among top five most frequent metaphors, water metaphor is basically identical in two languages while there are differences in living organism, war, weather, entertainment metaphors in terms of wording and reference. After the study, it is also found that metaphors in English economic reports’ headlines are more concrete while those in Chinese economic reports’ headlines are relatively abstract.

Key words：metaphor; economic reports’ headlines; contrastive study

CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

中文摘要

Chapter One  INTRODUCTION-1

1.1 Background of the Study-1

1.2 Objective of the Study-1

1.3 Structure of the Thesis-1

Chapter Two  LITERATURE REVIEW-3

2.1 Previous Study on Metaphors-3

2.2 Previous Comparative Study of Metaphors in Economic Fields-3

2.2.1 Studies abroad-3

2.2.2 Studies at home-4

2.3 Summary-5

Chapter Three  RESEARCH METHODOLOGY-6

3.1 Research Questions-6

3.2 Metaphor Identification-6

3.3 Data Collection-7

3.4 Data Processing-7

Chapter Four  RESULTS AND DISCUSSION-8

    4.1 Descriptive Results-8

    4.2 Statistical Results-9

    4.3 Discussion-10

4.3.1 Economy is living organism-10

4.3.1.1 Economy is plant-11

4.3.1.2 Economy is animal-11

4.3.1.3 Economy is human being-12

4.3.2 Economy is war-14

4.3.3 Economy is weather-15

4.3.4 Economy is entertainment-16

4.3.4.1 Economy is music and play-16

4.3.4.2 Economy is game-16

4.3.4.3 Economy is sports-17

4.3.5 Economy is water-18

4.4 Summary-19

Chapter Five  CONCLUSION-21

5.1 Major Research Findings-21

5.2 Implications of the Study-21

5.3 Limitations of the Study and Suggestions for Future Research-22

REFERENCES-23