Abstract

At all times and in all countries, color words have been widely used in literary creation and also have been given many other meanings which are the metaphorical meanings. From the cognitive perspective, the comparative study of color metaphor in English and Chinese takes metaphor as its theoretical basis.

The color metaphors in English mainly include: black, white, green, blue and purple while the color metaphors in Chinese are mainly associated with metaphors of character, metaphors of social status and metaphors of daily life and folk customs. Such color metaphors of red and green in English and Chinese are similar while the they also differ in some ways: different cultures have different preferences of color and some color words have specific metaphorical meanings in the west and in China.

Key words: color words; metaphor; cognitive linguistics

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1 Introduction-1

1.1 Background of the study-1

1.2 Purposes of the study-2

1.3 Framework of the study-2

2 Literature review-2

2.1 Researches of metaphor in the west-2

2. 2 Researches of color word metaphor in the west-3

2.3 Researches of metaphor in China-4

2.4 Researches of color word metaphor in China-6

3 Color metaphors in English and in Chinese-7

3.1 Color metaphors in English-7

3.1.1 Black and white-8

3.1.2 Green-8

3.1.3 Blue-9

3.1.4 Purple-9

3.1.5 Other colors-9

3.2 Color metaphors in Chinese-9

3.2.1 Metaphor of character-10

3.2.2 Metaphor of social estate-10

3.2.3 Metaphor of people’s daily life and folk custom-12

4 Comparative study of color metaphors in English and in Chinese-13

4.1 Similarities of color metaphors in English and in Chinese-13

4.1.1 Red-13

4.1.2 Green-14

4.2 Differences of color metaphors in English and in Chinese-15

4.2.1 Different cultures have different preference of color-15

4.2.2 Specific metaphorical meaning of color words in the west and in China.-16

5 Conclusion-16

References-17