Abstract：Color is a kind of natural phenomenon and it is shared by all human languages. The recognition of colors is one of the basic cognitive domains of human beings. We use metaphor as a way to explore and understand the world by which we learn about an item through another one. So metaphor is not just a linguistic phenomenon but also a kind of thinking pattern. Metaphor is the fundamental way of the production of the extended meanings of color terms.  

Under the framework of cognitive linguistics, from the perspective of conceptual metaphor a contrastive study of English and Chinese metaphorical meaning of non-basic color terms . Through the analysis of the collected data, in the figures, the two groups of data showed great similarities in the source domains like plants, animals and human bodies. In this situation, the universal human physiological features and the natural environment take the responsibility. And in the domains like human interaction and chemical and industrial materials, some remarkable differences were found between the two groups of data. Generally speaking, English contains more non-basic color metaphors than Chinese. But the further study suggested that the two groups of data were very close with each other as far as the daily usage and the fixed  non-basic color metaphors are concerned. Again, the factor of culture weighs a lot. 

Through the perspective of cognition, comparative analysis of the similarities and differences between the metaphorical meaning in and non basic-color words in the two languages of English and Chinese, is not only helpful to deepen to nationals of the national language understanding, also can help foreign language learning researchers. Especially Chinese English learners to understand and master the language behind cognitive style and cultural connotation.

Key Words : non-basic color terms; metaphor; contrastive studies 

CONTENTS

摘要

Abstract

1. Introduction-1

1.1  The Background of theResearch-1

1.2  The Purpose of the Research-2

1.3  The Significance of the Research-3

1.4  The Structure of the Research-3

2. Literature Review-4

2.1 Research on Metaphor-4

2.1.1 Studies Abroad-4

2.1.2 Studies at Home-7

2.2 Research on basic and Non-basic color terms-8

2.2.1 Studies Abroad-8

2.2.2 Studies at Home-9

2.3 Studies on Metaphors in Cognitive Linguistics-9

3.The Contrastive Study of Chinese and English on Non-Basic Color-10

3.1 The Similarities and Differences in the Forming of Non-basic Color Terms-10

3.1.1 The Forming of Non-basic Chinese Color Terms-10

3.1.2 The Forming of Non-basic English Color Terms-12

3.2 The Cognitive Contrastive Analysis of Non-basic Color Terms-12

4.The Causes of the Similarities and Differences-14

4.1 The Causes of the Similarities-14

4.2 The Causes of the Differences-15

5. Conclusion-16

5.1The Significance of the Research-16

5.2 Limitations of the Research-17

5.3 Suggestions for Further Research-17

Reference-18

Acknowledgement-19