Schedule 72. StuTS

Is “black market” in every language “black”? How about seeing “red” (being angry) or feeling “blue”? To which extent do different languages share the same color metaphors? What are the motivations underlying shared and specific metaphorical meanings of color across different languages?
In the traditional metaphor theory, metaphor is considered only as a linguistic phenomenon and a rhetorical device. (Bartlett, Robert C., 2019) However, it started to be regarded as a basic and indispensable cognitive mode for human beings after the proposal of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson 1980). According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980: 3), “our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.” Humans tend to conceptualize abstract concepts through concrete ones by mapping source domains to target domains, for example, conceptualizing “argument” as “war.” Color as a basic cognitive category for human beings, serves as a frequent source domain for conceptual metaphors in various languages.
The current study used 11 basic color terms in English according to Berlin and Kay (1969) and 12 color terms in Chinese as subjects through a corpus study. It aimed to provide a systematic description of color metaphors in Chinese and English within the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Shared and specific metaphorical meanings of these colors in the two languages and their motivations were discussed. The color terms tend to be conceptualized as concepts with similar affective meanings elicited based on the biological nature of the color cross-culturally. In contrast, the conflicting affective meanings expressed by the color metaphors always arise within a specific cultural context. Furthermore, the target domains of each color metaphor in these two languages were analyzed and compared. Emotion, identity, morality, and other domains are the frequent domains conceptualized from color cognition. The investigation provides hints about the socio-cultural and socio-cognitive structures of these two different speech communities.

References:
Bartlett, Robert C., 2019. Aristotle’ Art of Rhetoric, translation with an Interpretive Essay, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Berlin, Brent & Kay, Paul. 1969. Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Lakoff, George & Johnson, Mark. 1980. Metaphors we live by. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Info

Day: 2022-11-05
Start time: 11:15
Duration: 00:30
Room: Wiwi-Bunker —Room 3018
Track: Diverse
Language: en

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