Author(s)

Xuejiao Ding ¹

Affiliation(s)

¹ Foreign Studies College, Northeastern University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China

Corresponding Author

ABSTRACT

Metaphor is not only a rhetorical device, but also a ubiquitous cognitive approach. Based on the concept of "Philosophy in the Flesh" proposed by Lakoff and Johnson, this paper analyses the similarities and differences of the metaphor of foot in Chinese and English, using CCL (the Center for Chinese Linguistics PKU) as the Chinese corpus and COCA (the Corpus of Contemporary American English) as the English corpus. It is found that the Chinese and English samples share five metaphorical uses in common: movement, position, function, emotions and attitudes, and address related to the foot. No metaphorical use based on the ability of the foot to measure is found in Chinese. The similarities in the metaphor of foot reflect the common features of "Philosophy in the Flesh" and metaphorical mapping in Chinese and English mindsets, while the differences reflect the cultural disparity behind Chinese and English.

KEYWORDS

CITE THIS PAPER

Xuejiao Ding, Metaphor of Foot: A Comparative Study of Chinese and English Based on Corpora. Lecture Notes on Language and Literature (2024) Vol. 7: 57-63. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23977/langl.2024.070808.

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