汉英谚语对比研究

【作者】 寇福明；

【导师】 王远新；

【作者基本信息】 中央民族大学 ， 语言学及应用语言学， 2007， 博士

【摘要】 谚语是人类语言普遍存在的一种语言单位。它是民族语言的精华，是人民大众长期生产、生活经验的概括和智慧的结晶。它深深扎根于民族的深层认知结构中，体现了民族的认知心理基础。以往的汉英谚语对比研究由于受传统语言学和结构主义语言学的影响，着重研究谚语的形式特征和谚语的文化观，即谚语的语言结构、修辞特点以及文化特征等。关于谚语认知方面的研究，特别是运用认知语言学的理论对英汉谚语进行对比研究的成果还不多。本文在对比汉英谚语语音、语法和词汇以及修辞的共性和差异等类型学特征的基础上，重点从认知语言学的角度研究了谚语的认知特点和形成机制，阐述了谚语形成和理解的文化理据，分析了汉英谚语的语义结构和语义特征，并运用当代隐喻理论的研究成果，重点分析了谚语理解的认知机制。本文把认知语言学的概念隐喻和概念整合理论纳入统一的框架中，建立了谚语理解的认知语言学框架。我们认为，谚语不仅是一种语言现象，也是人类认知活动的产物，同时其形成和理解深深扎根于民族文化之中。文章主要立足于认知语言学的角度，以隐喻理论为主线，从以下三个方面对汉英谚语进行了初步的分析和阐释。首先，谚语是一种语言现象。文章在总结前人研究成果的同时，结合语言类型学和标记理论的研究成果，对汉英谚语的结构形式、韵律特征、词汇特点和语义特征进行了描写，对比分析了汉英谚语在语言类型上的共性和差异。本文认为，作为一种意义固化的隐喻，从结构上看，谚语或是本体和喻体同现的隐喻，或是隐含了本体的隐喻。按照谚语的表达方式和特点，它可分为隐喻性谚语和字面性谚语。其次，谚语是人类认知活动的产物，大多数谚语是隐喻性的。本文从认知语言学的角度，运用了现代隐喻理论的研究成果，对汉英谚语形成和理解机制作了尝试性的探索，认为谚语作为具有真实值的命题是以经验性为存在基础的，谚语的形成是客观世界与人类思维互动的结果，是一个认知域的概念在另一认知域的投射。谚语的理解是以一个概念域的事物去理解或经历另一概念域的事物。作为一种常规化的映射模式，谚语常常超越了一般隐喻所使用的语境，可在更普遍、更广泛的相关语境下使用，它能够概括人类具有普遍意义的基本经验。在谚语形成、发展及其理解过程中，动态的概念整合过程，实际上体现了人类思维的本质特性。最后，谚语的形成和理解深深扎根于民族文化之中。谚语所表达的道理是通过将社会生活中的特殊情况与生活中更为普通、常见、具体的概念联系起来而突显出来的。谚语有着超出各种文化背景差异性之外的一些共同特点。其中，最重要的就是谚语的运用往往建立在其比喻意义而非字面意义的基础上的。谚语的运用反映了概念隐喻在人们认识理解世界中的普遍作用，同时，特定的民族文化背景又是决定隐喻产生、使用和理解的重要因素之一，即不同民族有着不同的文化，他们根植于不同民族的观念中，也反映在谚语的使用中。总之，本文立足于汉英谚语对比研究，通过对其结构形式、韵律特征、词汇特点等微观层面以及谚语的文化特征等宏观层面的对比，探讨了汉英谚语产生的共性和差异及其原因，并从认知语言学的角度，对汉英谚语意义的形成机制以及谚语理解的认知模式做了初步的探索，进一步证实了经验和认知在语言结构和功能构建过程中所起的重要作用。更多还原

【Abstract】 The proverb is ubiquitous in all human languages. They are the essence of the different languages, the accumulation of the human experience and crystallization of the wisdom of the people in their daily life and labor. Deeply rooted in the higher order cognitive structure, they can reflect the cognitive psychological basis of the nations.Influenced by the traditional linguistics and structural linguistics, the former research on Chinese and English proverbs focuses on the formal and cultural features, that is to say, the structure, rhetoric and culture in proverbs. Proverb cognition is little concerned.The dissertation discusses the typological features of the English and Chinese proverbs through a contrastive analysis of the similarities and differences in rhyme, grammar and words, expounds cognitive and generative mechanism and cultural foundation of proverb comprehension from the cognitive viewpoint, analyzes semantic structure and characteristics and places a great emphasis on the cognitive mechanism of proverb comprehension and application by adopting the contemporary theory of metaphor.After a review of the literature about the study of the English and Chinese proverbs, we put forth a new stand, integrate conceptual metaphor and blending space into a unified frame and further set up theanalytic frame in the study of proverbs in cognitive linguistics. In the dissertation, proverbs are considered as a special language phenomenon and expression that extensively exist in most of the languages in the world. Most of them are based on metaphorical conceptualizations, resulted from cognition and deeply rooted in national culture. Based on the cognitive linguistics and especially the metaphor theory, the dissertation explores the figurative interpretation of the typical proverbs in Chinese and English. Three aspects will be detailed as follows:First, proverbs are a language phenomenon. After a review of the literature on the former outcomes, a careful description and analysis of the structural, rhyming, lexical and semantic features is made in this dissertation. We think that, as a kind of metaphor of bound meaning, proverbs are classified as literal and metaphorical ones according to the expression and considered as the co-occurrence of tenor and vehicle or a vehicle as implicative tenor according to the structure.Second, proverbs are a product of human cognition, most of them are metaphorical. The dissertation makes a preliminary analysis of the proverb creation and comprehension by applying the theory of cognitive linguistics and especially metaphor. Such a fact is showed that proverbs as a truth value are based on human experience; proverb creation is the result of interaction between the objective world and human metaphorical thinking; proverb comprehension is a mapping of one conceptual domainonto another. Proverbs, as a conventional mapping, usually surpass the contexts used by metaphors originally, and can be used on more general and broader ones, thus obtaining for the proverbs a universal meaning in sum. Starting from this viewpoint, we can get an overall comprehension of the proverbs and of the dynamic conceptual blending in the process and accordingly an insight into the nature of human thinking.Finally, proverb creation and comprehension are deeply rooted in the national culture. Proverbs convey their lessons by combining the special cases in social lives with more ordinary, common and specific ideas in lives. Proverbs have some common characteristics that go beyond the differences between various cultures, and the most important one is its implication based on the figurative rather than literal meaning. The using of proverbs reflects the role that conceptual metaphors play in people’s knowledge of the world. Metaphors occur in the process of metaphorical thinking, revealing how people know the world. The particular cultural background is one of the key factors that determine the generating, using and comprehending of the proverbs. Different nations have their particular cultures deeply rooted in the people’s notions and reflected in their languages. And proverbs, from one aspect, reflect the application and interpretation of the national cultureIn a word, the dissertation underlies the contrastive analysis of the English and Chinese proverbs to explore the differences in the Chineseand English way of thinking by contrasting the structures, meanings and cultural characteristics of the proverbs. Meanwhile, starting from cognitive linguistics it looks further into their theoretical bases, the mechanism and cognitive patterns and further confirms that experience and conception play an important role in the construction of the language structure and function.更多还原