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【摘 要】颜色词隐喻是指以颜色域为源域，将颜色域的意象映射到非颜色的或抽象域上，使得我们可以通过颜色概念来理解和思考。本文从认知的角度对颜色隐喻进行了研究。隐喻是不同认知域之间的映射，特别是将一个比较熟悉易于理解的源域的框架映射到一个不熟悉较难理解的目标域之上。在这种映射过程中，由于源域中概念的利用有利于目标域中概念的理解和表达。
Abstract：Color metahor translation is a cognitive activity in the sense that one tends to explain or understand the abstract concept in terms of the sense of colors. This thesis studies the color metaphor from the perspective of cognitive. Metaphor arises from mapping among different cognitive domains， especially the mapping from familiar and easily-understood source domain onto unfamiliar and abstract target domain. And through the mapping， the concepts of the target domain of the abstract concept is understood and expressed in terms of that in the source domain of the color.
Key Words： color metaphor； cognitive mapping； source domain； target domain
【關键词】颜色隐喻；认知映射；源域；目标域
Significance and Objectives of the Research
The essence of metaphor is to experiene and understand one thing in terms of another， which implies that metaphor can be understood as the mapping from a source domain to a target domain.
According to George Lakoff and Mark Johnson， metaphor is pervasive in everyday life， not just in language， but in thought and action. And the emphasis of metaphor is not the language at all， but in thought， which focus in the way we understand and experience one mental domain in terms of another. Color metaphor will be formed if we use color words to modify other things which literally have no color. When we associate color terms with abstract concepts or unusual collocations as in the sentence， “His mood grew blacker.” Here “black” does not refer to color， but used metaphorically. And it is associated with emotion， which means angry and depression. Moreover， when we use the basic category of color to express and explain other cognitive category， color metaphor cognition is formed.
Color metaphor is significant to our cognition in that it is through conceptual metaphor of color that we can comprehend abstract concepts and perform abstract reasoning， and thus color metaphor plays an important role in helping us perceive and understand the world. Therefore， the cognitive view about the metaphor explores the foundation of the creation of color metaphor---we human beings have metaphorical conceptual systems and thus metaphorical thought. Therefore， the cognitive view on metaphor plays a good foundation for explaining the working mechanism of color metaphor. The cognitive basis of metaphorical thought are associative and imaginative， through which people can get the denotative meaning of color terms in communication. Based on human’s common cognitive mechanism， the denotative meaning of color terms is similar to the metaphorical meaning. This thesis aims to explore the color metaphors from the perspective of cognition.
There is much study of metaphor translation both at home and abroad. Those researches are carried out from the viewpoints of pragmatics， translation methods， culture and cognitive linguistics. But it is just a start and the further and systematical study is needed. The linguists have made many researches into time domain， space domain and emotion domain from the perspective of metaphor， except for color domain. And the main argument of the cognitive mapping approach is that color metaphors are not viewed as decorative elements， but basic tool for conceptualization. Most of the research is done from the angle of cultural factors. Metaphors serve as a means of understanding one domain of experience （a target domain） in terms of another （a source domain）.
Color metaphors are pervasive in our daily language， and color terms are universally active in describing abstract concepts. They exist universally for basic human perceptual color categories， which serve as the psychological and physical referents of the basic color terms in language.
1. Metaphorical Features of Color Terms
Due to a variety of subjective reasons of human beings， color terms have many blurry representations. The physical objects that color terms describe are different in different cultures. And the same color terms might have different meanings in different cultures. Many color terms originate from the color of a specific physical object. Many color terms are used metaphorically， and then the metaphorical meaning is generated. Every community denotes the color terms with the simple and concrete thing they are most familiar with. However， the objects that the color term is built on across cultures are various. Therefore， there exist all sorts of dissimilarities in denoting the same color term across communities.
On one hand， color terms present themselves with certain objects. This feature can be observed in the great number of lexicons that are composed of morphemes representing material or physical objects such as xuebai雪白 （snow-white）， xuehong 血紅 （blood-red）， chase茶色 （tea-brown， tawny）， doulv 豆绿 （bean-green）， jiangse酱色 （jam-brown， a dark reddish brown）， xiangyase 象牙色 （ivory）， conglv 葱绿 （light green）， e’huang鹅黄 （light yellow）， meiguihong玫瑰红（rose color）， juhong橘红（chrysoidine） and naiyouse奶油色（cream-yellow） etc. On the other hand， color terms often lose their original meanings when they are used in metaphor. For instance， baiyan白眼， here baiyan metaphorically means “ungraceful”. And the word baishi白事， refers to the funeral in general. It also tells the truth that the original characteristic of color terms and its development are closely associated to physical objects， so the general rule of the evolution of color term’s meanings is from specific to common， and from concrete to abstract. 2 Cognition of Color Metaphor
Color words are a kind of special words. There are good reasons for describing color terms and color metaphors. In fact， color metaphors are part of cognitive phenomenon of human beings. And there are two cognitive functions of color metaphor. First， color metaphor plays an important role in language and in the way in which we comprehend the world， such as “the sky is blue”， “blood is red” and “fresh grass is green”. In this sense， there are no more things could be simpler or more obvious than colors. So， human can understand something abstract more clearly and easily in terms of color metaphor. Second， a color metaphor gives people a new understanding of experience and the world. i.e. color metaphor creats new meaning. In the metaphor “white collar”， “white” is not only to describe the literal meaning， but also gives us a new meaning， namely， the workers who work in the office， engage in mental labor. The new metaphor， such as “blue collar”， “grey collar”， “gold collar”， can explain why color metaphors are creative and imaginative. One’s personal views of the different quality of work give rise to those metaphors. Thus the color metaphor gives “collar” a new meaning.
Language is not a closed system but an open one， and it is impossible for any language to keep immutable. Except for its own development， a language can never avoid being influenced by other languages， thus the meaning of a word always changes with the development of history and society. Therefore， we cannot make an exception of color term. The conceptual meaning of color metaphors has been closely related， from the very beginning， to material and physical objects in the world， which take on corresponding colors. Conversely， these objects invest the color metaphors with different connotative meanings in different cultural systems. The conceptual meanings of the color metaphors may become comparatively less important than their connotative meanings， namely， their metaphorical meanings may prove to be what really counts. In this case， color metaphors have their own illocutionary force， with their metaphorical meanings， or their connotations， far beyond the conceptual meanings of the colors themselves. So in rendering it may be unnecessary to translate the color metaphors in their conceptual senses. We just need to express their connotative meanings， even to omit the color terms themselves if necessary. The Chinese idiom jinzhuzhe chi， jinmozhe hei近朱者赤，近墨者黑 is a case in point， English has its own means to express the meaning of the idiom with “He who keeps company with the wolf will learn to howl”. In this example， if we describe this idiom with the corresponding color metaphors， the English speakers will feel confused. So we should render it into a cultural equivant in English. Owing to the same reason， if hongren紅人is rendered literally into “a red man”， then its connotative meaning is completely lost. So this expression “a favorite with sb. in power” should be used. Thus in this case， the loss of color may result in the gain of its connotative meaning. 3 Cognitive Conception of Color Metaphor
Metaphor is a active poetic language form imbued with cultures， which is a systematic combination of informative function and aesthetic language. By the vivid and diverse images in metaphors， the target audiences may have endless imaginatons and associations， which not only provide the target audiences information， but also bring the enjoyment of beauty to the target audiences. In this way， metaphors help the target audiences vividly understand the writer’s intention. Metaphor is always one of the focuses of translation. Nowadays， the metaphor is not just a rhetorical device but has become a way of thinking. The essence of metaphorical thinking is that it is possible for us to understand the unfamiliar objects by relating them with objects we familiarize.
A cognitive perspective of color metaphor can provide new views into the study of metaphor translation. The cognitive view to metaphor， largely initiated by Lakoff and Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By in 1980， can contribute new insights to color metaphor translation. This approach is gradually established itself in the study of metaphor translation. The argument core of the cognitive approach is that metaphors are not just as rhetoric elements to decorate， on the contrary， basic resources in human society for thought processes. Metaphor is a way to understand the experience of source domain in terms of another experience in target domain. The experience of source domain is mapped onto the target domain. The main function of metaphor is to provide a way of understanding one kind of experience by means of another kind of experience. This may involve preexisting isolated similarities， the creation of new similarities， and more （Lakoff and Johnson 154）.
The relationship between the source text and the target text of translation also shared something in common in terms of metaphor. In metaphor the source domain and the target domain share some similar features and different ones. Take “give somebody green light” for example. Here，green， as opposed to red， means safety； it is the color of free passing in road traffic. The similarity between them is that both the tenor and the vehicle give permission to the opponent. The difference is one is visible whereas the other is invisible. Here we have two different experiential domains： the source domain of road traffic and the target domain of social activities. The mapping between these two different conceptual domains is carried out by metaphor. As Lakoff & Johnson point out that a metaphorical concept “highlights” some aspects of a metaphor and “hides” other aspects （10）. This point of view is also true for translation. Despite the fact that the source text and the target text are different， they carry almost the same basic conceptual structures （劉宓庆 65）. Translation is possible because the content of the human thinking expressed in one language can usually be reproduced with the ultimate approximation in another language. In other words， more often than not， metaphor is translatable. When a metaphorical expression is put in the target text， in most cases， its connoted meaning is comprehensible， but it might lose the image which represents in the process of translating. Though the source text and the target text carry almost the equivalent basic conceptual structures， the cultural factors， stylistic characteristics， contextual elements and others involved language， they always vary more or less from language to language. Conclusion
This thesis has argued for the cognitive process of understanding color metaphor. On account of the cultural differences between source language and target language， full equivalents in the target language are far from demanding. The study is to give a thorough analysis of the cognitive view of color metaphor. The study of color metaphor in the present thesis is limited to the metaphorical use of color terms in English and Chinese. Moreover， color metaphor discussed here is in its broad sense， including metonymy and some idioms.
References
[1]Hawkes， David. The Story of the Stone. London： Penguin Books， 1973.
[2]Lakoff， George， and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago： The University of Chicago Press， 1980.
[3]Mac Cormac， E. R. A Cognitive Theory of Metaphor. Cambridge： The MIT Press， 1985.
[4]Seille， J. R. Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press， 1979.
[5]劉宓庆. 当代翻译理论. 北京： 中国对外翻译出版公司， 1999.
[6]束定芳. 论隐喻的认知功能. 外语研究， 2001（2）： 28-31.
[7]王磊. 英语中表示颜色的词汇与人. 外语学刊， 1989（6）： 50-52.
[8]王松亭. 隐喻的感悟及其文化背景. 外语学刊， 1996（4）： 65-68.
Abstract：Color metahor translation is a cognitive activity in the sense that one tends to explain or understand the abstract concept in terms of the sense of colors. This thesis studies the color metaphor from the perspective of cognitive. Metaphor arises from mapping among different cognitive domains， especially the mapping from familiar and easily-understood source domain onto unfamiliar and abstract target domain. And through the mapping， the concepts of the target domain of the abstract concept is understood and expressed in terms of that in the source domain of the color.
Key Words： color metaphor； cognitive mapping； source domain； target domain
【關键词】颜色隐喻；认知映射；源域；目标域
Significance and Objectives of the Research
The essence of metaphor is to experiene and understand one thing in terms of another， which implies that metaphor can be understood as the mapping from a source domain to a target domain.
According to George Lakoff and Mark Johnson， metaphor is pervasive in everyday life， not just in language， but in thought and action. And the emphasis of metaphor is not the language at all， but in thought， which focus in the way we understand and experience one mental domain in terms of another. Color metaphor will be formed if we use color words to modify other things which literally have no color. When we associate color terms with abstract concepts or unusual collocations as in the sentence， “His mood grew blacker.” Here “black” does not refer to color， but used metaphorically. And it is associated with emotion， which means angry and depression. Moreover， when we use the basic category of color to express and explain other cognitive category， color metaphor cognition is formed.
Color metaphor is significant to our cognition in that it is through conceptual metaphor of color that we can comprehend abstract concepts and perform abstract reasoning， and thus color metaphor plays an important role in helping us perceive and understand the world. Therefore， the cognitive view about the metaphor explores the foundation of the creation of color metaphor---we human beings have metaphorical conceptual systems and thus metaphorical thought. Therefore， the cognitive view on metaphor plays a good foundation for explaining the working mechanism of color metaphor. The cognitive basis of metaphorical thought are associative and imaginative， through which people can get the denotative meaning of color terms in communication. Based on human’s common cognitive mechanism， the denotative meaning of color terms is similar to the metaphorical meaning. This thesis aims to explore the color metaphors from the perspective of cognition.
There is much study of metaphor translation both at home and abroad. Those researches are carried out from the viewpoints of pragmatics， translation methods， culture and cognitive linguistics. But it is just a start and the further and systematical study is needed. The linguists have made many researches into time domain， space domain and emotion domain from the perspective of metaphor， except for color domain. And the main argument of the cognitive mapping approach is that color metaphors are not viewed as decorative elements， but basic tool for conceptualization. Most of the research is done from the angle of cultural factors. Metaphors serve as a means of understanding one domain of experience （a target domain） in terms of another （a source domain）.
Color metaphors are pervasive in our daily language， and color terms are universally active in describing abstract concepts. They exist universally for basic human perceptual color categories， which serve as the psychological and physical referents of the basic color terms in language.
1. Metaphorical Features of Color Terms
Due to a variety of subjective reasons of human beings， color terms have many blurry representations. The physical objects that color terms describe are different in different cultures. And the same color terms might have different meanings in different cultures. Many color terms originate from the color of a specific physical object. Many color terms are used metaphorically， and then the metaphorical meaning is generated. Every community denotes the color terms with the simple and concrete thing they are most familiar with. However， the objects that the color term is built on across cultures are various. Therefore， there exist all sorts of dissimilarities in denoting the same color term across communities.
On one hand， color terms present themselves with certain objects. This feature can be observed in the great number of lexicons that are composed of morphemes representing material or physical objects such as xuebai雪白 （snow-white）， xuehong 血紅 （blood-red）， chase茶色 （tea-brown， tawny）， doulv 豆绿 （bean-green）， jiangse酱色 （jam-brown， a dark reddish brown）， xiangyase 象牙色 （ivory）， conglv 葱绿 （light green）， e’huang鹅黄 （light yellow）， meiguihong玫瑰红（rose color）， juhong橘红（chrysoidine） and naiyouse奶油色（cream-yellow） etc. On the other hand， color terms often lose their original meanings when they are used in metaphor. For instance， baiyan白眼， here baiyan metaphorically means “ungraceful”. And the word baishi白事， refers to the funeral in general. It also tells the truth that the original characteristic of color terms and its development are closely associated to physical objects， so the general rule of the evolution of color term’s meanings is from specific to common， and from concrete to abstract. 2 Cognition of Color Metaphor
Color words are a kind of special words. There are good reasons for describing color terms and color metaphors. In fact， color metaphors are part of cognitive phenomenon of human beings. And there are two cognitive functions of color metaphor. First， color metaphor plays an important role in language and in the way in which we comprehend the world， such as “the sky is blue”， “blood is red” and “fresh grass is green”. In this sense， there are no more things could be simpler or more obvious than colors. So， human can understand something abstract more clearly and easily in terms of color metaphor. Second， a color metaphor gives people a new understanding of experience and the world. i.e. color metaphor creats new meaning. In the metaphor “white collar”， “white” is not only to describe the literal meaning， but also gives us a new meaning， namely， the workers who work in the office， engage in mental labor. The new metaphor， such as “blue collar”， “grey collar”， “gold collar”， can explain why color metaphors are creative and imaginative. One’s personal views of the different quality of work give rise to those metaphors. Thus the color metaphor gives “collar” a new meaning.
Language is not a closed system but an open one， and it is impossible for any language to keep immutable. Except for its own development， a language can never avoid being influenced by other languages， thus the meaning of a word always changes with the development of history and society. Therefore， we cannot make an exception of color term. The conceptual meaning of color metaphors has been closely related， from the very beginning， to material and physical objects in the world， which take on corresponding colors. Conversely， these objects invest the color metaphors with different connotative meanings in different cultural systems. The conceptual meanings of the color metaphors may become comparatively less important than their connotative meanings， namely， their metaphorical meanings may prove to be what really counts. In this case， color metaphors have their own illocutionary force， with their metaphorical meanings， or their connotations， far beyond the conceptual meanings of the colors themselves. So in rendering it may be unnecessary to translate the color metaphors in their conceptual senses. We just need to express their connotative meanings， even to omit the color terms themselves if necessary. The Chinese idiom jinzhuzhe chi， jinmozhe hei近朱者赤，近墨者黑 is a case in point， English has its own means to express the meaning of the idiom with “He who keeps company with the wolf will learn to howl”. In this example， if we describe this idiom with the corresponding color metaphors， the English speakers will feel confused. So we should render it into a cultural equivant in English. Owing to the same reason， if hongren紅人is rendered literally into “a red man”， then its connotative meaning is completely lost. So this expression “a favorite with sb. in power” should be used. Thus in this case， the loss of color may result in the gain of its connotative meaning. 3 Cognitive Conception of Color Metaphor
Metaphor is a active poetic language form imbued with cultures， which is a systematic combination of informative function and aesthetic language. By the vivid and diverse images in metaphors， the target audiences may have endless imaginatons and associations， which not only provide the target audiences information， but also bring the enjoyment of beauty to the target audiences. In this way， metaphors help the target audiences vividly understand the writer’s intention. Metaphor is always one of the focuses of translation. Nowadays， the metaphor is not just a rhetorical device but has become a way of thinking. The essence of metaphorical thinking is that it is possible for us to understand the unfamiliar objects by relating them with objects we familiarize.
A cognitive perspective of color metaphor can provide new views into the study of metaphor translation. The cognitive view to metaphor， largely initiated by Lakoff and Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By in 1980， can contribute new insights to color metaphor translation. This approach is gradually established itself in the study of metaphor translation. The argument core of the cognitive approach is that metaphors are not just as rhetoric elements to decorate， on the contrary， basic resources in human society for thought processes. Metaphor is a way to understand the experience of source domain in terms of another experience in target domain. The experience of source domain is mapped onto the target domain. The main function of metaphor is to provide a way of understanding one kind of experience by means of another kind of experience. This may involve preexisting isolated similarities， the creation of new similarities， and more （Lakoff and Johnson 154）.
The relationship between the source text and the target text of translation also shared something in common in terms of metaphor. In metaphor the source domain and the target domain share some similar features and different ones. Take “give somebody green light” for example. Here，green， as opposed to red， means safety； it is the color of free passing in road traffic. The similarity between them is that both the tenor and the vehicle give permission to the opponent. The difference is one is visible whereas the other is invisible. Here we have two different experiential domains： the source domain of road traffic and the target domain of social activities. The mapping between these two different conceptual domains is carried out by metaphor. As Lakoff & Johnson point out that a metaphorical concept “highlights” some aspects of a metaphor and “hides” other aspects （10）. This point of view is also true for translation. Despite the fact that the source text and the target text are different， they carry almost the same basic conceptual structures （劉宓庆 65）. Translation is possible because the content of the human thinking expressed in one language can usually be reproduced with the ultimate approximation in another language. In other words， more often than not， metaphor is translatable. When a metaphorical expression is put in the target text， in most cases， its connoted meaning is comprehensible， but it might lose the image which represents in the process of translating. Though the source text and the target text carry almost the equivalent basic conceptual structures， the cultural factors， stylistic characteristics， contextual elements and others involved language， they always vary more or less from language to language. Conclusion
This thesis has argued for the cognitive process of understanding color metaphor. On account of the cultural differences between source language and target language， full equivalents in the target language are far from demanding. The study is to give a thorough analysis of the cognitive view of color metaphor. The study of color metaphor in the present thesis is limited to the metaphorical use of color terms in English and Chinese. Moreover， color metaphor discussed here is in its broad sense， including metonymy and some idioms.
References
[1]Hawkes， David. The Story of the Stone. London： Penguin Books， 1973.
[2]Lakoff， George， and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago： The University of Chicago Press， 1980.
[3]Mac Cormac， E. R. A Cognitive Theory of Metaphor. Cambridge： The MIT Press， 1985.
[4]Seille， J. R. Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge： Cambridge University Press， 1979.
[5]劉宓庆. 当代翻译理论. 北京： 中国对外翻译出版公司， 1999.
[6]束定芳. 论隐喻的认知功能. 外语研究， 2001（2）： 28-31.
[7]王磊. 英语中表示颜色的词汇与人. 外语学刊， 1989（6）： 50-52.
[8]王松亭. 隐喻的感悟及其文化背景. 外语学刊， 1996（4）： 65-68.