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Abstract: Metaphor is quite a normal phenomenon in our daily life. It runs throughout our logic thinking and behavior and exists in our daily language phenomenon. In our logical thinking we Chinese people tend to associate nature with our daily events and thought to reach the harmony between heaven and man. Plants, trees and flowers, are an important part of nature and in the long river of history people have created a large number of vivid expressions of metaphors. This paper is to make an analysis of the cognitive metaphorical meaning of several typical plant words to see how Chinese people make projections of events and thoughts from plant words.
Key words: association metaphor metaphorical meaning plant words
1.Introduction
Metaphor is quite a normal language phenomenon in our daily life. Ever since Aristotle and Confucius it has been an object of study. The earliest Aristotelian approach studies metaphor as a transference of names from one location to another. Aristotelian considered metaphor as something that happens only to the noun, which was not conceptual and the use of metaphor was very regular and unsuitable for daily use (Lan Chun 2003:5). And hence for a long time metaphor was regarded as a kind of rhetorical approach. Then as time marches on, scholars proposed a series of metaphoric theories from the angle of linguistics, philosophy and logic. People's understanding of metaphor had taken a qualitative change. The cognitive approach views that metaphor is essentially a mapping across conceptual domains, that metaphorical thinking is part of the cognitive processes through which the human mind conceptualizes the world; that underlying the numerous linguistic expressions of metaphor; there is a huge coherent system of conceptual metaphors operating without our consciousness and organizing our thinking; that studies of the basic conceptual metaphors of a language can reveal a lot about how the native speakers of that language come to terms with the world.
In the long river of history, plants, flowers and trees are closely related with people's life. For hundreds and thousands of years, they have been used to form vivid language expressions and passed down from generation to generation. And as plants' growth and existence are closely associated with the development of thought and emotion, people often use metaphors of plants to describe or talk about events. Conceptual metaphors of plant words belong to the category of ontological metaphor. Ontological metaphor is to use the words of concrete objects to express abstract conceptions (Su Dingfang 2001). There are two reasons for the association between concrete plants and abstract conceptions. For one reason, the association may come from the outward appearance and the inner nature of the plants, trees and flowers. For the other reason, writers in history have, to some extent, given various new meanings to them, which naturally promote and enrich the language.
In previous studies the cognitive meaning of plant words were mostly studied from the perspective of conceptual frame. Though there exist some studies about the metaphoric meanings of plant words or flower words, they were done in a comparison between Chinese and English Culture. Nevertheless, this paper is to analyze the metaphoric sense of plant words within the context of Chinese culture from a cognitive angle to see how Chinese people project the concrete sense to the related target domain to form a series of vivid expressions and to make the abstract conceptions three-dimensional, multi-dimensional and textural.
2.Metaphor, cognition and culture
2.1.Basic conceptions of metaphor
Metaphor is the most common figurative use in English. It is a method to speak of one thing in terms of another. It embraces a foundation and four elements. It sets its foundation on the psychological association. Metaphor is a language art in describing certain association produced in the cognitive process. Association rises from comparison between different substances. Based on association, metaphor should accord with the following four elements:(1) the signified;(2) the signifier;(3) similarity;(4) dissimilarity.
Fang Jiacai (1992) categorizes metaphor into two groups: precognitive structure and reflective structure. Precognitive structure is to use a meaningful signifier to recognize the signified and the typical metaphoric word used is to be. While in reflective structure, the relationship between the signified and the signifier is much closer than that in the precognitive structure. Reflective metaphor can be divided into two groups: one is that the signifier does not appear directly but it is reflected by the verb and emotive color is shown indirectly. For example, "she is a peach." In this sentence, she is identified as a peach. Her beauty is compared to the glory of a peach. The other is that the signified does not appear directly but is represented by the signifier, leaving space for imaginations. The examples that I would mention next mostly belong to the second type of metaphors. The names of the plants themselves give out the metaphorical information of the signified. For example, people naturally think of "purity and elegance" when they hear the word "lily" or see the real object of "lily". In the sense, lily is elevated from a common flower to an abstract symbol.
2.2.Metaphor and cognition
Metaphor is one of the most vigorous productions in human beings' creative mind and its energy comes from the fact: metaphor is the logical organism in the linguistic ecosystem. Metaphor is analogy (E.C. Stanhart: 2009). The context of every metaphor can be divided into two parts: target context and source context which could be called tenor and vehicle. Every metaphor is a projection of schema from source context target context.
Metaphor is cognitive in nature: metaphor is not rhetoric and figurative and not a simple product of language. One of the most prominent characteristic of metaphor is semantic conflict which is the basic condition of metaphor. To constitute the semantic deviation metaphor should have the following elements: (1) two objects;(2) the two different objects belong to two different semantic fields. These elements form two different conceptions. Metaphor is just the interactive result of the two conceptions. The interaction comes out of mapping or projection. In the mapping process, the corresponding conception frame of one domain is transferred to another domain, forming a new blending conception frame, that is metaphorical meaning. And the base of this process is some similarities of the two domains (Su Dingfang 2002). For example, war and argument belong to two different domains. In our mind we may have a number of words to describe argument, such as "attack" "indefensible" "target" and "criticism". All these remind people of the scene of "war". Naturally people transplant war into argument; hence producing the expression “Argument is war."
2.3.Metaphor and culture
Language itself is abstract. The concrete association in human mind stirred by this kind of abstraction is just out of the fact that projection and comprehension of the signifier reflects the role of projection. At the very beginning the meaning of the signifier was first associated with nature. Then after generation and generation it began to give out a conception sense of images. Thereupon, metaphor embraces certain color of culture. Metaphor is a kind of communication and borrowing of thoughts. It is a variation of conception expressions. It is a kind of thinking pattern and an important instrument for people to understand nature and comprehend their daily life and thoughts. It is a cultural behavior.
3.Plants words and metaphor
3.1 Metaphorical meanings of plant words
As a whole, language is a metaphorical system. People's metaphorical concept system directly takes part in the cognitive process and influences people's language and behavior, constituting the main method that people acknowledge new concept, expresses new thought, and create new meanings. The nature of metaphor is "to use one thing or experience to understand another thing or experience." (Liu Ningsheng: 1992) specifically metaphor is to make use of the similarities of two domains to construct an interrelated cognitive model between two different conceptions (Zhao Yanfang 1995).
Language is an abstract phenomenon which reflects the interrelationship between metaphor and culture(Lu Yao 2009). Much influenced by traditional concepts Chinese people are characteristics of their way of thinking: concrete and associative based on their bodily experience of the world. Hence, based on this characteristic of logic thinking, Chinese people tend to associate their daily life with nature on the foundation of visual sense aided by other senses of feel, hear, taste, smell and touch. As plant is an important part of nature, people tend to use metaphors from plants to describe a phenomenon, a thought or an event. This kind of metaphor is based on similarities. It is to use the similarities between the development or the characteristic of one phenomenon or thought and the growth or characteristic of the plant to replace the psychological process of people's cognition of the event or the thought." To replace psychological process with physical process is a tendency in people's cognitive process (Su Dingfang 2001)."
3.2 Metaphorical use of plant words
Like animals, plants, flowers and trees are also closely related with people's life. For hundreds and thousands of years, they have been used to form vivid language expressions and passed down from generation to generation. For example, people often associate a pretty girl with flower and a gentleman with bamboo. In the following part I will analyze the metaphoric meaning of plant words from the following plant words:
3.2.1 Willow
Willow is a type of tree that has long thin branches and grows near water (Longman: 2277). As the branches of the willow tree is long and thin, people associates it with the lady's slender figure. So in Chinese literature, we have the expression "柳腰" (liu yao, willowy or slender waist) to describe a lady's slender waist. As is known, willow leaves are comparatively long, thin and curved, it naturally reminds people of curved eyebrows. Henceafter, in literature, in describing a face of a beauty, writers tend to use the word "柳叶眉"(liu ye mei) to describe "the arched eyebrows". In addition, the dangling willow branches in the wind tend to remind people of ladies who are at the mercy of others, the prostitution, as the scene of the dancing willow twigs give people a kind of impression that the willow is at the mercy of the wind and cannot control its own destiny, which is just the poor state of a prostitute. Hence, in expressions "寻花问柳" (xun hua wen liu, dally with prostitutes), "墙花路柳" (qiang hua lu cao, street girls), "柳"(liu) "willow" implies here " Prostitutes". Then another expression "残花败柳" (can hua bai liu) similarly means "ladies in the brothel have for a long time been dallied with and have already lost their beauty."
Expressions with willow mean more connotatively than literally. Among the folk people, the expression "折柳赠别"(zhe liu zeng bie, to see somebody off with a willow branch ) was very popular because of the prevailing practice then. And this kind of practice was vividly shown in the poems. There are two implications in the practice: First, the willow tree grows fast and sending its twigs to a friend means that regardless of where the friend wander he or she can flourish and live abundantly and happily. while the wiliow stir signifies deep love; Second, "留" (Liu) and "stay" is homophonic, sending willow twigs symbolizes asking the friend to stay. Today, as we see from the poetry of "Willow" to show feeling of departure from the poem earlier than this "customs." Early in the "Book of Songs" there existed the soul-stirring poem sentences “昔我往矣,杨柳依依”(xi wo wang yi, yang liu yi yi, when I was leaving, the willows were flurishing). As it is a plant that grows in front of or behind the house, people often associate it with hometown. In Chinese ancient poems there are many such examples as in Li Bai's “此夜曲中闻折柳,何人不起故园情” (ci ye qu zhong wen zhe liu, shui ren bu qi gu yuan qing, when I heard sending willow twigs in the song, I cannot help recalling my howetown) which expresses the poet's longing of hometown.
Table one: Metaphorical Meanings of willow
Plant Willow
Features Long, thin, curved
Suggested metaphorical
meanings Slender waist
Arched eyebrows of a pretty girl
Ladies who are at the mercy of others, prostitutes
Departure. Drifting, wandering
Stay
hometown
3.2.2 Peach
Peach is a kind of round fruit with soft yellow or red skin that has every juicy flesh and a large seed in its center, or a tree seed in its center or a tree that produces this fruit (Longman: 1442). For its color and fragment smell, peach has been one of the earliest discoveries of our ancestors. Like willow, it usually make people think of "delicate and charming girls". So the expression "粉面桃花" ( fen mian tao hua) refers to "the sweet, charming appearance of a girl" For examle, we may decribe a pretty girl by saying " She is real a peach". Peach can also be used to describe "the pink cheeks of a girl" such as the expression "桃腮" (tao sai) , and the rosy skin of a gril as in the expression "a peaches and cream complexion". All these expressions compare the the beauty and energy of peach blossoms with the beauty of girls.
Peach blossom has always been noted for its color and the sweet appearace, but because of the wind, the blossoms soon fall off trees. And this often makes people associates the soon withering peach blossoms with people of shoru youth and the misfortune of a pretty girl. Thereupon people use "桃花命" (tao hua ming) to mean misfortune and "桃花薄命" (tao hua bo ming) similarily means the tragic fate of pretty girl. These expressions associate the weakness of the peach blossoms with the misfortune and tragic end of girls.
For its outward beauty peach is culturally associated with women and sex in China. So are the collocated sayings "桃色事件" (tao se shi jian) which means sex sandal, and "桃花运" (tao hua yun) which is sometimes ironally said to yong men, but it often implies " a girl being invovled in a sex affair or a man has an affair or has sex with many girls."
Besides, peach is usually associated with "longevity." As legend goes the ordinary people can live forever an never grow old if they eat peaches. According to legend, Sun Bin left home at the age of 18 for Yunmeng mouatain, thousands of miles away from his home to be a student of Gui guzi to learn the art of war. Sun bing stayed there for twelve years. Then on fifth day of May that year, it suddenly struck on Sun Bin: "Today is my mother's 80-year-old birthday." So he asked for leave to go home to visit his mother. The master picked a peach from the tree to give to Sun Bin and said, "Because of your study here, you haven't served your mother. Now I give this peach to you for the celebration of your mother's birthday."Sun Bin went back home and presented the peach to his mother. To Sun bing's surprise, not until had his old mother finished eating the peach she became younger than before. Hearing that Sun bing's mother had regained some riddiance and youth after eating the peach, people all followed suit and sent peaches to their parents on birthdays. Hence the custom passes down and peach is used for congratulation of the ederly on their birthdays. Peach thus becomes a symbol of long life.
Table two: Metaphorical meanings of peach
Plant Peach
features Sweet, fragnant, bright-colored, quickly-faded
Suggested
mephorical
meanings Sweet charming appearance of a girl
Delicate and charming girls
Women and sex
Misfortune and tragic fate
longevity
3.2.3 Bamboo
Bamboo is a tall tropical plant with hollow stems that are used for making furniture (Longman: 119). It grows in the south of China and is characteristic for its green in summer and in winter. Although it is hollow inside and has joints in its outward appearance, bamboo is tall and solid in texture and always stands straight. Due to this characteristic, ancient Chinese often use bamboo in language to mean " the people of upright, haunty and aloof with high moral principle. "
Bamboo is characteristic for its firm roots, which imply "坚韧不拔" (jian ren bu ba) the firm and indomitable spirit of a person. For its tall and straight outlook, bamboo is symbolic of "Straight-forwardness and impartiality" (性直xing zhi) of a person. For its inside hollowness (心空xing kong) and outward hard texture, it is also associated with "unselfishness" (大公无私da gong wu si) of a person. And lastly bamboo is featured for its "joints"(节 jie), joints implies high moral principle "节操" (jie cao) and moral courage "气节" (qi jie). The popular expression "高风亮节" (gao feng liang jie) noble character and sterling integrity comes from the image of bamboo joints. For all these projections, people often associate gentlemen "君子" (jun zi) or persons of virtue "贤士" (xian shi) with the noble quality of bamboo.
During ancient times children often used bamboo stick as a toy horse. So people associate this kind of bamboo horse with "friendship during childhood". And hence the popular expression "青梅竹马" (qing mei zhu ma) green plums and bamboo horse, which means " a girl and a boy play innocently together; a man and a woman who had an innocent affection for each other in childhood."
Table three: Metaphorical meanings of bamboo
Plant Bamboo
Features Firm roots, inside hollowness, tall and straight outlook,with joints, solid in texture
Suggested
Metaphorical
meaning The people of upright, haunty and aloof with high moral principle
The person of virtue or gentlemn
The firm and indomitable spirit of a noble person
Straightforwordness and impartiality of a person
Unselfishness
High moral principle and moral courage
Noble charater and sterling intergrity
A girl and a boy play innocently together, a man and a woman who had an innocent affection for each other in childhood
3.2.4 Pine
Pine is a tall tree with long hard sharp leaves that do not fall off in winter (Longman: 1479). It is evergreen in the four seasons of a year. Even in freezing weather with ice and snow, pine tree still stands arrogantly in the air. It is said that pine can have a long life of thousands of years. People are extremely amazed at its power to survive in severe winter and hence they associate it with longevity and immortality. For its characterstic of being evergreen even in severe weather, people associate it with the spirit of "not daring hardships and danger but remaining faithful and unyielding." Therefore in poems it is used to imply "the noble characters of people". And "松柏之盟" (song bai zhi meng) is another expression to mean "患难之交" (huan nan zhi jiao) friends in adversity or everlasting friendship.
Table four: Metaphorical meanings of pine
Plant Pine
Features Evergreen, arrognance in severe weather, long life
Suggested
Metaphorical
Meanings Longevity and immortality
Nor daring hardships and danger but remain faithful and unyielding
The noble characters of people
Friends in adversity or everlasting friendship
3.2.5 Lotus
Lotus is a white or pink flower that grows on the surface of lakes in Asia (Longman: 1167). It mainly grows in shallow water area in the southern part of China. Its seed, called “莲子”(lian zi, lotus seed) is fruit grown above water, and its stems under the water are called "莲藕”(lian ou, lotus root). Lotus leaves are round-shaped and its blossom, white or light red, is sweet and fragrant. In literature, "lotus comes out of mud but is pure" has been the vivid description of lotus. For these characteristics, people often use lotus to imply "people who are pure, upright, modest, simple and elegant."
Lotus root "莲藕" is a delicious water plant and loved by many Chinese. When it is cut open, either to slices or little cubes, it will be somewhat connected and jointed for its fiber texture. So people created the common expression "藕断丝连" (ou duan si lian) to imply that "lovers especially are still in contact though apparently separated."
"莲"(lian) has the same pronunciation with "怜" (lian) , so "莲子" (lian zi) sounds like "怜子" (lian zi). Hence people associate "莲子" lotus seed with love. "莲子" means in present day language "love you".
Table five: Metaphorical meanings of lotus
Plant Lotus
Features Delicate, round-shaped leaves, white or red sweet and fragrant flowers, connected and jointed fiber texture
Suggested
Metaphorical
Meanings Lovers esp are still in contact though apparently separated
(lotus root)
Love you (lotus seed)
People who are pure, upright, modest, simple but elegant
(lotus blossom)
3.2.6 Peony
Peony, National Flower of China, is a garden plant with large round flowers that are dark red, white or pink (Longman: 1451). As it is the most bright and colorful, the most spectacular, elegant and poised flower in the flower kingdom, it has been titled "the Queen of Flowers". Ethereal color and celestial fragrance is the exact expression for the flower, which makes people associate it with "荣华富贵" (rong hua fu gui) happiness, glory, splendor, wealth and rank, and "国色天香" (guo se tian xiang) a girl of great beauty and elegance.
Table six: Metaphorical meanings of peony
Plant Peony
Features Bright, colorful, spectacular, elegant, poised, ethereal color, celestial fragrance
Suggested
Metaphorical
Meanings Happiness, glory, splendor, wealth and rank
A girl of great beauty and elegance
3.2.7 Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum is a garden plant with large brightly colored flowers (Longman: 312). It blooms at the end of autumn or in early winter. It is noted for its insults for cold and frost, which usually implies firm and unyielding "坚贞不渝" (jian zhen bu yu). This image has been soon accepted by people and been well used of. Therefore chrysanthemum has an implication for noble people with "firm and persistence, elegance and simplicity."
Table seven: Metaphorical meanings of chrysanthemum
Plant Chrysanthemum
Features Insults for cold and frost
Suggested
Metaphorical
Meanings Firm and unyielding
Noble people with firm and persistence, elegance and simplicity
3.2.8 Orchid
Orchid is a plant that has flowers with three parts, the middle one being shaped like a lip (Longman: 1379). It mainly grows at rocks in valleys. The flowers are simple but elegant and give out a delicate fragrance. As the flower carries natural and unrestrained grace, people use it to symbolize people of "elegance and purity".
Table eight: Metaphorical meanings of orchid
Plant Orchid
Features Simple, elegant, with delicate fragrance, naturally and unrestrained graceful
Suggested
Metaphorical
Meanings Elegance and purity
3.2.9 Plum
Plum is a tree that produces a small round juicy fruit which is dark red or yellow and has a part in the middle or refers to the fruit of this kind of tree (Longman: 1501). Probably most people get to know "梅" first by its blossom "梅花" (mei hua), which blooms in early spring and at the end of winter. The flowers are fragrant and attractive for its color, white or light red with usually five pieces of petals. Plum blossom is characteristic for its insult of cold and its arrogance in freezing weather, which usually implies "坚贞不渝" (jian zhen bu yu) standing firm and unyielding. Plum is especially proud of its beauty against frost and snow, henceupon it is typically known for its characteristic of "高洁" (gao jie) arrogance and purity. And Chinese people usually link it with "超凡脱俗" (chao fan tuo su) transcendence of the worldly and "孤芳自赏" (gu fang zi sang) indulgence in self-admiration.
Table nine: Metaphorical meanings of plum
Plant Plum
Features Plum blossom: insult of cold and arrogance in freezing weather, fragrant and attractive, beauty against frost and snow
Suggested
Metaphorical
Meaning Standing firm and unyielding
Arrogance and purity
Transcendence of the worldly
Indulgence in self-admiration
4.Conclusion
Metaphor is an inseparable part in our daily life. It runs through in our logic thinking and behavior and exists in our daily language phenomenon. For the universality of metaphor in our daily life, we have presented unconsciously or habitually two seemingly unrelated objects through the use of metaphor. This paper tries to analyze the metaphoric meaning of plant words by giving several examples of tree words and flower words to show how metaphor influences our logic thinking and behavior and to show how people associate project our thoughts and events into the field of plants as to inspire people's further exploration of metaphor.
(作者单位:武汉大学外国语言文学学院)
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Key words: association metaphor metaphorical meaning plant words
1.Introduction
Metaphor is quite a normal language phenomenon in our daily life. Ever since Aristotle and Confucius it has been an object of study. The earliest Aristotelian approach studies metaphor as a transference of names from one location to another. Aristotelian considered metaphor as something that happens only to the noun, which was not conceptual and the use of metaphor was very regular and unsuitable for daily use (Lan Chun 2003:5). And hence for a long time metaphor was regarded as a kind of rhetorical approach. Then as time marches on, scholars proposed a series of metaphoric theories from the angle of linguistics, philosophy and logic. People's understanding of metaphor had taken a qualitative change. The cognitive approach views that metaphor is essentially a mapping across conceptual domains, that metaphorical thinking is part of the cognitive processes through which the human mind conceptualizes the world; that underlying the numerous linguistic expressions of metaphor; there is a huge coherent system of conceptual metaphors operating without our consciousness and organizing our thinking; that studies of the basic conceptual metaphors of a language can reveal a lot about how the native speakers of that language come to terms with the world.
In the long river of history, plants, flowers and trees are closely related with people's life. For hundreds and thousands of years, they have been used to form vivid language expressions and passed down from generation to generation. And as plants' growth and existence are closely associated with the development of thought and emotion, people often use metaphors of plants to describe or talk about events. Conceptual metaphors of plant words belong to the category of ontological metaphor. Ontological metaphor is to use the words of concrete objects to express abstract conceptions (Su Dingfang 2001). There are two reasons for the association between concrete plants and abstract conceptions. For one reason, the association may come from the outward appearance and the inner nature of the plants, trees and flowers. For the other reason, writers in history have, to some extent, given various new meanings to them, which naturally promote and enrich the language.
In previous studies the cognitive meaning of plant words were mostly studied from the perspective of conceptual frame. Though there exist some studies about the metaphoric meanings of plant words or flower words, they were done in a comparison between Chinese and English Culture. Nevertheless, this paper is to analyze the metaphoric sense of plant words within the context of Chinese culture from a cognitive angle to see how Chinese people project the concrete sense to the related target domain to form a series of vivid expressions and to make the abstract conceptions three-dimensional, multi-dimensional and textural.
2.Metaphor, cognition and culture
2.1.Basic conceptions of metaphor
Metaphor is the most common figurative use in English. It is a method to speak of one thing in terms of another. It embraces a foundation and four elements. It sets its foundation on the psychological association. Metaphor is a language art in describing certain association produced in the cognitive process. Association rises from comparison between different substances. Based on association, metaphor should accord with the following four elements:(1) the signified;(2) the signifier;(3) similarity;(4) dissimilarity.
Fang Jiacai (1992) categorizes metaphor into two groups: precognitive structure and reflective structure. Precognitive structure is to use a meaningful signifier to recognize the signified and the typical metaphoric word used is to be. While in reflective structure, the relationship between the signified and the signifier is much closer than that in the precognitive structure. Reflective metaphor can be divided into two groups: one is that the signifier does not appear directly but it is reflected by the verb and emotive color is shown indirectly. For example, "she is a peach." In this sentence, she is identified as a peach. Her beauty is compared to the glory of a peach. The other is that the signified does not appear directly but is represented by the signifier, leaving space for imaginations. The examples that I would mention next mostly belong to the second type of metaphors. The names of the plants themselves give out the metaphorical information of the signified. For example, people naturally think of "purity and elegance" when they hear the word "lily" or see the real object of "lily". In the sense, lily is elevated from a common flower to an abstract symbol.
2.2.Metaphor and cognition
Metaphor is one of the most vigorous productions in human beings' creative mind and its energy comes from the fact: metaphor is the logical organism in the linguistic ecosystem. Metaphor is analogy (E.C. Stanhart: 2009). The context of every metaphor can be divided into two parts: target context and source context which could be called tenor and vehicle. Every metaphor is a projection of schema from source context target context.
Metaphor is cognitive in nature: metaphor is not rhetoric and figurative and not a simple product of language. One of the most prominent characteristic of metaphor is semantic conflict which is the basic condition of metaphor. To constitute the semantic deviation metaphor should have the following elements: (1) two objects;(2) the two different objects belong to two different semantic fields. These elements form two different conceptions. Metaphor is just the interactive result of the two conceptions. The interaction comes out of mapping or projection. In the mapping process, the corresponding conception frame of one domain is transferred to another domain, forming a new blending conception frame, that is metaphorical meaning. And the base of this process is some similarities of the two domains (Su Dingfang 2002). For example, war and argument belong to two different domains. In our mind we may have a number of words to describe argument, such as "attack" "indefensible" "target" and "criticism". All these remind people of the scene of "war". Naturally people transplant war into argument; hence producing the expression “Argument is war."
2.3.Metaphor and culture
Language itself is abstract. The concrete association in human mind stirred by this kind of abstraction is just out of the fact that projection and comprehension of the signifier reflects the role of projection. At the very beginning the meaning of the signifier was first associated with nature. Then after generation and generation it began to give out a conception sense of images. Thereupon, metaphor embraces certain color of culture. Metaphor is a kind of communication and borrowing of thoughts. It is a variation of conception expressions. It is a kind of thinking pattern and an important instrument for people to understand nature and comprehend their daily life and thoughts. It is a cultural behavior.
3.Plants words and metaphor
3.1 Metaphorical meanings of plant words
As a whole, language is a metaphorical system. People's metaphorical concept system directly takes part in the cognitive process and influences people's language and behavior, constituting the main method that people acknowledge new concept, expresses new thought, and create new meanings. The nature of metaphor is "to use one thing or experience to understand another thing or experience." (Liu Ningsheng: 1992) specifically metaphor is to make use of the similarities of two domains to construct an interrelated cognitive model between two different conceptions (Zhao Yanfang 1995).
Language is an abstract phenomenon which reflects the interrelationship between metaphor and culture(Lu Yao 2009). Much influenced by traditional concepts Chinese people are characteristics of their way of thinking: concrete and associative based on their bodily experience of the world. Hence, based on this characteristic of logic thinking, Chinese people tend to associate their daily life with nature on the foundation of visual sense aided by other senses of feel, hear, taste, smell and touch. As plant is an important part of nature, people tend to use metaphors from plants to describe a phenomenon, a thought or an event. This kind of metaphor is based on similarities. It is to use the similarities between the development or the characteristic of one phenomenon or thought and the growth or characteristic of the plant to replace the psychological process of people's cognition of the event or the thought." To replace psychological process with physical process is a tendency in people's cognitive process (Su Dingfang 2001)."
3.2 Metaphorical use of plant words
Like animals, plants, flowers and trees are also closely related with people's life. For hundreds and thousands of years, they have been used to form vivid language expressions and passed down from generation to generation. For example, people often associate a pretty girl with flower and a gentleman with bamboo. In the following part I will analyze the metaphoric meaning of plant words from the following plant words:
3.2.1 Willow
Willow is a type of tree that has long thin branches and grows near water (Longman: 2277). As the branches of the willow tree is long and thin, people associates it with the lady's slender figure. So in Chinese literature, we have the expression "柳腰" (liu yao, willowy or slender waist) to describe a lady's slender waist. As is known, willow leaves are comparatively long, thin and curved, it naturally reminds people of curved eyebrows. Henceafter, in literature, in describing a face of a beauty, writers tend to use the word "柳叶眉"(liu ye mei) to describe "the arched eyebrows". In addition, the dangling willow branches in the wind tend to remind people of ladies who are at the mercy of others, the prostitution, as the scene of the dancing willow twigs give people a kind of impression that the willow is at the mercy of the wind and cannot control its own destiny, which is just the poor state of a prostitute. Hence, in expressions "寻花问柳" (xun hua wen liu, dally with prostitutes), "墙花路柳" (qiang hua lu cao, street girls), "柳"(liu) "willow" implies here " Prostitutes". Then another expression "残花败柳" (can hua bai liu) similarly means "ladies in the brothel have for a long time been dallied with and have already lost their beauty."
Expressions with willow mean more connotatively than literally. Among the folk people, the expression "折柳赠别"(zhe liu zeng bie, to see somebody off with a willow branch ) was very popular because of the prevailing practice then. And this kind of practice was vividly shown in the poems. There are two implications in the practice: First, the willow tree grows fast and sending its twigs to a friend means that regardless of where the friend wander he or she can flourish and live abundantly and happily. while the wiliow stir signifies deep love; Second, "留" (Liu) and "stay" is homophonic, sending willow twigs symbolizes asking the friend to stay. Today, as we see from the poetry of "Willow" to show feeling of departure from the poem earlier than this "customs." Early in the "Book of Songs" there existed the soul-stirring poem sentences “昔我往矣,杨柳依依”(xi wo wang yi, yang liu yi yi, when I was leaving, the willows were flurishing). As it is a plant that grows in front of or behind the house, people often associate it with hometown. In Chinese ancient poems there are many such examples as in Li Bai's “此夜曲中闻折柳,何人不起故园情” (ci ye qu zhong wen zhe liu, shui ren bu qi gu yuan qing, when I heard sending willow twigs in the song, I cannot help recalling my howetown) which expresses the poet's longing of hometown.
Table one: Metaphorical Meanings of willow
Plant Willow
Features Long, thin, curved
Suggested metaphorical
meanings Slender waist
Arched eyebrows of a pretty girl
Ladies who are at the mercy of others, prostitutes
Departure. Drifting, wandering
Stay
hometown
3.2.2 Peach
Peach is a kind of round fruit with soft yellow or red skin that has every juicy flesh and a large seed in its center, or a tree seed in its center or a tree that produces this fruit (Longman: 1442). For its color and fragment smell, peach has been one of the earliest discoveries of our ancestors. Like willow, it usually make people think of "delicate and charming girls". So the expression "粉面桃花" ( fen mian tao hua) refers to "the sweet, charming appearance of a girl" For examle, we may decribe a pretty girl by saying " She is real a peach". Peach can also be used to describe "the pink cheeks of a girl" such as the expression "桃腮" (tao sai) , and the rosy skin of a gril as in the expression "a peaches and cream complexion". All these expressions compare the the beauty and energy of peach blossoms with the beauty of girls.
Peach blossom has always been noted for its color and the sweet appearace, but because of the wind, the blossoms soon fall off trees. And this often makes people associates the soon withering peach blossoms with people of shoru youth and the misfortune of a pretty girl. Thereupon people use "桃花命" (tao hua ming) to mean misfortune and "桃花薄命" (tao hua bo ming) similarily means the tragic fate of pretty girl. These expressions associate the weakness of the peach blossoms with the misfortune and tragic end of girls.
For its outward beauty peach is culturally associated with women and sex in China. So are the collocated sayings "桃色事件" (tao se shi jian) which means sex sandal, and "桃花运" (tao hua yun) which is sometimes ironally said to yong men, but it often implies " a girl being invovled in a sex affair or a man has an affair or has sex with many girls."
Besides, peach is usually associated with "longevity." As legend goes the ordinary people can live forever an never grow old if they eat peaches. According to legend, Sun Bin left home at the age of 18 for Yunmeng mouatain, thousands of miles away from his home to be a student of Gui guzi to learn the art of war. Sun bing stayed there for twelve years. Then on fifth day of May that year, it suddenly struck on Sun Bin: "Today is my mother's 80-year-old birthday." So he asked for leave to go home to visit his mother. The master picked a peach from the tree to give to Sun Bin and said, "Because of your study here, you haven't served your mother. Now I give this peach to you for the celebration of your mother's birthday."Sun Bin went back home and presented the peach to his mother. To Sun bing's surprise, not until had his old mother finished eating the peach she became younger than before. Hearing that Sun bing's mother had regained some riddiance and youth after eating the peach, people all followed suit and sent peaches to their parents on birthdays. Hence the custom passes down and peach is used for congratulation of the ederly on their birthdays. Peach thus becomes a symbol of long life.
Table two: Metaphorical meanings of peach
Plant Peach
features Sweet, fragnant, bright-colored, quickly-faded
Suggested
mephorical
meanings Sweet charming appearance of a girl
Delicate and charming girls
Women and sex
Misfortune and tragic fate
longevity
3.2.3 Bamboo
Bamboo is a tall tropical plant with hollow stems that are used for making furniture (Longman: 119). It grows in the south of China and is characteristic for its green in summer and in winter. Although it is hollow inside and has joints in its outward appearance, bamboo is tall and solid in texture and always stands straight. Due to this characteristic, ancient Chinese often use bamboo in language to mean " the people of upright, haunty and aloof with high moral principle. "
Bamboo is characteristic for its firm roots, which imply "坚韧不拔" (jian ren bu ba) the firm and indomitable spirit of a person. For its tall and straight outlook, bamboo is symbolic of "Straight-forwardness and impartiality" (性直xing zhi) of a person. For its inside hollowness (心空xing kong) and outward hard texture, it is also associated with "unselfishness" (大公无私da gong wu si) of a person. And lastly bamboo is featured for its "joints"(节 jie), joints implies high moral principle "节操" (jie cao) and moral courage "气节" (qi jie). The popular expression "高风亮节" (gao feng liang jie) noble character and sterling integrity comes from the image of bamboo joints. For all these projections, people often associate gentlemen "君子" (jun zi) or persons of virtue "贤士" (xian shi) with the noble quality of bamboo.
During ancient times children often used bamboo stick as a toy horse. So people associate this kind of bamboo horse with "friendship during childhood". And hence the popular expression "青梅竹马" (qing mei zhu ma) green plums and bamboo horse, which means " a girl and a boy play innocently together; a man and a woman who had an innocent affection for each other in childhood."
Table three: Metaphorical meanings of bamboo
Plant Bamboo
Features Firm roots, inside hollowness, tall and straight outlook,with joints, solid in texture
Suggested
Metaphorical
meaning The people of upright, haunty and aloof with high moral principle
The person of virtue or gentlemn
The firm and indomitable spirit of a noble person
Straightforwordness and impartiality of a person
Unselfishness
High moral principle and moral courage
Noble charater and sterling intergrity
A girl and a boy play innocently together, a man and a woman who had an innocent affection for each other in childhood
3.2.4 Pine
Pine is a tall tree with long hard sharp leaves that do not fall off in winter (Longman: 1479). It is evergreen in the four seasons of a year. Even in freezing weather with ice and snow, pine tree still stands arrogantly in the air. It is said that pine can have a long life of thousands of years. People are extremely amazed at its power to survive in severe winter and hence they associate it with longevity and immortality. For its characterstic of being evergreen even in severe weather, people associate it with the spirit of "not daring hardships and danger but remaining faithful and unyielding." Therefore in poems it is used to imply "the noble characters of people". And "松柏之盟" (song bai zhi meng) is another expression to mean "患难之交" (huan nan zhi jiao) friends in adversity or everlasting friendship.
Table four: Metaphorical meanings of pine
Plant Pine
Features Evergreen, arrognance in severe weather, long life
Suggested
Metaphorical
Meanings Longevity and immortality
Nor daring hardships and danger but remain faithful and unyielding
The noble characters of people
Friends in adversity or everlasting friendship
3.2.5 Lotus
Lotus is a white or pink flower that grows on the surface of lakes in Asia (Longman: 1167). It mainly grows in shallow water area in the southern part of China. Its seed, called “莲子”(lian zi, lotus seed) is fruit grown above water, and its stems under the water are called "莲藕”(lian ou, lotus root). Lotus leaves are round-shaped and its blossom, white or light red, is sweet and fragrant. In literature, "lotus comes out of mud but is pure" has been the vivid description of lotus. For these characteristics, people often use lotus to imply "people who are pure, upright, modest, simple and elegant."
Lotus root "莲藕" is a delicious water plant and loved by many Chinese. When it is cut open, either to slices or little cubes, it will be somewhat connected and jointed for its fiber texture. So people created the common expression "藕断丝连" (ou duan si lian) to imply that "lovers especially are still in contact though apparently separated."
"莲"(lian) has the same pronunciation with "怜" (lian) , so "莲子" (lian zi) sounds like "怜子" (lian zi). Hence people associate "莲子" lotus seed with love. "莲子" means in present day language "love you".
Table five: Metaphorical meanings of lotus
Plant Lotus
Features Delicate, round-shaped leaves, white or red sweet and fragrant flowers, connected and jointed fiber texture
Suggested
Metaphorical
Meanings Lovers esp are still in contact though apparently separated
(lotus root)
Love you (lotus seed)
People who are pure, upright, modest, simple but elegant
(lotus blossom)
3.2.6 Peony
Peony, National Flower of China, is a garden plant with large round flowers that are dark red, white or pink (Longman: 1451). As it is the most bright and colorful, the most spectacular, elegant and poised flower in the flower kingdom, it has been titled "the Queen of Flowers". Ethereal color and celestial fragrance is the exact expression for the flower, which makes people associate it with "荣华富贵" (rong hua fu gui) happiness, glory, splendor, wealth and rank, and "国色天香" (guo se tian xiang) a girl of great beauty and elegance.
Table six: Metaphorical meanings of peony
Plant Peony
Features Bright, colorful, spectacular, elegant, poised, ethereal color, celestial fragrance
Suggested
Metaphorical
Meanings Happiness, glory, splendor, wealth and rank
A girl of great beauty and elegance
3.2.7 Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum is a garden plant with large brightly colored flowers (Longman: 312). It blooms at the end of autumn or in early winter. It is noted for its insults for cold and frost, which usually implies firm and unyielding "坚贞不渝" (jian zhen bu yu). This image has been soon accepted by people and been well used of. Therefore chrysanthemum has an implication for noble people with "firm and persistence, elegance and simplicity."
Table seven: Metaphorical meanings of chrysanthemum
Plant Chrysanthemum
Features Insults for cold and frost
Suggested
Metaphorical
Meanings Firm and unyielding
Noble people with firm and persistence, elegance and simplicity
3.2.8 Orchid
Orchid is a plant that has flowers with three parts, the middle one being shaped like a lip (Longman: 1379). It mainly grows at rocks in valleys. The flowers are simple but elegant and give out a delicate fragrance. As the flower carries natural and unrestrained grace, people use it to symbolize people of "elegance and purity".
Table eight: Metaphorical meanings of orchid
Plant Orchid
Features Simple, elegant, with delicate fragrance, naturally and unrestrained graceful
Suggested
Metaphorical
Meanings Elegance and purity
3.2.9 Plum
Plum is a tree that produces a small round juicy fruit which is dark red or yellow and has a part in the middle or refers to the fruit of this kind of tree (Longman: 1501). Probably most people get to know "梅" first by its blossom "梅花" (mei hua), which blooms in early spring and at the end of winter. The flowers are fragrant and attractive for its color, white or light red with usually five pieces of petals. Plum blossom is characteristic for its insult of cold and its arrogance in freezing weather, which usually implies "坚贞不渝" (jian zhen bu yu) standing firm and unyielding. Plum is especially proud of its beauty against frost and snow, henceupon it is typically known for its characteristic of "高洁" (gao jie) arrogance and purity. And Chinese people usually link it with "超凡脱俗" (chao fan tuo su) transcendence of the worldly and "孤芳自赏" (gu fang zi sang) indulgence in self-admiration.
Table nine: Metaphorical meanings of plum
Plant Plum
Features Plum blossom: insult of cold and arrogance in freezing weather, fragrant and attractive, beauty against frost and snow
Suggested
Metaphorical
Meaning Standing firm and unyielding
Arrogance and purity
Transcendence of the worldly
Indulgence in self-admiration
4.Conclusion
Metaphor is an inseparable part in our daily life. It runs through in our logic thinking and behavior and exists in our daily language phenomenon. For the universality of metaphor in our daily life, we have presented unconsciously or habitually two seemingly unrelated objects through the use of metaphor. This paper tries to analyze the metaphoric meaning of plant words by giving several examples of tree words and flower words to show how metaphor influences our logic thinking and behavior and to show how people associate project our thoughts and events into the field of plants as to inspire people's further exploration of metaphor.
(作者单位:武汉大学外国语言文学学院)
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