“人是植物”是认知学者归纳出的诸多概念隐喻类型之一。树作为植物中的典型代表,其特征在语言的概念化和范畴化中发挥积极作用,其中以树为初始域、以人为目标域的“人是树”隐喻模式表现出强大的衍生能力。树概念本身、具体树种以及树组成部分等概念参与对人这一认知域的建构。两个概念域之间表现出的系统隐喻映射关系,满足概念隐喻所需要素,“人是树”有理由作为独立概念隐喻存在。 “People are plants ” is one of the many conceptual metaphors that cognitive scholars have drawn. Tree as a typical representative of plants, its characteristics play an active role in language conceptualization and categorization, in which the tree as the initial domain, the people as the target domain “tree is a human ” metaphor model showed a strong ability to derive. The concept of the tree itself, the specific tree species and the tree components involved in the construction of this cognitive domain. The metaphorical mapping between the two conceptual domains satisfies the necessary elements of conceptual metaphor, and “human being is a tree” has reason to exist as an independent conceptual metaphor.