Abstract:Emotion is an important part of human experience. People always express abstract emotions through metaphor. Metaphor has been studied by scholars from both China and western counties for quite a long time. However, there are few scholars studying the emotion narrative of flower metaphor especially. In spite of the fact that some academic articles concerning this field appeared in some journals and magazines, there has not been a systematic and comprehensive work published.

Inspired by Halliday’s ideational function of language, this paper will make relatively complete study of emotion narrative of flower metaphor according to some common flowers in China and Britain from the aspect of cognition. In addition, this paper will find out the reasons of the emotion narrative differences between China and Britain. The thesis consists of five parts. Chapter one gives brief introduction of the research background of the thesis, significance of the study and the framework of the thesis. Literature review is offered in Chapter two. In the third part, contrastive study on emotion narrative of flower metaphors in Chinese and English is presented. Chapter four analyzes the reasons for the differences of emotion narrative from five perspectives. The last part is a conclusion of the whole thesis.

Keywords:  flower metaphor  ideational function  cognition  emotion narrative

Contents

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 Research Background-1

1.2 Significance of the Study-1

1.3 Structure of the Thesis-2

Chapter Two Literature Review-3

2.1 Introduction of Metaphor-3

2.2 Systemic-Functional Grammar-3

2.3 Connections between Metaphor and Emotion Narrative-4

2.4 Previous Studies-4

Chapter Three The Contrastive Study on Emotion Narrative of Flower Metaphors in Chinese and English-6

3.1 Similarities of Emotion Narrative of Flower Metaphors in English and Chinese-6

3.1.1 Peach Blossom-6

3.1.2 Rose-7

3.2 Differences of Emotion Narrative of Flower Metaphors in English and Chinese-7

3.2.1 Lily-8

3.2.2 Chrysanthemum-8

3.2.3 Lotus-8

3.2.4 Narcissus-9

3.3 Other Flowers-9

Chapter Four The Reasons for the Differences of Emotion Narrative-10

4.1 Aesthetic Differences-10

4.2 Difference in Geographical Situation-10

4.3 Differences in Ways of Thinking-10

4.4 Difference in Belief-11

4.5 History and Culture-11

Chapter Five Conclusion-13

5.1 Summary of the Thesis-13

5.2 Limitations of the Thesis-13

5.3 Further Study-13

References-14