Abstract

Idioms are the essence of a language, and analyzing idioms is of great importance to learning local culture. As the research object of this dissertation, most color idioms are obscure for people from other cultural background, because the color word’s meanings in idioms are different from their primary meanings. Basing on people’s perception of colors, this dissertation analyzes color idioms, mainly studies RED, WHITE and BLACK idioms by adopting conceptual metaphor. The final result of the dissertation proves that people’s initial perception of colors working as source domain has a significant influence on their analysis of target domain in the idioms. This dissertation possesses great practical significance. It helps people to better understand color idioms by adopting conceptual metaphor and their perceptions of colors. Furthermore, it is conducive to people’s knowledge of relevant western culture.

Key words: English color idioms; Conceptual metaphor; Analysis

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

1.Introduction.1

1.1 Research Background.1

1.2 Research Objectives.2

1.3 Research Significance3

1.4 Framework of the Paper.3

2. Literature Review.4

2.1 Domestic Research Status4

2.2 Overseas Research Status.6

3. The Theoretical Basis.7

3.1 Conceptual Metaphor and Color Idioms..8

3.2 The Operation Mechanism of Conceptual Metaphor...8 

3.3 The Classification of Conceptual Metaphor.9

4. The Color Idioms..10

4.1 The Definition of Color idioms..11

4.2 The Examples of Color Idioms.11

5. The Metaphoric Analysis of Color Idioms..13

5.1 The Metaphoric Analysis of Positive Color Idioms.13

5.2 The Metaphoric Analysis of Negative Color Idioms15

6.Conclusion17

References19