A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF IDIOMS RELATED TO HUMAN FACIAL APPEARANCE IN CHINESE AND ENGLISH LANGUAGES

Abstract

Human beings use language to express ideas, share information, and convey emotions. Language is a key tool for communication and thought. Among various language phenomena, idioms are notable for their special structures and cultural significance, attracting researchers worldwide. Understanding idioms can reflect one's language mastery and often involves metaphorical usage, which is significant in rhetoric. Metaphors also influence thinking patterns, and many experts analyze them from a cognitive perspective. Body metaphors are a universal phenomenon, helping people relate to and understand concepts through familiar references like body parts. This article explores the meanings of body idioms in English and Chinese, drawing from authoritative reference books. It seeks to identify similarities and differences in meaning, serving as a helpful resource for learning these idioms and their cultural contexts. The majority of researchers use idioms in English that correlate to chengyu in Chinese, according to several studies conducted both domestically and internationally. In English, idioms have a wide range of meanings. In general, it includes things like slang, colloquialism, allusion, set phrases, and sayings. In a narrow sense, it means “chengyu” in Chinese. This thesis primarily discusses and contrasts成语- chéngyǔ- chengyu, which is mostly made up of four-character characteristics in Chinese, with the limited meaning of idioms in English. As cognitive linguistics came into being, more and more experts studied idioms focusing mainly on their metaphorical meaning. Therefore, this thesis aims to study body metaphor from the viewpoint of cognitive linguistics.