Structural metaphors in emotion expressions in Chinese

Abstract

Affection is a vague abstract feeling that is difficult to express, so concrete concepts such as weather, fire, color, liquid, plant are used to describe emotions in Chinese language. Lakoff & Johnson, in 1980, proposed the concept of conceptual metaphor: "metaphor is not a linguistic expression, but from a mapping of a conceptual domain to another". Conceptual metaphor, according to cognitive linguists, is not arbitrary but based on life experiences and human cultural experiences. Chinese emotional metaphor is a typical example of the conceptual metaphor.