International Open Access Journal Platform

英汉新冠肺炎疫情新闻标题中隐喻的对比研究

A Comparative Study of Metaphors in English and Chinese News Headlines on COVID-19

Linguistics / 2023,5(4): 276-294 / 2023-12-01 380 571

View Download PDF

• Authors: 黄婕     
• Information:

  华东理工大学，上海

• Keywords: Metaphor; COVID-19; News headlines; Contrastive study on English and Chinese 隐喻；新冠疫情；新闻标题；英汉对比
• Abstract: Based on Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Framing Theory, this study compared the metaphors used in the news headlines on COVID-19 in People’s Daily and The New York Times in 2021. Then it revealed how COVID-19 was framed in the mainstream Chinese and American media and analyzed the similarities and differences in thinking and cognition behind it. It turns out that both Chinese and American news headlines use war metaphors, travel metaphors and architectue metaphors, which shows that China and the United States have similar war culture, and both imply that to conquer COVID-19 is a long process. Nevertheless, the difference is that Chinese media views COVID-19 holistically, while western media views it concretely. Besides, Chinese headlines tend to use positive expressions to arouse the collectivism and resonate with the readers to mobilize their enthusiasm for action, which are more acceptable. While English titles only describe objective situation without conveying any confidence to overcome the pandemic, which reveals the uncertainty of the result. 本研究基于概念隐喻理论和架构理论，对比《人民日报》和《纽约时报》2021年有关新冠肺炎疫情的新闻标题中使用的隐喻表达，揭露新冠疫情是如何在中美主流媒体中被架构的，分析其背后中美思维认知上的异同。研究发现，中英新闻标题都运用了战争隐喻，旅途隐喻和建筑隐喻，这说明中美两国有着相似的战争文化心理，都暗示了新冠疫情的解决是一个漫长的过程。不同的是，中国媒体是从整体思维的高度来看待疫情，而西方媒体是从具体思维的角度来看待疫情。中文标题多用积极的表达，唤起受众的集体主义价值观，引起读者的情感共鸣，调动人们对抗疫情的积极性，话语接受度更高。而英文标题只描述客观事实，暗示未来的不确定性，缺乏向大众传达战胜新冠肺炎的坚定信心。
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.35534/lin.0504023
• Cite: 黄婕．英汉新冠肺炎疫情新闻标题中隐喻的对比研究［J］．语言学，2023，5（4）：276-294．