Abstract
This paper adopted a corpus-based approach to compare the uses of the conceptual metaphor “TIME IS MONEY” between Chinese non-English major college students and native speakers of English. The results revealed no direct correspondence between frequency of metaphorical use and proficiency level of English. While EFL learners differed with native speakers in terms of the diversity of metaphorical uses, the patterns of high-frequency uses were similar between the two groups. Chinese EFL learners were prone to produce unidiomatic metaphorical expressions that literally make sense. These expressions could be the mixed results of negative L1 transfer and insufficient L2 proficiency, especially the lack of adequate semantic knowledge in English. To language learners, conceptual metaphor in L2 cannot be randomly created, but has to be acquired with the help of the cultural knowledge embedded in the metaphorical expressions.
Highlights
The study of metaphor dates back to more than two thousand years ago
While EFL learners differed with native speakers in terms of the diversity of metaphorical uses, the patterns of high-frequency uses were similar between the two groups
By revealing the patterns of unidiomatic metaphorical uses produced by Chinese EFL learners, the study could provide a number of findings for research on metaphorical competence from an L2 perspective
Summary
The study of metaphor dates back to more than two thousand years ago. Since the ancient Greek time, there has been the convention of seeing metaphor as a typical rhetorical device, a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is used to describe a person or object to which it is not literally applicable. Given the acknowledged significance of metaphor as a fundamental cognitive ability of human beings, L2 learners’ use and processing of metaphors could be even more complicated in view of the interplay of at least two languages. The reasons why EFL learners are inclined to produce these expressions and why these metaphorical expressions are considered illegitimate in L1 use of English are the important issues that remain unknown. In search of the keys to these unsettled questions, the current research adopted a corpus-based approach to investigate Chinese EFL learners’ and native English speakers’ uses of the typical conceptual metaphor “TIME IS MONEY”. By revealing the patterns of unidiomatic metaphorical uses produced by Chinese EFL learners, the study could provide a number of findings for research on metaphorical competence from an L2 perspective
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