Strategies for Applying Metaphor to Cultural Differences and Cross-cultural Communication〔＊〕

Li Xiaojin

（School of Foreign Studies Nantong University，Nantong Jiangsu 226019）

Ⅰ.The relationship between Metaphor and Culture

Metaphor is a unique customary rule for communicative language，which is formed in a long-term language communication environment.It is a type of abstract and implicit expression to visualized communicative language.The formation of metaphor is exactly the same to that of culture — both of them are the external expressions to the inner quality and spirit shaped under the national characteristics.

1.The cultural characteristics of language expression presented by metaphor

Metaphor is a component of culture and can greatly reflect cultural contents such as beliefs，attitudes，and behaviors，〔1〕indicating metaphor in essence is a type of external manifestation carrier of culture.Culture refers to an abstract consideration on the internal and external specific carrier and environment formed in the people’s living environment，but also the acquisition of a valuable recognition on things’development essence and law through the superficial forms of materials.Such a culture is a kind of experience and inspiration accumulated in the longterm life practice，but also a general understanding of everything’s running logic and core mechanism，so it constitutes the subtle hidden rule and cognition in the daily life.Similarly，metaphor is essentially one aspect of culture formation，but also an abstract understanding of language expression and framework laws in the long-term language communicative process.Metaphor is also a process to cognize cultural entities.〔2〕

Metaphor is actually a form of external expression of national culture，which has been a necessary formation of the inheritance，development，storage，and innovation of culture as a type of language expression skills and means and can deeply reflect the similarities and differences between different national cultures.Different nations live in different natural environment and humanistic environment，but some metaphorical expressions formed based on human’s common cognitive experience in nature and objective survival world are obvious to people，and the social function of metaphor illustrates its internal logic in cultural reflection and cultural expression.Therefore，metaphor is a concentrated cultural reflection in language expression.

2.Metaphor is an intermediary between language and culture

There indeed exists a similar and even equivalent metaphor between different languages and cultures.Symbol users in a specific time and culture will get particularly interested in a kind of things，because these things connect to the collective value orientation of an entire symbol community through some characteristics signified by metaphor.〔3〕The expression to the cultural value is just the construction of the knowledge system formed through the metaphoric language expression techniques.That is to say，metaphor actually becomes an intermediary between language expression and cultural form，and the important position of metaphor as a cultural formation mechanism in the language expression environment is emphasized.

3.The interaction between metaphor and culture

Culture is the people’s abstract understanding，which is hidden in every subtle thinking and behavior pattern of people.The metaphorical expression forms and presentation logic have been directly affected by the currently existing cultural values，belief systems，knowledge structure，and thinking forms.Cultural mechanism lies in shaping aperson’s language expression and behavior ways.Also，the formation of culture is a value abstraction formed by people in the process of understanding the practice.

The interaction between metaphor and culture makes metaphor gradually fuzzy as a separate，meaningless expression form，while metaphor has become a cultural value tendency actually.The cultural directivity of metaphor is becoming the construction of a new cultural system and also a part of the language habits in the people’s life.The interdependent relationship formed under the interaction between the two sides promotes metaphor to be an indispensable language expression way in the people’s life.

Ⅲ.A comparison between Chinese and Western metaphorical cognitions in the cross-cultural communication

1.Chinese and western cognitive metaphor differences in cross-cultural communication

The differences of customs and habits formed under the different cultural environment give rise to the different characteristics of Chinese and western metaphors’expressive forms，contents，and techniques.Meanwhile，people are required to get a full understanding of the different characteristics of these expressions.Metaphor is rooted in the human physics and society （cultural experience）.〔4〕

Customs are important aspects of a national culture，in which a huge difference is formed in metaphoric cognition inevitably.Different aesthetic orientation and living habits are formed because of cultural differences，and the metaphor for different things in life makes up the rich contents of the daily communication.Metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon，but a human cognitive phenomenon more importantly.It is a kind of cognitive activities of human to explain or understand the experience of another field using the experience of some field.〔5〕As an effective form of everyday language expression，metaphor in the different traditional Chinese and western habits and real life environments is also greatly different in forms.

2.Chinese and western cognitive metaphor similarities in cross-cultural communication

（1）Some similarities in metaphor forming way

Lakoff and Johnson show that metaphoric forming mechanism is to map the“source domain”people know well，get used to，or easily understand into a“target domain”people do not know well，get used to or easily understand.They also think the cores of metaphor are concept transformation and analogy；some similar relations between things are extended to be the similar relations between other things so as to set up a new cognitive relationship.In both Chinese and western cognitions on metaphor，the conversion of the link between concrete things to a connection between abstract things is emphasized.The metaphor forming mechanism conforms to a basic cognitive principle of people.That is to say，it is more natural to map an easily accessible concept to a weakly accessible concept.There are many similarities between the metaphor working mechanisms of both English and Chinese languages，because both of them are a way of cognitive metaphor from the basic cognitive domain to the abstract，complex cognitive domain.〔6〕

（2）Some similarities in the objective life background for the formation of metaphor

The natural environment and the human environment are different between China and western countries，but there are many similarities in the cognition of many objective things.The objective basis for the formation of metaphor is specific tangible material existence in the life that Chinese and western cognitions rely on.Cognition of human on things was based on the correlation between the external and internal characteristics that sense organs could directly perceive at the very start.These connections are developing into the self-language narration ways accurately using relatively easy expressions way，so that a metaphor culture conforming to the self-characteristics emerged.English and Chinese，as human languages，have some commonalities.〔7〕Therefore，it is seen that many languages in China and the West have points in common.

Ⅳ.Strategies for applying metaphor to cross-cultural communication

1.Attaching great importance to the similarities between Chinese and western formation mechanisms and contents

The formation mechanism and sources of Chinese and western metaphors are similar to some extent，while these similarities constitute the cognitive foundation for the mutual communication because the same topics can be found from these similar cultural meanings and help build good communication bridges for both sides.The most important in communication is to establish common thinking model and behavior patterns for both sides，and then the basic consensus and starting point of thinking in the beginning of communication will be reached.Before communication，therefore，a clear understanding and learning of the common metaphorical expressions in the usage of others’language is a must，and a good communicative environment is constructed if the common metaphor culture characteristics are utilized in communication.

2.Stressing the metaphor differences between Chinese and western cultures and preventing communication barriers

There are huge differences between Chinese and western cultures—the formation of metaphor is very greatly different and even completely adversely recognized，and this is caused by the different cultural backgrounds of the two sides.In communication，metaphor cognitive conflict is unavoidable in communication and communicative crisis may even occur.Therefore，the huge differences between Chinese and western cultures are necessarily stressed，and the communicative difficulties in communication are necessarily avoided as far as possible.There exists metaphor difference in cultural life and religious beliefs，which is a sensitive area easy to produce divergence and misunderstanding in Chinese and western communication.It is necessary to strengthen the consensus and avoid the divergence，so as to maintain a good communicative environment.

3.Applying the cultural empathy communication strategy and maintaining a good communication relationship

Cultural empathy is an important communication strategy formed in crosscultural communication，which can help effectively avoid some communication barriers in the process of communication.It refers to a type of mental experience，emotional displacement，and cognitive transformation of communication subjects for ensuring the smooth communication between different cultures in cross-cultural communication，namely，apsychological tendency for consciously transcending the fixed mental shackles of the native language and culture and thinking from another cultural mode.〔8〕Therefore，the communicative roles in communication need to transform and think from an adverse perspective，in order to prevent the emergence of an embarrassing communicative situation caused by overemphasis on the self-position.

4.Understanding the differences between Chinese and western culture and reducing the contradictions in communication

Metaphor mainly comes from living habits，which is a type of language habits gradually formed in life and has been deeply rooted in the native culture as a language behavioral way.It is an analogical imagination extended from the native culture to the connection between things.To learn each other’s metaphoric habits is essentially to observe the objective connection through each other’s cultural expressions and also develop a competence to use these language habits.Therefore，the most important in cross-cultural communication is to know well each other’s cultural characteristics and subtly use the basic metaphor formation law in cultural learning.In this way，metaphor can be better applied under the condition of several similar cultural identities.

〔1〕Li Mingqin，The Relationship between Metaphor and Culture，Journal of university of Plain，2003（4），pp.48-49.

〔2〕Kovecses，Zoltan.，Metaphou in Culture— University and Variation，Cambridge University Press，2005.

〔3〕Ding Ersu，The Reconstruction of the Connection between Metaphor and Culture，F(xiàn)oreign Language and Literature（Quarterly），2009（4），pp.217-227.

〔4〕Lakoff，G.，Women，F(xiàn)ire and Dangerous Things，Chicago：University of Chicago Press，1987.

〔5〕Lakoff，C ＆Johnson.M.，Metaphors we live by，Chicago：The University of Chicago Press，1980.

〔6〕Hu Xiaorong，Analysis on Metaphor and Cultural Differences between English and Chinese from the Cognitive Perspective，Journal of Changchun University of Science and Technology，2011（1），pp.77-78.

〔7〕Lv Wenjun，Yang Ying，Comparison and Study on Metaphor Cultures in English and Chinese words，Journal of Chongqing Liberal Arts College（Social Science Edition），2008（2），pp.77-79.

〔8〕Theodor Lipps，The Theory of Empathy，Beijing：the Commercial Press，1980.