Conceptual Metaphors of Chinese “脸face” and “面face”

Shi-Fang Chen; Su-Hie Ting; Kee-Man Chuah

Shi-Fang Chen
Su-Hie Ting
Kee-Man Chuah

Abstract

This study involved an analysis of face metaphors in the Center for Chinese Linguistics (CCL) corpus of Peking University. The two Chinese keywords used in the search were “脸face” and “面face”, and 50,000 relevant word tokens were obtained. Through quantitative analysis, it was found that there were differences between the two metaphors: “脸face” was mostly used to express social status, dignity and personal image, especially when expressing negative emotion while “面face” was more often used to describe external features, situations or problems, reflecting its importance in depicting surface phenomena and environments. The study revealed the metaphorical mapping relationship between the two in different contexts, which not only reflects the face culture in Chinese, but also demonstrates the diversity of metaphorical expressions. This paper provides a new perspective for understanding metaphorical expressions in Chinese.

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