Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 1
A CONCEPTUAL INTEGRATION APPROACH TO
MODERN CHINESE IDIOMS RELATED TO ECONOMY
HAN JIANGHUA
RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR LANGUAGES AND
CULTURES OF ASIA
MAHIDOL UNIVERSITY
2013
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 2
CONTENTS
1.
Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………
…… 3
2.
Literature
Review ……………………………………………………………………………… 8
3.
Research
methodology……………………………………………………………………23
4.
Classification………………………………………………………………………………………
…27
5.
Conceptual blending and frame shifting in idioms: A
method for figurative meaning of
idioms……………………………40
6.
Conclusion Discussion and
suggestions ……………………………106
Appendix: ……………………………………………………………………………………………
………………115
References: ………………………………………………………………………………………
………………123
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 3
1. Introduction
1.1 Background of the study
A language is an important tool of daily communication. It is used by a
number of people with various social backgrounds and in a lot of contexts. The larger
the number of speakers using the language, the higher the chance that the language is
subject to change in the daily use. The development trend of language is that the
structure will be from the simple to complex and its expression ability will be from
poor to rich and precise.(Geeraerts 2010) In this process, a marked characteristic is
that a large number of idioms generated and be widely used in daily communication.
In Chinese, the idiom refers to a set expression of two or more words
which has a fixed structure and means something other than the literal meanings of its
individual words. Generally, we cannot change the compositions of idiom arbitrarily
and cannot analyze its structure through the general rules of word-building. In
Chinese idioms, the idioms which have a strong written style characteristics and have
a four syllable expression are called “成语/ʦʰeŋ35jy214/”; and the idioms which have a
strong colloquial style characteristics and are not four syllable expression are called
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“俗语/su35jy214/”; and the “成语/ʦʰeŋ35jy214/” and“俗语/su35jy214/” are all called “熟
语/ʂu35jy214/” or 习语/ɕi214jy214/. (Ci Hai dictionary, 2009.). People use idioms to
make their language richer and more colorful and to convey subtle shades of meaning
or intention. Idioms are used often to replace a literal word or expression, and many
times the idiom better describes the full nuance of meaning. Idioms and idiomatic
expressions can be more precise than the literal words, often using fewer words but
saying more. (Gail Brenner, Webster's New World American Idioms Handbook.
Webster's New World, 2003).
Chinese, the official language of China, is the major language spoken
by the Han people who are the largest ethnic group in country. The language has a
long history, and is the world’s oldest language still in use. In terms of history,
Chinese is generally divided into old Chinese (Eleventh Century B.C. to Seventh
Century A.D.), middle Chinese (Seventh Century A.D. to Tenth Century A.D.), and
modern Chinese (Tenth Century A.D to Present). (Wang, 1980). At present, there is
about 1/5 word’s population who use Chinese as daily communication language.
As previously mentioned, Chinese has a long history and generates a
large number of idioms in daily communication. The idioms are not only the marker
which represents the expression ability of Chinese become richer and more precise,
but also is an aggregation of cognition and culture of Chinese people. The generation
of idiom is not only the result of language development, but also the result of the
artistic expression of Chinese people’s understanding and experience of the real word
in daily life. This is especially the case for idioms that are related to the economy
reflecting the people’s ideas about the economic conditions in China.
The study of Chinese idioms, does not only help us to understand the
features of Chinese idioms and Chinese language, but will also help us to explore the
cognitive models and cultural models of Chinese people. And this is the core purpose
and topic significance of this thesis.
After a development of thousands of years, Chinese has formed a huge
number and highly expressive idiom system. Due to limited space, this paper only
selects the Chinese new idioms related to economy as the object of study.
1.2 Research questions
1) Which idioms are included in the term of idioms related to economy?
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 5
2) Why the conceptual blending theory will help us to understand the
idioms better?
3) What kind of relationship does exist between idioms and social
change?
1.3 Object of the study
The research object of this thesis is the Chinese new idioms related to
economy. The author has collected about two hundreds Chinese new idioms, as
related to economy, which can be used to analyze. In this thesis, the author will
research the classification methods of Chinese idioms firstly; and then, will analyze
the characteristics of conceptual blending and frame shifting in Chinese idioms, and
analyze the cognitive models and cultural models which are involved in the processes
of conceptual blending and frame shifting; next, will discuss the formation model of
figurative meaning of Chinese idioms; and will also discuss the cultural nature and
culture value of Chinese idioms at last.
1.4 Scope of the study
The study of idioms always includes the form orientation and content
orientation. The form orientation approaches idioms from phonetic (or phonological)
and grammatical perspectives resulting in multidimensional descriptions of idioms.
On the other hand, the content orientation approaches idioms from meaning and
cultural perspectives resulting in multidimensional interpretations of idioms.
In this thesis, the study of modern Chinese idioms related to economy
will follow the content orientation. It will analyze and interpret Chinese idioms using
a conceptual blending approach and discuss the results against the background of
Chinese cultural context in order to gain a broader understanding of the phenomena.
1.5 Significance of the study
As mentioned earlier, the large number of idioms generated and be
widely used in daily communication represents that the expression ability of Chinese
becomes richer and more precise. So, the study of Chinese idioms will have a very
important significance.
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 6
As we know, studying idioms in particular languages are crucial to the
understanding of such languages and the cultural contexts to which they belong
because idioms are formed under a specific ethnic culture, cognition and background
knowledge, and so, it will reflect the culture and cognition of the ethnic group that use
the language. The study of the forming process of idiom’s figurative meaning will
help us to understand the national culture and cognitive characteristics better.
This thesis will mainly study the conceptual blending and frame
shifting in Chinese idioms, the method and model of the formation of Chinese idioms’
figurative meaning. According to the analysis of this thesis can know that the
conceptual blending and frame shifting is the main method of the formation of
Chinese idioms’ figurative meaning and the model of dissipative structure is the main
model of the formation and stabilized of Chinese idioms’ figurative meaning.
To establish a universal paradigm of content oriented study of idioms
according to the analysis of this method and model is the first purpose of this thesis.
Language is the easily noticeable characteristic of an ethnic group and a
cognitive product of an ethnic group. As the most general and expressive unit of a
language, the idioms show the cognition and wisdom of an ethnic group at whenever
and wherever possible. Therefore, the analysis of cognitive concept and cognitive
model which are reflected by the Chinese idioms will help us to understand the
Chinese ethnic group’s cognitive view better.
Furthermore, the language is not only the carrier of information and
culture, but the language itself is also a kind of cultural phenomenon, being a part of
the whole culture of an ethnic group, and the language is also a special culture which
has a system of itself. (Zhang, 1998). As an accumulation of an ethnic group’s culture,
the language contains almost all culture information which is created by an ethnic
group from ancient times to now.
Therefore, we can understand and interpret an ethnic group’s culture
through the language of that ethnic group. Furthermore, we can find the cultures,
which are created by an ethnic group in a certain historical period and then
disappeared with the development of history, from the language of that ethnic group.
This is so-called the cultural value of language. Analyzing the Chinese idioms
thoroughly from the cultural perspective in order to reveal the cultural value of
Chinese idioms is the last purpose of this paper.
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 7
1.6 Contribution
1.6.1 Combing and improving the classification standard and method of idioms in
order to establish a complete classification system of idioms.
1.6.2 Through the analysis of the conceptual blending, which is involved in the
Chinese new idioms, let people know about a series of characteristics of the conceptual
blending involved in Chinese idioms.
1.6.3 Through the analysis of the formation method and model of the idioms’
figurative meaning in order to let people understand the formation process of idioms clearly,
so as to understand and use idioms better.
1.6.4 Through the analysis of the relationship between the formations of Chinese
new idioms related to economy and the change of Chinese society in order to let people
understand the impact of social change on the language development.
1.6.5 Introducing the Chaos linguistics theory into the field of Semantic study to
let more and more people comprehend and familiar with the research paradigm of chaos
linguistics.
1.6.6 Explaining the culture nature and culture value of the idioms clearly by
analyzing the relationship between the idiom and culture
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 8
2. Literature review
2.1 The state of Chinese Idioms study
The Chinese idioms study has a long history. Since the Chinese idioms
generated, the Sinologists have been beginning to study the Chinese idioms from
multiple perspectives and made a lot of research achievements. In order to allow
people to know about the history of Chinese idiom study clearly, this article will
review the Chinese idiom study from the following aspects (The presentation order
will be based on the Chronological order of each aspect.):
2.1.1 The semantic study of Chinese idioms
This kind of study mainly discusses and interpretation that what are the
literal meaning and figurative meaning of the Chinese idiom, as well as discuss the
meaning change of the Chinese idiom in the process of using. The aspect of semantic
study is the main study aspect of Chinese idioms. The Chinese idioms generally
contain the literal meaning and figurative meaning. And it is very hard to derive the
figurative meaning from literal meaning directly. So interpret the idiom’s figurative
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 9
meaning in order to let people understand the meaning of idiom better has become
one of the main tasks of Chinese idiom study. The researchers have made a lot of
research achievements in this aspect, but most of them are collective achievement,
such as: “Chinese Idiom Dictionary”, “Etymology of Chinese”, “The Big Chinese
Idiom Dictionary”, etc…
In recent years, the study of semantic aspect of Chinese idiom has
achieved many new achievements. Many scholars began to introduce some new
semantic theories to study the Chinese idioms. Among these achievements, one of the
most groundbreaking is “A Cognitive Study on the Semantic Meanings of Common
Chinese Idioms” (Tang Xuening, 2010).
This book is the first monograph which sues cognitive theory and
predicate-argument theory to study the Chinese idioms comprehensively in
contemporary China. “A Cognitive Study on the Semantic Meanings of Common
Chinese Idioms” based on modern linguistics theories, and analyzed the closed corpus
deeply, as well as analyzed the various internal argument structures of Chinese idioms.
It also described the deep semantic structure of Chinese idioms, and presented
different types of semantic frame of Chinese idioms. At last, it generalized and
interpreted the law and mechanisms of semantic constitute of Chinese idioms. These
research
achievements
deepen
people's
understanding of
Chinese
idioms.
(Baidubaike, http://baike.baidu.com/view/3633946.htm )
In addition, the “The Analysis of semantic Word-formation Framework
of Modern Chinese Idioms” is another new achievement in the study of semantic
aspect of Chinese idioms.
The semantic word-formation analysis of idiom belongs to the syntactic
study category of idioms. But long-term since, the idiom formation research is mainly
follows the syntactical study aspect. The syntactic formation study of idioms is to use
syntactic analysis method to analyze the internal structure of idioms, and divided the
idioms into several limited types of syntactic structure. This traditional study conceals
the rich and colorful semantic relations among the compositions of the Chinese idiom.
It also hinders the study of internal semantic structure of Chinese idioms. We learn
from research results of semantic word-formation of compound words of Mr Guo
Yang and Zhu Yan etc… and use the predicate-argument theory, as well as use the
methods of closed corpus statistics and corpus frequency statistics to analyze the
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semantic word-formation framework of modern Chinese idioms in detail. This opens
up a new way for semantic word-formation framework study. It will help us to
understand the idioms better, and grasp the meaning of idioms accurately. According
to the study, we find that the semantic structure of idioms can be classified as "noun
nuclear structure” and "predicate nuclear structure”. Noun nuclear structure also can
be divided into "single-noun nuclear structure”, "dual-noun nuclear structure” and
"Plural-noun nuclear structure”; the predicate nuclear structure also can be divided
into "single predicate nuclear structure " and " dual predicate nuclear structure ".
According to the internal component of idioms whether has a subordinate predicate
structure or downgraded predication structures, we divide these structures into
“complex structure " and " simple structure ". (Xu, 2008)
2.1.2 The Cultural mirrored study of Chinese idioms
This kind of study mainly discusses that the Chinese idioms reflect
what kind of Chinese cultures. As we know, the language is a part of the whole
culture of an ethnic group, also an accumulation of an ethnic group’s culture. As the
most general and expressive unit of a language, the idioms must reflect certain
national culture factors. Chinese idioms as the essence of the Chinese language and
culture, it formed in a specific geographic and social environment, and the specific
culture and cognitive concepts of Han ethnic group also affect on the formation of
Chinese idioms. So the Chinese idioms are rich in Chinese cultural connotation
inevitably. From the Chinese idioms we almost can know the every aspect of Chinese
culture: from the geography, history to ideas, art, music, dress, customs and so on.
The Cultural mirrored study of idiom intent to discuss that how do the idioms reflect
the culture and what kind of idioms reflect what kind of culture, etc... The research
results on this aspect mainly include the “Chinese Idiom and Chinese Culture” (Mo
Pengling, 2001), “Talk About Chinese Idiom And Chinese Culture”(Yang Wei, 2005),
“Dragon Culture In Chinese Idiom”(Zhao Ming,2012), etc...
2.1.3 The Chinese idiom source study
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Such studies mainly explore the source of Chinese idioms. Most of the
Chinese idioms is established by usage and handed down from generation to
generation. So we can find the origins for the Chinese idioms.
However, the Chinese has a long history and has a large number of
literatures. So, finding the source for every Chinese idiom is a very large and hard
work. But fortunately, the study in this area is still made gratifying achievements.
The research achievements in this area include: “The Source of Chinese
Idioms” (Yang Tianyi, 1982), “Source Correction of Commonly Used Idioms” (Li
Yihua 1984), “700 Idioms story: Will be a joke If We do not know” (Sun Lina, Sun
Wenxia, 2009), and so on.
To explore the source of Chinese idioms is the emphasis of these papers,
including: when did the idiom generate; which literature can be used as proof; after
the idioms generated, what changes and developments did occur in the process of use.
For example, the annotation of Chinese idiom “唯利是图/wei35 li51 ʂi51 tʰu35/”in the book
“700 Idioms Story: Will Be a Joke If We Do not Know” is as follows:
唯利是图：
典出《左转：成公三十年》：余虽与晋出入，余唯利是
视。
鲁成公十三年（公元前 578 年），因为秦国背信弃义，
晋厉公决定与秦国绝交。
晋国的使臣见到秦桓公后，列出了秦国种种不守信用，背
信弃义的卑劣行为。他说：“晋献公与秦穆公订立盟约后，我们
晋国十分重视与秦国的交往，而秦国视盟约于不顾，秦康公图
谋倾覆我国。因此，我们与康公断绝了盟国关系。如今，我们
晋厉公与秦桓公约定再续盟好。然而，时间不长，秦国便做出
背信弃义之举，先是怂恿白狄攻打晋国，后又与楚国结盟，试
图威慑我们晋国。但是，恐怕您还不知道吧，楚国对您反复无
常的行为十分反感，他们时下告诉我们，您为了和楚国结盟，
竟然对黄天上帝、秦楚先君发誓说：‘余虽与晋出入，余唯利是
视。’这样看来，我们晋国没必要和秦国继续盟好，我们决定与
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 12
贵国断绝一切来往！”
“唯利是图”指只要有利可图，什么事都干。亦作“唯利是视”。
Translation:
唯利是图/wei35 li51 ʂi51 tʰu35/
Allusions come from “Zuo Zhuan: Cheng Gong San Shi
Nian”: Although I have contacts with the Jin state, my purpose is
bent solely on profit.
Lu Cheng Gong thirteen years (578 BC), because Qin state
break faith with Jin state, Jin Ligong decided to break off relations
with the Qin state.
When the envoy of Jin met Qin Huangong, he listed a
variety of bad faith of Qin. He said: "After Jin xiangong make a
covenant with Qin Mugong, we attach great importance to the
intercourse of Qin, but Qin disregard the covenant between the two
states. Qin Kanggong attempt to overthrow our state, so we sever
allies’ relations with Qin Kanggong. Now, Jin Ligong and Qin
Huangong decide to be adjourned to the covenant. However, it is
not long before the Qin break faith with Jin again. At the same time,
Qin makes a covenant with Chu state and that although I have
contacts with the Jin state, my purpose is bent solely on profit. So
we decide that we will Sever relations with Qin state.
唯利是图/wei35 li51 ʂi51 tʰu35/”means: to be intent on nothing but
profit, or to be bent solely on profit. This idiom also called “唯利是
视/wei35 li51 ʂi51 ʂi51/”.
In addition, in order to ascertain the true idioms sources, many scholars
focused to China’s most ancient classical literatures, and start to study the idioms in
these classic literatures so in detail, so as to provide better convincing evidence
sources of idioms. The research results on this aspect mainly include the " Shi Ji And
Chinese Idioms”( Huang Maoyi,1983 ), “Talk About The Idioms That Come From
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
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Lun Yu”(Tang Kejing,1983), “A Discussion of Chinese Idioms That From Meng
Zi”(Zhang Min,1983), etc...
2.1.4 The Phonological study of Chinese idioms
The Phonological study of Chinese idiom mainly studies the internal
phonological structure of Chinese idiom. The first thing which is studied is the
syllable of the Chinese idioms. The Chinese idioms will be divided into different
categories according to the syllable number. This classification method is widely used
by the idiom dictionary compilation. The second thing which is studied is the rhyming
of the Chinese idioms. This will study the rhyme characteristics and rules of Chinese
idioms. Chinese idioms mostly pay attention to rhyme, such as:
城下之盟
/tʂʰəŋ35ɕia51tʂi55məŋ35/
Means: terms accepted under duress
人心齐，泰山移
/ʐən35ɕin55ʨʰi35，tʰai51ʂan55ji35/
Means: Both together do best of all
These thesises in this area mainly explore the laws of Rhyme and tonal
patterns in Chinese idioms in order to reveal the various characteristics of rhyme in
Chinese idioms. The research results on this aspect mainly include the “The
Relationship of Rhyme in Chinese Idioms”(Zhang Gonggui,1952), “The Rhyme in
Tetrasyllabic Idioms”(Yang Dong,1980),
“Chinese and Tonal Patterns”(Liu
Junjie,1983) and so on.
2.1.5The syntactic study of Chinese idioms
The papers in this area mainly deal with an internal syntactic structure
of Chinese idioms and discuss the syntactic functions of Chinese idioms in the
sentence. The so-called internal syntactic structure refers to the syntactic relations
among the elements of the Chinese idiom. The internal syntactic structure of Chinese
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 14
idiom is very perplexed. The internal syntactic structure relations can be divided into
the following categories: parallel relationship, subject-predicate relation, predicateobject relation, modifier-head relation, Predicates- complement relation, etc... The
syntactic functions of Chinese idioms in the sentence refers that what role does the
idiom play in the sentence, such as been subject, predicate, object, attribute, adverbial,
complements and so on. This kind of study intended to discuss that what kind of
idioms in what sentences can play what roles. The research results on this aspect
mainly include the “See The Word Conversion Of Chinese From The Ancient
Chinese Idioms”(Zhu Hongxi,1975), “Discussion of Chinese Idiom Structure”(Wei
Guoliang,1979) and so on.
2.1.6 The Comparative study of Chinese idiom
The study in this aspect mainly compares the Chinese idioms with
idioms of other languages, in order to analyze the similarities and differences of
Chinese idioms and idioms of other languages in Phonology, internal syntactic
structure and syntactic functions of idioms in the sentence, etc… Then explore the
similarities and differences of the various languages from these similarities and
differences of idioms. Another important study point is to explore the similarities and
differences of an ethnic group’s natural geographical environment, traditional culture,
cognitive model, and customs etc…which are reflected by the idioms of different
languages. The research results on this aspect mainly include the “A Comparative
Study of the Chinese and English idioms”(Yuan Shuowen,1995), “A comparison of
Chinese
proverbs
kowitakun,2001),
and
Thai
proverbs-idiomatic
expressions”(
Kannika
“A Comparative Study of the Chinese and Thai idioms”(Cen
Ronglin,2011), “A Comparative Study of the Chinese and Vietnamese idioms”(Cai
Xinjiao,2011), and so on.
Different national culture background will form different idioms. As in
the “A Contrastive Analysis of Tiger-Idioms in Chinese and Thai and Corresponding
Teaching Strategies”(Li Lili, Zhang Yueqing, 2012), the authors analyzed the
similarities and differences of Metaphorical meaning of “tiger” in the Chinese and
Thai idioms. In Chinese idioms, the “tiger” generally has positive metaphorical
meaning. As for the Chinese people, “tiger” is the king of beasts, and is the animal
kingdom’s ruler. The “tiger” has been regarded as a symbol of power and strength in
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 15
China. The Chinese idioms generally use “tiger” to convey good luck and blessings.
But in the Thai idioms, the “tiger” generally has derogatory metaphorical meaning.
Because that in the Thai people's minds, "tiger" is a dangerous, evil and majestic
animal. Thai people often use "tiger" to refer bad person or bad thing. At the same
time, the author also further points out that because of the different geographical
environment, Chinese idiom generally like to use "tiger" and "wolf" together to
express the derogatory sense, but Thai idiom like to use "tiger" and "crocodile"
together to express the derogatory sense.
2.1.7 The Applied study of Chinese idiom
The Applied study of Chinese idiom mainly study that how to teach the
Chinese idioms in teaching activity of teaching Chinese as a foreign language, and
how to translate the Chinese idioms into foreign languages accurately. The research
results on this aspect mainly include the “A Discussion of Chinese Idioms Teaching
in The Teaching Activity of Teaching Chinese as A Foreign Language”(Wang
Meiling,2005), “A Brief Discussion of Chinese Idioms in the Teaching Activity of
Teaching Chinese as A Foreign Language”(Pan Xianjun,2006), “A Summary of
Chinese Idioms Teaching in the Teaching Activity of Teaching Chinese as A Foreign
Language in the Last Decade”(Shen Lina,2007), “The Methods of Translating
Chinese Idioms into Foreign Language”(Shen Peixian,2007), and so on.
All of above are the main aspects of the Chinese idioms study in
currently. According to the papers or books which are mentioned above, we can know
that the study of Chinese idioms mainly include the source exploring, structure
analysis, meaning interpreting, cultural mirror analysis and applied studying, etc…
The source exploring mainly discusses the origin of the Chinese idioms and find the
documented evidence. The structure analysis mainly includes the phonological
analysis and syntactic analysis. The phonological analysis mainly analyzes the
syllable structure of the Chinese idioms, such as syllable characteristics, syllable
numbers, and rhyme, etc… Syntactic analysis mainly discusses the internal structure
of the Chinese idioms and the syntactic function of the Chinese idioms in the sentence.
The meaning interpreting mainly interprets the meaning of idioms and interprets how
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to use the idioms in the real context correctly. And the cultural mirror study mainly
analyzes that an idiom or a kind of idioms reflect what kind of national cultures, etc…
However, the author thinks that in addition to the above aspects, the
comprehensive study of Chinese idioms also should include the following aspects of
studying:
Firstly, classification methods study. It means that how to classify the
Chinese idioms according a certain standard. The classification of Chinese idioms will
help us to form an overall understanding of the Chinese idioms.
Secondly, the cognitive semantics perspectives study. It mainly
explores that how to form the figurative meaning of Chinese idioms, as well as the
methods and model of the formation of figurative meaning of Chinese idioms. And
also discusses the status and role of national cultures in the process of formation of
Chinese idioms’ figurative meaning.
Thirdly, the cultural perspectives study. It mainly uses the Chaos theory
to discuss the cultural nature, cultural values and cultural ethos, etc…
The three aspects above is still a weak field of the Chinese idioms
studying. In order to compensate for this deficiency, this paper will use the Chinese
idioms as related to economic as the object of studying; and the Classification method,
the methods and model of formation of Chinese idioms’ figurative meaning, as well
as the status and role of national cultures in the process of formation of Chinese
idioms’ figurative meaning will be the study focus. At the same time, the author will
discuss the cultural nature, cultural values and cultural ethos of the Chinese idioms at
the end of this paper.
2.2 Conceptual blending theory
The conceptual blending theory could be considered as an extension of
conceptual metaphor theory (Geeraert, 2010). So, in order to understand the
conceptual blending theory better, we should understand the conceptual metaphor
theory firstly.
2.2.1 Relations among metaphorical, conceptual blending and idiom study
To understand what is metaphorical, we must begin with what is not
metaphorical. In brief, to the extent that a concept is understood and structured on its
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 17
own terms—without making use of structure imported from a completely different
conceptual domain—we will say that it is not metaphorical. (Lakoff and Turner, 1989)
Metaphor is the mechanism par excellence for “seeing one thing in
terms of another” (Geeraerts, 2010). However, the conceptual blending is a range of
cognitive activities that combine the frames which come from different cognitive
domains (Li, 2008). And the conceptual blending theory is also called conceptual
integration theory, so the term “conceptual blending” and “conceptual integration”
have the same meaning, and can substitute for each other.
The conceptual metaphor suggests that seeing A to B, if want to
understand A should understand B. Namely, understand B means understand A. But
conceptual blending, on one hand, understanding A through B and on the other, taking
elements from A and B in order to combine them in C, as something completely new.
There is in fact an asymmetry in the way the input spaces contribute to the blending C.
So the C is different from A and B. From this perspective, it seems more appropriate
to think of blending as a refinement and an expansion of conceptual metaphor
theory—admittedly, one with more expressive and analytic power than the original
(Geeraerts, 2010). So, from this perspective, we can say that the blending is a thinking
process, by which integrate 2 conceptual into a new one, and metaphor is a special
kind of blending.
All of the idioms are dead metaphors, which are formed through
blending different concepts into a new one. So, using the conceptual blending theory
to analyze the process of formation of idioms will help us to understand the idioms
better.
2.2.2 The development history of conceptual blending theory
At present, conceptual blending has become one of the important study
paradigms of cognitive linguistics. Fauconnier & Turner (1998) pointed out that
conceptual blending is a group of non-compositional processes, and in this process,
the thought ability of meaning construction is aroused, thereby generating emergent
structure. Conceptual blending theory has developed on the basis of mental space
theory. As we know, in the process of language using and psychological thinking,
people will form temporary concept set that consistent with a certain scene in the
brain. And these concept set are called mental space.
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 18
In recent years, the conceptual blending theory has gained a
considerable development. And the scholars, who engage in the study of this field,
revise and improve the conceptual blending theory continuously. Since the conceptual
blending theory was formally proposed in 1994, Fauconnier and other scholars have
done a lot of studies about the process and characteristics of conceptual blending. But
in earlier studies, scholars did not expound that how the related components from the
two input space blend into the blending space clearly. Soon afterwards, in 2002,
Fauconnier&Turner formally put forward that: the process that blends from the input
space to the blending space is achieved by the compression of key relationships.
These key relationships mainly include space, time, change, characterization, role,
value, analogy and causal etc… The key relationships, which are connected to the
corresponding components of the two input spaces, are used to establish new spatial
relationships. In the blending space, it will form inner spatial relationships through the
compression of those new spatial relationships.
★. The diagram of conceptual blending network
As early as in 1998, Fauconnier&Turner proposed a theoretical concept
of conceptual blending network. He pointed out that using the information that gains
by the speaker or listener from the contextual information and background knowledge
to build the frame, and the frame become a structure of the mental space. A complete
conceptual blending network is composed by these mental spaces. A typical
conceptual blending network includes four metal spaces: two input spaces, one
blending space and one generic space. The blending space is formed by blending the
two input spaces. And the generic space has the abstract features which can be applied
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 19
to all of these metal spaces. The role of the generic space is to help to create the
mappings between the two input spaces, in order to let the blending space complete
the conceptual blending smoothly. Later, in 2002, based on the achievements of
earlier studies, Fauconnier&Turner put forward the types of conceptual blending
network. The types of conceptual blending network are divided into two types: single
framing networks and frame networks. And, the frame networks can be further
divided into two types: one-sided network and two-sided network. The putting
forward of these theories greatly enrich and perfect the theoretical framework of
conceptual blending theory.
In 2005, Fauconnier explained the generation of the emergent structure,
as well as explained the relationship between the emergent structure and compression
of the key relationships. These explanations further completed the theories of the
internal operation mechanism of the blending model. He pointed out that the
psychological models of analogy, categorization, metaphor, metonymy, categoryextending, frame, counterfactual and the grammar structure etc... can be seen as the
result of conceptual blending. The blending network has two main characteristics: one
is the generation of emergent structure; two is the emergent structure of the blending
space is often more simple than the emergent structure of the input spaces. Fauconnier
also pointed out that the emergent structure is not the structure of the blending space,
but is a dynamic structure of the blending network. The advantages of the conceptual
blending theory are the simplification of the structure of the blending space and the
connectivity that between the blending network and the metal spaces.
In 2005, based on a large corpus analysis, Mendoza&Pena questioned
about the theory of inter structure of the conceptual blending which is put forward by
Fauconnier&Turner in 2002. At the same time, Ruiz de Mendoza&Pena put forward
their own modifications: conceptual blending is a concept mapping and blending. The
blending space is dynamic, it often has the emergent structure which the input spaces
do not have or have no correspondence. The existence of emergent structure and the
non- corresponding phenomenon is the unique in Fauconnier&Turner’s analysis. Ruiz
de Mendoza called it the emergent structure hypothesis.
In 2006, on the base of keeping the rationality of the theory of
Fauconnier&Turner, Mendoza&Pena put forward a new theory, called “resultant
input space hypothesis”. First of all, this hypothesis have been retained the metal
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 20
space as dynamically constructing concept, as well as retaining the correlation
corresponding structure between the source input space and the target input space.
Secondly, this hypothesis regards the “mapping” and the “blending” as key cognitive
operation in the process of conceptual blending. Thirdly, this hypothesis uses
mapping space to replace Fauconnier’s blending space. Finally, this hypothesis uses
the resultant source input space and resultant target input space to replace the original
source input space and target input space.
Furthermore, according to the internal characteristics of conceptual
blending network, it can be divided into the follows types: simple network, mirror
network, single-domain network, and dual-domain network (Li, 2008).
Simple network, as the name suggests, is the simplest conceptual
blending network. In this network, the conceptual blending integrates the roles of
frame with the corresponding specific values in the input spaces through the crossspace mapping. The source input space only contains a particular abstract frame. As
opposed to this, the target input space only contains some of the frameless elements
(Li, 2008).
The so-called mirror network refers to conceptual blending net work
which the two input spaces share an organizational frame, and the elements of the two
input spaces map to each other (Li, 2008).
Single-domain network refers to the conceptual blending network that
the two input space have different organizational frame, but only one frame’s
hierarchy structure is projected into the blending space and extend to form the
organizational frame (Li, 2008).
In the dual-domain network of conceptual blending, the two input
spaces have different frame structures. Different from single-domain network, the
both frame hierarchies of the two input spaces are projected onto the blending space,
so as to form a structure that different from any one of the input space in the blending
space. The framework of the blending space is a mix of the frameworks of the two
input spaces (Li, 2008).
In this thesis, the theory of conceptual blending which is used is the
theory of 2006. However, in order to let readers to better understand, the author will
still use the term “blending space”, but not the term “mapping space”.
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
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2.3 Chaos theory and linguistic study
Chaos theory is developed in the process of studying the interaction of
non-linear systems. In December 29, 1972, Edward Norton Lorenz, who is a pioneer
of chaos theory, presented a paper entitled "The Butterfly Effect" in the 139th meeting
of American Association for the Advancement of Science. In this paper, the author
puts forward a seemingly absurd assertion: the flapping of a butterfly in Brazil can
cause a Hurricane in the Texas of United States. And on the basis of this theory, the
author pointed out that the weather cannot be forecast accurately. Today, this theory is
still talked about by many people. More importantly, this theory has stimulated
people's interest of chaos theory. Nowadays, along with the development of science
and technology, such as computer Science, etc…, chaos theory has been developed
into a far-reaching influence and rapid development frontier science.
The so called chaos theory, using the most popular words to explain, it
is a discipline of studying the complex rules of the chaotic state, which hold the
intuition and entirety as the starting point. In the classic science, "order" and "disorder
"is a pair of opposite concepts."Order" refers to the regularity of spatial distribution
and the time continuity of periodic; “disordered” refers to the irregularity of spatial
distribution and random changes in the time continuity. When the two aspects of the
contradiction, that is "order" and "disorder”, show strongly, will form the chaotic
motion. (Zhang, 2004)
In traditional linguistic study, the language is regarded as a linear
system, and the linear analysis method are often used. However, in fact, language is
an opening and non-self-sufficient system, in which there is a great deal of nonlinear
phenomena. We should use chaos theory and methods to study and grasp these
nonlinear phenomena. In the nineties of the last century, the chaos theory was
introduced to the field of linguistic study by Mr. Zhang Gongjin. And he developed a
series of theory and methodology of Chaos which is suitable for linguistic study. After
a development of 20 years, the construction of theories of chaotic linguistics is
beginning to take shape, and has published a series of monographs and proceedings.
Currently, the core theories of chaotic linguistics include: sensitive dependence on the
initial value in the process of language development and evolution; the balance and
balance of breaking in the language system; internal random and external interference
in the process of language development; river network theory about the language
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 22
evolution; entropy and dissipation in the language development; dissipative structure
mode of the language development; fluctuation and the state of near balance; the
overall grasp principles; etc… These theories and principles will help us to explain
the nonlinear phenomena in the language system rationally and effectively.
Among these theories, the dissipative structure mode of the language
development will useful in the process of interpreting the semantic change from the
literal meaning to figurative meaning.
When an open system is far-from-equilibrium nonlinear area, and once
a system parameter reaches a certain threshold, through the fluctuation, the system
will have a sudden change, namely the non-equilibrium phase change; then, from the
disordered state into a new ordered state in time, space or function. In order to
maintain this ordered state and keep certain stability, it needs to exchange material
and energy with the outside world constantly and the small interference of the out
world will not lead it to disappear. This model of forming a new ordered structure in
the nonlinear region that is far from the equilibrium is called dissipative structure.
(Shen, 2008)
B : figurative meaning
A:literal meaning
★. The diagram of dissipative structure model
The figurative meaning’s formation model of idioms is a typical model
of dissipation structure. In the early days, the literal meaning of idioms is an inherent
semantic balance point, along with the fluctuation of semantic changes, in the area
that far from the equilibrium point forms a figurative meaning. And after the
figurative meaning generated, it exchange the energy with the outside world
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 23
continuously, namely it is widely used in daily language communication constantly.
At the same time, the idiom’s literal meaning and figurative meaning will have a
semantic competition, the value of literal meaning is dissipated constantly, and
entropy increase. Finally, through the semantics fluctuations, the idioms form a new
semantic balance point, and complete the process of meaning transformation which
from the literal meaning to the figurative meaning.
3. Research methodology
3.1 Data definition
3.1.1 The definition of idiom
The idiom refers to a set expression of two or more words which has a
fixed structure and means something other than the literal meanings of its individual
words. Generally, we cannot change the compositions of idiom arbitrarily and cannot
analyze its structure through the general rules of word-building. In Chinese idioms,
the idioms which have a strong written style characteristics and have a four syllable
expression are called “ 成 语 /ʦʰeŋ35jy214/”; and the idioms which have a strong
colloquial style characteristics and are not four syllable expression are called “俗语
/su35jy214/”; and the “成语/ʦʰeŋ35jy214/” and“俗语/su35jy214/” are all called “熟语
/ʂu35jy214/” or 习语/ɕi214jy214/. (Ci Hai dictionary, 2009). People use idioms to make
their language richer and more colorful and to convey subtle shades of meaning or
intention. Idioms are used often to replace a literal word or expression, and many
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times the idiom better describes the full nuance of meaning. Idioms and idiomatic
expressions can be more precise than the literal words, often using fewer words but
saying more. (Brenner, 2003).
3.1.2 The definition of economy
The economy refers to a large set of inter-related economic production
and consumption activities which aid in determining how scarce resources are
allocated (Mankiw, 1998). So the economy contains many aspects, such as
employment, income and consumption, production and product, reproduction and
allocation, financial and market, etc...
3.1.3 Chinese idioms related to economy
The Chinese new idioms related to economy means the idioms of which
content related to economy, such as Chinese new idioms related to employment,
money and income, economic and social group, economic activities, and economic
conditions, etc…
The Chinese idioms which are studied in this thesis are the Chinese
new idioms related to economy which generate from 1978 to nowadays. Chinese
government implements the policy of reform and opening from 1978. Since then, the
economic situation of Chinese society has undergone enormous changes. These
Chinese new idioms related to economy can reflect the contemporary social economic
situation of China and Chinese people's life style and cognitive model better.
3.2 Data Sources
This thesis is a document research, so, the Chinese idioms which are
used to analyze in this thesis mainly come from the various types of Chinese
literatures, including Chinese dictionary, Chinese newspapers and magazines as well
as website, as follows:
3.2.1 BaiDuBaiKe dictionary
BaiDuBaiKe
dictionary is
the
largest
and
opening
network
Encyclopedia dictionary. The language part of this dictionary will announce the new
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 25
words and idioms which are generated and widely used in contemporary society
annually and give a socially accepted semantic interpretation.
3.2.2 Website
The data of this thesis mainly reference from the official website of the
Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China and China-language website,
which is the official website of the National Linguistics Work Committee of the
People's Republic of China.
Every year, the Language Information Management Division of the
Ministry of Education of PRC in conjunction with the National Linguistics Work
Committee of PRC and the National Language Resource Monitoring and Research
Center of PRC will announce the new word and idioms, which are collected through
scientific statistical studies, in their official website.
3.2.3 Chinese newspapers
The Chinese newspapers, which are sued for data collection in this
thesis, mainly include People’s daily, Xinhua Daily, Beijing daily and China Daily.
These newspapers are China's most authoritative newspapers.
These data source which refereed above are the most authoritative
source about Chinese new idioms in contemporary society of China. The author use
about one month to collect about three hundreds new Chinese idioms as related to
economy which generate from 1978 to nowadays. Well know, Chinese government
implements the policy of reform and opening from 1978. Since then, the economic
situation of Chinese society has undergone enormous changes. These new idioms
related to economy can reflect the contemporary social economic situation of China
and Chinese people's life style and cognitive model better.
3.3 Data Selection
The Chinese idioms which are used as the research data of this thesis
must meet the following two conditions simultaneously:
The first is that the idioms must be the idioms related to economy.
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 26
The second is that the idioms must be generated from 1978 to
nowadays.
3.4 Data analysis
The data analysis of this thesis will follow the steps below:
Step1: Classify the Chinese new idioms related to economy
According to the involving objects and contents to classify the new Chinese idioms
related to economy into the following classes: I Employment, II Money and Income,
III Economic and Social Group, IV Economic Activities, V Economic Conditions.
Step2: analyze the Chinese new idioms related to economy through conceptual blending
theory
Using the conceptual blending network (four metal space: source input space,
target input space, generic space, blending space) to analyze the process of forming the
idiom’s figurative meaning, and explore the characteristics of conceptual blending in
idioms. And also will analyze the role of national culture, cognition and background
knowledge in the conceptual blending.
Step3: Discussion and conclusion
Using the theory of Dissipative Structure Model to discuss the formation model of the
idiom’s figurative meaning. And using the theory of Sub-type and Hierarchical Selfsimilar to interpret and comprehend the relationship between the idioms and language,
idioms and national culture, idioms and national cognition.
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
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4. Classification
Making a reasonable and accurate classification of the research object
according to a certain standard will contribute to our overall understanding of the
research object. As expressive language units, the idioms have a large number and
multi-type. For such a vast and complex research object, the first thing should do is to
classify them according to a certain standard systematically. Through systematic
classification, making the idioms which have a certain common feature in the same
class will help us to analyze them qualitatively and quantitatively.
The general classification of idioms can be divided into the form
classification and content classification.
The form classifications of idioms mainly include classification
according to the number of syllables, classification according to the rhyme type,
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 28
classification according to the internal syntactic structure, classification according to
the generate time, etc…
However, the content classification is another kind of classification as
opposed with the form classification. The contain classification includes the
classification according to the source, classification according to the involving objects,
classification according to the cultural connotation, classification according to the
internal semantic relations, classification according to the metonymy-metaphor type,
etc…
According to the characteristics of the modern Chinese idioms related
to economy and the research purpose of this thesis, this chapter will use the
classification standard of classification according to the involving objects and
contents to classify the modern Chinese idioms related to economy. Through this
classification, we can obtain qualitative and quantitative understanding of the new
Chinese idioms related to economy from a macro level.
The statistics of the data which are collected from the relevant literature
show that from the Chinese government implements the reform and opening policy in
1978 to nowadays, Chinese has generated about 1900 new idioms. And the new
idioms related to economy are 166, share 9% of the total.
Chinese new idioms related to
economy 9%
Other Chinese new idioms 91%
N=1900
Figure 4.1 The diagram of the proportion of new Chinese idioms related to economy
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
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According to the differences of the involving objects and contents of
the Chinese new idioms related economy collected in this thesis, the Chinese new
idioms related economy can be divided into the following classes:
I Employment; has a number of 10, share 6% of the total.
II Money & Income; has a number of 21, share 13% of the total.
III Economic and Social Group; has a number of 43, share 26% of the total.
IV Economic Activities; has a number of 66, share 40% of the total.
V Economic Conditions; has a number of 25, share 15% of the total.
Figure 4.2The diagram of proportion of each class of the Chinese new idioms related to economy
4.1 Employment
The total of this class is 10, mainly related to the description of the
employment nature and employment status. And most of these idioms express a
negative sense, which reflect the situation of contemporary Chinese people's concern
about unemployment. In contemporary China, because of overpopulation, the
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employment pressure is very huge, and many people are worried for employment.
Everyone wants to have a stable job and better income.
According to the different objects involved and the different description
perspectives, the idioms in this class can be divided into several subclasses, and the
details are shown in the following diagram:
Iron rice bowl /tʰiɛ214fan51wan214/
/ʨin55fan51wan214/
Golden rice bowl
“rice bowl” subclass
Look for rice bowl
/tʂao214fan51wan214/
Grab rice bowl /ʨʰiaŋ214fan51wan214/
Employment
Break rice bowl
up post
“post” subclass
/ʦa35fan51wan214/
/ʂaŋ51kaŋ214/
down post
steady post
Fry squid
Soft layoff
/ɕia51kaŋ214/
/wen214kaŋ214/
/tʂʰau214jou35jy35/
/ʐuan214ʦai35juan35/
4.2Money and Income
In this class idioms, one part are mainly related to the description of the
nature of the people’s income in daily lives, and the other part are mainly related to
the description of the things related to money, such as price, fines, credit, foreign
exchange rates and so on. In modern life, especially in market economy conditions,
income and money plays an indispensable role in people's daily life. However, since
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 31
ancient times, the Chinese people pay attention to "the gentleman loves fortune that
comes from proper channels." Therefore, people very concern about the sources of
income and money. That is why the Chinese people divide and descript the income
and money from different aspects in detail.
According to the different objects involved and the different description
perspectives, the idioms in this class can be divided into several subclasses, and the
details are shown in the following diagram:
Black income / xei55sɣ51ʂou55ʐu51/
White income /pai214sɣ51ʂou55ʐu51/
“Color” subclass
Gray income /xuei55sɣ51ʂou55ʐu51/
Red profit
/ xuŋ35li51/
Dirty money / xei55xin55ʨʰian35/
Naked oil price /luo214jou35ʨia51/
“Price” subclass
Second kill price /miau214ʂa55ʨʰia51/
Sale at breakdown
Sky price
/tʰiau51lou35ʨʰia51/
/tʰian55ʨʰia51/
Outside income /wai51kʰuai51/
Money & Income
“Spatial” subclass
Gain outside income
Subsistence allowance
Living interest loan
“Life” subclass
Dead account
/lau55wai51kʰuai51/
/ti55bau214/
/xuo35li51tai51/
/si214tʂaŋ51/
hard-earned money /ɕyɛ35xan51ʨʰian35/
Electronic currency /tian51ʦi214xuo51pi51/
“Currency” subclass
Basket of currencies /ji51lan35ʦi214xuo51pi51/
Money laundering /ɕi214ʨʰian35/
“Time” subclass
7 times
/ʨʰi55ʂi35tai51/
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6 times
/liu51ʂi35tai51/
Wine amerce fee /fa35ʨiou214fei51/
4.3 Economic and Social Groups
The idioms in this class divided the people into different groups based
on the people's socio-economic status, occupation, place of work, manner and means
of the economic activities engaged in, etc… The people in the same group will have
some common economic characteristics.
As all know, making the division of social groups according to people’s
economic situation is a commonly used method of dividing the crowd. The different
groups, which are divided based on this method, are always preceded by specific
appellations, resulting in the generation of a large number of related idioms. The
generation of these idioms reflects that people concern about their own economic
status. Either from the semantic or emotional color, the vast majority of these idioms
has expressed a kind of mocking meaning and dissatisfaction, reflecting people's
complaints and dissatisfaction of their economic situation. The reason is that only a
small part of rich people benefit from the development of the economy, and there is a
growing gap between rich and poor. And most of the people at the bottom will face
enormous economic pressure all the time.
According to the different objects involved and the different description
perspectives, the idioms in this class can be divided into several subclasses, and the
details are shown in the following diagram:
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 33
/faŋ35nu35/
House slave
“Slave” subclass
Car slave
/tʂʰə55nu35/
Card slave
/kʰa214nu35/
Code slave
/ma214nu35/
Monopoly slave
/pai214nu35/
White slave
Gift slave
/luŋ214nu35/
/li214nu35/
Sandwich tribe
/ʨia214ɕin55ʦu35/
Gnaw old tribe
/kʰən214lau214ʦu35/
Gnaw house tribe
Ant tribe
/ji214ʦu35/
mouse tribe
Economic and
Social Groups
/ʂu214ʦu35/
/wo55ʨy55ʦu23/
Snail dwell tribe
“Tribe” subclass
/ kʰən214lou35ʦu35/
Drift tribe in Beijing
Drift tribe in Shanghai
/pei214pʰiau55ʦu35/
/xu51pʰiau55ʦu35/
Drift tribe in Guangzhou /kuaŋ214pʰiau55ʦu35/
Drift tribe in China
Moonlight tribe
/xua35pʰiau55ʦu35/
/jyɛ51kuaŋ55ʦu35/
Defrauds insurance tribe /pʰian55pau214ʦu35/
Closing tribe
/ta214jaŋ35ʦu35/
Phoenix man
/fəŋ51xuaŋ35nan35/
Peacock girl
/kʰuŋ214ʨʰyɛ51ny214/
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“Male-Female” subclass
Debt man
/fu51wəŋ55/
/fu51pʰo214/
Debt woman
/tau214jɛ35/
Reselling man
/pai35ku214ʨiŋ55/
White bone female
“Collar” subclass
Gold-collar
/ʨin55liŋ214/
White-collar
/pai35liŋ214/
/lan35liŋ214/
Blue-collar
/tʂəŋ35liŋ214/
Orange-collar
“People” subclass
Gray-collar
/xuei55liŋ214/
Stock people
/ku214min35/
/ʦai214min35/
Lottery ticket people
Economic and
paying two loan people
Social Groups
Farmer-worker
/fu52ə51tai51/
/noŋ35min35koŋ55/
(Continue)
Second house generation
“Generation” subclass
Short work generation
/tuan214kuŋ55ji35tai51/
Group of frying house
/tʂau214faŋ35tʰuan35/
Oligarchs
Others
/kua214tou35/
Exhibition overlord
Petty bourgeoisie
Grass-roots
4.4 Economic Activities
/faŋ35ə51tai51/
/tʂan214pa51/
/ɕiao214ʦi55/
/ʦʰau214ken55/
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
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The idioms in this class are mainly related to the description of the
various economic activities. In the five classes of the Chinese new idioms related to
economy, this class shares the largest number. The main reason is that since the
Chinese government implements the reform and opening policy in 1978, China
gradually began to transform from a planned economy system to a market economy
system. In this process, many economic activities, which prohibited or non-existent
previously, gradually on the rise and more and more people participate in them.
However, due to a market economy in the initial period, a lot of
regulations and institution building is not perfect, mangy economic activities lack of
normative. Thus, there are a lot of illegal economic activities which bring great
damage to the economic interests of ordinary people. Therefore, people are
particularly concerned about these kinds of economic activities, resulting in the
generation of a large number of related idioms. And these idioms often carry a
meaning of belittling and ridiculing.
Of course, facing the not standardized of the market, the government
continues to improve the system and regulations in order to let the whole market
economy continue to standardize and improve. And this is the source of power that
generated lots of new idioms which are used to describe and praise some good
economic activities.
According to the different objects involved and the different description
perspectives, the idioms in this class can be divided into several subclasses, and the
details are shown in the following diagram:
Dishonest donate gate
Dividends gate
“Gate” subclass
Plant ballot gate
/fən55xuŋ35mən35/
/tʂuŋ51pʰiau51mən35/
Insurance policy gate
Flee goods gate
/tʂa51ʨuan55mən35/
/pau214tan55mən35/
/ʦʰuan51xuo51mən35/
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Economic Activities
Underground transactions
/ti51ɕia51ʨʰian35tʂuaŋ55/
Underground bank
/ti51ɕia51koŋ55tʂaŋ214/
Underground factory
“Spatial” subclass
/xia51xai214/
Go to the sea
Golden port
/xuaŋ35ʨin55kʰou214an51/
/kou51wu51tʰiaŋ55tʰaŋ35/
Shopping paradise
Lift pull
/tʰai35la55/
Holding the market
/tʰuo55ʂi51/
/ ly51sɣ51kuŋ55tʂaŋ214/
Green factory
/ ly51sɣ51ʂəŋ55tʂʰan214/
Green production
/ ly51sɣ51 tʂʰan214pin214/
Green product
Business booming
/ ʂəŋ55ji51xuŋ35xuo214/
/ta214pai35tʰiau35/
Write white note
“Color” subclass
/ti51ɕia51ʨiao55ji51/
White note financial
/ pai35tʰiau35ʦai35tʂəŋ51/
Gray market
/xuei55sɣ51ʂi51tʂʰaŋ214/
Black market
/ xei55 ʂi51/
/ xei55 ʂi51ʨiao55ji51/
Trade in black market
Black goods
/ xei55xuo51/
Black curtain in found /ʨi55ʨin55xei55mu51/
“Animal” subclass
Economic Activities
(Continue)
Buy a horse
/mai214ma214/
Black horse
/xei55ma214/
White horse
/pai214ma214/
Rat account
/lau214ʂu214ʦʰaŋ55/
Bear market
/xioŋ35ʂi51/
Bull market
/niu35ʂi51/
One dragon
“Plate” subclass
/ji51tʰiau35loŋ35/
Open plate
/kʰai55pʰan35/
Close plate
/ʂou55pʰan35/
Suppress whipsaw
“Be done” subclass
Being forced speed
Being forced listed
/ta214ja55 ɕi214pʰan35/
/pei51kau55su51/
/pei51ʂaŋ51ʂi51/
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 37
/ʦuo51ʨiau51ʦi214/
Travel by sedan chair
“Sedan chair” subclass
“Eat” subclass
Lifting sedan chair
/tʰai35ʦʰiau51ʦi214/
Get off sedan chair
/ɕia51ʨiau51ʦi214/
Eat demolition
/tʂʰi55tʂʰai55ʨʰian55/
Eat commission
/tʂi55xuei35kʰou51/
/ tʂi55ta51kʰuo55fan51/
Mess together
/tʂau214ku214/
Fry stock
“Fry” subclass
/ tʂau214faŋ35/
Fry house
/tʂau214wai51xuei51/
Fry exchange
“Body-Life” subclass
“Trap” subclass
Bleeding
/tʂʰu55ɕiɛ214/
Cut flesh
/kʰə55ʐou51/
Two hands
/liaŋ214tʂi55ʂou214/
Save market
/ʨiou51ʂi51/
Trap firmly
/tʰau51lau35/
Untie trap
/ʨiɛ214tʰau51/
Trap cash
/tʰau51ɕian51/
Economic Activities
(Continue)
Slaughter customer
Li Gui drug
“Person” subclass
/li214kuei214jau51/
Angel investment
“She” times
“He” decline
/tʰian55ʂi214tʰou35ʦi55/
/tʰa55ʂi214tai51/
/tʰa55ʂuai55tʰuei51/
/ʦʰai51lan35ʦi214/
Vegetable basket
Bag company
“Instrument” subclass
Rubber check
/ʦai214kʰɣ51/
/pʰi35pau55koŋ55si55/
/kuŋ55tʰou35tʂi55pʰiao51/
Micro-payment
/wei55fu51/
Dark case operation /an51ɕiaŋ55ʦʰau55ʦuo51/
Welfare corruption
/fu35li35fu214pai51/
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 38
Assembly line
Others
/liu35ʂuei214xian51/
Township enterprises
Ensure eight
/ɕiaŋ55ʨʰi214/
/pau214pa55/
4.5 Economic Conditions
The idioms in this class mainly related to the description of the various
states of the overall socio-economic operation. In contemporary China, in the process
of socialist market economy operation, there exist both good and bad aspects. For the
good side, it is generally taken for granted, thus people generally do not pay attention
to them. On the contrary, the negative side is always the focus of attention. Because
that these bad aspects would bring direct economic losses to people. Especially in
recent years, the middle class and lower class under a bad economic situation, even if
it is a faint loss will be a strong stimulus to people’s sensitive and fragile nerves. This
reflects in the language is that a large number of related new idioms generated and are
widely used.
According to the different objects involved and the different description
perspectives, the idioms in this class can be divided into several subclasses, and the
details are shown in the following diagram:
Green economy
“Color” subclass
Gray economy
/xuei55sɣ51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/
Black economy
/xei55sɣ51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/
Economic bubble
Economic
Conditions
“Bubble” subclass
/ ly51sɣ51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/
/pʰau51mo51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/
Real estate bubble /faŋ35tʂan214pʰau51mo51/
Financial bubble
/ʨin55ʐoŋ35pʰau51mo51/
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
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/ti51ɕia51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/
Underground economy
“Spatial” subclass
Economy glissade
/ʨiŋ55ʨi51ɕia51xua35/
Economic take off
/ʨiŋ55ʨi51tʰəŋ35fei55/
/ ʐuan214ʦuo214lu51/
Soft landing
/kai214kə35ʂən35xua51/
Reform myth
“Myth” subclass
/ai55ti55ʂən35xua51/
I T myth
“Door” subclass
Glass door
/po55li35mən35/
Spring door
/tʰan35xuaŋ35mən35/
Business sea
Economic
“sea” subclass
Conditions
/ʂən55tʂən51ʂən35xua51/
Shenzhen myth
/ʂaŋ55xai214/
Blue sea
/lan35xai214/
Red sea
/ xuŋ35xai214 /
( Continue)
“Basket” subclass
Vegetable basket industry /ʦʰai51lan35ʦi214tʂan214jɛ51/
Vegetable basket project /ʦʰai51lan35ʦi214koŋ55tʂʰəŋ35/
Economic iron curtain
Others
/ʨiŋ55ʨi51tʰiɛ214mu51/
Financial opium
/ʨin55ʐoŋ35ja55pʰian51/
Harvest disaster
/fəŋ55ʂou55ʦai55/
Overheated economy
price scissors
Economic lifeline
/ʨiŋ55ʨi51kuo51ʐə51/
/ʨian214tau55tʂa55/
/ʨiŋ55ʨi51miŋ51mai51/
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 40
5. Conceptual blending and frame shifting in idioms:
A method for figurative meaning of idioms
5.1 Conceptual blending in idioms
Conceptual blending theory is developed based on mental space theory.
Fauconnier formally proposed the theory of conceptual blending in his monograph of
“Mappings in Thought and Language” (1997). Since then, he and other researchers
made a continuous development and improvement to this theory in the further
research.
In short, conceptual blending is a range of cognitive activities that
combine the frames which come from different cognitive domains. In the process of
thinking and talking, people need to continue to understand and act, and will continue
to build some of the conceptual packages, and store them in a virtual mental space. In
the process of talking, people will continue to create new mental spaces, and each
mental space is only a temporary structure. Its existence is dependent on one or some
specific or a broader and more fixed related structure of knowledge.
Specifically, conceptual blending theory takes the mental space as the
basic unit, according to cognitive operation, which is basis on the mental activities of
analogy, recursion, mental modeling, conceptual packages, and intellectual frame, to
establish four abstract mental spaces, namely generic space, input space I (or called
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 41
source mental space), input space II (or called target mental space), and blending
space (Li, 2008). Input space I and II, as the name suggest, will provide input
information for the upcoming blending space. Generic space also provides
information for the upcoming blending space. Generic space is established on the
basis of the two input space, and is a selective space which is established through the
analog and cognition. It reflexes the common abstract structures of the two input
spaces. The blending space undertakes the all knowledge of background, structure,
and cognitive model of the two input spaces to achieve a new cognition.
In the process of conceptual blending, the input space I and the input
space II will project the contents of the two input spaces onto the third space
selectively through cross-space mapping firstly, namely project onto the blending
space which has the emergent structure. And then, after the compositions and
structures of the two input spaces enter the blending space selectively, it will form a
new conceptual structure which is different from the conceptual structures of the
original input spaces in a certain extent. Such as in the example of “A is B”, A and B
belong to different domains, in the generic space, they are the similar characteristics
which come from the two input space. The blending space expresses selective
thinking of the similar characteristics of the two input space, which is caused by the
different domains of A and B. This reflects a dynamic creative activity of cognition.
Conceptual blending theory takes the semantic building as a kind of on-line process,
in other words, the generating of semantic is a dynamic process. Such as A or B
appear in different domains, the integration of meaning will become different.
From this point of view, the conceptual blending theory consists of five
main characteristics: cross-space mapping, part of the mapping from the two input
spaces, generic space, emergent structure, and event of integration (Li, 2008). The
process of conceptual blending can be divided into three basic processes: 1)
composition, namely, mapping from the input space to the blending space; 2)
completion, namely, it is a process of matching the projection structure that come
from the input space and the long-term memory information structure, and it is the
source of the emergent structure; 3) elaboration, namely, it is the process of
conducting the cognitive operation in the blending space according to its emergent
logic.
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 42
Considering, spatial mode of conceptual blending that is established by
Fauconnier is not only emphasis on the role of context, but also can reveal the
dynamic process of the meaning construction from the simple spatial structure. It
explains the space mechanism of dynamically generating of meaning. It also can
explain the dynamic, random, and fuzzy thinking and cognitive activities effectively.
So it can be used to explain many language phenomena.
The formation of figurative meaning of idiom is the result of the
conceptual blending. In other words, the conceptual blending is a primary means of
forming the figurative meaning of idiom. It blends the concepts which come from
different cognitive frame through the cross-space mapping to form the new concept，
namely, the figurative meaning of idiom. In the following, we will deduce and
interpretation the conceptual blending in idioms through a series of case analysis.
5.1.1 Instance resolution of conceptual blending in idioms
5.1.1.1 A case of conceptual blending network: /ʨin55fan51wan214/(金饭碗)
Golden rice bowl (/ʨin55fan51wan214/金饭碗) refers to the rice bowl
which was used to eat by the emperor in the ancient times. It is said that the ancient
Chinese emperors used the golden rice bowl to eat. Therefore, civil rumors that if
someone is able to get golden rice bowl, he will live comfortably all life. However, in
the modern society, the “golden rice bowl” is used to refer to high-paying job. Getting
this “golden rice bowl” will have glorious future, be well-fed and well-clothed.
In China, the history of bowl stretches for thousands of years. Since the
human civilization generated, the bowl has become an indispensable part of people’s
life. And bowls of varying texture emerge in endlessly, such as wooden bowl,
porcelain bowl, iron bowl, silver bowl, and golden bowl, etc... Since the bowl has
generated, it become the tool which is used to hold rice by people, and become the
essential utensils for people’s eating. In ancient times, people in order to show their
status and wealth, they were very particular about the choice of the bowl. The
ordinary people generally only were able to use wooden bowl or ordinary porcelain
bowl. But the wealthy people would tend to choose silver bowl or golden bowl, which
has high value, to show their honor.
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
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In modern society, people have to rely on their own earned income for
food and clothing. If a person who has a good job with higher income, he would use
plenty of money for substance consumption, and can be enough to live comfortably
and enjoy the generous material life. And among the many consumers, eating is
paramount. Therefore, the level of income of job and daily food and clothing
consumer are closely linked. Over time, people put the level of job income and reach
people chose golden rice bowl in ancient times linked together and formed an idiom
“golden rice bowl (/ʨin55fan51wan214/金饭碗)”.
In this idiom, it contains two conceptual blending. The first conceptual
blending conducted between the rice bowl and the job. The rice bowl and the job
formed the two input spaces of the conceptual blending, namely, the rice bowl is input
space I (also known as source space) and the job is input space II (or called target
space). The process of the elements of the two input spaces is projected onto blending
space to conduct the conceptual blending is as shown in the following diagram:
Subject
Theme
(Goal/Means)
Participate: Rice bowel
Participate: Job
Identity of tool of eating
Identity of means of livelihood
Participate: Rice
Participate: Income
Identity of food
Identity of purchasing
Goal: Fill stomach
Goal: living
Means: Eating (food)
Means: Buying (daily goods)
Rice bowel
Fill stomach
–
–
Job
living
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 44
Means: Eating
Goal: Living
Rice bowl means job
Conceptual blending diagram of “/fan51wan214/(饭碗)”
In this conceptual blending, the rice bowl in the input space I, which
has the identity of tool of eating, map the job in the input space II, which has the
identity of means of livelihood; and the rice, which has the identity of food in the
input space I map to the income, which has the identity of purchasing in the input
space II. People use rice bowl to eat rice in order to not hungry and live comfortable.
And people do job in order to earn money to buy daily goods so as to live comfortable.
The whole conceptual blending completed based on the compressing this key
relationship. The frame works of the two spaces are partly projected onto the blending
space, and form an emergent structure, which is different with the structures of the
two input spaces. Namely, a new concept: rice bowl means job.
When the new concept of rice bowl means job formed, it participated in
the second conceptual blending. In the second conceptual blending, we can see that
the golden rice bowl and the high-paying job formed the two input spaces of the
conceptual blending, namely, the input space I (also known as source space) and the
input space II (or called target space). These two spaces shared the same framework
of wealth; both the gold rice bowl and the high-paying job indicate that its owner has
a rich wealth. Since the elements of the two input spaces exist portion mapping
relationship, a cross-space mapping has formed. The process of the elements of the
two input spaces is projected onto blending space to conduct the conceptual blending
is as shown in the following diagram:
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 45
Subject
Feature
(Goal/Means)
Subject: Rice bowel
Subject: Job
Feature: Golden (high value)
Feature: High-paying
Goal: Wealth
Goal: Income
Means: Money
Means: Money
Golden bowel – High-paying job
Wealth
–
income
Means: Money
Goal: Income
Very Wealthy
Conceptual blending diagram of idiom “/ʨin55fan51wan214/(金饭碗)”
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 46
From the diagram can see that the rice bowl of the input space I is
mapped to the job of the input space II; the high-value of golden bowl is mapped to
the high-paying of the job. Having a golden rice bowl means has wealth; likewise
having a high-paying job means has wealth. And the whole conceptual blending
completed based on the compressing this key relationship. The frame works of the
two spaces are partly projected onto the blending space, and form an emergent
structure, which is different with the structures of the two input spaces, through the
compression of the key relationships.
5.1.1.2 A case of conceptual blending network: /ɕia51kaŋ214/ (下岗)
/ɕia51kaŋ214/ (下岗 down post) originally referred to people laid off
from a post, do not continue to work on this post, may go to work on other post, or
over a period of time may also work on this position again, and so on. However, at
present, the language unit is widely used to refer to lose job. /ɕia51kaŋ214/ (下岗 down
post) was first used to refer to lose job since the 1990s. Since the 1990s the Chinese
government implemented the reform of state-owned enterprises, and a large number
of workers forced leave from their own work post. Although these workers still
belong to the enterprises, but there is no work to do, so they did not have income. In
fact, they lose job.
For this idioms, we can see that the post and the job formed the two
input spaces of the conceptual blending, namely, the input space I (also known as
source space) and the input space II (or called target space). These two spaces shared
the same framework of employment. Both the job and the post are closely related to
the employment, and thus there is a very close relationship between them. The
process of the elements of the two input spaces is projected onto blending space to
conduct the conceptual blending is as shown in the following diagram:
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 47
Participate
Feature
(Goal/Means)
Participate: Job
Participate: Post
Identity of making a living
Identity of work plate
Action: Lose
Action: Get down
Feature: Gone forever
Feature: Temporarily leave
Means: Dismiss
Means: Leave
Identity of work plate – Identity of making a living
Feature: Temporarily leave – Feature: Gone forever
Means: Leave
Goal: Dismiss
Lose job
Conceptual blending diagram of idiom “/ɕia51kaŋ214/ (下岗)”
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 48
In the conceptual blending, through a cross-space mapping, the
mapping relationship are established between job and post, stepped down from the
post and lose job, without salary because do not report to work and without income
because lose job. After the frame works of the two input spaces are party projected
onto the blending space, based on the cross-space mapping, the conceptual blending
compress the key relationship of " without salary because do not report to work and
without income because lose job" to form a emergent structure, which is different
with the structures of the two input spaces, namely: the essence of forcing to leave
work post in long time resulting in no salary is unemployment, so it can say that down
post means lose job. After the emergent structure formed, through further completion
and elaboration, the idiom “/ɕia51kaŋ214/ (下岗 down post)” has formed.
5.1.1.3 A case of conceptual blending network: /tʂʰau214jou35jy35/(炒鱿鱼)
In China, due to the vast territory and large population, a lot of people
should go to work far from home. In the era of transportation systems were
underdeveloped, it would take a long time to come bank home from the work place.
So many people cannot come bank home every day. For this reason, almost all of the
work units would provide accommodation for the staff. And the staffs need to bring
their own bed linen to the dormitory. If the employees were dismissed, employees had
to pack their own bed linen and leave the unit staff quarters.
In the past, Chinese people still not very popular to use travel bag or
suitcase to hold things. For the convenience and saving, the employees will put towels,
clothing and other valuables things in the middle of the bedding, with bedding rolled
up and bundled, then took them home.
Later, in daily life, from the dish of fried squid, people find that in the
process of cooking squid, without exception, every squid pieces is rolled slowly from
a flat shape into a cylindrical shape. This change of the squid is very similar to the
process of the employees rolled up the bedding and take it away from the unit staff
quarters when is dismissed. This result the people’s association, they compare the
process of fried squid with the dismiss of employees, and form the
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
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idiom/tʂʰau214jou35jy35/(炒鱿鱼 Fry squid), which refers to the employee is dismissed
by the work unit.
In the idiom/tʂʰau214jou35jy35/(炒鱿鱼 Fry squid),we can know that the
two input spaces have the different frame, the input space I is cooking frame, and the
input space II is the dismissal frame. The cooking frame of the input space I is
projected onto the blending space and extend to the organizational frame of the
blending space. With the process of cooking squid in the cooking frame, people show
the phenomenon of employee is dismissed by the work unit vivid and lively. It use
squid to map staff, fried the squid map the employee is dismissed, squid is rolled up
map the staff packs things and rolled up the bedding, take the squid away from the
pan map the employee forced to leave the work unit, etc… Through this conceptual
blending, people understand the phenomenon of dismissal more clearly. The process
of the elements of the two input spaces is projected onto blending space to conduct
the conceptual blending is as shown in the following diagram:
Participate
Theme
Change
Means/Goal
Participate: Squids
Participate: Staff
Identity of being fried dish
Identity of being dismissed
Place: Wok
Place: Work unit
Action: Cooking
Action: Dismiss
Change: Roll up
Change: Lose job
Action: Take away from wok
Action: Leave the work unit
Means: Roll up while stir fry
Means: Be fired and lose job
Identity of being fried dish - Identity of being dismissed
Change: Roll up - Change: Lose job
Means: Roll up while stir fry
Goal: Be fired and lose job
Be fired
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 50
Conceptual blending diagram of idiom “/tʂʰau214jou35jy35/(炒鱿鱼)”
In the conceptual blending net-work of this idiom, the organizational
frame of the input space I is projected onto the blending space, and form the emergent
structure through the compression of the key relationships. It uses the fried squid and
the change of the squid during the cooking process to show the phenomenon of
employee is dismissed by the work unit vivid and lively. Conversely, the
organizational frame of the input space II did not participate in the formation of frame
of the emergent structure in the blending space.
5.1.1.4 A case of conceptual blending network: /si214tʂaŋ51/ (死账)
Dead account (/si214tʂaŋ51/死账) is an idiom which is frequently used
in market economy. As there are many uncertainties in the market economy, in the
course of operation, many enterprises will have receivables, which cannot be
recovered or recovered very unlikely. For enterprises, such receivables are actual
economic losses.
In real life, people often take inanimate objects and living things to
conduct conceptual blending to form vivid idioms. The generation of the idiom
“/si214tʂaŋ51/(死账 dead accounts)” is a good example. Originally, the receivables of
the enterprises are inanimate things, but when people compare them to living things
through analogy, new concepts are formed; these receivables will be like living things
as have life and death.
For this idioms, we can see that the life body and the receivables of
enterprises formed the two input spaces of the conceptual blending, namely, the input
space I (also known as source space) and the input space II (or called target space).
Based on similarities between the two input spaces, cross-space mapping can be
formed between them. The process of the elements of the two input spaces is
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 51
projected onto blending space to conduct the conceptual blending is as shown in the
following diagram:
Participate
Feature
(Goal/Means)
Participate: Receivables
Participate: Life
Identity of money
Identity of living thing
Feature: Irrecoverable
Feature: Loss of life
Goal: Lost
Goal: Dead
Means: lose
Means: Die
Identity of living thing– Identity of money
Feature: Loss of life – Feature: Irrecoverable
Means: Dead
Goal: Lost
Irrecoverable
Conceptual blending diagram of idiom “/si214tʂaŋ51/(死账)”
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 52
From the diagram can see that the receivables of enterprises mapped to
the life body, receivables cannot be recovered or recovered very unlikely mapped to
the death of living body, the economic loss caused by irrecoverable of receivables
mapped to the loss caused by the death of living body. The most important common
feature between the two input spaces is “loss”, both irrecoverable of receivables and
death of living body indicate “lose”. The whole concept blending based on inheriting
part of the organization structures of the two input spaces, through a compression of
this key relationship, formed a emergent structure in the blending space, so as to form
a new concept: the irrecoverable of receivables of enterprises like the death of living
body that is irreparable. Since then, a new idiom “/si214tʂaŋ51/(死账 dead accounts)”
is formed.
5.1.1.5 A case of conceptual blending network: /ʨia35ɕin55ʦu35/ (夹心族)
There is such a group of middle-aged crowd in today's Chinese society:
they had a fixed job and stable income; and usually has hundreds of thousands of
deposits. In the opinion of the underlying ordinary people, they are belonged to the
white-collar group and their income was quite good enough to live comfortably. But
the real life state of these people is not like this. In fact, they were a crowd who are in
an invisible caught. Due to the impact of the family planning policy in contemporary
China, and combined with guidance of Chinese traditional values, a lot of couples
need to support for the four elderly, and raise one child. For this crowd, the daunting
task of support for the four elderly and raise one child, except love, the main problem
is money.
This crowd has a stable middle-income and hundreds of thousands of
deposits. Therefore, they do not meet the state regulations of the conditions of
applying for the purchase of affordable housing, but for the million mansions they can
only keep at a distance. So they also bear the tremendous economic pressure on the
purchase of house.
Although in middle age, they should support for the four elderly, and
raise one child. They do not only exhaust to care for the elderly, but also over worked
for the children's healthy growth and academic development. For them, the main
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
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theme of life is that continuing to work in exchange for income to maintain family
economic overhead. They have no energy to develop interpersonal relationships and
have no time and effort to consider their own spiritual life. They are always faced
with economic pressures from all quarters. They are squeezed by these economic
pressures, liking the sandwich filling of Hamburg. So people call this crowd
/ʨia35ɕin55ʦu35/ (夹心族, Sandwich tribe) jokingly.
From this idiom, we can see that the sandwich as the source domain
and the middle-aged that under a variety of economic pressures as the target domain
to form the two input spaces, the two input spaces share the same frame of "pressure".
As part of the elements of the two input space exist mapping relationship, thus
forming a cross-space mapping. The target domain contains the main elements of
sandwich filling (a variety of material), the two pieces of Hamburg's up and down, the
sandwich filling is clamped by the two pieces of Hamburg's up and down, and the
sandwich filling is under pressure and cannot move, and so on. The source domain
contains the main elements of middle-aged crowd, economic pressure from
supporting for the four elderly, and raising one child, no time to think about the
personal spiritual life, and so on. From the analysis above, we can see that the
elements of the two input spaces exist the similar organization structure. The
sandwich filling map to the middle-aged crowd, the physical pressure from the two
pieces of Hamburg's up and down map to the economic pressure from supporting for
the four elderly, and raising one child, etc... The process of the elements of the two
input spaces is projected onto blending space to conduct the conceptual blending is as
shown in the following diagram:
Participate
Theme
Goal/Means
Participate: Sandwich filling
Role: Oppressed
Participate: Hamburger
Role: Oppressor
Pressure of Physical
Means: Being pressed and cannot move
Participate: Middle age people
Role: Bearer of economy
Participate: Children and old people
Role: Need economy support
Burden of economy
Means: Under economy pressure
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 54
Role: Oppressed - Role: Bearer of economy
Pressure of Physical -
Burden of economy
Means: Under pressure Goal: Economic burden
Have economic burden and lack of freedom
Conceptual blending diagram of idiom “/ʨia35ɕin55ʦu35/ (夹心族)”
In the conceptual blending of this idiom, the pressure frame is the
shared frame of the two input spaces. The difference is that the pressure in the input
space I is the physical pressure, and it is a physical presence that can be measured; the
pressure in the input space II is an economic pressure, and it is invisible. In the
blending space, through the compression of the critical relationship between the two
input spaces, blend the physical pressure of the sandwich and the economic pressure
of the middle-aged crowd to form the emergent structure:
under tremendous
economic pressure lead to a great deal of lacking freedom.
5.1.1.6 A case of conceptual blending network: /tʰai35ʦʰiau51ʦi214/ (抬轿子)
The sedan chair is an important means of transport in ancient times,
and was widely used in the eastern and western countries. In ancient China, the sedan
chair is normally used manpower to carry. The number of person who carried the
sedan chair was decided by the status and position of the passenger. The sedan chair
of the most honored person was carried by eight persons. The sedan chair of the
person who has a certain status was carried by four persons. And the sedan chair of
ordinary person was carried by two persons.
With the introduction of modern means of transport, in the beginning
of the last century, the sedan chair gradually withdraw from the stage of history and
no longer used by people in China. However, the sedan chair began to be enabled by
the tourism from the eighties of last century, and set in tourist areas to serve for
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domestic and foreign tourists in order to allow visitors to experience and understand
the ancient Chinese culture.
Later, the people familiar with stock trading discovered that the
physical strength behavior of lifting sedan chair had so many similar characteristics
with a trading phenomenon that existed in the stock market, and created a new idiom
“/tʰai35ʦʰiau51ʦi214/ (抬轿子 lifting sedan chair). It refers to someone buy the stocks
after the stock price has risen; their behavior will let the stock price rise more and let
the stocks owners who buy stocks at a low price gain more profit but not themselves.
For this idiom, we can see that the lifting sedan chair and the buy
stocks formed the two input spaces of the conceptual blending, namely, the input
space I (also known as source space) and the input space II (or called target space).
The two input space shared the same framework of paying and benefits. Based on
similarities between the two input spaces, cross-space mapping can be formed
between them. People buying stocks later mapped to the people lifting the sedan chair,
both of them have paid, and the difference is the stocks buyer pay money but the
people lifting the sedan chair pay physical labor; the stocks mapped to the sedan chair,
both are the object that the participants to pay for; people buying stocks earlier
mapped to the passenger of the sedan chair, both of them are the are the beneficiaries
of the events, and the difference is that the people buying stocks earlier obtain the
profit but the passenger gain the convenience of travel. The process of the elements of
the two input spaces is projected onto blending space to conduct the conceptual
blending is as shown in the following diagram:
Subject
Change
(Goal/Means)
Subject: Lifting sedan
Identity of means of travel
Action: Lifting
Change: Moving
Goal: Service
Means: Physical labor
Subject: stock price
Identity of stock trading
Action: Buy
Change: price rises
Goal: Profitability
Means: Investment
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 56
Identity of means of travel – Identity of stock trading
Change: Moving
–
Means: Physical labor
Change: price rises
Goal: Profitability
Obtain a benefit
Conceptual blending diagram of idiom “/tʰai35ʦʰiau51ʦi214/ (抬轿子)”
Based on the cross-mapping, the frame works of the two input space
were partly projected onto the blending space, and formed a emergent structure in the
blending space through a conceptual blending. And the new idiom “/tʰai35ʦʰiau51ʦi214/
(抬轿子 lifting sedan chair) is formed through further completion and elaboration
eventually.
5.1.1.7 A case of conceptual blending network: /loŋ35tʰou35ʨʰi214jei51/ (龙头企业)
Dragon is one kind of supernatural animals in the ancient Chinese
myths. In Chinese culture, the dragon is a symbol of both the power and status, and
also a symbol of good fortune and wisdom. So people tend to prefer to use a dragon or
parts of dragon’s body to refer the finer things or phenomena in real word. And this
usage
is
often
achieved
through
conceptual
blending.
The
idiom
“/loŋ35tʰou35ʨʰi214jei51/ (龙头企业 The leading enterprise)” is a good example. It
refers to an enterprise which has a deep impact, rallying point and guiding role to
other enterprises in a certain industry and has has made outstanding contributions to
the industry or to the country.
For this idiom, we can see that dragon head and enterprise formed the
two input spaces of the conceptual blending, namely, the input space I (also known as
source space) and the input space II (or called target space). The two input space
shared the same framework of paying and benefits. Based on similarities between the
two input spaces, cross-space mapping can be formed between them. The enterprise
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mapped to the dragon head; the status and role of good enterprise in the industry
mapped to the role and status of the dragon head in various parts of the dragon body,
both of them play a leading and dominant role in their own framework; the other
enterprises in the same industry mapped to the others parts of the dragon body,
although they are indispensable their own frame, but both are in a position of being
guided. The process of the elements of the two input spaces is projected onto blending
space to conduct the conceptual blending is as shown in the following diagram:
Subject
Feature
(Goal/Means)
Subject: Drag head
Subject: Leading enterprise
Identity of core part
Identity of leader
Feature: Has dominant position
Feature: Has leading position
Goal: Function
Goal: Status
Means: Control
Means: Lead
Identity of core part– Identity of leader
Feature: Has dominant position– Feature: Has leading position
Means: Control
Goal: Status
Has a status of leading
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 58
Conceptual blending diagram of idiom “/loŋ35tʰou35ʨʰi214jei51/ (龙头企业)”
Through structural projection, the frame works of the two input spaces
were partly projected onto the blending space. Based on this, the conceptual blending
formed an emergent structure, which was different with the structures of the input
spaces, in the blending space through a compression of key relationship. Through
further completion and elaboration, a new idiom “/loŋ35tʰou35ʨʰi214jei51/ (龙头企业
The leading enterprise)” formed eventually.
5.1.1.9 A case of conceptual blending network: /pʰau51mo51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/ (
泡 沫 经 济)
/pʰau51mo51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/( 泡 沫 经 济 Bubble economic) refers to the
macro-economic state of the asset value is far beyond the real economy, can easily
lose the capacity of sustainable development, so as to led to the economic downturn,
and even led to the economic crisis. The development trajectory of this economy state
is that after a period of rapid prosperity will have a sharp decline, and leads to
prosperity burst and has an economic crisis eventually. This whole process is like a
soap bubble, rapidly produces, expands, and then vanished in a moment.
In the entire process of formation of this idiom, the false economic
growth mode frame and foam physical change frame form the two input spaces.
Frameworks of the two input space are partially projected onto the blending space to
form the emergent structure. Through the cross-space mapping, the conceptual
blending is completed eventually, and the physical expansion of the foam mapping
with the false prosperity of the economy, the foam vanished in a moment mapping
with the economic collapse. And so form an emergent structure which is different
from the structures of the two input spaces in the blending space, and form a new
concept of /pʰau51mo51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/ (泡沫经济 Bubble economy), using to refer the
false prosperity of the economy. The process of the elements of the two input spaces
is projected onto the blending space to conduct the conceptual blending is as shown in
the following diagram:
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Theme
Event
Property
Means/Goal
Entity: Bubble
Entity: High price
Event: Bubble inflated
Event: Price growth
Property of instant disappeared
Property of cannot be sustained growth
Event: Bubble burst
Event: Economic collapse
Means: The time of the bubble’s
Means: False prosperity will
existence is very short
disappear soon
Property of instant disappeared - Property of cannot be sustained growth
Event: Bubble burst - Event: Economic collapse
Means: The time of existence is very short
Goal: False prosperity
False prosperity will disappear soon
disappear soon
Conceptual blending diagram of idiom/pʰao51mo51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/ (泡沫经济 Bubble economy)
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 60
After the formation of the new concept, the emergent structure is
expanded continuously under the effect of background knowledge, cognition and the
cultural models. And according to the emergent logic of the emergent structure, this
new concept is further improved and then applied to other areas to refer to the things
which have the similar structure and features with the false prosperity of the economy.
Such as: the false cultural prosperity show called "bubble culture”; some unrealistic
and false propaganda called" bubble publicity”; some fictional knowledge is called
"bubble knowledge”.
"Bubble", from a physical phenomenon to refer to the false prosperity
of the economy and then is future used to refer to all kind of false things; from this
process we can see a complete conceptual blending and the composition, completion
and elaboration in the process of conceptual blending. Of course, in real life, the
conceptual blending does not stop the development pace, but it will further continue.
5.1.1.10 A case of conceptual blending network: /kai214kɣ35ʂen35xua51/(改革神话)
In Chinese, the word /ʂen35xua51/ ( 神 话 myth) generally refers to
ancient sacred stories about the changes in human beings or the world (Xinhua
dictionary, 2005). Therefore it also can be widely used to refer to any ancient legend.
Myths generally originated in primitive society. In that historical period, people
cannot make a reasonable explanation for some natural phenomenon. In order to
satisfy their desire for recognition, they made some explanation through imagination
and reasoning, so as to form the myths. Because of this interpretation is based on the
imagination, it is often with a lot of mystery. From the perspective of modern science,
these myths have some exaggeration, fantasy, mystery, rather incredible features.
As all know, after the implementation of the reform and opening policy,
the entire social economy undergone a rapid development, there has been a lot of
economic development miracle rather incredible. It appears that this reality miracle of
economic development is like a mythical story, full of mystery and elusive. Thus a
new idiom "reform myth" was born. It used to refer to economic development miracle
which is created in China after the reform and opening up the country.
For this idiom, we can see that the myth and economic development
miracle formed the two input spaces of the conceptual blending, namely, the input
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space I (also known as source space) and the input space II (or called target space).
The two input space shared the same framework of paying and benefits. Based on
similarities between the two input spaces, cross-space mapping can be formed
between them. Reform mapped to the myth; economic development miracle created in
the reform mapped to exaggerated and fantasy storyline of the myth; the sense of
mystery which is brought by the speed of economic development mapped to the
mystery shrouded everywhere in the myth. The process of the elements of the two
input spaces is projected onto blending space to conduct the conceptual blending is as
shown in the following diagram:
Subject
Feature
(Goal/Means)
Subject: Myth
Subject: Economy reform
Identity of story
Identity of social activity
Feature: Fantasy
Feature: Rapid development
Exaggeration
Great achievements
Unreal
Unbelievable
Goal: Explain things
Goal: Economic miracle
Means: Fantasy and Reasoning
Means: Innovation
Identity of story
–
Means: Fantasy and Reasoning
Identity of social activity
Goal: Economic miracle
Economic miracle is unbelievable
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 62
Conceptual blending diagram of idiom“/kai214kɣ35ʂen35xua51/(改革神话)
The one of the most important thing in common is that both the myth
and reform give people a sense of mystery and incredible. Based on inheriting the
frame woks of the two input spaces partly, the conceptual blending formed a emergent
structure, which was different with the structures of the input spaces, in the blending
space through a compression of the key relationship. Through further completion and
elaboration, a new idiom “/kai214kɣ35ʂen35xua51/(改革神话 myth)”formed eventually.
5.1.1.11 A case of conceptual blending network: /fəŋ55ʂou55ʦai55/(丰收灾)
/fəŋ55ʂou55ʦai55/(丰收灾 Harvest disaster) refers to a phenomenon that
farmer lack of market awareness, based on past market information, invest in certain
agricultural products, when the agricultural produce has a bumper harvest, because of
the prices falling, the farmer do not only increase revenue, but also has a large
number of loss. In china, due to the lack of knowledge, most farmers do not
understand the relationship between supply and demand in the market economy, and
so lack of awareness of market-oriented. When making the cultivation of farm
products, the vast majority of farmers thanks to their own experiences and feelings to
decide cultivation, such as: a certain agricultural products has a low price in this year,
they will not plant it in the next year; and if a certain agricultural products has a high
price in this year, it will be planted by many farmers. This investment, which depends
on experience and lack of scientific analysis of the market supply and demand
information, often lead to an oversupply of agricultural products and causing prices to
fall. In the case of investment costs remain constant, investors generally will suffer
huge economic losses.
The conceptual blending of this idiom involves two different
frameworks, namely: agricultural input-output framework and disaster framework.
Cross-space mapping is established between the agricultural harvest and catastrophic
events, agricultural products lead to economic loss due to low prices and economic
loss caused by the disaster damage, farmers affected by economic losses and disaster
victims. Framework of agricultural input - output and framework of disaster are
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partially projected into the blending space to form the emergent structure. After the
cognitive operations of combined, complement and extend, we can see clearly that the
economic phenomena such as oversupply led to farmers do not only increase
production without increasing income, but also have a large number of loss-making
almost like a disaster to the farmers whose economy state is not good. The process of
the elements of the two input spaces is projected to blending space to conduct the
conceptual blending is as shown in the following diagram:
Theme
Participate
Means/Goal
Event: Good harvest
Event: Disaster
Participate：peasant
Participate: people
Role: The loser
Role: Disaster victim
Event: Low price lead to a lose
Event: Suffer various types of losses
Means: Suffered economic losses
Means: Suffered huge losses
Role: The loser - Role: Disaster victim
Event: Low price lead to a lose - Event: Suffer various types of losses
Means: Suffered economic losses
Goal: Good harvest
Have a good harvest but suffered economic losses
Conceptual blending diagram of idiom/fəŋ55ʂou55ʦai55/(丰收灾 Harvest disaster)
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 64
In the conceptual blending of this idiom, the organizational framework
of the input space I and the input space II is partially projected into the blending space
to form an emergent structure which is different with the input spaces completely.
Through the compression and integration of key relationships, blending the
agricultural products lead to economic loss due to low prices and economic loss
caused by the disaster damage into one concept, so as to form the new concept of
/fəŋ55ʂou55ʦai55/(丰收灾,Harvest disaster). The element of harvest comes from the
input space I, and the element of disaster comes from the input space II. The harvest
and disaster are two irrelevant concepts originally. However, through this conceptual
blending, they are formed a new complete concept. The greatest common feature of
the two input spaces is loss. This common feature is also the core concept of the
emergent structure of blending space. And the differences of the tow input spaces are
that the causes of the loss are different. In the input space I, the loss is caused by the
poor operation, after improving operations, such losses can be avoided. However, in
the input space II, losses caused by disasters, and cannot be avoided. The new concept
which is formed through conceptual blending abandons this difference.
5.1.2 The conceptual blending chain
In the idioms, some idioms’ figurative meaning is not formed in only
one conceptual blending, but be formed after several conceptual blending. In this
thesis, this phenomenon will be called conceptual blending chain. In the conceptual
blending chain, the figurative meaning which is formed in the first level of conceptual
blending will become an input space of the second level of conceptual blending.
According to the feature of the conceptual blending chain, we can divide it into two
categories: U-type conceptual blending chain and linear conceptual blending chain.
5.1.2.1 U-type conceptual blending chain
The so-called U-type conceptual blending chain refers to that in the
first level of conceptual blending chain will have two different conceptual blending,
and the new concepts of the two conceptual blending will form the two input spaces
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of the second level of conceptual blending chain. The whole conceptual blending
chain is as shown in the following diagram:
First level:
Generic
Space
.
.
Second level:
Input l1
Input l2
..
• .• . •
•• . •
Blend
Conceptual blending chain diagram of U-type conceptual blending chain
In the Chinese new idioms related to economy, the conceptual
blending in the idiom /tʂuŋ51pʰiau51mən35/(种票门 Planting vote gate)is a typical U-
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 66
type conceptual blending chain. The whole conceptual blending chain in this idiom is
as shown in the following diagram:
Participants
Input
Theme
Property
Goal/Means
Goal/Means
Subject：Grower
Subject：Candidate
Object: Cultivated plants
Object：Voters
Event：Watergate
Event: Any event
scandal
Property：Scandal
Property：Political
Input：Resource
Input：Illegally resource
scandal
Bad influence
Key word：Gate
Goal：Gain output
Goal：Gain votes
Means: A bad
thing
Means: Disgraceful
Means: Have a harvest
Means:
political scandal
Win the election
Event
property
Means/Goal
Input：Resource -
Input：Illegally resource
Goal：Gain output - Goal：Gain votes
Event：Watergate scandal - Event: Any event
Key word：Gate
--
Bad influence
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Means: Have a harvest
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Goal：Gain votes
Means: scandal
Goal: A bad thing
Gate means a bad thing
Win the election
Input illegally resource - Bad influence
Gain votes
--
Means: Win the vote illegally
Gate
Goal: scandal
Win the vote illegally is scandal
Conceptual blending diagram of idiom /tʂuŋ51pʰiau51mən35/(种票门)
In
the
whole
conceptual
blending
chain
of
the
idiom
/tʂuŋ51pʰiau51mən35/(种票门 Planting vote gate), there are two different conceptual
blending in the first level. The one is / tʂuŋ51pʰiau51/(种票 Planting vote) and the other
is / mən35/(门 Gate). In the conceptual blending of /tʂuŋ51pʰiau51/(种票 Planting vote),
it involves the planting framework and the win votes framework. Through the crossspace mapping, connections are established between the growers and the candidate,
species of plants and voters, as well as between the plant output and get votes. One of
the most significant key relationships in these two frameworks is that both need to
invest a lot of manpower and material resources. The difference is that the planting
need to invest a lot of seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, etc… and win votes is required to
invest a lot of cash, all kinds of interests which are needed by the voters,
etc…Through the key relationship compression, this conceptual bleeding form a
emergent structure that different from the structures of the two input spaces in the
blending space eventually. After the completion of conceptual blending, the new
conceptual / tʂuŋ51pʰiau51/(种票 Planting vote) is formed. It refers to use variety of
ways to win votes.
The second conceptual blending is about / mən35/(门 Gate). In Chinese,
gate (/ mən35/) do not have any contact with the bad things originally. The two entities
can be linked to together because of Watergate scandal of the United States. As well
known, the Watergate scandal is one of the most disgraceful political scandals in the
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 68
history of the United States. And the word “gate” in the “Watergate scandal”
translated into Chinese is / mən35/. After a comparison between the Watergate scandal
and other scandals, people compressed out the key word “gate” and to confer it means
bad things. From then on, whenever hear the idiom of “x x / mən35/”, Chinese people
will understand that it is a bad thing immediately. Such as /tʂa51ʨuan55mən35/ refers to
an event that pledged donation, but did not honor its donation; /fən55xuŋ35mən35/
refers to the dispute between the fund holders and the fund company, which is caused
by the issues of fund dividends; /pau214tan55mən35/ refers to the event that people
bring a claim to insurance sellers when people found the insurance policy which they
have bought is invalid; etc…
The two new concepts which are formed in the conceptual blending in
the first level of the conceptual blending chain constitute the two input spaces of the
conceptual blending in the second level of the conceptual blending chain. Through a
new round of conceptual blending, the idiom /tʂuŋ51pʰiau51mən35/(种票门 Planting
vote gate) is formed eventually. At first, the idiom/tʂuŋ51pʰiau51mən35/( 种 票 门
Planting vote gate) refers to the event that the PCCW of Hong Kong used the stock to
exchange the vote of in favor of the privatization. Later, after a completion and
elaboration, this idiom is widely used and refers to any scandal that the candidate uses
the method of bribing voters to get votes to win the election.
5.1.2.2 Linear conceptual blending chain
The so-called linear conceptual blending chain refers to that in the
every level of the conceptual blending chain, it will have only one conceptual
blending and the new concept which is formed in the blending space will became one
input space of the conceptual blending in the next level of the conceptual blending
chain. And the other input space of the conceptual blending in the next level of the
conceptual blending chain will come from outside. The whole conceptual blending
chain is as shown in the following diagram:
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The first level:
Generic Space
.
.
• •
• •
Input l2
The second level: Input l1
Generic
Space
• •.•
•• . •
Blend
The third level:
Input l1
.
.
• •
• •
Input l2
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 70
• •.•
•• . •
★ The conceptual blending chain of this kind can have two levels, or three
levels or even more three levels.
In the Chinese idioms related to economy, the idioms which involve
color are typical liner conceptual blending chain. In the first level of the conceptual
blending chain, the colors in real are given different figurative meanings. Such as
green means good and healthy, because of green is the color of the vast majority
healthy plants in the nature and these plants provide oxygen to the survival of
mankind, etc… Blank means bad, illegal; gray means not good; and so on.
After completing the conceptual blending in the first level of the
conceptual blending chain, the new conceptual, namely the colors that have different
figurative meanings will became one of the input spaces to participate in the
conceptual blending in the next level of the conceptual blending chain so as to form
idioms, such as:
/ ly51sə51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/(绿色经济 Green economy),
/ ly51sə51 tʂʰan214pin214/(绿色产品 Green products),
/ ly51sə51ɕiau55fei51/(绿色消费 Green consumption),
/xuei55sə51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/(灰色经济 Gray economy),
/xuei55sə51ʂou55ʐu51/ (灰色收入 Gray income),
/ xei55sə51ʂou55ʐu51/(黑色收入 Black income),
/ xei55 ʂi51/(黑市 Black market),
Etc…
At here, we will take the / xei55sə51ʂou55ʐu51/(黑色收入) as a example
to show the whole diagram of the liner conceptual blending chain:
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The first level：
Theme
Nature/characteristic
Theme：blank color
Theme：Nature of things
Nature：Lack of light
Nature：illegal
Characteristic: Cannot
Characteristic: Cannot
see anything
allow outsiders to see
Nature
Means/Goal
The second level：
Lack of light
Can not see anything
-
-
illegal
Can not allow outsiders to see
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 72
Means: cannot see anything
Theme: income
Goal: illegal thing
Nature: illegal
Black means illegal
Characteristic: can not openly
Means: illegal income can not
openly
Theme: black color Lack of light
-
Theme: income
illegal income
Means: Black means illegal
Goal: illegal income
Black income means illegal income
Conceptual blending diagram of idiom / xei55sə51ʂou55ʐu51/(黑色收入)
In addition, the Chinese idioms related to economy which involve the
spatial orientation are another kind of typical liner conceptual blending examples. In
the first, the different spatial orientations are given different figurative meanings
through the conceptual blending, and then, the spatial orientation which has figurative
meaning will as an input space to participate in the conceptual blending in the next
level of the conceptual blending chain so as to form idioms. Such as:
/ti51ɕia51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/(地下经济 Underground economy),
/ti51ɕia51koŋ55tʂaŋ214/(地下工厂 Underground factories),
/ ti51ɕia51ʨiao55ji51/(地下交易 Underground trading),
/ti51ɕia51ʨʰian35tʂuaŋ55/(地下钱庄 Underground bank)
Etc…
5.1.3 The relationship between the cognitive model and the concept blending
The so-called cognitive mode refers to the mode of acquiring and
processing information, the cognitive model of different people or groups of people
have their own different characteristics (Ci Hai dictionary, 2009). The conceptual
blending is essentially a cognitive activity, and is affected by people’s various
cognitive models. Different cognitive models tend to form different conceptual
blending, because each cognitive model will provide a particular kind of possibility
and oriented to carry out the conceptual blending.
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This analysis of conceptual blending and frame shifting in idioms is
based on the case study of Chinese idioms related economy. So, in this section, the
author will take the main cognitive models of Chinese people as examples to analyze
the impact of cognitive model to the conceptual blending.
5.1.3.1The conceptual blending under the experiential cognition model
Chinese people emphasis on experience since ancient times. They are
good at summing up experience from the practice of daily production and life to form
the theoretical knowledge to guide further practice. For the importance of experience,
predecessors had a lot of brilliant expositions, such as: "A journey of a thousand miles
begins with a single step", “the best knowledge do not come from books, but come
from practice”, “Knowledge is action, action is knowledge”, “genuine knowledge
comes from practice”, etc… these discourses is intended to warn future generations
must pay attention to practical experience, do not be imagined. These build the model
of experiential cognition.
This cognitive model is applied to the conceptual blending in the
Chinese idioms related economy manifested as: Chinese people always like to select
the entities that are familiar and loved by people in daily life to participate in the
conceptual blending, so as to achieve the goal that let people understand some abstract
or difficult things easily. In the Chinese idioms related economy, there are so many
idioms that are formed through the conceptual blending take the experiential view as a
guide. For example, the idioms involve the concept of eating are typical cases. At here,
the author will take the idiom /kʰən214lau214ʦu35/ (啃老族 Eat old people) as an
example to conduct a detailed analysis.
/kʰən214lau214ʦu35/ (啃老族 Eat old people) is also called "near old
family". They are not cannot find a job, but take the initiative to give up the
opportunity of obtain employment, stay idle at home, not only the basic necessities of
life depends on parents, and often have an expensive cost. They often have an age
between 23-30 years old. The conceptual blending network of this idiom is as shown
in the following diagram:
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 74
Theme
Recipient/Provider
Property
Means/Goal
Participant：Any one
Participant: young people
Role: food consumer
Role: Economic consumer
Characteristic：No work
Characteristic: Hungry
Participant:
Participant：Food
Parents
Role: Been consumed
Role: Economic provider
Goal: Eating food
Goal: consume
Means: Spent money of parents
Means: Eating
Food consumer - Economic consumer
Been consumed food - Economic provider
Means: Eating
Goal: Spent money of parents
Lack of economic income
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Conceptual blending diagram of idiom/kʰən214lau214ʦu35/ (啃老族 Eat old people)
In the conceptual blending of this idiom, the conceptual blending
conduct between the economic consumption, which is abstract and difficult to grasp,
and the eating that is familiar by everyone. Cross-space mapping is established
between the eater and economy consumers (a group of young people), between food
and economic providers (parents). The eater and the economy consumers have the
common feature of getting. The food and the economy consumers have the common
feature of losing. The conceptual blending is completed ultimately by compress this
key relationships. At last the idiom/kʰən214lau214ʦu35/ (啃老族 Eat old people) is
formed.
5.1.3.2 The conceptual blending under the model of spatial orientation
cognition
The concept of spatial orientation is an important foundation for us to
understand and grasp the real world. And it plays a very important role in the
cognitive activities of our daily lives. In the development process of history, spatial
orientation often has been given a particular figurative meaning, so as to form an
inherent model of spatial orientation cognition.
In the civilization history development of Chinese, it has been in a
male - dominated society for a long time. At this period, man is the master of all
things in the world, and the woman is man's slave. The Chinese believe that the sky is
father and the earth is mother. They thought that the sky is the master of the universe,
and the earth is dominated by the sky. On this basis, the ancient Chinese people
formed a spatial orientation cognition model of up is good and low is bad. So up
means good and positive; low means bad and negative.
In addition, in ancient long feudal society of China, a lot of space
orientation has been given different figurative meaning, such as East and West, North
and South, Left and Right, and so on.
In the ancient Chinese society, the South stands for extreme noble;
however, the North represents failure and surrender. So, the palaces and temples
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which is a symbol of the power of feudal society are always facing south. And the
emperor's seat is block south. The emperor ascended the throne is known as the "get
south respect”; lost the battle known as the "defeat to north"; surrender to others is
called "north concede defeat"; etc… Usually due south orientation has been given the
highest honor in the feudal era, when people build houses, no one dared to let their
houses toward located in the south direction of the meridian, they always let it have a
little biased to east or west direction to avoid breaching the imperial power. Expect
respect for South and despise North, the Chinese people often take the East as the
head and the west as the end. In ancient China, the palace of queens was always
located at east. On the contrary, the palace of imperial concubine was always located
at west. In addition, the Imperial Ancestral Temple which worships the tablets of
deceased was built at the east of the palace.
Moreover, the orientation word Lift and Right also have different
figurative meanings. In ancient times, the emperor is the royal prerogative, on any
occasion, he emphasizes that his seat should south-facing and back to north, so the
left-hand side of the emperor is always the East. So, the "left" orientation become
noble due to the people respect for the east orientation. In the Three Kingdoms period
of China, Soochow Sun Quan ruled the east area of Changjiang River, so he is also
called “Jiangzuo (left river)”. Furthermore, the code system of civilian standing in the
left and the military attaché standing in the right in ancient China, and the customs of
male left female right all reflect the concept of respect lift orientation.
These above constitute the main model of spatial orientation cognition
of Chinese people. And these cognitive models more or less reflected in the Chinese
idiom related economy, such as:
/ti51ɕia51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/(地下经济 Underground economy),
/ti51ɕia51koŋ55tʂaŋ214/(地下工厂 Underground factories),
/ʂaŋ51kaŋ214/(上岗 Go to work on a post),
etc…
At here, we will take the idiom /ti51ɕia51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/( 地 下 经 济
Underground economy) as an example to conduct a detailed analysis. The conceptual
blending network of this idiom is as shown in the following diagram:
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Theme
Feature
Means/Goal
Theme: underground
Theme: economic activities
Feature: can not see
Feature: not public
Represent: illegal
Nature: illegal
Means: underground is
Means: illegal economic can
illegal
not public
Theme: underground -
Theme: economic
Feature: cannot see
Feature: not public
-
Means: underground is illegal
Goal: illegal economic
Underground economic means illegal
economic
Conceptual blending diagram of idiom/ti51ɕia51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/(地下经济)
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Note: In this network diagram, it omitted the first level of the conceptual blending chain. Namely, that omitted
the orientation word “lower” is give a figurative meaning of bad or illegal through the conceptual blending.
In this conceptual blending, the orientation of underground represents
illegal. As all know, the two input spaces have a common feature of unknown.
"Underground" is a position that people cannot see with the naked eye; and the illegal
economy are also in the dark, and in order to avoid legal sanctions, it will not let the
public know. It is the common feature that links up the two input spaces. In the whole
conceptual blending process, through the compression of key relationship, it formed
an emergent structure in the blending space eventually and formed the idiom
/ti51ɕia51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/(地下经济 Underground economy).
5.1.3.3 The conceptual blending under the model of harmonious cognition
Chinese people believe in doctrine of the mean, so everything
emphasizes appropriate, moderate, not extreme, just right, and a degree of relaxation.
Thousands of years ago, the famous thinker Dong Zhongshu of Han Dynasty had put
forward the idea of harmony between man and nature.
Since ancient times, China is a large agricultural country, and land is
the key resources that people resistance to survival. Because of this, each dynasty
emphasized the harmony between the people and land, and believed that economic
development cannot be at the expense of the environment. To the contemporary,
according to the actual national conditions, the Chinese government put forward the
mission of building a harmonious society in the beginning of this century. From these
historical events, we can see clearly that the model of harmonious cognition occupies
a pivotal position in the Cognitive activities of Chinese people. In the Chinese idioms
related economy, there are so many idioms that are formed through the conceptual
blending take the harmonious cognition as a guide. At here, the author will take the
idiom / ʐuan214ʦau214lu51/ (软着陆 Soft landing) as an example to conduct a detailed
analysis.
/ʐuan214ʦau214lu51/ (软着陆 Soft landing) is a terminology of aerospace
field. It refers to the technology of the aircraft descend to the ground or other planet
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
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surface at a slower speed and without damage through a special reduction gear device
to reduce the speed. Later, this terminology is referenced to the economic field
through
the
conceptual
blending,
so
as
to
form
the
idiom
/ ʨiŋ55ʨi51ʐuan214ʦau214lu51/ (经济软着陆 Economy soft landing). And this idioms is
often abbreviated as/ ʐuan214ʦau214lu51/. It refers to that when a country's economic
development overheating, has a large area of inflation, the state in order to ensure the
steady growth of the economy, adopted a series of positive measures to curb inflation,
let the overheated economy slowly back down to a normal growth pattern. In this
process, the key is to ensure that the economy do not have huge ups and downs, and
not occur a large number of unemployed. The conceptual blending of this idiom
involves two input space, the one is the aircraft landing mode, and the other is
downturn of the overheating economy. The former is a physical process, and the latter
is a process of social activity.
The common feature of the two input spaces is that in the beginning,
both are in a high point, and reduced to a lower point eventually. The aircraft descend
to the ground or other planet surface from a higher point has two options. One is
without a deceleration landing directly to the ground or the surface of other planet and
this landing method often leads to damage to the aircraft. The other option is that let
descend to the ground or other planet surface at a slower speed through a special
reduction gear device to reduce the speed and this landing method has no damage to
the aircraft. In order to let the overheating economy back down to normal growth
mode, it needs the government to take a series of economic control policies. But if the
economic control policies are too harsh, it will lead to a large area of deflation and the
economy downturn too fast will resulting in the increase of unemployed and is not
conducive to the steady development of the whole economy. Conversely, if the proper
control policies and measures are taken, let the overheated economic growth slowly
back down to a reasonable range of growth will not occur massive deflation and mass
unemployment, so as to guarantee the sustainable and stable development of the
socio-economic. This is similar to the soft landing of the aircraft without causing
damage. The whole conceptual blending is to seize the common feature of the two
input spaces and form an emergent structure in the blending space through a
compression of this key relationship, and complete the conceptual blending eventually.
The conceptual blending network of this idiom is as shown in the following diagram:
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Theme
Activity
Feature/Nature
Means/Goal
Theme：economic slowdown
Theme：aerobat landing
Activity：slowdown
Activity：landing
Feature：decelerate
Feature：andante
Nature：no damage
Nature：no destruction
Means：Landed safely
Means：economy go down steadily
Feature：decelerate - Feature：andante
Nature：no damage - Nature：no destruction
Means: Landed safely
Goal: economic slowdown
Soft landing of economy has no destruction
Conceptual blending diagram of idiom/ ʐuan214ʦau214lu51/ (软着陆 Soft landing)
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
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5.1.3.4 The conceptual blending under the model of overall cognition
Chinese people focus on the overall cognition since ancient times. The
so-called overall cognition means: when learn about things should be good from the
overall focus, and understand the parts through the whole; when solve a problem
should be good at dealing with problems from an overall consideration, seeking a
complete solution to the problem. In the overall cognition, the nature is seen as a
whole, people and all things are part of the whole of nature; and at the same time, the
each individual entity of the nature is seen as a whole. In the whole, if a part is
damaged, the other part will therefore be negatively affected, and thus causes the
destruction of the whole.
In the Chinese idioms related economy, there are so many idioms that
are formed through the conceptual blending take the overall cognition as a guide, such
as:
/ji51tʰiau35loŋ35/(一条龙),
/liu35ʂuei214xian51/(流水线),
/ji51lan35ʦi214xuo51pi51/(一篮子货币),
Etc…
5.1.4 The relationship between the cultural model and the concept blending
Human behavior has a wide range of possibilities, but in the numerous
kinds of possibilities, an ethnic group or country can only select some of them as their
cultural content factors; and these choices often with the value of their social tendency,
constraining by the entire natural and human social environmental. These chosen
cultural contents interrelates each other and ultimately form a complete and consistent
structure through the integration. This is known as the cultural model. (Zhongguo
Baike Dictionary, 2005)
Therefore, with respect to the independent individual behavior, cultural
model is a manifestation of a collective behavior, with a strong social orientation.
As mentioned before, the conceptual blending is essentially a cognitive
activity. Therefore, it necessarily involves the participation of culture. In the
conceptual blending, to a certain concept, the cognitive model just provide a
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Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 82
possibility and guidance quality. This leads to diversity choice of the input spaces.
Among these choices, the factor that let the conceptual blending to choose certain
input spaces to conduct the conceptual blending is the cultural model. So, we can say
that the cultural model provides an implementation to the conceptual blending. In the
following discussions, the author will take some Chinese idioms related to economy
as examples to analyze the relationship between cultural model and conceptual
blending.
1) /fəŋ51xuaŋ35nan35/(凤凰男 Phoenix boy)
In Chinese culture, Phoenix is a symbol of gaining a newborn after
suffering. It is the king of birds, has lofty status and is very clever and sensible.
/fəŋ51xuaŋ35nan35/(凤凰男 Phoenix boy), as the name implies, “Golden Phoenix fly
out of the ravine”, it refers to these men who born in the rural poor families, admitted
to the University eventually through hard work and hone, finally work and stay in the
city after graduation. Since childhood through hardships, they develop a spirit of hardworking and hard to forge ahead. In this conceptual blending, there are so many
entities that can be used to refer to the men who born in the rural poor families,
admitted to the University eventually through hard work and hone, finally work and
stay in the city after graduation. In other words, there are so many entities that have
similar features with the men mentioned above. But the whole conceptual blending
network ultimately chose the image of the Phoenix participate in the conceptual
blending. The cultural factors provide a final implementation. If there is no image of
Phoenix and its cultural connotations in Chinese culture, this conceptual blending
cannot be achieved and accepted by the people. At the same time, the culture has
extensibility. In Chinese, except the /fəŋ51xuaŋ35nan35/(凤凰男 Phoenix boy), there
exists another idiom /kʰuŋ214ʨʰyɛ51ny214/(孔雀女 Peacock girl). In Chinese culture,
the Peacock represents enervated by good living and do not experience the suffering.
Therefore, Chinese people use it to refer to the girls who grew up in the wealthy
families of the city.The conceptual blending in the two idioms can be completed
successfully and be understood and accepted by the people because that the Phoenix
and Peacock have been endowed with rich cultural connotations in Chinese culture. If
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
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the two idioms appeared in the Western culture, Westerners will feel difficult to
understand them, because in their culture, Phoenix and Peacock are not given the
cultural connotations as they have in Chinese culture. In other words, a certain
conceptual blending only can be understood and accepted under a specific cultural
model, and achieve its rightful perceived value.
2) /ta55ʂi35tai51/(她时代 She times) and /ta55ʂuai55tuei51/(他衰退 He decline)
In China, the whole society advocates male chauvinism since ancient
times. The man is considered to be the backbone of the family, society and the nationstate. In ancient China, since entered the patriarchal society, the male power has been
respected. In particular, after Emperor Han wu implemented the policy of “paying
supreme tribute to Confucianism while banning all other schools of thought”, the
Chinese society had established a complete set of Feudal ethics, advocating the
patriarchal. This Feudal ethics is very discriminatory against women, and the women
were asked: before married should obey father, when married should obey husband,
when husband died should obey son. From the beginning to end, women had to obey
the will of men, and are regarded as the property of the men. So, women mainly did
housework at home and almost did not participate in national and social management.
However, with the development of society, the Chinese feudal ethics
collapsed. And the patriarchal gender discrimination also becomes weaker and weaker.
Women began to participate in the activities of social production widely, and play
their role in various trades and industries. So the social status of women has gradually
improved. Especially in recent years, women play a more and more important role in
the economic sphere, coupled with their respected for consumption, they make a big
contribution to the economic development. At the same time, due to the impact of the
financial crisis, the men who had been played a leading role in the economic field
have suffered a severe psychological blow and gradually lost the leading role in the
economic field. And more and more important positions have been occupied by
women. To this end, this phenomenon is dubbed /ta55ʂi35tai51/(她时代 She times) and
/ta55ʂuai55tuei51/(他衰退 He decline).
The conceptual blending in the two idioms reflects the change of the
gender cultural in Chinese society. It is the change of rising of feminism and the
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recession of patriarchal promotes the successful completion of the conceptual
blending. If we do not know the developments and changes of gender cultural of
Chinese society, we will be very difficult to understand these two idioms that formed
through the conceptual blending.
3) /lau214ʂu214ʦʰaŋ55/(老鼠仓 Rat accounts)
In different cultures, animals will often be given different cultural
connotations. Such as: in Thai culture, the elephant is a symbol of good fortune and
wisdom; in German culture, bear is a symbol of good fortune and wisdom; however,
in Chinese culture, the animal which represents the good fortune and wisdom is
dragon; etc…
In Chinese culture, mouse is a symbol of insatiable and stealing the
achievement of others. They do not do work, and encroach on the achievement of
others. The most vivid description of this image of mouse is the poem “Shuo Shu” in
the book of “Shi Jing”. The full text is as follows:
硕鼠硕鼠，无食我黍！三岁贯女，莫我肯顾。逝将去女，适彼乐土。乐土乐土，爰得我所。
硕鼠硕鼠，无食我麦！三岁贯女，莫我肯德。逝将去女，适彼乐国。乐国乐国，爰得我直。
硕鼠硕鼠，无食我苗！三岁贯女，莫我肯劳。逝将去女，适彼乐郊。乐郊乐郊，谁之永号？
Translation:
Field mouse, field mouse, keeps away from our millet!
Three years we have served you,
but what do you care about us?
Now we shall leave you, for a happier realm, a happy realm where we shall have a place.
Field mouse, field mouse, keeps away from our wheat!
Three years we have served you, but what have you done for us?
Now we shall leave you, for a happier land, a happy land where we shall get our due.
Field mouse, field mouse, keeps away from our rice shoots!
Three years we have served you, but what have you rewarded us?
Now we shall leave you, for those happy plains, those happy plains where weeping is never
heard.
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In this poem, the symbol of insatiable and stealing the achievement of
others of the mouse is depicted in vivid and impressive through parallelism
techniques. It is because of the mouse that was given the cultural connotations
above, The idiom /lau214ʂu214ʦʰaŋ55/(老鼠仓 Rat accounts) generated. This idiom
refers that before using public funds to prop up share prices, the makers create an
account in the low position of share price and buy a lot of stock with their own
personal funds firstly; and after the share price is raised by the public funds, the
makers sell their own share firstly to obtain huge profits. In the whole process, the
makers use the public power to seek personal gains. When they line their own
pockets with the using of public funds, they let the other people suffer huge
losses. This behavior and the behavior of mice is exactly the same possession.
In the conceptual blending of this idiom, the behavior of the
maker and the behavior of the mouse have a commonality: harm others to benefit
oneself. However, there are so many entities that have this feature. But under
the guide of culture, the mouse is chosen to participate in this conceptual
blending eventually. If the mouse has not been given the cultural connotations
above, this conceptual blending would not exist and this idiom will not generate.
5.1.5 The human commonality and ethnic personality in conceptual blending
The conceptual blending is essentially a way of thinking and cognitive
activity. As we know, the thought and cognition is based on a function of human brain,
and all normal brain of human have the same structure. At this point, there are no
ethnic differences. So, the thinking and cognitive activity, as a brain function, has the
human commonality. Looking at the conceptual blending from this perspective, we
will find that the conceptual blending has some human commonality. In other words,
when carrying out conceptual blending, people from different countries or different
ethnics will have some commonalities, such as selecting the same entities as the
source of input. For example, in the conceptual blending that relate to wealth, almost
all of the nation will choose gold as the sources of input. Such as: in Chinese, it has
/ʨin55liŋ214/(金领 , Gold-collar), /ʨin55fan51wan214/( 金饭碗 , Golden rice bowl); in
English,
it
has
golden
handcuffs;
in
Thai
/weː33laː33pen33ŋən33pen33tʰɔːŋ33/ (เวลาเป็ นเงินเป็ นทอง Time is wealth).
language,
it
has
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Although, the cognitive activity based on the human brain function has
the human commonality; but at the same time, it also has the ethnic personality,
because that different ethnic groups tend to form distinctive cognitive modes due to
the different geographical environment, history and culture. And each specific
conceptual blending is completed under a specific ethnic group cognitive models and
cultural models oriented. Different cognitive models and cultural models often lead to
select different entities to participate in the conceptual blending of the same concept,
or a same entity in the conceptual blending will be given different figurative meanings
in different cognitive models and cultural models, so as to form conceptual blending
that have different national characteristics. This is so –called the ethnic personality of
the conceptual blending.
On the one hand, to the same concept, different ethnic groups tend to
choose a different entity to participate in the conceptual blending. Such as Chinese
select the Phoenix to participate in the conceptual blending to refer these men who
born in the rural poor families, admitted to the University eventually through hard
work and hone, finally work and stay in the city after graduation. However, in English,
people select the duck participate in the conceptual blending and form an idiom Ugly
Duckling. Just think, if we select a duck in Chinese and Phoenix in English to
complete the conceptual blending above, it will be difficult for people to understand
and accept. Because that in China, the duck do not has the connotation of gaining a
newborn after suffering, and the Phoenix also do not has the connotation like this in
English. Therefore, if we want the conceptual blending to achieve smoothly and be
understood and accepted by people, we should let it comply with the ethnic
personality. And another example is that Chinese use Gold chains to refer to the
financial arrangements given by a company to an important employee in order to
influence them to stay with the company. But English uses the golden handcuffs to
refer it. The reason for this difference is that China does not have handcuffs in the
past, and often uses the iron chain to handcuff criminals. And the handcuff in modern
China is introduced from the West.
The other manifestation of the ethnic personality of conceptual
blending is that the same entity will have different figurative meanings in the
conceptual blending under the different cognitive models and cultural models of
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different ethnic groups. For example, in Chinese, the blank (/xei55/) represents bad
and illegal things, such as in the idioms:
/ xei55sə51ʂou55ʐu51/(黑色收入 Black income),
/ xei55 ʂi51/(黑市 Black market),
/ xei55xuo51/(黑货 Smuggled goods),
Etc…
However, for Lolo people (or Yi people), the blank has the positive
significance of noble and dignified. Another example is that in Chinese idioms related
economy, red (/xuŋ35/) often has complimentary sense, such as
/ xuŋ35li51/(红利 Dividend),
/ʂəŋ55ji51xuŋ35xuo214/(生意红火 Business booming),
etc…
But in English idioms, red often has derogatory sense, such as: be in
the red, red figure, etc…
As all know, Chinese people like to use Dragon to refer to the good
things. After the reform and opening policy, China's economy has made a tremendous
development. And nowadays China is the second largest economy of the world. And
so, Chinese people called the Chinese economy that has a rapid development as the
economic dragon. At the same time, the leading enterprises in the economy are called
dragon head enterprises. It means that these enterprises are in a leading position in
their respective areas and play a great role in guiding the development of the entire
industry. While in the West, the dragon is a symbol of evil, greed, cruelty and
despotism, etc… In Western culture, the language units related Dragon often have
derogatory sense. In the Middle Ages, the dragon is a symbol of evil, in the Bible
story, Satan is considered to be The Great Dragon. There is an idiom related dragon in
English is Sow dragon's teeth. This idiom is derived from the Greek myth: Phoenician
prince Cadmus killed one fierce dragon, and planted the dragon’s teeth in the soil.
However, it grew a team of fierce warriors and they kill each other, finally, only left
five warriors. Since Cadmus caused battle by planting the dragon’s teeth in the soil,
the West people use the idiom sow dragon’s teeth to refer to provoke disputes or sow
the seeds of discord.
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These cases above show that the human commonality of conceptual
blending is absolute, but the ethnic personality is relative. As mentioned earlier, the
conceptual blending is a kind of human cognitive activity based on the function of
human brain. The human brain function is the same, so the conceptual blending which
bases on this function will inevitably have human commonality. The ethnic
personality of conceptual blending is essentially a difference of cognitive models and
cultural models. Every ethnic group has its own specific natural and social
environment. People in different environments bound to form specific cognitive
models and cultural models which can adapt to their environment. This is the source
which forms the ethnic personality of the conceptual blending. However, different
ethnic groups can exchange and learn culture and cognition from each other. Through
exchanges and learn from, different ethnic groups can maintain the same culture and
cognitive models. From this sense, the ethnic personality of conceptual blending is
relative rather than absolute. Such as the idioms /ʦʰau214ken55/(草根 grass roots). At
first, it rises in the West, refers to the civilians. This idiom was introduced to China at
the eighties of last century through the cultural exchange. Nowadays this idiom is
widely used by Chinese people to refer to the civilians who are in the bottom of the
social and relative to the elite in China.
5.1.6 Highlighting and hiding: trade-offs in conceptual blending
In the conceptual blending, not all but only some elements of the input
spaces are projected onto the blending space to participate in the formation of the
emergent structure. This is the highlighting and hiding in the conceptual blending. In
the process of conceptual blending, which elements are highlighted and which
elements are hidden will be decided according to the target of the conceptual blending.
The elements that will help to express the new concept which is formed in the
blending space will be highlighted. On the contrary, the elements that have nothing to
do with the new concept which is formed in the blending space will be hidden. Such
as in the conceptual blending of /fəŋ55ʂou55ʦai55/( 丰 收 灾 Harvest disaster), the
agricultural input-output framework of the input space I involves a lot of elements,
such as: farmer who is the agricultural producer, types of agricultural products,
agricultural harvest, input, output, price, low price lead to a loss, time, place, and
other activities related production process, and so on; and the disaster framework of
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the input space II involves the following elements: the event of a disaster, the victims,
the damage and losses caused by disasters, time, place, etc… But in the whole
conceptual blending, only part of these elements involved in the two input spaces
project onto the blending space to participate in the formation of the emergent
structure and is highlighted. The elements which are highlighted are as follows:
farmers, harvest agricultural products, low prices lead to loss; the event of a disaster,
the victims, the damage and losses caused by disasters, etc… And the other elements,
such as types of agricultural products, input, output, time, and place, etc… are hidden
because that they do not participate in the formation of the emergent structure in the
blending space.
The elements of the two input space that are highlighted in the
conceptual blending are the ones that have some similarity and can make contribution
to the emergent structure in the blending space. Such as in the conceptual blending
above, the farmers and victims share the feature of "subject"; the damage and losses
caused by disasters and the low prices lead to loss share the feature of "loss";etc…
The conceptual blending is based on commonalities; the elements that do not have
common features often cannot make their own contribution to the conceptual blending,
so they will be hidden.
5.1.7 Background implied in conceptual blending
The conceptual blending, which complete under the guiding of cultural
models and cognitive models, will be fully understood by people eventually, often
need to evoke the hidden relevant background knowledge. Without these background
knowledge, the emergent structure that form in the blending space will be difficult to
understood. Such as the conceptual blending in the idiom/li214kuei214jau51/(李鬼药 Li
Gui medicine), the background knowledge which needs to be evoked is that the story
of Li Gui impersonate Li Kui in the novel “Shui Hu Zhuan”.
In the novel “Shui Hu Zhuan”, Li Kui and Li Gui are two different
characters. They are mortal enemies: Li Kui is a hero praised by everyone, and
delivers the poor and all those who are oppressed; Li Gui is a furry thief cast aside by
the world, and rob at everywhere. In order to pull the banner as a guise, and also in
order to facilitate to do all kinds of evil, Li Gui impersonate as Li Kui: smear ink on
the face and hold two ax in order to make himself like Li Kui so as to posing as Li
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Kui to rob. However, no story without coincidences, when the false Li Kui met true
Li Kui, he immediately appears the true face.
For this reason, Chinese people take the name Li Gui as synonym for
fake products in daily life. Nowadays, driven by economic interests, there are a lot of
fake drugs in the Chinese market. These fake drugs caused a lot of harm to society.
Thus forming the idiom /li214kuei214jau51/(李鬼药 Li Gui medicine). It refers to the
products that confused as real ones, looks like drugs, but in reality as ordinary food or
disinfectant. In this conceptual blending, fake drugs and Li Gui have a common
feature, that is to impersonate other good things, leading unworthy of the name. Such
behavior of damage others are hated by everyone.
Another example is the idiom /ɕia51kaŋ214/ (下岗 Down from the post,
means lost job). In the conceptual blending of this idiom, the background knowledge
which needs to be evoked is the faith of labor system in the socialist countries. They
believe that in the socialist countries, everyone has work to do, there is no
unemployment. People who have lost their jobs just temporarily leave existing jobs,
and will get new jobs soon. Because of the background of the social belief, the
conceptual blending can complete smoothly and is fully understood and accepted. By
the way, there is extending a series of related idioms, such as /ʂaŋ51kaŋ214/(上岗)
refers to obtain job, or go to work on a post; /wen214 kaŋ214/ refers to improve skills in
order to maintain current job, etc…
As we know, /ʨ/ʰi55ʂi35tai51/(7 时代) and /liu51 ʂi35tai51/(6 时代) is the
widely discussed topic in economic circles in nowadays. The two idioms refers to the
U.S. dollar against the RMB exchange rate fell below 8 to 7 times and fell below 7 to
6 times. It is a Logo that marks China-US economic relations have entered a new era.
If we do not know the background knowledge of the relationship between Chinese
economy and USA economy, we cannot understand the two idioms completely.
5.1.8 The relationship between social change and conceptual blending
The language develops with the change of society. So the new idioms
that are formed through conceptual blending bound to reflect the current social
changes, as well as the views of the people to these social changes. This can be
proved from the formation of the following idioms.
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1) /Pei214pʰiau55ʦu35/(北漂族 North drift race)
/Pei214pʰiau55ʦu35/(北漂族 North drift race) refers to a group of people
who come from all over the country to work in Beijing. They do not have Beijing
accounts, income is not high, and have no house, living in rented accommodation, has
a feeling of floating around, all of them have knowledge, many people have a master's
or doctor's degree, and many of them working in the entertainment industry, IT
industry, etc…
They live in Beijing, the capital gave them a job and a rental estates,
but do not admit that they belong to the city. For the city, they just temporarily live in
here and without the identity of the institutionally recognized. Most of them came to
the capital alone, so they often have a lingering sense of loneliness, liking a duckweed
drifting with no fixed.
The change of society reflected by this idiom is that after
implementing the reform and opening policy, the Chinese government relaxes on the
free movement of people and people can free to go out looking for job and seeking
opportunities for personal growth. But at the same time, the traditional Chinese
household registration system has not changed. This cause those people who come
from all over the country to work in Beijing cannot gain the identity of the
institutionally recognized and thus cannot enjoy the same social welfare treatment
with the locals.
In addition, this idiom also reflects people’s cognition of this life state
in contemporary Chinese society. Since ancient times, Chinese people pay attention to
homebody, and think that there is always a sense of insecurity to leave their homeland
to go into exile, because people away from home as erratic duckweed. The separation
of domicile and place of residence in reality increase the sense of insecurity and
psychological shadow of loneliness. So, Chinese people use the state of drifting to
describe the state of life and psychological characteristics of these people. Finally,
through a conceptual blending, the idiom /Pei214pʰiau55ʦu35/(北漂族 North drift race)
has formed.
2) /ji214ʦu35/(蚁族 Ant tribe)
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Ant tribe is a vivid metaphor of the groups of low-income college
graduates who settle in a compact community. Most of them were born in the eighties
or the nineties of the last century. Due to the very low-income, they can only choose
to live in lower consumption of urban fringe. This group of people due to poor living
conditions and lack of social security, often have a large thoughts and mood swings,
resulting in a sense of frustration and anxiety. But at the same time, these people have
a strong self-esteem, even though the hardships of life, they will persevere for their
own goals. Such a group of people have many similar characteristics with ant colony.
For example: have a higher IQ; adopted a gregarious lifestyle; unremitting, never give
up; although very weak, but sometimes they will tend to cause serious disaster.
Because of this crowd and the ant colony have so many similarities, a conceptual
blending can be conducted between them and form the idiom/ji214ʦu35/(蚁族 Ant tribe)
The formation of idiom /ji214ʦu35/(蚁族 Ant tribe) reflect the change of
contemporary Chinese society: On the one hand, due to the university enrollment, the
number of university graduates become more and more; on the other hand, the
employment situation has been getting worse. University graduates are not the
darlings like before. But a lot of people still cannot face reality, still want to work in a
big city, unwilling to return to the small places. This led to many university graduates
cannot find a good job, and have a very low-income. So as to result in a large number
of /ji214ʦu35/(蚁族 Ant tribe).
3) /noŋ35min35koŋ55/(农民工 Farmer-worker)
/noŋ35min35koŋ55/( 农 民 工 Farmer-worker) refers to a special
populations in mainland of China. Due to China's long-term implementation of the
separation of urban and rural household registration system, in the past, people who
have rural household registration are called farmer, and people who have urban
household registration are called worker. With China's reform and opening up,
promoting and implementing market economic system, the process of urbanization is
accelerating. On the one hand, large-scale municipal construction requires a large
number of labor forces to participate. On the other hand, due to the low farm product
prices result in a large number of rural families’ income cannot cover expenses. These
lead to a large number of farmers to leave their homes to rely on to work for the
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employer to obtain income in the city. Although they work in the city, but they do not
have urban household registration, their official capacity is farmer, because they have
rural household registration. When they work in the city, they do not have their own
labor union organizations, the legitimate rights and interests cannot be guaranteed,
also were unable to enjoy a variety of benefits arising from urban development. They
bear a lot of the heavy work in the urban development, they are the backbone of urban
development, but due to the limitations of identity, they become a victim of urban
development. Due to the reform of China's household registration system cannot keep
up with the changes of Chinese society, it led to the existence of dual identity: their
official capacity is farmer, but they doing the work of the workers in the city. In order
to show the special identity of this group, people blend the identity of farmer and
identity of worker into one, so as to form the idiom
/noŋ35min35koŋ55/(农民工
Farmer-worker)to refer to the people who have the rural household registration, but
work in the city.
5.1.9 Old word in new using: the conceptual blending related the word /nu35/ (奴)
With the development of society, because of the referred entity of a
certain word has no longer existed or changed, the word will not be used in the daily
communication and become an old word. (Wang, 2009)
But in some case, some of these old words will be used in the daily
communication again with a new identity. Moreover, some of them even become the
popular words. This phenomenon is called old word in new using. In the process of
old word in new using, it often involves the conceptual blending. The old word gains
a new meaning through the conceptual blending and gets the opportunity of being
used in the daily communication again. And we can understand this in detail through
the examples of the idioms which contain the word / nu35/ (奴 Slave).
The so-called / nu35/ (奴 Slave) refers to the crowd who work for slave
owners without paying and have no personal freedom in the ancient slave society
originally (Ci Hai Dictionary, 2009). Everything of them, even including their life, is
the private property of the slave owners, and slave owners can kill them or sell them
freely. Later, with the Chinese society entered the feudal society, slaves as a social
class disappeared. Although the slave class had disappeared, the relationship of
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exploiting and being exploited still exist as a major social relation. So the word / nu35/
(奴 Slave) change into refer to the people economically exploited and oppressed. This
is a slight change of meaning, and the core meaning of "oppression, exploitation and
lack of freedom" has not changed.
With the founding of The People's Republic of China in 1949, China
has come into the socialist society. The exploiters as a social class was completely
wiped out, the whole society does not exist the relationship of exploiting and being
exploited. A new equal relationship between people is set up. Since then, the referred
entity of the word / nu35/ (奴 Slave) disappeared completely, and the word / nu35/ (奴
Slave) became an old word in Chinese, it only mentioned by talk about some
historical event.
However, with the development of society, the word / nu35/ (奴 Slave)
is given a new using through the conceptual blending, and re-enter the modern
Chinese vocabulary system to participate in the daily language communication in a
new look. So a series of idioms that contain the word / nu35/ (奴 Slave) has formed,
such as:
/faŋ35nu35/(房奴 House slave),
/tʂʰə55nu35/(车奴 Car slave),
/kʰa214nu35/(卡奴 Card slave) ,
/luŋ214nu35/(垄奴 Monopoly slaves),
etc…
At here, the author will take the idiom /faŋ35nu35/(房奴 House slave) as
an example to conduct a detailed analysis.
As we know, with the process of reform and opening up, Chinese
society has undergone tremendous changes, particularly the economic field. The
previous national housing allocation welfare system no longer exists. People need to
purchase house. And this will spend a lot of family income. As the process of
urbanization, the sharp increase in urban population cause a lot of purchase demand of
house, and the house prices has a straight up. Many families had to use mortgage
loans to buy house, and they often need to take two to three decades to repay
mortgage loans. So a new idiom is formed to refer to this phenomenon, that is
/faŋ35nu35/(房奴 House slave).
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/faŋ35nu35/(房奴 House slave) refers to someone under the pressure of
paying back housing mortgage loan. House slaves loan money from the back to buy
house. They should spend 20-30 years of the golden period of life to pay off the loan.
Every year, they should use 40-50% annual income to pay for the loan. This Give
them a great deal of economic pressure.
This conceptual blending involves two input spaces. The elements
involved in the input space I are as follows: slaveholders, slave, slavery, freedom, control
and be controlled, ownership, etc… In this frame, the slaveholders and slave are the
persons in real world. The role of slaveholders is owner and the slave is owned by the
slaveholders. The slaveholders control the Personal freedom of the slave. The whole
relationship illustrates as follows:
Enslave action
Sending
Slaveholders
Accepted
be controlled
Slave
Control
The elements are involved in the Input space II are as follows: house
buyers, house, mortgage loans, mortgages, ownership, bank (i.e. mortgage loan
providers), etc… In this frame, the buyer is the owner of house, and the house is owned
by the buyer. However, due to have not enough money to pay off the house, the house
buyer has to loan from the bank and guaranty the house to the bank. In this process,
house ownership has been legally transferred from the hand of buyer into the hand of
bank, which banks became the legal owner of the house. Buyers have to repay the
mortgage loan to redeem the house ownership from the bank. In the process of
redemption of house ownership, buyer must repay part of the mortgage loan at a fixed
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time in each month. This greatly limits the economic freedom of the house buyer. And
the whole process illustrates as follows:
Owner
Owner
House buyer
House
Bank
Mortgage
Be owned
Be owned
Guaranty
(House buyer：Ownership of house)
(Bank：Ownership of mortgage )
Loan
(House buyer：mortgage)
(Bank：Ownership of house)
Banks recover loans and return house ownership
House buyers pay off mortgage, redeem ownership of house
The house buyer loses economic freedom
In this frame, the main relationship is the lending relationship between the
house buyer and the bank, and the houses just acts as collateral. But the purchase of
house is the purpose of the loan. If do not buy a house, there is no need loans, it will
not have a mandatory debt repayment behavior relationship, and of course, will not
lose the economic freedom.
Through the above analysis of the two input space can know that there
are certain common characteristics between the input space I and input space II.
Namely, both of them contains owner, be owned, ownership and limit behavior, etc…
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which constitutes the third space: generic space. These elements which project onto
generic space provide a realistic to the cross-space mapping. The conceptual blending
net-work of this idioms shows in the following diagram:
Possessor
Theme
Procedure
(Goal/Means)
Role: Mortgagor
Role: Owner
Identity of Owner
Identity of Master
Role: Property
Role: Property
Identity of House
Identity of Slave
Goal: Ownership
Goal: Service
Means: Mortgage
Means: Strict control
Identity of Slave – Role Mortgagor
Identity of Master – Role Property
Means: Strict control
Goal: Ownership
Lack of Freedom
Conceptual blending diagram of idiom”/faŋ35nu35/(房奴)”
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And in this conceptual blending, the slave of the input space I and the
house buyers of the input space II form the first cross-space mapping. They share the
features of restricted and lack of freedom. The difference is that the slaves have no
personal freedom and dominated by slaveholders completely; but the house buyers
only lost the economic freedom because of repaying bank loans, and the freedom of
the other aspects have not be restricted. Furthermore, the slaveholder of the input
space I and the house of the input space II form the second cross-space mapping.
They play the same role of restricting others in the respective frames. But the slave
owners can dominate slaves completely, also include the life-and-death power.
However the house itself cannot dominate the house buyer, the entity that can restrict
the house buyer is the debt that due to the purchase of house. From this sense, the
entity that restricts the homebuyer’s economic freedom is not the house but the debt.
The conceptual blending compresses the two pairs of key relationship and discard
inconsequential information to form an emergent structure that is different with the frame
structures of the two input spaces in the blending space to form a new concept, that is the new
idiom/faŋ35nu35/( 房 奴 House slave). In the input space I, the slave is dominated
completely, but when it is projected into the blending space, it becomes a role of a partial
restricted. In the blending space, the conceptual blending has inherited the future of
restricted and abandoned the relationship of owner and owned of the input space I.
When this idiom is generated, the conceptual blending is not end. The
emergent structure of blending space will have a completion and elaboration
according to its own logic and form a new cognitive model. And this new cognitive
model will be widely used in other entities, and form series of similar idiom.
For example, when this new cognitive model is used in the event of
buying a car through mortgage loan, it generated the new idiom /tʂʰə55nu35/(车奴 Car
slave). Because people should repay the mortgage loan monthly and loss the
economic freedom. And when this new cognitive model is used in the event of using
credit card, it generated the new idioms /kʰa214nu35/(卡奴 Card slave). People often
will bear a high debt because of excessive overdraft and loss the economic freedom.
Etc…
5.1.10 The art in Chinese expression: the conceptual blending under homophone
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and polysemy
After a development of thousands of years, Chinese has a high artistic
expression. At the same time, Chinese people often prefer artistic expression to
communicate. The artistic expression in Chinese idioms related economy mainly
display in the following aspects:
5.1.10.1 The conceptual blending under polysemy
Most of the Chinese characters have many meanings, and these
polysemous words often give people a semantic reverie. When first heard the word,
we will feel that it has such a meaning, but after a careful thinking, we will find that it
express another meaning. The most typical Chinese idiom related economy is
/jyɛ51kuaŋ55ʦu35/(月光族 Moonlight tribe). In Chinese, the character/jyɛ51/(月) has
two meanings, the first is "moon", and the second is "month"; at the same, the
character/kuaŋ55/(光) also has two meanings, the first is " light ", and the second is
“over, nothing left”. The meaning of the compound word /jyɛ51kuaŋ55/(月光) which is
made up by the characters of /jyɛ51/( 月 ) and /kuaŋ55/( 光 ) in “Modern Chinese
Dictionary” is “the light of the moon”. This meaning selects the meaning “moon”of
the character/jyɛ51/(月) and the meaning " light " of the character/kuaŋ55/(光) to
compose. However, in the practical language application, through the re-selection of
the semantic, people select the meaning "month" of the character/jyɛ51/(月) and the
meaning“over, nothing left” of the character/kuaŋ55/(光) to make a new blending, so
as to form a new meaning of “monthly runs out, nothing left”. Thus form a new idiom
/jyɛ51kuaŋ55ʦu35/(月光族 Moonlight clan) through a conceptual blending. It refers to a
crowd who spends all income every month and has no savings. The
/jyɛ51kuaŋ55ʦu35/(月光族 Moonlight tribe) is generally young generation and do not
care about money. They have knowledge, intelligent, capable, but income is not high.
The reason of appearing /jyɛ51kuaŋ55ʦu35/(月光族 moonlight tribe), on
one hand is the change of consumer attitudes of the Chinese younger generation.
Different with the diligence and thrift consumer attitudes of their parents, they like to
pursue fashion, buy pretty dresses. They do not care about the money as long as
happy to eat, dress nice. Spending money not only to express their mad love of
material life, but also is their power to earn money. Chinese elder generation
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generally believe that can save money better than can earn money. So they have a
deep hatred and resentment for the behavior of the /jyɛ51kuaŋ55ʦu35/( 月 光 族
moonlight tribe). However, the /jyɛ51kuaŋ55ʦu35/(月光族 moonlight tribe) believe that
will spend can earn more money. On the other hand, In contemporary China, a lot of
people who become /jyɛ51kuaŋ55ʦu35/(月光族 moonlight tribe) are not a voluntary
choice, but are forced by the reality of the economic situation. This group of people
has lower income. Facing the rising social consumption, get rid of daily expenses,
their monthly income almost depleted. Every month, they are unable to save money.
Facing this economic dilemma, a lot of people could do nothing but self-deprecating
that they are /jyɛ51kuaŋ55ʦu35/(月光族 moonlight tribe).
5.1.10.2 The conceptual blending under homophone
Such idioms generally select some homophone characters to participate
in the conceptual blending. Although these word have the same speech sounds, but
their meanings are different or even opposite. In Chinese idioms related to economy,
the most typical example is the idiom /fu51wəŋ55/(负翁—富翁). /fu51wəŋ55/(富翁)
refers to a person with a lot of wealth; however, /fu51wəŋ55/(负翁) refers to a person
with heavily indebted. In the conceptual blending of this idiom, it mainly use the
character /fu51/(负) and /fu51/(富) have the same speech sounds but their meanings are
opposite. /fu51/( 富 ) means rich,and /fu51/( 负 ) means owe money. So the two
/fu51wəŋ55/ have the same speech sounds but opposite meaning. In this idiom, it uses
the homonyms to participate in the conceptual blending artfully to form a semantic
double entender, so as to achieve a humorous effect of expression. Of course, this
idiom also reflects the people’s ridicule of the widening gap between the rich and the
poor, and the underlying people's lives become more and more difficult. This gives us
a sense of cynicism and makes interesting reading.
5.1.10.3 Semantic reinterpretation and conceptual blending
Chinese is a character-based language. Almost every character can be
interpreted its meaning individually. This provides a new perspective for the
conceptual blending in Chinese idioms, and that is the re-analysis of the semantic or
called semantic reinterpretation. Such idioms often select inherent word or phrase,
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and then re-interpret every character of these words or phrases, and form a new
meaning
through
conceptual
blending.
The
most
typical
example
is
/pai35ku214ʨiŋ55/(白骨精).
/pai35ku214ʨiŋ55/(白骨精) originally is a name of a female demon who
is insidious and good at camouflage in the novel “Xi You Ji”. But later, by a
reinterpreting of the characters /pai35/(白), /ku214/(骨) and /ʨiŋ55/(精) in the word
/pai35ku214ʨiŋ55/(白骨精), the character /pai35/(白) is reinterpreted as white-collar
workers, the character/ku214/(骨) is reinterpreted as the backbone of the business, and
the character/ʨiŋ55/( 精 ) is reinterpreted as elite. So as to form a new idiom
/pai35ku214ʨiŋ55/(白骨精),referring to a spike groups of women in the workplace, they
have the identity of the white-collar workers, the backbone of the business and social
elite. They are the indispensable beauty scenery in modern life and the bright colors in
the gray workplace. They think like a man, act like a gentlewoman, smiling like a
baby, work like a slave. They often have subtle observation on the environment and
superior adaptation ability. When have turned unfavorable, they can quickly balance
and harmony to turn the tide.
Thanks to the character-standard feature of Chinese, the use of
semantic reinterpretation to conduct the conceptual blending can complete
successfully. The Chinese characters have the feature of one character has one sound,
and one character may has many meaning. This feature provides unlimited
possibilities for semantic reinterpretation. And it also provides adequate conditions
and guarantees for the conceptual blending.
5.1.11 Conceptual blending and idiom interpretation
Through the analysis of the previous sections, we can know clearly that
the conceptual blending is the method of the formation of idiom’s figurative meaning.
In the process conceptual blending, a lot of semantic elements are regrouping and
innovation, so as to form a figurative meaning which completely different from the
literal meaning of the idiom. In order to interpret the meaning of idiom, we e must not
rigidly adhere to the literal meaning of the idiom, and the best way is to make a
reverse analysis of the conceptual blending process which is the method of forming
the idiom’s figurative meaning. Only when we understand how the figurative meaning
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of idiom is formed by which elements through the conceptual blending, we can really
understand the figurative meaning of idiom, so as to achieve the purpose of using
idiom properly.
5.2 Frame-shifting and semantic leaps in idiom
As mentioned earlier, idiom is the fixed language expression unit
which is formed in the process of long-term using of language and it means something
other than the literal meanings of its individual words. Therefore, the idiom is not the
inherent expression unit of language, but has a complicated formation process. And
the process of its formation has a series of semantic operations. In the beginning of
the formation, these language units have their own inherent literal meaning. When
people use these linguistic units in daily communication, they give these units
figurative meaning which are more expressive than the literal meaning through the
cognitive method of conceptual blending. From then on, these units have the dual
semantics, namely literal meaning and figurative meaning. When the figurative
meanings of these language units are immobilized, these language units became the
idioms. The process of formation of idiom is essentially a semantic leap, and the
process is a process of frame-shifting, and the conceptual blending is the method
achieving the semantic leaps and frame-shifting.
5.2.1 Figurative meaning and frame-shifting
Giving a certain language unit a figurative meaning through the
conceptual blending will inevitably lead to frame-shifting. In the original framework,
the element which is selected to participate in the meaning construction is the literal
meaning of these linguistic units. In this frame, figurative meaning is entirely useless.
Only when leap out of the existing semantic frame, and shift to a new semantic frame,
the figurative meaning will be selected to participate in the meaning construction, so
as to achieve the value in the semantic construction. Here, let us take the idiom
/ʨin55fan51wan214/(金饭碗 Golden rice bowl) as an example. Its literal meaning is an
apparatus, which is forged by gold, uses to hold rice. This literal meaning involves a
food apparatus framework. In this framework, involving all kinds of food apparatus,
application object and so on; such as bowls, plates, pots, rice, dishes, eating, etc… In
this framework, each word has its referent entity. The definition of the meaning of
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each word is based on this frame. Once leave this frame, the meaning of these word
cannot be clearly defined and categorization. But when people give the language unit
/ʨin55fan51wan214/( 金 饭 碗 Golden rice bowl) a figurative meaning through the
conceptual
blending
in
the
daily
language
using,
the
language
unit
/ʨin55fan51wan214/(金饭碗 Golden rice bowl) has a semantic frame-shifting. The
figurative meaning of /ʨin55fan51wan214/(金饭碗 Golden rice bowl) is that refers to a
job that has excellent pay. This figurative meaning obviously does not fit the original
frame. The referent of figurative meaning is job, which involves another semantic
frame, which is the frame of the work. In this frame, it involves work, workers, salary,
workplace, job content, the nature of the work, and so on. Only implanted them in the
frame of the work, them can be cross-referenced and defined to each other. Leave this
frame will be hard to give an accurate definition.
5.2.2 Frame-shifting and reorganization of the semantic system
Giving a certain language unit a figurative meaning through the
conceptual blending will let this language unit is implanted into a new semantic frame,
and this will lead to a semantic adjustment within the semantic system inevitably.
Because that before the formation of the figurative meaning of the idiom, the
language has already exists the inherent unit which expresses the same meaning with
the figurative meaning of the idiom. After the formation of the figurative meaning of
idiom, there exists a situation that the idiom and the inherent unit express the same
meaning. This violates the economic mechanism of language. In order to comply with
the economic mechanism, the idiom and the inherent unit will adjust the semantics
through a semantic competition. As mentioned previously, both the idiom
/ʨin55fan51wan214/(金饭碗 Golden rice bowl) and the phrase /kau55ɕin55tʂi35wuei51/(高
薪职位 High-paying jobs) refer to a job that has excellent pay. After both of them
adjusting the semantics through a semantic competition, they will be used in different
field. As we know, in nowadays, the idiom/ʨin55fan51wan214/(金饭碗 Golden rice
bowl) is generally used in spoken language, literary works, news reports, and so on,
implying an informal means; however, the phrase/kau55ɕin55tʂi35wuei51/(高薪职位
High-paying jobs) is generally used in laws, regulations, government documents, and
so on, reflecting a solemn.
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5.2.3 The cognitive and cultural orientation in frame-shifting
The conceptual blending is the method to achieve the frame-shifting
and semantic leaps in idiom. As mentioned before, cognitive model provides a
guiding for the conceptual blending, and this guiding become a kind of reality induced
by the cultural model eventually. In other words, cognitive and cultural model play a
very important role in the whole process of conceptual blending. Frame-shifting,
which achieve based on the conceptual blending, has a inextricably linked with the
cognitive and cultural model naturally. Semantics shifts from one frame to another
frame, the participation of cognition and culture cannot be ignored. Based on this, it
can be said that cognition and culture is the induced factors of the frame-shifting. For
example, the idiom /ʂu214ʦu35/(鼠族 The mouse tribe), its literal meaning is that refers
to the mice in the real world. However, through a conceptual blending, it is given a
figurative meaning, referring to a group of people who live in some of the 1,374 civil
air defense shelters beneath the city having low income, and no money to live in
better house. The literal meaning of this idiom involves the animals frame, but the
figurative meaning involves the social crowd frame. The semantics shift from the
animals frame to the social crowd frame, the cognition and culture have played a role
of induction and lubrication. Only when we know about the social status and
economic conditions of the migrant workers in the cities of China, as well as the
similarity between basements and rat holes, we can understand and grasp the frameshifting.
5.2.4 The realization of frame-shifting: semantic leaps
Semantic leaps are not a linguistic term in the strict sense, but a
linguistic phenomenon in which the process of language using are caught by the
conceptual blending under the guiding of cognition and culture. The semantic leaps in
idioms mainly refer to the semantics of idiom shift from literal meaning to figurative
meaning. The figurative meaning of idiom cannot analyze from the literal meaning
through the traditional methods, because this is a non-compositional phenomenon.
From the literal meaning to figurative meaning, there is no slow transition, but a direct
leap. Sometimes, it is hard to find the contact between the literal meaning and
figurative meaning. Although, sometimes there exists some contact between the literal
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 105
meaning and figurative meaning, but the relevance is not so obvious. For example, the
idiom /niu35ʂi51/, its literal meaning is that refers to the market which sale and
purchase cattle. However, through a conceptual blending, it is given a figurative
meaning, referring to the stock market condition that generally bullish and has a
longer duration soared. It is very difficult to find the contact between the literal
meaning and figurative meaning of this idiom. It is a Semantic leap completely. It is
difficult for us to departure from the meaning of the market which sale and purchase
cattle to get the meaning of the stock market condition that generally bullish and has a
longer duration soared through the traditional method of semantic analysis. The
generation of this semantics is a non-compositional process. This process completes
through the conceptual blending, which form an emergent structure in the blending
space, and evoke the long-term memory factor. At last achieve the semantic leap
going through the completion and elaboration.
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6. Conclusion Discussion and suggestions
6.1 Conclusion
The object of the study in this paper is the Chinese new idioms related
to economy. In this study, the Chinese new idioms related to economy are divided
into five classes according to the involving objects and contents. From the
classification can know that the most involving objects and contents are the color and
spatial orientation. Various colors and different spatial orientation has been given a
variety of figurative meaning to refer to a variety of different economic phenomenon.
In addition, the most of the Chinese new idioms related to economy refer to the
economic phenomena which have the negative sense. These reflect the Chinese
people’s dissatisfaction with their own economic situation and helpless of inability to
change the status quo.
Based on the classification, this thesis uses the conceptual blending
theory to analyze the semantic formation methods and features of the Chinese new
idioms related to economy in detail. Through the analysis can know that the
conceptual blending and frame shifting is the main methods of the formation of
Chinese new idioms related to economy. Most of the Chinese new idioms related to
economy generate by forming the figurative meaning through the conceptual blending
and making the figurative meaning immobilized through a cognitive process of frame
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 107
shifting. The national cognitive models and cultural models play a very important role
in the conceptual blending which forms the idioms. The national cognitive model
provides a possibility to the conceptual blending and under the participation of the
nation cultural model, this possibility eventually become a reality, so as to form a lot
of idioms which contain unique national cultural connotation. So, in order to
understand these idioms accurately, do not only should to understand the conceptual
blending which is involved in the idioms but also should to know the cognitive
models and cultural models which promote the conceptual blending to be completed.
Additionally, this thesis uses the chaos linguistics theory to explore the
formation model of figurative meaning in Chinese idioms. Through the study can
know that the formation and stabilization of the idiom’s figurative meaning is a
typical dissipative structure model: the literal meaning is dissipating constantly and let
the semantic center shift from the literal meaning to the figurative meaning.
Finally, the thesis also discusses the cultural nature and cultural values
of the idioms. The idiom itself is a cultural phenomenon, is a popular culture and
mass culture which has distinctive national characteristics, societal characteristics and
era characteristics. Meanwhile, idioms are also rich in cultural values. Through the
idioms can know a lot of national cultural content.
6.2 Discussion
6. 2.1Dissipative structure: formation model of figurative meaning in
Chinese idioms
The generation of idiom is a process that the literal meaning is
dissipating constantly and entropy is increasing, causing the using frequency of the
literal meaning closes to the critical point of the disappearance infinitely; at the same
time, the using frequency of the figurative meaning is increasing continuously, the
entropy is reducing, so as to replace the literal meaning become the semantic center.
In this process, in the non-linear area which is far from the inherent semantic
equilibrium point of literal meaning, the figurative meaning is gradually recognized
by the people using the language through exchanging energy with the outside world;
namely, being used in people's daily communication continuously. At the same time,
under the action of semantic fluctuations, the semantic of idiom break the balance
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state, leading the semantic of idiom from equilibrium to approximate equilibrium state,
then far away from the equilibrium state, and eventually led the semantic to have a
non - equilibrium disguise form. So that let the figurative meaning gradually replace
the main body status of the literal meaning and become the semantic center of idiom,
so as to form a new ordered semantic equilibrium point. The method which achieves
this process of shifting is the conceptual blending, and this process is essentially a
semantic leap and frame shifting and also a typical dissipative process. The model of
formation of new semantic center which take the figurative meaning as the core is a
typical dissipative structure model.
B : figurative meaning
A: literal meaning
★.Dissipative Structure Model
In the process of forming the figurative meaning, the literal meaning of the idiom is dissipative
constantly, and the entropy is increasing constantly; at the same time, the figurative meaning is being
used more frequent, the entropy is gradually reduced. These result the semantic center of idioms shifted
from the literal meaning(node A) to the figurative meaning(node B), and form a new semantics
center(node B) ultimately.
In the dissipative process of semantics of idiom, it involves a series of
chaotic operation. Firstly, the generation of figurative meaning of idiom is a result of
internal random and external disturbance. The dissipative process of literal meaning is
essentially a semantic competition between the literal meaning and figurative meaning,
and it also a process of semantic system from equilibrium to equilibrium of breaking
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
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and then to a new equilibrium. Of course, the equilibrium of semantics is only
momentary, and the approximate equilibrium is the normality of semantics system.
And the semantic fluctuation is the mechanism which to maintain the approximate
equilibrium of semantics. And all aspects of above will be discussed in detail in the
following sections.
6. 2.1.1 Internal random and external disturbance: the formation of idiom’s
figurative meaning
The formation of idiom’s figurative meaning is the result of internal
random and external disturbance. The so-called internal random refers that only from
the aspect of semantic changes and development, the generation of figurative meaning
has the randomness. A certain language unit can form a figurative meaning like this,
and also can form a figurative meaning like that; a certain figurative meaning can be
given to this language unit, and also can be given to that language unit. The so-called
external disturbance refers to the guiding role of ethnic cultural models and cognitive
models in the process of forming the idiom’s figurative meaning. In many of these
possibilities, under the role of cultural models and cognitive models, there is only one
possibility has become a reality ultimately. Such as: the black color represents illegal
in Chinese, but represents noble in Lolo (Yi) language; the red color represents
auspicious and happiness, but represents warning in English; to represent good
fortune, Chinese select the dragon, but Thai select the elephant; to represent the
financial arrangements given by a company to an important employee in order to
influence them to stay with the company, Chinese select Gold chains, but English
select Gold handcuffs; etc…
6.2.1.2The equilibrium and equilibrium of breaking: A semantic competition
in the formation process of figurative meaning
The figurative meaning of idiom is formed through conceptual
blending. The key that the conceptual blending can be achieved is to build the
corresponding mental spaces; and then, extracting the information, which is in line
with a particular context, from the long-term memory knowledge characterization to
form emergent structure in the blending space, in order to achieve discourse online
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understanding. And form a new concept eventually. The new concept which is formed
through the conceptual blending is the figurative meaning of idiom. At an early stage
of generation, the figurative meaning of idiom has randomness and instability, so its
development will have chaos.
Language is an open and non-self-contained equilibrium system. When
the figurative meaning of idiom has generated, the language expression adds new
alternative forms. This situation will inevitably break the internal semantic
equilibrium of language and lead to a semantic competition. Through semantic
competition, the units of language will have a semantic adjustment and redistribution,
so as to achieve new semantic equilibrium to maintain the stability and vitality of the
language system.
In the semantic competition, the figurative meaning and the literal
meaning will have a competition firstly. Thanks to more expressive and attractive, the
figurative meaning often will become the winner in the competition, showing a very
strong vitality. When people refer to an idiom, the first thought in the brain is its
figurative meaning. For example, when people refer the idiom /tʰiɛ214fan51wan214/(铁
饭碗 Iron rice bowl), people will first think of its figurative meaning: refers to a job
which is stable and do not have to worry about income. Only in particular contexts,
such as a real iron rice bowl or a picture is in front of them, etc… people will think of
the literal meaning of iron rice bowl. In other words, the literal meaning of the idiom
will be used only in special contexts. And the use of the scope and frequency of
figurative meaning will be more than the frequency of literal meaning using.
In addition, the figurative meaning of idiom will have a semantic
competition with the inherent language unit which expresses the same meaning with
the figurative meaning of idiom. In this kind of semantic competition, different idioms
often will lead to a different competition result.
The first situation is the figurative meaning of idiom win completely;
and its using frequency is much higher than the using frequency of inherent language
unit. The inherent language unit is seldom used. For example, when the idiom
/ɕia51kaŋ214/(下岗 Down from the post) is generated, it is applied to a variety of
occasions, such as legal instruments, government documents, news reports or literary
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
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works, etc… At the same time, the inherent language unit /ʂi55jei51/（失业 lose job）
is seldom used.
The second situation is the idiom and inherent unit will be used in
different areas or contexts. For example, the idiom /tʂʰao214jou35jy35/(炒鱿鱼 Fry
squid) is often used in spoken language, literary works, as well as news reports, etc…
however, in the formal legal instruments or government documents, it will use the
inherent language unit /ʨiɛ214pʰin51 /. In other word, the idiom and the inherent
language unit will have a complementary distribution state in this situation.
The third situation is that the idiom and the inherent language unit are
evenly matched in the semantic competition. Which one will be used will depend on
the preferences of language user. For example, the idiom / xei55 ʂi51ʨiao55ji51/(黑市交
易 Black market trade) and the inherent language unit /fei55fa214 ʨiao55ji51/(非法交易
Illegal trade) can be freely replaced each other. The language user can use anyone of
them freely.
6. 2.1.3 Overall grasp: comprehension of figurative meaning in Chinese
idioms
The traditional language analysis often uses the compositional
viewpoint. Under the preference of compositional viewpoint, the linguists believe that
the meaning of a language unit is decided by the meaning of each component of this
language unit and the way of their combination. But in reality, the meanings of many
language units are formed by the way of non-composition. These non-compositional
language units cannot use the traditional method of linear analysis to analyze them.
This requires us to examine them through a way of overall grasp.
The figurative meaning of idiom is formed through a noncompositional process. We cannot gain the figurative meaning of idiom through the
analysis of each component’s meaning and the way of their combination. Because that
the figurative meaning of idiom is formed through the conceptual blending which
blend the effective information from the input spaces and evoke related knowledge
representation in long-term memory, so as to form an emergent structure in the
blending space. The all kinds of related information that participate in the formation
of emergent structure form a whole through a method of non-compositional blending.
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Therefore, in order to understand and grasp the figurative meaning of idiom correctly,
we must take all kinds of related information as a whole, and use the overall grasp
method to analyze them. For example, the idiom /ʨin55ʐoŋ35ja55pʰian51/(金融鸦片
Financial opium), this idiom is composed by the elements /ʨin55ʐoŋ35/( 金 融
Financial ) and /ja55pʰian51/(鸦片 opium). The element /ʨin55ʐoŋ35/(金融 Financial )
refers to the circulation of value, and the element /ja55pʰian51/(鸦片 opium) refers to a
natural anesthetic inhibitors. It will be difficult for us to gain the figurative meaning
of the idiom /ʨin55ʐoŋ35ja55pʰian51/( 金 融 鸦 片 Financial opium), which refers
financial derivatives that using a series of financial terms or virtual concept to confuse
enterprise and make it bogged down into financial trap inextricably, through the way
of analyzing the meaning of each element and the way of their combination. Only
using the method of overall grasp and knowing about the common feature between
financial derivatives and opium, that is both of them will bring loss to people, we can
understand the figurative meaning of this idiom completely.
6. 2.2Cultural nature and cultural value of Chinese idioms
6. 2.2.1 Cultural nature of idiom
Language, as a carrier of the information and culture, itself is a cultural
phenomenon, being a part of the whole culture of an ethnic group, and the language is
also a special culture which has a system of itself (Zhang, 1998). The idiom as fixed
expression units of language, which formed in the process of language development,
is the products of national cognition, and is the cultural aggregations. So, the idiom
itself is also a cultural phenomenon naturally, and the idiom also has its own structure
and form.
The idiom is not only a cultural phenomenon, but also a popular
culture and mass culture. Once generated, the idioms will be widely used in daily
communication. Whether is adult or child, male or female, and regardless of the
cultural level of a person, etc…will not become the factors that affect people's use of
idioms. Because the idioms have the concise and comprehensive expression effect,
they become people’s favorite using objects in everyday language communication.
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
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Using idioms in communication, especially using new idioms, do not
only reflect the speaker’s humorous and language skills, but also a sign of following
the trend of the times. Being able to use idioms accurately and extensively indicate
that the speaker maintains a consistent trend and pace of the times and being able to
follow the language development trends. Conversely, if a person always uses the
obscure language units while is not familiar with or even cannot understand new
idioms exactly, indicates that this person cannot keep up the pace with the
development of times, and without knowledge for the development of language.
6. 2.2.2 Hierarchical and self-similarity: Cultural value of idioms
There is a theory in chaos linguistics called hierarchical and selfsimilarity. It refers that the part often has the same or similar features with the whole,
namely the self-similarity between the part and whole. Therefore, the part contains a
lot of information of the whole. If we understand the part we can also know about
large amount of information of the whole. (Zhang, 2004).
As mention before (see chapter 1), language is the easily noticeable
characteristic of an ethnic group and a cognitive product of an ethnic group. As the
most general and expressive unit of a language, the idioms show the cognition and
wisdom of an ethnic group at whenever and wherever possible. As an accumulation of
an ethnic group’s culture, the language contains almost all culture information which
is created by an ethnic group from ancient times to now. Therefore, we can
understand and interpret an ethnic group’s culture through the language of that ethnic
group. Furthermore, we also can find the cultures, which are created by an ethnic
group in a certain historical period and then disappeared with the development of
history, from the language of that ethnic group. This is so-called the cultural value of
language.
The idioms as a part of the overall national culture, we can gain a lot of
culture information through the study of idioms due to the part contains much
information of the whole. Through Chinese idioms related to economy we can know
about a lot of Chinese cultural information.
Such as:
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The
idiom
/noŋ35min35koŋ/(
农
民
工
Farmer-worker),
/Pei214pʰiau55ʦu35/(北漂族 North drift race), /xu51pʰiau55ʦu35/ (沪漂族 Hu drift race),
/kuaŋ214pʰiau55ʦu35/ (广漂族 Guang drift race) reflect that after Implementing the
reform and opening policy, the Chinese government relaxed controls on population
movement, and a large number of migrant workers can freely go to work everywhere
of the country.
The idiom /li214nu35/ (礼奴 Gift slave) reflects the culture of human
intercourse in Chinese society. China is a big favor country since ancient times and
pay attention to reciprocity. In each festival, people will send gifts to relatives and
friends, and when relatives or friends have ceremonial occasion, people also have to
give gifts. This will cost a lot of money.
The idiom /kʰa214nu35/(卡奴 Card slave), /tʂʰə55nu35/(车奴) reflect that
Over-consuming awareness is become the popularity in current Chinese society.
The idiom / ly51sə51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/(绿色经济绿色经济 Green economy), /
ly51sə51 tʂʰan214pin214/(绿 色 产品 Green products), / ly51sə51ɕiau55fei51/( 绿 色消 费
Green consumption), / ly51sə51ʂəŋ55tʂʰan214/( 绿 色 生 产 Green production), /
ly51sə51kuŋ55tʂaŋ214/( 绿 色 工 厂 Green Factory) reflect the enhancement of
environmental awareness of Chinese society, and people pay more and more attention
to environmental protection.
Etc…
6.3 suggestions
The Chinese new idioms are a complex and extensive study object.
Due to limited space, this thesis only selects the Chinese new idioms related to
economy as the object of study and mainly studies them from the semantic aspect. For
the study of Chinese new idioms, there are many aspects worth studying. In addition
to Chinese new idioms related to economy, the Chinese new idioms related to politics
is another class which is worth studying. Through the study of the idioms related to
politics can pry out the various changes in the political sphere of China in the half a
century, and also can pry out the change of people’s status and people’s political
status quo. In addition, the syntax features, pragmatic features and cultural
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 115
connotations also have high research value. Current research in these areas is still
relatively weak, and need people with lofty ideals to study.
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Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 122
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Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 123
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APPENDIX:
Interpretation of China new idioms related to economy
铁饭碗
/tʰiɛ214fan51wan214/
铁饭碗指稳定的工作，不用担心收入问题。
Gloss: tʰiɛ214---------fan51--------wan214
iron ----------rice ---------bowl
Free translation: Iron rice bowl
Meaning: Iron rice bowl refers to a job which is stable and
do not have to worry about income.
金饭碗
/ʨin55fan51wan214/
金饭碗指收入很高的工作。
Gloss: ʨin55-------fan51-------wan214
golden------rice-------- bowl
Free translation: Golden rice bowl
Meaning: Golden rice bowl refers to a job that has excellent
pay.
找饭碗
/tʂao214fan51wan214/
找饭碗指寻找工作。
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 124
Gloss: tʂao214-------fan51-----wan214
look for-----rice------ bowl
Free translation: Look for rice bowl
Meaning: Look for rice bowl means looking for job.
砸饭碗
/ʦa35fan51wan214/
砸饭碗指丢掉工作。
Gloss: ʦa35-------fan51-----wan214
break ----rice----- bowl
Free translation: Break rice bowl
Meaning: Break rice bowl refers to lose job.
抢饭碗
/ʨʰiaŋ214fan51wan214/
抢饭碗指抢别人的工作。
Gloss: ʨʰiaŋ214-----fan51-----wan214
grab -------rice ------bowl
Free translation: Grab rice bowl
Meaning: Grab rice bowl means grabs someone else's job.
炒鱿鱼
/tʂʰau214jou35jy35/
炒鱿鱼指被工作单位解聘。
Gloss: tʂʰao214------jou35jy35
fry---------- squid
Free translation: Fry squid
Meaning: Fry squid refers to a person who is dismissed by
the work unit.
软裁员
/ʐuan214ʦai35juan35/
软裁员指不直接解聘职工而是采取降低工资，减少福利
等手段迫使职工自己辞职从而得到裁员的目的。
Gloss: ʐuan214------ʦai35juan35
soft---------- layoffs
Free translation: Soft layoffs
Meaning: Soft layoffs refers to a phenomena that in the
process of layoff, in order to reduce labor disputes, the
corporation does not directly dismissing employees, but use
the means of reduce salary, swap jobs, change the work
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 125
place, etc… to forcing employees to take the initiative to
resign.
上岗
/ʂaŋ51kaŋ214/
上岗指获得工作。
Gloss: ʂaŋ51------kaŋ214
up-------post
Free translation: Up to post
Meaning: Refers to obtain job, or go to work on a post.
下岗
/ɕia51kaŋ214/
下岗指失去工作。
Gloss: ɕia51-------kaŋ214
down-----post
Free translation: Down from post
Meaning: Down from the post refers to lose job.
稳岗
/wen214kaŋ214/
指员工通过提高知识、技能等手段保住现有工作。
Gloss: wen214------kaŋ214
steady------post
Free translation: Steady post
Meaning: Steady post refers to employees maintain existing
jobs by improving knowledge, skills and other means.
黑色收入
/ xei55sɣ51ʂou55ʐu51/
黑色收入指通过非法渠道获得的收入，如贪污受贿，盗
窃等等。
Gloss: xei55-----------sə51---------ʂou55ʐu51
black--------color--------income
Free translation: Black income
Meaning: Refers to revenue gained through corruption,
bribery and other illegal means. In Chinese culture, black
means bad, and usually refers to things that cannot be made
public, so black income means income come from illegal
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 126
means and cannot be made public.
白色收入
/pai214sɣ51ʂou55ʐu51/
白色收入指正当的合法收入。
Gloss: pai214-------sɣ51---------ʂou55ʐu51
white----color--------income
Free translation: White income
Meaning: It refers to open and transparent income, and is
legitimate income.
灰色收入
/xuei55sɣ51ʂou55ʐu51/
灰色收入指介于合法收入和非法收入之间的收入，这些
收入往往没有正规的获得渠道，也未缴纳个人所得税。
Gloss: xuei55--------sə51----------ʂou55ʐu51
gray-------color---------income
Free translation: Gray income
Meaning: In China," black income" refers illegal income;
"white income" refers open and transparent income, and is
legitimate income; "gray income" is in between the two
incomes. The connotation of "Gray income" is very
complex, economic income such as royalties, moonlighting
income, the transfer of patent fees, and all called "gray
income". "Gray income" should be divided into two kinds,
one kind is neither legal nor reasonable income, indirect or
disguised a bribe, should be eliminated; a reasonable but
not normative income, should be regulated and
management. In Chinese culture, gray is not good, Gray
income means income do not come from good ways.
红利
/ xoŋ35li51/
红利一开始是指股份公司分给股票持有者的经济收入，
后来泛指人们从某事或某物中获得的好处。
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 127
Gloss: xuŋ35--------li51
red--------profit
Free translation: red profit
Meaning: At first, it refers to the profit that the listed
companies distribute to the shareholders that pursuant to the
Share during the distribution of profits; and nowadays, it
also refers to the benefit which is gained by people from a
certain thing.
黑心钱
/ xei55xin55ʨʰian35/
黑心钱指通过非法渠道获得的钱财。
Gloss: xei55--------xin55--------ʨʰian35
black------heart--------money
Free translation: Dirty money
Meaning: It refers to the all illegal income which comes
from any illegal means.
外快
/wai51kʰuai51/
外快指赚取的工资以外的收入。
Gloss: wai51--------kʰuai51
outside------income
Free translation: Outside income
Meaning: It refers to income other than normal wage
income.
捞外快
/lau55wai51kʰuai51/
捞外快指通过各种手段和方式赚取外快。
Gloss: lau55------wai51---------kʰuai51
gain-----outside-------income
Free translation: Gain outside income
Meaning: It refers to through a variety of ways to earn
money outside working hours.
Han Jianghua
低保
/ti55bau214/
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 128
低保指中国政府向无经济收入或收入特别低的人发放的
最低生活保障金，以确保其能维持正常生活。
Gloss: ti55----------bau214
lowest----- insurance
Free translation: Subsistence allowance
Meaning: Subsistence allowance refers to the allowance
which is provided to the people, who without income or
have very little income, by the Chinese government.
电子货币
/tian51ʦi214xuo51pi51/
电子货币是指用一定金额的现金或存款从发行者处兑换
并获得代表相同金额的数据，通过使用某些电子化方法
将该数据直接转移给支付对象，从而能够清偿债务。
Gloss: tian51ʦi214---------xuo51pi51
electronic------ currency
Free translation: Electronic currency
Meaning: Electronic currency refers to use cash or deposit
to obtain data which can represent the money same as the
cash or deposit from the issuer; transferring these data to
the payment object by using certain electronic methods can
achieve shopping ,paying off debt, etc…
一篮子货币
/ji51lan35ʦi214xuo51pi51/
一篮子货币指用于确定货币汇率的一系列参考外币。
Gloss: ji51-----lan35ʦi214------xuo51pi51
one------basket--------currency
Free translation: Basket of currencies
Meaning: Basket of currencies refers to a combination of a
set of foreign currency, which is used as a reference to set
foreign exchange.
洗钱
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
/ɕi214ʨʰian35/
M. A. (Linguistics) / 129
洗钱指通过一系列非法手段将一些非法的收入转换为表
面上看起来是合法的收入的现象。
Gloss: ɕi214---------------ʨʰian35
laundering--------money
Free translation: Money laundering
Meaning: Money laundering refers to a behavior that
disguises and conceals the source and nature of the illegal
income through various means，and makes it legalization
in the form.
7 时代/ 6 时代
/ʨʰi55ʂi35tai51/,
/liu51ʂi35tai51/
7 时代指美元与人民币 1:7 的时代，6 时代指美元与人
民币 1:6 的时代，这预示着中美经济关系进入一种全新
阶段。
Gloss: ʨʰi55-------ʂi35tai51 /
liu51--------ʂi35tai51
seven------ times
/
six----------times
Free translation: 7 times / 6 times
Meaning: 7 times / 6 times refers to the U.S. dollar against
the RMB exchange rate fell below 8 to 7 times and fell
below 7 times to 6 times, It is a Logo that marks China-US
economic relations have entered a new era.
活利贷
/xuo35li51tai51/
活利贷指银行针对购房贷款推出的一项较为灵活的还贷
方式。
Gloss: xuo35--------li51---------tai51
living-----interest-----loan
Free translation:
Meaning: Living interest loan refers to a more flexible loan
repayment mode which is provided to the house buyers by
the bank.
Han Jianghua
死账
/si214tʂaŋ51/
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 130
死账指一个企业的应收账款不能收回或收回的可能性很
小部分。
Gloss: si214---------tʂaŋ51
dead--------account
Free translation: Dead account
Meaning: Dead account refers to the receivables of a
enterprise, which cannot be recovered or recovered very
unlikely.
血汗钱
/ɕyɛ35xan51ʨʰian35/
血汗钱指通过辛勤劳动（尤其指体力劳动）赚来的钱。
Gloss: ɕyɛ35--------xan51-------ʨʰian35
blood-------sweat--------money
Free translation: Hard-earned money
Meaning: Hard-earned money refers to the money which is
earned through hard-working (especially refers to muscular
labor).
裸油价
/luo214jou35ʨia51/
裸油价指不含税费的油价。
Gloss: luo214-------jou35------ʨia51
naked--------oil--------price
Free translation: Naked oil price
Meaning: Naked oil price refers to the oil price excluding
taxes and other fees.
秒杀价
/miau214ʂa55ʨʰia51/
秒杀价指在限时时间里抢购特定的限量优惠商品，此类
产品通常优惠的幅度很大，抢购的人很多，可能几秒钟
就全部售完。故称之为“秒杀价”。
Gloss: miau214---------ʂa55--------ʨʰia51
second----------kill---------price
Free translation: Second kill price
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 131
Meaning: Second kill price refer to the price of buying a
particular goods in limited time; these goods often have
large range of preferential and usually sold out in a few
seconds.
跳楼价
/tʰiau51lou35ʨʰia51/
跳楼价指远低于商品价值的价格。
Gloss: tʰiau51--------lou35--------ʨʰia51
jump--------building----price
Free translation: Sale at breakdown
Meaning: Sale at breakdown refers to the price which is
much lower than the value of the goods.
天价
/tʰian55ʨʰia51/
天价指远远高出商品价值的价格。
Gloss: tʰian55-------ʨʰia51
sky---------price
Free translation: Sky price
Meaning: Sky price refers to a Price which is far higher
than the value of the goods
罚酒费
/fa35ʨiou214fei51/
罚酒费指凡卖酒的商户，即使没有违法违规经营行为，
也无一例外被酒类监督管理局处以莫名其妙的罚款。
Gloss: fa35--------ʨiou214--------fei51
amerce--------wine---------fee
Free translation: Wine amerce fee
Meaning: Wine amerce fee refers to fine of Punishing the
liquor traders even though the traders have no illegal
operation.
房奴
/faŋ35nu35/
房奴指由于收入低不能一次性付清购房款，只能选择贷
款买房，而后每年都要承受巨大的还款压力。人生的黄
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 132
金阶段都是在还款的压力中度过的人群。
Gloss: faŋ35---------nu35
house------slave
Free translation: House slave or mortgage slave
Meaning: House slave or mortgage slave refers to someone
under the pressure of paying back housing mortgage loan.
House slaves loan money from the back to buy house. They
should spend 20-30 years of the golden period of life to pay
off the loan. Every year, they should use 40-50% annual
income to pay for the loan. This Give themselves a great
deal of economic pressure
车奴
车奴指贷款买车，然后要花很长时间来还贷款的人群。
/tʂʰə55nu35/
Gloss: tʂʰə55--------nu35
car---------slave
Free translation: Car slave
Meaning: Car slave refers to someone under the pressure of
paying back car mortgage loan. Car slave loan money from
the back to buy car. They should spend many years of the
golden period of life to Pay off the loan.
卡奴
卡奴指大量使用信用卡透支消费，而自身的经济收入又
/kʰa214nu35/
无法偿还透支部分，从而导致自己陷入债务危机的人
群。
Gloss: kʰa214--------nu35
card--------slave
Free translation: Card slave
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 133
Meaning: Card slave refers to people, who use credit cards
or cash cards to do overdraft consumption, but their
monthly salary or income unable to pay off the overdraft
amount. Because of cannot pay off the overdraft, they need
to pay liquidated damages for financial institutions. At the
same time, they should pay revolving interest and other fee
to the financial institutions, so take on a heavy debt
码奴
码奴指在当代社会中，人们随时随地都需要记住很多密
/ma214nu35/
码，如银行卡，邮箱，电脑等的密码，从而需要花费大
量的精力。
Gloss: ma214----------nu35
code ---------slave
Free translation: Code slave
Meaning: Code slave, as the name suggests, is the slave of
the code. Nowadays, computer, mailbox, bank cards, etc…
all of these require a password, and all of these password
have different requirement. These result people who use
these things need to spend a lot of time and effort to
manage and remember these passwords, and may have
mental exhaustion, trance, and even have a very serious
psychological disorder frequently.
垄奴
垄奴一方面指在垄断性企业打工的人群，工作很辛苦可
/luŋ214nu35/
得到的报酬却很低；另一方面指别无选择只能购买垄断
企业产品的消费者。
Gloss: luŋ214---------------nu35
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 134
monopoly --------slave
Free translation: Monopoly slave
Meaning: Monopoly slaves on the one hand refer to people
who work in monopoly industries as the identity of
temporary workers, and they do a lot of work but gain a
little remuneration; on the other hand refers to consumers
who have no choice but to be forced to accept unequal
terms of consumption of the monopoly industries.
白奴
/pai214nu35/
白奴指虽然身为白领，工作稳定，收入不菲，但是却需
要支付很多固定的开销，从而承担巨大经济压力的人
群。
Gloss: pai214--------nu35
white------slave
Free translation: White slave
Meaning: White slave refers to the people who are the
white-collar, and have Stable job and valuable income, but
must be timed to pay off many loans to several fixed
creditors. So their economic pressure is very large.
礼奴
/li214nu35/
礼奴指每年需要花大量金钱在送礼上，而自己只能默默
承受。
Gloss: li214-------nu35
gift-------slave
Free translation: Gift slave
Meaning: It refers to people who should provide financial
support or unpaid services for some kind of virtual ways of
the world, and cannot resist, can only endure in silence.
夹心族
/ʨia214ɕin55ʦu35/
夹心族指在当今中国既需要赡养老人，又需要抚养小孩
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 135
的一群中年人，他们承受着巨大的经济压力。
Gloss: ʨia214ɕin55-------ʦu35
sandwich---------tribe
Free translation: Sandwich tribe
Meaning: Sandwich tribe refers to a generation that needs
to support for the elderly and raising children, they caught
in the middle like sandwiches. Their ages are between 30 to
55 years old. At the time, they should burden the living
expenses of three generations. Their economic burden is
very heavy.
啃老族
啃老族指当今中国年轻一代放弃工作的机会，呆在家里
/kʰən214lau214ʦu35/
靠父母养活，而且消费还很高。
Gloss: kʰən214--------lau214--------ʦu35
gnaw -----------old---------tribe
Free translation: Neet or gnaw old tribe
Meaning: It is also called "eat old people" or "near old
family". They are not cannot find a job, but take the
initiative to give up the opportunity of obtain employment,
stay idle at home, not only the basic necessities of life
depends on parents, and often have an expensive cost. They
often have an age between 23-30 years old.
啃楼族
啃楼族指当今中国一个特殊的人群，他们主要依靠倒卖
/ kʰən214lou35ʦu35/
房屋赚取差价，或将房屋出租而获得租金来维持自己的
经济收入。
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 136
Gloss: kʰən214--------lou35-------ʦu35
gnaw -----house------tribe
Free translation: Gnaw house tribe
Meaning: It refers to the people who obtain the economic
benefits in taking advantage of continuous surge housing
prices to reselling housing or go through the relevant
financial business.
蚁族
/ji214ʦu35/
“蚁族”，在这里并不是一种昆虫族群，而是“80 后”一个
鲜为人知的庞大群体——“大学毕业生低收入聚居群
体”。之所以将该群体名之为“蚁族”，是因为这个群体
和蚂蚁有许多相类似的特点：高智、弱小、群居。蚁族
是指没钱租房子，更没钱买房子，而住集体宿舍的人
群。是中国的第四大弱势群体。
Gloss: ji214---------ʦu35
ant ---------tribe
Free translation: Ant tribe
Meaning: Ant tribe is a vivid metaphor of the groups of
low-income college graduates who settle in a compact
community. As these low-income university graduates have
the same characteristics as ants, for example, they are weak,
gregarious and hard-working, they are called "ant clan".
Next to farmers, rural migrant workers and laid-off
workers, ant tribe is the fourth disadvantaged group in
Chinese society.
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
鼠族
/ʂu214ʦu35/
M. A. (Linguistics) / 137
鼠族指在城市的打工者由于收入低，不能租住条件较好
的房屋，只能租住在租金较低的地下室或防空洞里。
Gloss: ʂu214----------ʦu35
mouse------- tribe
Free translation: Mouse tribe
Meaning: The mouse tribe, known as the Shuzu, is thought
to number about 1 million and is well known for living in
some of the 1,374 civil air defense shelters beneath the
city。Low income, no money to live in better house.
蜗居族
蜗居族指由于经济收入低，不能卖面积较大的住房，全
/wo55ʨy55ʦu35/
家人只能住在很小的房子里。
Gloss: wo55--------ʨy55---------ʦu35
snail--------dwell---------tribe
Free translation: Snail dwell tribe
Meaning: Snail dwell tribe refers to a group of people living
in cramped housing. Because of low-income, they cannot
buy a large house, the whole family has to live in a cramped
housing, like snail Like a snail shrink in its carapace.
北漂族
北漂族指从全国各地到北京打工的人群，他们虽然在北
/pei214pʰiau55ʦu35/
京工作，但是他们没有当地的户籍，也没有自己的房
子，在这座城市里他们的生活飘忽不定，无法融入当地
社会，心理总会有一种挥之不去的孤独感。
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 138
Gloss: pei214---------pʰiau55--------ʦu35
Beijing---------drift----------tribe
Free translation: Drift tribe in Beijing
Meaning: This refers to a group of people who come from
all over the country to work in Beijing. They do not have
Beijing accounts, income is not high, and have no house,
living in rented accommodation, has a feeling of floating
around, all of them have knowledge, many people have a
master's or doctor's degree, and many of them working in
the entertainment industry, IT industry, etc…
沪漂族
/xu51pʰiau55ʦu35/
沪漂族指从全国各地到上海打工的人群，他们虽然在上
海工作，但是他们没有当地的户籍，也没有自己的房
子，在这座城市里他们的生活飘忽不定，无法融入当地
社会，心理总会有一种挥之不去的孤独感。
Gloss: xu51--------------pʰiau5-------ʦu35
Shanghai---------drift--------tribe
Free translation: Drift tribe in Shanghai
Meaning: This refers to a group of people who come from
all over the country to come to work in Shanghai. They do
not have Shanghai accounts, income is not high, and have
no house, living in rented accommodation, has a feeling of
floating around, all of them have knowledge, many people
have a master's or doctor's degree, and many of them
working in the entertainment industry, IT industry, etc…
广漂族
/kuaŋ214pʰiau55ʦu35/
广漂族指从全国各地到广州打工的人群，他们虽然在广
州工作，但是他们没有当地的户籍，也没有自己的房
子，在这座城市里他们的生活飘忽不定，无法融入当地
社会，心理总会有一种挥之不去的孤独感。
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 139
Gloss: kuaŋ214-------------pʰiau55--------ʦu35
Guangzhou--------drift--------tribe
Free translation: Drift tribe in Guangzhou
Meaning: This refers to a group of people who come from
all over the country to come to work in Guangzhou. They
do not have Guangzhou accounts, income is not high, and
have no house, living in rented accommodation, has a
feeling of floating around, all of them have knowledge,
many people have a master's or doctor's degree, and many
of them working in the entertainment industry, IT industry,
etc…
华漂族
/xua35pʰiau55ʦu35/
华漂族指从世界各国到中国工作的人群，他们在中国一
般没有自己的房屋，租住在集体公寓里，他们虽然有着
较高的学历，从事的都是高薪行业，但是漂泊在异国他
乡总有一种挥之不去的孤独感。
Gloss: xua35--------pʰiau55-------ʦu35
China--------drift---------tribe
Free translation: Drift tribe in China
Meaning: This refers to a group of people who come from
all over the word to come to work in China. They have no
house and family in China, living in rented accommodation,
has a feeling of floating around, all of them have
knowledge, many people have a master's or doctor's degree,
and many of them working in the entertainment industry, IT
industry, etc…
月光族
/jyɛ51kuaŋ55ʦu35/
月光族指将每月收入都花光，没有节余的人。
Gloss: jyɛ51----------------kuaŋ55-----------ʦu35
month/moon-------over/light---------tribe
Free translation: Moonlight tribe
Meaning: Live from paycheck to paycheck. Every month,
spend all income. The moonlight clan are generally young
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 140
generation, don't care about money, have knowledge,
intelligent, capable, but income is not high.
骗保族
/pʰian55pau214ʦu35/
骗保族指采用非法手段骗取保险赔偿的人群。
Gloss: pʰian55---------pau214----------ʦu35
defrauds -----insurance -------tribe
Free translation: Defrauds insurance money tribe
Meaning: Defrauds insurance money tribe refers to the
people who use illegal means to defraud insurance claims.
打烊族
/ta214jaŋ35ʦu35/
打烊族指专门在超市在快打样时去购物的人群。
Gloss: ta214jaŋ35---------ʦu35
closing----------- tribe
Free translation: Closing tribe
Meaning: Closing tribe refers to the people who go
shopping in the supermarket when the supermarket is about
to be closed. Before closed, a lot of merchandise will be
discounted, and to buy things at this time can save a lot of
money.
凤凰男
/fəŋ51xuaŋ35nan35/
凤凰男指出生农村贫寒家庭，通过自身努力获得了在城
市里的较好的生活条件的男性。
Gloss: fəŋ51xuaŋ35-------nan35
phoenix----------man
Free translation: Phoenix man
Meaning: It refers to a man who born in a poor family in
rural areas, and through their own efforts, they get a better
living environment in the city.
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
孔雀女
/kʰuŋ214ʨʰyɛ51ny214/
M. A. (Linguistics) / 141
孔雀女是指从小生活在城市富裕家庭，没有受过大挫折
的女生。
Gloss: kʰuŋ214ʨʰyɛ51------ny214
peacock-----------girl
Free translation: Peacock girl
Meaning: It refers to a girl who born in the city and have a
wealthy family and is well cared, and have not had any
setbacks.
负翁（富翁）
/fu51wəŋ55/(/fu51wəŋ55/)
负翁指欠了大量债务的男性。
Gloss: fu51-------wəŋ55
(fu51-------wəŋ55)
debt ------man
(rich-------man)
Free translation: Debt man
Meaning: Refer to the man who owns others debts.
负婆（富婆）
/fu51pʰo214/(/fu51pʰo214/)
负婆指欠了大量债务的女性。
Gloss: fu51------- pʰo214
(fu51------- pʰo214)
debt ------woman
(rich-------woman)
Free translation: Debt woman
Meaning: Refer to the woman who owns others debts.
倒爷
/tau214jɛ35/
倒爷指专门从事商品倒卖赚钱的人。
Gloss: tau214-----------jɛ35
reselling -------man
Free translation: Reselling man
Meaning: Reselling man refers to the people who use price
difference of the market to reselling commodity to make
money.
Han Jianghua
白骨精
/pai35ku214ʨiŋ55/
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 142
指职场中的一个特殊人群：白领身份，业务骨干，企业
精英。
Gloss: pai35 ---------ku214------------ʨiŋ55
white---------bone---------- female
Free translation: White bone female
Meaning: “/pai35ku214ʨiŋ55/ ”originally is a name of a
female demon who is insidious and good at camouflage in
the novel “Xi You Ji”. Nowadays it referring to a spike
group of women in the workplace, they have the identity of
the white-collar workers, the backbone of the business and
social elite.
金领
/ʨin55liŋ214/
金领指有着高学历、高智商的人群，他们不仅是相关行
业的尖端人才，而且还擅长经营管理。
Gloss: ʨin55-------liŋ214
gold-------collar
Free translation: Gold-collar
Meaning: Gold-collar refers to people who have a good
education background and have success a particular
industry. They have a good team coordination ability and
management ability. They are not only the top technical
expert, but also have the operation rights that can determine
the fate of white-collar.
白领
/pai35liŋ214/
白领指具有较高知识文化，从事脑力劳动的人。
Gloss: pai35--------liŋ214
white-------collar
Free translation: White-collar
Meaning: White-collar worker refers to the people who
have a higher educational background and work experience,
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 143
engage in mental work.
蓝领
/lan35liŋ214/
蓝领指从事体力劳动的工人。
Gloss: lan35-------liŋ214
blue-----collar
Free translation: Blue-collar
Meaning: Blue-collar worker refers to the workers who
obtain remuneration rely on manual labor.
橙领
/tʂəŋ35liŋ214/
橙领指在淘宝网上从事交易赚钱的人，因为淘宝的主题
色是橙色，故这些人被称为橙领。
Gloss: tʂəŋ35--------liŋ214
orange------collar
Free translation: Orange-collar
Meaning: Orange-collar worker refers to the people who
earn money through the Taobao network alliance. Taobao's
main color is orange, so the practitioners who is related to
Taobao is called Orange-collar worker.
灰领
/xuei55liŋ214/
灰领指那些既有较深的理论知识修养同时又具有较高的
动手能里的人群。
Gloss: xuei55-------liŋ214
gray--------collar
Free translation: Gray-collar
Meaning: Gray-collar worker refers to the people who have
a high level of knowledge, strong ability to innovate, strong
skills. They not only can engage in mental work, but also
can do hand-operation. They often wear gray uniforms, so
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 144
they are called Gray-collar worker.
股民
/ku214min35/
股民指从事股票买卖的人群。
Gloss: ku214---------min35
stock---------people
Free translation: Stock people
Meaning: Stock people refer to the people who have long
been engaged in stock trading.
彩民
/ʦai214min35/
彩民指长期购买彩票的人群。
Gloss: ʦai214---------------min35
lottery ticket------- people
Free translation: Lottery ticket people
Meaning: Lottery ticket people refer to the people who buy
lottery tickets in long-term.
付二贷（富二代）
/fu52ə51tai51/
(/fu52ə51tai51/)
付二贷指既要偿还购房贷款又要偿还购车贷款的人。
Gloss: fu52-----ə51-----tai51
pay--two------loan
(fu51-----ə51--------tai51)
(rich-- -second---
generation)
Free translation: Paying two loans people
Meaning: Refers to the people who should pay car purchase
loan and loan of buying house.
农民工
/noŋ35min35koŋ55/
农民工指在中国拥有农业户口但在城市打工的人群。
Gloss: noŋ35min35-------koŋ55
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 145
farmer---------worker
Free translation: Farmer-worker
Meaning: Farmer-worker refers to special populations in
mainland of China. They work in the city, but they do not
have urban household registration, their official capacity is
farmer, because they have rural household registration. Due
to China's long-term implementation of the separation of
urban and rural household registration system, in the past,
people who have rural household registration are called
farmer, and people who have urban household registration
are called worker.
房二代
/faŋ35ə51tai51/
房二代是指父母已经为其购买好住房，不用担心购房问
题的年轻一代。
Gloss: faŋ35---------ə51-----------tai51
house-------second------generation
Free translation: Second house generation
Meaning: Second house generation refer to the young
people who do not worry about the economic burden of
buying house, because their parents have bought house for
them.
短工一代
/tuan214kuŋ55ji35tai51/
短工一代指 80 后 90 后一代，他们崇尚自由，很难长时
间从事同一工作。一旦觉得现有工作妨碍了自由，他们
就会换工作。换工作对他们来说是家常便饭。
Gloss: tuan214------kuŋ55--------ji35--------tai51
short------work---------one--------generation
Free translation: Short work generation
Meaning: Refers to people who born in the nineties or
eighties of the last century. The received a good education
since childhood and has a higher level of education. They
are open-minded and advocate freedom. They will not be
willing to do the same job in day-to-day. For each work, as
long as they feel tired of it, they will resign without
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 146
hesitation, and look for new jobs.
炒房团
/tʂʰau214faŋ35tʰuan35/
fry---house---group
炒房团指在全国房地产市场上进行投资并在一定程度上
对商品房价格产生影响的全国各地购房者。
Gloss: tʂʰau214------faŋ35--------tʰuan35
fry---------house--------group
Free translation: Group of frying house
Meaning: Group of frying house refer to the people who
take the purchase of houses as an investment and the houses
purchase behavior of these people can affect house prices.
寡头
寡头指垄断某种商品生产或销售的商人。
/kua214tou35/
Gloss: kua214--------tou35
few---------- head
Free translation: Oligarchs
Meaning: Oligarchs refer to a few businessmen who can
monopolize the production or sales of a certain goods.
展霸
/tʂan214pa51/
展霸指向展户们收取保护费的人。
Gloss: tʂan214----------pa51
exhibition----overlord
Free translation: Exhibition overlord
Meaning: Exhibition overlord refers to the person who
charges protection money from people who participate in
the exhibition.
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 147
小资
小资指有较高的教育背景，向往西方思想和生活方式的
/ɕiao214ʦi55/
年轻人，他们追求内心体验，物质和精神享受。
Gloss: ɕiao214---------ʦi55
small-------- bourgeoisie
Free translation: Petty bourgeoisie
Meaning: Petty bourgeoisie refers to the young people who
have a higher education background, yearn for Western
thought and lifestyle, pursue the inner experience, and
pursue of material and spiritual enjoyment.
草根
/ʦʰau214ken55/
草根指处于底层的老百姓。
Gloss: ʦʰau214-----ken55
grass------root
Free translation: Grass-roots
Meaning: Grass-roots refer to the vulnerable groups who
are in the bottom of the social and relative to the elite.
种票门
/tʂuŋ51pʰiau51mən35/
种票门指通过行贿等非法手段拉选票以获得胜选的丑
闻。
Gloss: tʂuŋ51------------pʰiau51------------mən35
plant----------ballot paper---------gate
Free translation: Plant ballot gate
Meaning: It refers to the event of elections scandal, which
bribed the voters in order to win votes and win elections
诈捐门
/tʂa51ʨuan55mən35/
诈捐门指承若捐款，但实际上却没有兑现承诺
Gloss: tʂa51------------ʨuan55-------mən35
dishonest-------donate-------gate
Free translation: Dishonest donate gate
Meaning: It refers to an event that pledged donation, but did
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 148
not honor its donation.
分红门
/fən55xuŋ35mən35/
分红门指股票公司和股民因股票分红而产生的利益纠
纷。
Gloss: fən55-----------xuŋ35-------mən35
allocation------red----------gate
Free translation: Dividends gate
Meaning: It refers to the dispute between the fund holders
and the fund company, which is caused by the issues of
fund dividends
保单门
/pau214tan55mən35/
保单门指保险购买者因购买到过期保险单而导致的经济
利益纠纷。
Gloss: pau214tan55----------------mən35
insurance policy-----------gate
Free translation: Insurance policy gate
Meaning: It refers to the event that people bring a claim to
insurance sellers when people found the insurance policy
which they have bought is invalid.
窜货门
/ʦʰuan51xuo51mən35/
窜货门指产品代理商为了经济利益将自己代理的产品销
售到自己代理区域以外的区域的违规行为。
Gloss: ʦ ʰuan51------xuo51----------mən35
flee------goods---------gate
Free translation: Flee goods gate
Meaning: It refers to the event that an agent of a certain
area sales his products to the area where belongs to another
agent who sales the same products.
地下交易
/ ti51ɕia51ʨiao55ji51/
地下交易指非法的交易行为。
Gloss: ti51ɕia51---------------ʨiao55ji51
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 149
underground --------transaction
Free translation: Underground transactions
Meaning: Underground transactions generally refer to the
illegal trading activities.
地下钱庄
/ti51ɕia51ʨʰian35tʂuaŋ55/
地下钱庄指从事非法金融交易的组织。
Gloss: ti51ɕia51------------ʨʰian35tʂuaŋ55
underground -------bank
Free translation: Underground bank
Meaning: Underground banks refer to the organizations
which engage in illegal financial activities.
地下工厂
地下工厂指未获得国家办厂许可证而设立的工厂，这类
/ti51ɕia51koŋ55tʂaŋ214/
工厂一般从事的都是一些非法产品的生产。
Gloss: ti51ɕia51-------------koŋ55tʂaŋ214
underground -------factory
Free translation: Underground factory
Meaning: Underground factory refers to a factory which has
not yet obtained a legitimate business license and engaged
in the illegal production activities.
下海
下海指辞掉固定的工作去从事经商活动。
/xia51xai214/
Gloss: xia51--------xai214
down------sea
Free translation: Go to the sea
Meaning: Go to the sea refers to the behavior that a person
quits his steady job and Engages in commercial activities.
Han Jianghua
黄金口岸
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 150
黄金口岸指能够带来大量经济利益收入的地段。
/xuaŋ35ʨin55kʰou214an51/
Gloss: xuaŋ35ʨin55---------kʰou214an51
golden -------------port
Free translation: Golden port
Meaning: The golden port refers to a certain place that has
convenient traffic, comprehensive facilities and elegant
environment. And it can bring a variety of benefits for the
owners.
购物天堂
/kou51wu51tʰiaŋ55tʰaŋ35/
购物天堂是指商品种类齐全、价格实惠且服务优良的购
物地点。
Gloss: kou51wu51----------tʰiaŋ55tʰaŋ35
shopping-----------paradise
Free translation: Shopping paradise
Meaning: Shopping paradise refers to a shopping location
that has full range of goods, affordable prices and excellent
service.
抬拉
/tʰai35la55/
抬拉指用非常方法，将股价大幅度抬起。
Gloss: tʰai35---------la55
lift--------- pull
Free translation: Lift pull
Meaning: Lift pull refers to use the very means to let the
stock prices raise significantly.
托市
托市指政府或公司在股市连续下跌，或跌破某一指数点
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
/tʰuo55ʂi51/
holding-----market
M. A. (Linguistics) / 151
位时利用政策支持或投入一笔资金大量买进，使股市回
升。
Gloss: tʰuo55---------ʂi51
holding------market
Free translation: Holding the market
Meaning: Holding the market refers to the government or a
company uses the policy support or uses a large sum of
money to buy the stocks in order to let the stock markets
rebounded when the stock market falling continuously or
fell below an index point.
绿色工厂
/ ly51sɣ51kuŋ55tʂaŋ214/
绿色工厂指整个工厂在生产过程中既不会对工人的身体
健康产生危害，也不会造成环境污染。
Gloss: ly51--------sə51---------kuŋ55tʂaŋ214
green-----color-------factory
Free translation: Green factory
Meaning: It refers to a factory which has no danger to the
life safety of employees and no pollution to the
environment in the entire operation process.
绿色生产
/ ly51sɣ51ʂəŋ55tʂʰan214/
绿色生产指在生产过程中耗能低，并且不会对环境产生
污染。
Gloss: ly51---------sə51-------ʂəŋ55tʂʰan214
green------color-------production
Free translation: Green production
Meaning: It refers to the production process which has low
consumption of resources, and has no pollution to the
environment.
Han Jianghua
绿色产品
/ ly51sɣ51 tʂʰan214pin214/
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 152
绿色产品指产品在生产和使用过程中以及使用后既不会
对人体健康产生危害也不会造成环境污染。
Gloss: ly51--------sə51 -------tʂʰan214pin214
green------color-------product
Free translation: green product
Meaning: It refers to the product which has no danger to the
life safety and no pollution to the environment in the
process of production, and in the process of using, or even
after the process of using.
生意红火
生意红火指生意非常顺利，赚到了很多钱。
/ ʂəŋ55ji51xoŋ35xuo214/
Gloss: ʂəŋ55ji51-------xuŋ35------xuo214
business-------red---------fire
Free translation: Business booming
Meaning: It means business is very good and earned a lot of
money.
打白条
打白条指欠款者用白纸随意写的欠条，缺乏正规性。
/ta214pai35tʰiau35/
Gloss: ta214----------pai35------------tʰiau35
write---------white---------note
Free translation: Write white note
Meaning: It also called illegitimate promissory notes, that
refers to a receipt or IOU which written with a piece of
white paper or paper notes by the arrears units. Receipt or
IOU like this is informal.
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 153
白条财政
白条财政指中国地方政府开出的不正规的欠条，这类欠
/ pai35tʰiau35ʦai35tʂəŋ51/
条兑现的可能非常的小。
Gloss: pai35---------tʰiau35-------ʦai35tʂəŋ51
white-------note-------financial
Free translation: White note financial
Meaning: It also called registered Warrants, which refer
to the IOU which is issued by the local governments of
China. IOU like this is always very difficult to cash.
灰色市场
灰色市场指采用非法的途径来销售正规合法的产品。在
/xuei55sɣ51ʂi51tʂʰaŋ214/
灰色市场上流通的商品一般是正规产品，但是这些产品
的销售没有得到生产商的销售许可。
Gloss: xuei55---------sə51------------ʂi51tʂʰaŋ214
gray----------color-----------market
Free translation: Gray market
Meaning: It refers to a marketing channel that sail a certain
product of a brand but without authorize from the brand
owner. It sails genuine goods but the unauthorized belongs
to illegal operation.
黑市
黑市指未经国家法律法规允许而形成的市场，这类市场
/ xei55 ʂi51/
所流通的往往是一些非法产品或者是国家法律所禁止的
商品。还有一种是流通的商品虽然是合法的产品，但其
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 154
价格远远高于合法市场，销售者从中非法牟取暴利。
Gloss: xei55 -------ʂi51
black------market
Free translation: Black market
Meaning: It refers to the market which without government
approval and forms in illegal, and merchandise the goods
that Prohibit to merchandise; or refers to the market which
make secret transactions that the price is far higher than the
open market.
黑市交易
黑市交易指违反国家法律及政策规定而进行的交易，如
/ xei55 ʂi51ʨiao55ji51/
违反国家价格政策，汇率政策等等。
Gloss: xei55 --------ʂi51-------ʨiao55ji51
black------market-----trade
Free translation: Trade in black market
Meaning: It refers to trading behaviors which evade the
government’s restrictions of commodity prices, exchange
rates, or market prices and interest rates of securities.
黑货
黑货指通过发非法渠道获得的货物，如通过抢劫，盗窃
/ xei55xuo51/
等渠道获得的货物等。
Gloss: xei55--------xuo51
black--------goods
Free translation: Black goods
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 155
Meaning: It refers to the goods which are obtained or hold
through smuggling, robbing, Stealing or other illegal
means.
基金黑幕
/ʨi55ʨin55xei55mu51/
基金黑幕泛指基金行业中的各种违规操作行为。
Gloss: ʨi55ʨin55--------xei55---------mu51
found----------black-------curtain
Free translation: Black curtain in fund
Meaning: Black curtain in fund refers a variety of illegal
operations in the fund industry.
买马
/mai214ma214/
买马原本是专业赌徒术语，起源于赌马时下注，目前多
用于指借高利贷。
Gloss: mai214---------ma214
buy-----------horse
Free translation: Buy a horse
Meaning: Buy a horse is originally a professional gambler
terminology, originated from the horse racing, nowadays it
refers to borrow usurious loan.
黑马
/xei55ma214/
黑马是指股价在一定 时间内，上涨一倍或 数倍的股
票。
Gloss: xei55--------ma214
blank------horse
Free translation: Blank horse
Meaning: Blank horse refers to a stock that its share price
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 156
has double or multiple rising within a certain time.
白马
/pai214ma214/
白马指股价已形成慢慢上涨的长升通道，还有一定的上
涨空间。
Gloss: pai214----------ma214
white---------horse
Free translation: White horse
Meaning: White horse refers to a stock that its price has a
rising trend and still has upside potential.
老鼠仓
/lau214ʂu214ʦʰaŋ55/
老鼠仓指庄家利用职务之便在低位建仓，待利用公用基
金将股票价格拉升后，将自己手中的股票卖出以获取暴
利的行为。
Gloss: lau214ʂu214---------ʦʰaŋ55
rat-----------accounts
Free translation: Rat account
Meaning: Rat account refers that before using public
funds to prop up share prices, the makers create an account
in the low position of share price and buy a lot of stock
with their own personal funds firstly; and after the share
price is raised by the public funds, the makers sell their
own share firstly to obtain huge profits.
熊市
/xioŋ35ʂi51/
熊市指股价不断下跌，人们纷纷卖出股票持空仓观望的
市场现象。
Gloss: xioŋ35--------ʂi51
bear--------market
Free translation: Bear market
Meaning: Bear market refers to a phenomenon of stock
market that the stock prices continue to decline and a large
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 157
number of people sell stocks.
牛市
/niu35ʂi51/
牛市是指股价的基本趋势持续上升时形成的投机者不断
买进股票的市场现象。
Gloss: niu35--------ʂi51
bull--------market
Free translation: Bull market
Meaning: Bull market refers to a phenomenon of stock
market that the stock prices continue to rise and a large
number of people buy stocks.
一条龙
/ji51tʰiau35loŋ35/
一条龙指提供一整套的完整的产品或服务。
Gloss: ji51-----------tʰiau35-----------loŋ35
one------(classifier)-----dragon
Free translation: One dragon
Meaning: One dragon refers to provide a full set of
products or services.
龙头企业
/loŋ35tʰou35ʨʰi214jei51/
龙头企业指在某个行业中，对同行业的其他企业具有很
深的影响、号召力和一定的示范、引导作用，并对该地
区、该行业或者国家做出突出贡献的企业。
Gloss: loŋ35--------tʰou35---------ʨʰi214jei51
dragon-------head--------- enterprise
Free translation: The leading enterprise
Meaning: It refers to an enterprise which has a deep impact,
rallying point and guiding role to other enterprises in a
certain industry and has made outstanding contributions to
the industry or to the country.
开盘
/kʰai55pʰan35/
open-----plate
开盘指每天股市开始交易。
Gloss: kʰai55--------pʰan35
open--------plate
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 158
Free translation: Open plate
Meaning: Open plate refers to began trading of stock
market in everyday.
收盘
/ʂou55pʰan35/
close----plate
收盘指每天股市停止交易。
Gloss: ʂou55--------pʰan35
close-------plate
Free translation: Close plate
Meaning: Close plate refers to stop trading of stock market
in everyday.
打压洗盘
打压洗盘指庄家通过压低股票价格迫使散户将手中股票
/ta214ja55 ɕi214pʰan35/
卖出，同时庄家不断买进这些股票，从而达到将股票集
中到庄家手中的目的。
Gloss: ta214-------ja55 --------ɕi214---------pʰan35
beat-----press--------wash -------plate
Free translation: Suppress whipsaw
Meaning: Suppress whipsaw refers to the behavior that the
maker forces the individual investors to sail their stock by
holding down the price of the stocks; at the same time the
maker took the opportunity to buy these stocks so that let
the stocks concentrate in the hand of maker.
被高速
/pei51kau55su51/
被高速指人们被迫接受高速铁路的昂贵票价的行为。
Gloss: pei51------------kau55su51
be forced--------high speed
Free translation: Be speed
Meaning: Be speed refers to the behavior that people are
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 159
forced to accept an expensive high-speed rail fares.
被上市
/pei51ʂaŋ51ʂi51/
被上市指在资产所有者不知情或未授权的情况下，自己
的资产被别人用于上市交易。
Gloss: pei51----------ʂaŋ51ʂi51
be forced------ listed
Free translation: Being listed
Meaning: Being listed refers that the asset owners is
unaware or unauthorized, however, their assets are listed for
trading by others.
坐轿子
/ʦuo51ʨiau51ʦi214/
坐轿子指预测股价将涨，抢在众人前以低价先行买进，
待众多散户跟进、股价节节升高后，卖出获利。
Gloss: ʦuo51---------ʨiau51ʦi214
sit----------- sedan chair
Free translation: Travel by sedan chair
Meaning: Travel by sedan chair refers to someone predicts
that the stock price will rise and buy a lot of stocks at a low
price in advance, and when the stock price has risen, sell all
of the stocks to gain profit.
抬轿子
/tʰai35ʦʰiau51ʦi214/
抬轿子指在别人早已买进后才醒悟，也跟着买进，结果
是把股价抬高让他人获利，而自己买进的股价已非低
价，无利可图。
Gloss: tʰai35---------ʦʰiau51ʦi214
lifting---------sedan chair
Free translation: Lifting the sedan chair
Meaning: Lifting the sedan chair refers to someone buy the
stocks after the stock price has risen; their behavior will let
the stock price rise more and let the stocks owners who buy
stocks at a low price gain more profit but not themselves.
Han Jianghua
下轿子
/ɕia51ʨiau51ʦi214/
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 160
下轿子指坐轿客逢高获利结算。
Gloss: ɕia51----------ʨiau51ʦi214
get off--------sedan chair
Free translation: Get off the sedan chair
Meaning: Get off the sedan chair refers to someone sell
their stocks, which are bought at a low price, when the
stock price has risen.
吃拆迁
/tʂʰi55tʂʰai55ʨʰian55/
吃拆迁指在当今中国城市化进程中，依靠拆迁获得大量
经济赔偿的人群。
Gloss: tʂʰi55------------tʂʰai55ʨʰian55
eat--------------demolition
Free translation: Eat demolition
Meaning: It refers to the people who obtain the economic
benefits bent on the use of demolition in the process of
urbanization construction in contemporary Chinese society.
吃回扣
吃回扣指帮助销售商销售产品，然后从中收取佣金的行
/tʂi55xuei35kʰou51/
为。
Gloss: tʂi55------------xuei35kʰou51
eat----------sales commission
Free translation: Eat commission
Meaning: It refers the event that the purchaser party or
people who help
sellers
commission from the sellers.
attract
customers
request
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
吃大锅饭
/ tʂi55ta51kʰuo55fan51/
M. A. (Linguistics) / 161
吃大锅饭指在经济利益分配中，不按贡献大小，所有人
都分得相等利益的行为。
Gloss: tʂi55--------ta51-------kʰuo55-------fan51
eat--------big---------pot----------rice
Free translation: Mess together
Meaning: It refers to the event that does egalitarianism in
the distribution of variety benefits, and people whether to
make contribution or not, or the contribution that made is
small or large, will share the same interests.
炒股
/tʂau214ku214/
炒股指从事股票交易，低价买进，高价卖出以赚取差价
的行为。
Gloss: tʂau214-----ku214
fry --------stock
Free translation: Fry stocks
Meaning: Fry stocks refer to engage in the trading activities
of the stock. Buying stocks in low price, and sell them in
high price in order to earn money.
炒房
/ tʂau214faŋ35/
炒房指人们购买房屋不是为了居住而是为了转手卖出赚
取差价的行为。
Gloss: tʂau214--------faŋ35
fry ----------house
Free translation: Fry house
Meaning: Fry house refers to a behavior that someone buys
a house is not in order to live in it, but in order to sell it to
earn money when the price of house goes up.
Han Jianghua
炒外汇
/tʂau214wai51xuei51/
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 162
炒外汇是指从事外汇买卖，以低价买进高价卖出以赚取
差价的行为。
Gloss: tʂau214-------wai51xuei51
fry ---------exchange
Free translation: Fry exchange
Meaning: Fry exchange refers to engage in Foreign
Exchange Trading. Buying exchange in low price, and sell
them in high price in order to earn money.
出血
/tʂʰu55ɕiɛ214/
出血指某人为某事支付金钱，尤其是指请客送礼之类的
事情。
Gloss: tʂʰu55-------ɕiɛ214
out---------blood
Free translation: Bleeding
Meaning: The bleeding refers to a person who pays the
money for something. It especially refers to inviting
somebody to dinner, send someone a gift, etc…
割肉
/kʰə55ʐou51/
割肉指人们在买股票时被套牢后为了避免更大的损失，
只能亏本将股票卖出的行为。
Gloss: kʰə55------ʐou51
cut --------flesh
Free translation: Cut flesh
Meaning: Cut flesh refers to a phenomenon that someone
buy stocks at high prices, and then the price of stock fell
sharply; in order to avoid a greater loss, he sell the stocks
despite losing money.
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
两只手
/liaŋ214tʂi55ʂou214/
two---( classifier)--hand
M. A. (Linguistics) / 163
两只手指宏观政策和市场两种调节经济的手段。
Gloss: liaŋ214---------tʂi55----------ʂou214
two-------( classifier)-----hand
Free translation:
Meaning: Two hands refer to the macroeconomic policies
and markets which are the means of regulate the economy.
救市
/ʨiou51ʂi51/
救市指在市场低迷的时候，政府采取积极的宏观政策促
进市场繁荣，以保持经济平稳发展的行为。
Gloss: ʨiou51-------ʂi51
save--------market
Free translation: Save the market
Meaning: Save the market refers to a behavior that when
the market downturn, the government take some measures
to promote the prosperity of the market in order to maintain
steady economic development.
套牢
/tʰau51lau35/
套牢指人们在认为某种商品的价格会上涨，于是便大量
购以便日后卖出赚钱，但当买进后这些商品的价格反而
下跌，无法卖出赚钱。
Gloss: tʰau51-------lau35
trap--------firm
Free translation: Trap firmly
Meaning: Trap firmly refers to a phenomenon that in the
investment process, people expect that the price of a
commodity will rise, but after buying it, the price went into
a downward trend.
Han Jianghua
解套
/ʨiɛ214tʰau51/
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 164
解套指价格上涨与购买价持平或高于购买价格，投资者
抛售商品，以收回投资资金。
Gloss: ʨiɛ214---------tʰau51
untie---------trap
Free translation: Sort of relief
Meaning: Sort of relief refers that when the price rise bank
to or higher than the purchase price, the investors sell the
commodity in time in order to recover the investment funds.
套现
/tʰau51ɕian51/
套现指利用同一商品的价格差异或同等商品在不同的市
场中赚钱。
Gloss: tʰau51-------ɕian51
trap------cash
Free translation: Make cash
Meaning: Make cash refers to take advantage of price
differences
of the same commodity or
equivalent
commodity in different markets to earn money.
宰客
/ʦai214kʰɣ51/
宰客指经营者使用非法手段欺诈消费者，侵犯消费者的
合法权利和利益，以获取非法利益。
Gloss: ʦai214----------------kʰɣ51
slaughter-------- customer
Free translation: Slaughter customer
Meaning: Slaughter customer refers to the operators use
illegal methods to fraud consumer and encroach the
legitimate rights and interests of consumers in order to
obtain illegal profits
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
李鬼药
/li214kuei214jau51/
M. A. (Linguistics) / 165
李鬼药指以假充好的药品。
Gloss: li214kuei214 ---------------jau51
person’s name----------drug
Free translation: Li Gui drug
Meaning: It refers to the products that confused as real
ones, looks like drugs, but in reality as ordinary food or
disinfectant.
天使投资
/tʰian55ʂi214tʰou35ʦi55/
指富有的个人出资协助具有专门技术或独特概念的原创
项目或小型初创企业，进行一次性的前期投资。
Gloss: tʰian55ʂi214--------tʰou35ʦi55
angel------------investment
Free translation: Angel investment
Meaning: Angel investment refers to the wealthy individual
investors to assist with specialized technical or unique
original concept projects or small start-ups, bearing onetime up-front investment.
她时代
她时代指在经济领域中越来越多的重要职位被女性占
/tʰa55ʂi214tai51/
领，从而她们在经济领域发挥着越来越重要的作用。
Gloss: tʰa55---------ʂi214tai51
she----------times
Free translation: “She” times
Meaning: “She” times refer that more and more important
positions of the economic field have been occupied by
women and women play an increasingly important role in
Han Jianghua
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 166
the economic field.
他衰退
/tʰa55ʂuai55tʰuei51/
他衰退指受到各种心理和社会因素的影响，导致男性逐
渐失去了在经济领域的主导地位。
Gloss: tʰa55----------ʂuai55tʰuei51
he------------ decline
Free translation: “He” decline
Meaning: “He” decline refers the men who had been
played a leading role in the economic field have suffered a
severe psychological blow and gradually lost the leading
role in the economic field.
菜篮子
/ʦʰai51lan35ʦi214/
菜篮子指人们日常生活中所吃的蔬菜肉食等。
Gloss: ʦʰai51-------------lan35ʦi214
vegetable------ basket
Free translation: Vegetable basket
Meaning: Vegetable basket is often used refers the
vegetable, meet and age, etc… which are eat by the people
in daily life.
皮包公司
/pʰi35pau55koŋ55si55/
皮包公司指没有固定资产、没有固定经营地点及定额人
员，只提着皮包，从事社会经济活动的人或集体,通常
冠以公司的名义。
Gloss: pʰi35pau55---------koŋ55si55
bag-----------company
Free translation: Bag company
Bag company refers to a person or a group who engage in
economic activities in the name of a company, but they do
not have fixed assets, fixed place of operation and fixed
staff.
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
空头支票
/kuŋ55tʰou35tʂi55pʰiao51/
M. A. (Linguistics) / 167
空头支票指不能兑现的支票或者不能兑现的承若。
Gloss: kuŋ55 --------tʰou35--------tʂi55pʰiao51
empty-------head---------check
Free translation: Rubber check
Meaning: Rubber check refers to a check that cannot be
cashed, and it also refers to a promise that cannot be
honored.
微付
/wei55fu51/
微付是指以手机为终端，利用 NFC 通信技术实现的一
种全新电子支付方式。
Gloss: wei55----------fu51
micro-------payment
Free translation: Micro-payment
Meaning: Micro-payment refers to a new electronic
payment method which use mobile phone as terminals and
make full use of near field communication technology.
暗箱操作
/an51ɕiaŋ55ʦʰau55ʦuo51/
暗箱操作指利用职务之便进行的不公正，不合法的交易
活动。
Gloss: an51-------ɕiaŋ55---------ʦʰau55ʦuo51
dark------- case---------- operation
Free translation: Dark case operation
Meaning: Dark case operation refers to take use of personal
position unjust to engage in unjust and illegal trading
activities.
Han Jianghua
福利腐败
/fu35li35fu214pai51/
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 168
福利腐败指垄断性行业将自己的资源低价或无偿地提供
给自己的员工，对外宣称是福利待遇，但实际上这已经
超出了福利的范围，是一种变相的腐败行为。
Gloss: fu35li35--------fu214pai51
welfare------ corruption
Free translation: Welfare corruption
Meaning: Welfare corruption refers to a phenomenon that
some monopoly industries provide resources of their own to
their employees free or at low cost, which is under the
behalf of the welfare. But in fact, this is beyond the scope
of welfare. It is actually a corruption.
流水线
/liu35ʂuei214xian51/
流水线指在生产过程中工人们分工协作，每人负责一部
分，最终形成一个整体。
Gloss: liu35---------ʂuei214-------xian51
flowing -----water--------line
Free translation: Assembly line
Meaning: Assembly line refers to a phenomenon, which
during the production process, each worker responsible for
processing a segment of the work, and connecting the work
of all workers together will form a complete step.
乡企
/ɕiaŋ55ʨʰi214/
乡企指农村集体经济组织或者农民投资为主，在乡镇
（包括所辖村）举办的承担支援农业义务的各类企业。
Gloss: ɕiaŋ55-------------ʨʰi214
township-------enterprise
Free translation: Township enterprises
Meaning: Township enterprises as referred to various
enterprises invested in mainly by rural collective economic
organizations or peasants and established in townships or
towns （ including villages under their jurisdiction ） ，
which bear the duty of supporting agriculture.
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
保八
/pau214pa55/
ensure-----eight
M. A. (Linguistics) / 169
保八指政府采取一切措施保证全年国民经济平均保持百
分之八的增长率。
Gloss: pau214---------pa55
ensure-------eight
Free translation: Ensure eight
Meaning: Ensure eight refers to the government to take all
measures to ensure that the national economy has
maintained an annual average growth rate of eight per cent.
绿色经济
/ ly51sɣ51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/
绿色经济喻指一种健康和谐的经济发展模式，在这一发
展模式中，资源可以循环再利用，以实现无污染，高产
值。
Gloss: ly51---------sɣ51-------ʨiŋ55ʨi51
green-------color-----economy
Free translation: Green economy
Meaning: It refers to a healthy and harmonious economic
pattern which the resources can be recycled, has low
consumption, no pollution, and high product added value.
灰色经济
/xuei55sɣ51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/
灰色经济指没有纳入国民经济管理体系，不受国家法律
和行政部门监管的经济，这一部分经济也不会向政府交
纳应交纳的税费，是一种不合法的经济。
Gloss: xuei55-----sə51-------ʨiŋ55ʨi51
gray------color------economy
Free translation: Gray economy
Meaning: It refers to a part of the national economy which
is not reported and registered to the government, and
economic activity is out of the control of the government
laws and regulations and do not pay taxes to the
government
Han Jianghua
黑色经济
/xei55sɣ51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 170
黑色经济是对社会构成直接危害的法律禁止的各种经济
的总称。
Gloss: xei55--------sɣ51--------ʨiŋ55ʨi51
Black-------color------- economy
Free translation: Black economy
Meaning: Black economy generally refers to all of the
economic activities which are prohibited by the law.
泡沫经济
/pʰau51mo51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/
泡沫经济指因虚假的需求而导致的经济虚假繁荣。
Gloss: pʰau51mo51----------ʨiŋ55ʨi51
bubble-------------economy
Free translation: Economic bubble
Meaning: Economic bubble refers to the false prosperity of
the economy that due to the partial speculative demand
(false needs).
房产泡沫
/faŋ35tʂan214pʰau51mo51/
房产泡沫指由于虚假的购房需求导致房价不断上涨，脱
离正常的范围，导致市场虚假繁荣。
Gloss: faŋ35tʂan214----------pʰau51mo51
real estate--------- bubble
Free translation: Real estate bubble
Meaning: Real estate bubble refers to the excessive
expansion of virtual demand of housing buying led the
market price level of housing is far away from the
theoretical price.
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
金融泡沫
/ʨin55ʐoŋ35pʰau51mo51/
M. A. (Linguistics) / 171
金融泡沫指一个或一系列的金融资产经历了连续的价格
上涨导致市场价格远远高于实际值的现象。
Gloss: ʨin55ʐoŋ35-----------pʰau51mo51
financial -----------bubble
Free translation: Financial bubble
Meaning: The financial bubble refers to the phenomenon
that one or a series of financial assets experienced a
continuous price increases led the market price is far greater
than the actual value.
地下经济
/ti51ɕia51ʨiŋ55ʨi51/
地下经济指为了逃避管制，税收和政府的监控，不申报
并不缴纳税款的经济，它的产值和收入不包括在国民生
产总值之内。
Gloss: ti51ɕia51---------------ʨiŋ55ʨi51
underground---------economy
Free translation: Underground economy
Meaning: Underground economy Generally refers to the
economic activities, which is in order to evade controls,
taxes, and monitoring of the government, do not declare
and pay taxes to the government and its output value and
income is not included in the gross national product.
经济下滑
/ʨiŋ55ʨi51ɕia51xua35/
经济下滑指经济增长缓慢甚至出现倒退的现象。
Gloss: ʨiŋ55ʨi51--------ɕia51xua35
economy-------glissade
Free translation: Economy glissading
Meaning: Economy glissading refers to the growth of
economy is slow or downturn.
Han Jianghua
经济腾飞
/ʨiŋ55ʨi51tʰəŋ35fei55/
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 172
经济腾飞指经济获得飞速发展的现象。
Gloss: ʨiŋ55ʨi51---------tʰəŋ35fei55
economic------- take-off
Free translation: Economic take-off
Meaning:
Economic
take-off
refers
to
the
rapid
development of economy.
软着陆
/ ʐuan214ʦuo214lu51/
软着陆指在经济增长过热的时候采用适当的宏观政策调
节使经济回到合理的增长模式中来。
Gloss: ʐuan214--------ʦuo214lu51
soft -----------landing
Free translation: Soft landing
Meaning: Soft landing refers to economic phenomena that
after a period of over-expansion, under the guidance of
macro-control policies, the economy down to a moderate
growth range smoothly.
改革神话
/kai214kə35ʂən35xua51/
改革神话指在中国改革开放后创造的经济发展奇迹。
Gloss: kai214kə35-------ʂən35xua51
reform ---------myth
Free translation: Reform myth
Meaning: Reform myth refers to economic development
miracle which is created in China after the reform and
opening up the country.
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
深圳神话
/ʂən55tʂən51ʂən35xua51/
M. A. (Linguistics) / 173
深圳神话指在改革开放后深圳城了中国第一个经济特
区，创造出了一些列的经济发展奇迹。
Gloss: ʂən55tʂən51-------ʂən35xua51
Shenzhen-------myth
Free translation: Shenzhen myth
Meaning: After the reform and opening up the country,
Shenzhen became the first Special Economic Zone in
China. The so-called Shenzhen myth refers to economic
development miracle which is created in Shenzhen.
IT 神话
/ai55ti55ʂən35xua51/
指因为 IT 行业的发展所带来的经济发展奇迹。
Gloss: ai55ti55-------ʂən35xua51
IT ----------myth
Free translation: IT myth
Meaning: IT myth refers to economic development miracle,
which is promoted by the development of the IT industry.
玻璃门
/po55li35mən35/
玻璃门指在当今中国市场经济中很多领域存在的诸多阻
碍民营企业进入的隐形的障碍性规则。
Gloss: po55li35-------mən35
glass --------door
Free translation: Glass door
Meaning: The glass door refers that the principle of non ban
means can enter has not really been implemented in the
China's
socialist
market
economy.
Although
some
industries does not expressly provide private capital is not
allowed to enter, but actually there are a variety of hidden
obstacles preventing private capital into these industries.
Han Jianghua
弹簧门
/tʰan35xuaŋ35mən35/
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 174
弹簧门喻指（某些民营企业）刚刚涉足某一行业领域又
被一些“硬性政策”弹出的现象。
Gloss: tʰan35xuaŋ35---------mən35
spring --------------door
Free translation: Spring door
Meaning: Spring door refers to unfair competition means
and operating rules which is operated by state-owned
enterprises in some industries. Many private enterprises
which enter these industries will be squeezed out by these
unfair competition means and operating rules.
商海
商海喻指整个商界。
/ʂaŋ55xai214/
Gloss: ʂaŋ55----------xai214
business-------sea
Free translation: Business sea
Meaning: Business sea refers to the whole business
community.
蓝海
蓝海指未形成饱和竞争的新兴领域，在这样的领域中还
/lan35xai214/
存在丰厚的利润空间。
Gloss: lan35--------xai214
blue--------sea
Free translation: Blue sea
Meaning: Blue sea refers to the market space which is
unknown and has not yet formed competition
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 175
红海
红海指商业领域中已经饱和的，竞争异常激烈的行业，
/ xuŋ35xai214 /
在这些行业中利润已经非常低，甚至还会出现亏损。
Gloss: xuŋ35------xai214
red--------sea
Free translation: Red sea
Meaning: It refers to the business areas which have intense
competition,
products
and
services
have
serious
homogenization, and profits are meager or even at a loss.
菜篮子工程
/ʦʰai51lan35ʦi214koŋ55tʂʰəŋ35/
菜篮子工程指政府实施的意在解决人们日常生活所需的
蔬菜肉食供应难这一问题的工程。
Gloss: ʦʰai51----------lan35ʦi214-------koŋ55tʂʰəŋ35
vegetable------ basket ----------project
Free translation: Vegetable basket project
Meaning:
Vegetable
basket
project
refers
to
the
government-led project which has the purpose of resolving
supply shortages of vegetables, meat and eggs, etc…
菜篮子产业
/ʦʰai lan ʦi tʂan jɛ /
51
35
214
214
51
菜篮子产业指和人们日常生活所吃的蔬菜肉食有关的产
业。
Gloss: ʦʰai51-----------lan35ʦi214-------tʂan214jɛ51
vegetable ------basket----------- industry
Free translation: Vegetable basket industry
Meaning: Vegetable basket industry refers to the industry
that engaged in the production and marketing of vegetables,
meat and eggs, etc…
Han Jianghua
经济铁幕
/ʨiŋ55ʨi51tʰiɛ214mu51/
Research Institute foe Languages and Cultures of Asia / 176
经济铁幕指妨碍经济正常发展的经济保护政策。
Gloss: ʨiŋ55ʨi51-----tʰiɛ214-------mu51
economic------ iron ---------curtain
Free translation: Economic iron curtain
Meaning: Economic iron curtain refers to the trade
protectionist policies or measures in the financial, economic
and other areas, which prevent the economic development
of state or financial entities.
金融鸦片
/ʨin55ʐoŋ35ja55pʰian51/
金融鸦片指通过一系列的金融名词来迷惑投资者，让投
资者陷入投资圈套。
Gloss: ʨin55ʐoŋ35--------ja55pʰian51
financial ----------opium
Free translation: Financial opium
Meaning: Financial opium refers financial derivatives that
using a series of financial terms or virtual concept to
confuse enterprise and make it bogged down into financial
trap inextricably.
丰收灾
/fəŋ55ʂou55ʦai55/
丰收灾指农民由于缺乏市场意识，导致农产品生产过
剩，出现增产后不断不能增加收入，反而出现亏损的现
象。
Gloss: fəŋ55ʂou55--------ʦai55
harvest---------- disaster
Free translation: Harvest disaster
Meaning: Harvest disaster refers to a phenomenon that
farmer lack of market awareness, based on past market
information, invest in certain agricultural products, when
the agricultural produce has a bumper harvest, because of
the prices falling, the farmer not only do not increase
Fac. Of Grad. Studies, Mahidol Univ.
M. A. (Linguistics) / 177
revenue, but also has a large number of loss.
经济过热
/ʨiŋ55ʨi51kuo51ʐə51/
经济过热指市场供求关系失衡，导致经济的过快增长从
而导致物价上涨的飞正常发展模式。
Gloss: ʨiŋ55ʨi51 -----kuo51------ʐə51
economy------over-------hot
Free translation: Overheated economy
Meaning: Overheated economy refers to a phenomenon that
the speed of the development of market supply and market
demand is disproportionate, and resulting rapid
development of economy and comprehensive continuing
rise of the price index.
剪刀差
/ʨian214tau55tʂa55/
剪刀差指工农业产品交换过程中，工业产品价格高于价
值，而农业产品价格低于价值而导致的经济差。
Gloss: ʨian214tau55-------tʂa55
scissor------------different
Free translation: Price scissors
Meaning: Price scissors refers to a phenomenon that in the
process of exchange between the industrial products and
agricultural products, the price of industrial products is
higher than the value and at the same time, the price of
agricultural products is lower than the value.
经济命脉
/ʨiŋ55ʨi51miŋ51mai51/
经济命脉指在国家经济领域中起主导作用，对整个国民
经济发展有重大影响的行业。
Gloss: ʨiŋ55ʨi51-----------miŋ51mai51
economic----------- lifeline
Free translation: Economic lifeline
Meaning: Economic lifeline refers to the industry which
occupies an important position in the development of the
national overall economy.