1. 研究目的与意义（文献综述包含参考文献）

Introduction Idiom is the essence of language, which is a phrase or an expression that has a figurative or literal meaning.Idioms can be defined as a phrase which means something different form the means of separated words. Sometimes, it contains unique local cultural or cognitive styles. And it's the way of expression typical of a person or a people in their use of language. In the context of globalization, before having efficient communications, people of different cultural backgrounds must acquire enough acknowledge and skills of foreign languages. Besides that, they have to understand foreign culture, experiences and know the differences between native culture and the foreign culture. Foreign researchers have studied a lot about the expressions or emotions of idioms in English. (McModie, 1957; Ammer, 1997) The study of them has been conducting since 1970s in China. To acquire the meaning of idioms and to teach English efficiently, many Chinese scholars have made a lot of intensive researches and did many analyses of the common and different characteristics of Chinese and English idioms. In 1978, Rose publish a masterpiece A Study on Chinese Idiomatic Usages. Then, more and more scholars dedicated to this research.（Zhang, 2000; Xu, 2002） Yet, the constructive study of English and Chinese idioms with respect of parts of marine idioms is something quite unexploded. However, it is of great importance in EFL teaching and learning, translation and communication.In fact, due to the influence of marine culture, English has a large number of idioms about the ocean. Although Chinese is not so deeply influenced by marine culture, there are still many idioms about ocean. However, there are few studies on marine idioms which play a unique role in daily conversation, translation, and literature. At the same time, Jean Piaget points out that our conceptual system is shaped by our constant successful functioning in the physical and cultural environment. Lakoff and Johnson think that our concepts structure what we perceive, how we get around in the world, and how we relate to other people. Based on these theories, the thesis tries to find out the common and different conceptual metaphor of English and Chinese idioms in order to compare unique cognitive and cultural styles of both languages. Therefore, this paper selects some marine idioms in Chinese and English, by exploring their definitions and origins and comparing their cognitive and cultural characteristics through Lakoff and Johnson#8217;s cognitive metaphor theory, revealing their similarities and differences, hoping to give English learners some help in correctly understanding Chinese and English idioms and avoiding much misunderstanding in cross-cultural communication. Literature review Idioms are the essence of the language of various nationalities. Its formation process reflects the unique cultural characteristics of each ethnic group, especially the metaphorical psychology and metaphorical association mechanisms of each ethnic group. Some idioms are difficult to understand their semantics literally. These idioms have four characteristics that Mr. Xu Shengheng discussed: the distance between the literal and the text, the incompleteness of the text, the convention of the literal and the text, and the composition of the text. Therefore, due to the influence of different metaphorical psychology and metaphorical mechanisms, it is not easy for people to understand other national idioms. Metaphor has always been identified as a rhetoric, but contemporary metaphorical theory research has stepped out of the field of rhetoric and entered the field of cognitive science. We recognize that metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also a cognitive means by which humans express ideas and guide actions. The core is to use a simple, specific and familiar cognitive domain to explain another abstract and complex. The common analogy between them can make the abstract and complex thing become concrete and simple. And people can get the ability to understand something abstract and complex. In the 1930s, Richards published The Philosophy of Rhetoric, first proposing the philosophy of metaphorical interaction theory. Later, on the basis of this, Black perfected and developed the theory of interaction, making it the most influential metaphorical interpretation theory since Aristotle's "contrast theory". In Richards and Black's view, metaphor is a new process to create meaning and it is the result of the interaction of the meanings of the two main words. Their research on metaphor breaks through the limitations of traditional rhetoric, which takes metaphor as a semantic phenomenon and puts it into the sentence level. Beginning in the early 1970s, with the new trend of Western philosophy and the rise and development of theories of semiotics and cognitive psychology in the West, philosophers, psychologists, and semioticians began to pay attention to this particular Language phenomenon.Among them, the publication of Metaphors We Live by Lakoff and Johnson marks the shift of metaphor research which turns to the field of cognitive research.They consider that most of our ordinary conceptual system is metaphorical in nature. Since communication is based on the same conceptual system we used in thinking and acting, language is an important source of evidence for what that system is like. Idioms, as the essence of language, are motivated in essence and the meanings are mostly derivable. As to the research of metaphor in China in recent years, Hu Zhuanglin(1997) points out that metaphor is not only a rhetorical device. Sometimes, because of frequent use and over time, some metaphors have been accepted into common vocabulary or original meaning. Chen JiaXu (2004) discusses metaphors from human bodies, space, time, basic emotions and basic colors, and explores and expounds the theoretical foundation of the contrastive study in terms of language world views, the universality and the system of metaphorical cognition, and cultural consistence of metaphors in English and Chinese. I have reviewed some comparative studies on Chinese and English idioms in view of metaphors in recent years and find that some have done some researches from different perspectives of idioms. Xu YiLiang(2002) compare the emotions and connotative meanings which English and Chinese idioms with respect to parts of human body. He mainly discussed what are the major differences reflected by idioms and what fields their application would be. Sun Yi and Zhu WenJing(2011) quote many representative idioms on ”cold” as corpora, which reveal and interpret the intrinsic characteristics of idioms. They think English and Chinese manifest more similarities than differences. Wu KeYan(2014) mainly discussed the dialectical relationship between the form and meaning of idioms and paving way to the E-C and C-E translation. However, none of them have explored the geographic and cultural reasons behind.

2. 研究的基本内容、问题解决措施及方案

Methodology The object the study is the metaphorical comparison of English and Chinese marine idioms. By studying this , the research aims to solve the following problems: 1. Comparison of definitions of idioms in English and Chinese 2. The origin of marine idioms 3. According to the metaphor theory, explore the similarities and differences between the cognitive features and cultural characteristics of English and Chinese marine idioms 4. Geographic and cultural causes of these similarities and differences 5. The role of idiom research in second language learning This paper mainly adopts the comparative method to analyze the common and different characteristics of English and Chinese idioms. About 20 idioms of both languages would be chose to the thesis. Through analyzing the conceptual metaphor of these idioms, we may conclude generalities and individualities of English and Chinese marine idioms. In the meantime, combined with the historical and geographical background, we may explore something deeper of languages. Conclusion The thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter is an overview. It introduces the results of the predecessors in this field and points out the necessity of conducting a comparative study of English and Chinese marine idioms. The second chapter studies the definitions of idioms in Chinese and English, as well as the origins of marine idioms. The third chapter summarizes the similarities and differences between the cognitive characteristics and cultural characteristics of English and Chinese marine idioms according to the metaphor theory of Lakoff and Johnson. The fourth chapter summarizes the full thesis and explains the significance and deficiencies of this thesis. Through comparing English and Chinese marine idioms, we can understand the differences of English and Chinese cognition and culture. Outline 1. Introduction 1.1 Research background 1.2 Need of the study 1.3. Literature review 2. Definition and Origins of English and Chinese Idioms 2.1 Definition of Idioms 2.2 Origins of English and Chinese Marine Idioms 3. Contrastive Analysis English and Chinese Marine Idioms 3.1 Cognitive Characteristics of English and Chinese Idioms 3.1.1 Common Cognitive Characteristics of English and Chinese Idioms 3.1.2 Different Cognitive Characteristics of English and Chinese Idioms 3.2 Cultural Characteristics of English and Chinese Idioms 3.2.1 Common Cultural Characteristics of English and Chinese Idioms 3.2.2 Different Cultural Characteristics of English and Chinese Idioms 4. Conclusion 5.1 Major findings of the study 5.2 Implications 5.3 Limitations and suggestions for future research