Cultural Metaphor and Cultural Metonymy in Taiwanese Mandarin

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the four-character eulogistic idioms used for scholars and martyrs at public funerals in Taiwan based on the framework of cultural linguistics (Lu W (2017a) Religion and worldview in metaphor use: cultural conceptualisations of death in Taiwanese Buddhist and Christian eulogistic idioms. In: Sharifian F (ed) Advances in cultural linguistics. Springer, Singapore, pp 49–64; Lu W(2017b) Socio-cultural factors in analyzing the pragmeme of accommodation: a case study of the official online eulogy request system in Taiwan. In: Parvaresh V, Capone A (eds) The pragmeme of accommodation and intercultural pragmatics: the case of interaction around the event of death. Springer, Zurich, pp 111–127). The data used is drawn from the official online eulogy request system established and run by Taipei city government, following the practice in Lu (Religion and worldview in metaphor use: cultural conceptualisations of death in Taiwanese Buddhist and Christian eulogistic idioms. In: Sharifian F (ed) Advances in cultural linguistics. Springer, Singapore, pp 49–64, 2017a, Socio-cultural factors in analyzing the pragmeme of accommodation: a case study of the official online eulogy request system in Taiwan. In: Parvaresh V, Capone A (eds) The pragmeme of accommodation and intercultural pragmatics: the case of interaction around the event of death. Springer, Zurich, pp 111–127, 2017b, Cultural “signs of life” in politics: a case study of eulogistic idioms for Taiwanese politicians. In: da Silva Sinha V, Moreno-Núñez A, Tian Z (eds) Signs of life: changes and continuity in language, thought and identity. John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, pp 139–154, 2020a, Viewpoint and metaphor in culture: a cognitive linguistic analysis on a selection of Chinese eulogistic idioms used in Taiwan. Cogn Linguist Stud 7(1):260–279, 2020b). The focus will be on the use of cultural metaphors and allusions in the idioms, with a discussion on the roles played by Farzad Sharifian and the literary tradition associated with his in-depth work in analyzing the language of death.

Appendix: Idioms Listed in “Scholar” and “Martyr”

學者喪 “scholar”
少微斂曜	文曲光沉	文壇失仰	世失英才	立言不朽	言行足式
純真學範	望尊泰斗	絕學千秋	學究天人	績學甄陶
軍警烈士喪 “martyr”
大星遽返	大節凜然	大旗色黯	功在旂常	光沉紫電	名重泰山
名齊衛霍	成仁取義	忠勇楷模	忠烈可風	舍生取義	星隕將營
英烈千秋	英靈不泯	浩氣長存	國失干城	將星忽墜	將星遽落
殺身成仁	勛華卓茂	勛業長昭	痛失干城	萬古流芳	鼓角聲淒
碧血丹心	精神不死	警界之光