Publications

Publication details [#477]

Li, Rui. 2009. The concepts of "dragon" in Chinese culture. US-China Foreign Language 7 (1) : 31–45. 15 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Keywords
Chinese culture | conceptual analysis | metaphor | metonymy | prototype theory | the concept of dragon

Abstract

The article aims to present a semantic analysis of the concept of in Chinese culture in its multiple representational senses. The prototype theory serves as the basic theoretical point of departure for the analysis. Metaphorical and metonymic senses of the concept in question have been mapped onto a network (akin to a radial category) and it has been demonstrated that the concepts of “dragon” have been linked together in a chainlike fashion in spite of evoking apparently different categories