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Yung-huei Chen, National Chung Cheng University, TaiwanAbstract
Speakers of different languages interpret their experiences through their physical environment, expressing events or emotions either faithfully or symbolically through idioms. These expressions are drawn from users’ observations of material objects, sentiment, imagery, or cognition, and they vary across cultures due to geography, history, philosophy, or society. However, universal grammar highlights the consistency of languages, as they share traits and influence one another over time. Therefore, this study examines English and Mandarin idioms to explain the influence of universal grammar on figurative language. The analysis reveals that most idioms function at both metaphorical and linguistic levels, reinforcing shared human experiences. While metaphorical and lexical commonalities exist in both languages, they do not align perfectly; however, many of them overlap.
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Conference: BCE2025Stream: Foreign Languages Education & Applied Linguistics (including ESL/TESL/TEFL)
This paper is part of the BCE2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Chen Y. (2025) Metaphors Without Borders: Universal Grammar’s Role in English-Mandarin Figurative Parallels ISSN: 2435-9467 – The Barcelona Conference on Education 2025: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 67-78) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2435-9467.2025.6
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2435-9467.2025.6
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