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指畀教师：李建平教授

专业名糠：外国语言学及应用语言学

研究方向：应用语言学

论文提交时间：2015年4月
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论文鏞号
 Sichuan International Studies University 

A Cognitive Research of the Chinese Four-Character Zodiac Idioms

by 
Han Miao

A thesis  
submitted to the Graduate School 
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of  
Master of Arts 

in  
Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics  
 
 
under 
the supervision of 
Professor Li Jianping 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Chongqing, P. R. China 

May 2015

 
 学位论文独创性声明

本人声明所呈交的学位论文是本人在导师指导下进行的研究工作及取得的
研究成果。据我所知，除了文中特别加以标注和致谢的地方外，论文中不包含其
他人己经发表或撰写过的研究成果，也不包含为获得四川外国语大牵或其
他教育机构的学位或证书而使用过的材料。与我一同工作的同志对本研究所做的
任何贡献均已在论文中作了明确的说明并表示谢意。

学位论文作者签名：爲絶 签字日期：年&月丨I 日

学位论文版权使用授权书

本学位论文作者完全了解四川外国语大牵有关保留、使用学位论文
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内容编入有关数据库进行检索，可以采用影印、缩印或扫描等复制手段保存、汇
编学位论文。
(保密的学位论文在解密后适用本授权书）
翻
I
学位论文作者签名：H 均 导师签名
曰

签字曰期:�o/S 年6 月|丨曰 签字曰期：

学位论文作者毕业后去向：
工作单位： 电话:
通讯地址： 邮编:
 摘要
作为中华民族宝贵文化产物的十二生肖越来越受到人们的关注，而对十二生肖的研究也

引起学者们的浓厚兴趣，从隐喻、文化、语义和翻译方面进行了大量的描述和分析，但是这

些论述主要属于静态层面的描述，未能上升到认知层面，也没有通过建立一个认知模型，运

用认知理论对十二生肖动物成语的生成机制进行探讨。   

本文基于认知语言学中的“概念整合理论”、
“认知突显理论”和概念隐喻理论，提出一

个整合理论模式，即 BPM 模式，试图对汉语十二生肖四字成语进行详细统计和定量分析，

并佐以相关数据和比例以此对汉语十二生肖四字成语的生成机制进行认知解释。语料来源于

《新华成语词典》，从中共收集了 310 条生肖四字成语。 

本文分为五章，主要内容如下： 

第一章“引言”，介绍本文研究对象、研究目的、分析方法和论文结构布局。 

第二章“文献综述”，介绍有关汉语十二生肖的各方面研究，回顾前人对十二生肖成语

的研究并指出其中的不足。 

第三章“理论框架”，回顾概念整合理论、认知突显理论和概念隐喻理论，并指出各自

在解释汉语生肖四字成语方面的缺陷，根据所发现的缺陷，提出了新的理论框架—BPM 模型。

第四章“语料分析和讨论”，运用上文提出的理论框架，较为深入地分析了汉语十二生

肖四字成语的生成模式。

第五章“结语”，总结全文内容，归纳三点贡献：

1.基于建立的汉语生肖四字成语的语料库，分析了汉语十二生肖四字成语的意义生成过

程。

2.建立了分析汉语十二生肖四字成语的生成机制的理论模式，并证明了其可行性。

3.该研究对于对外汉语教学的重要性。

本章还指出了本研究不足之处，为以后的研究提出建议。

关键词：BPM 模型;  十二生肖四字成语；概念整合理论；认知突显理论；概念隐喻理论 

  ii
 Abstract
Chinese twelve zodiacs, as the most valuable cultural heritage of the Chinese
history, have ignited more and more scholars’ interest. Besides, the study of twelve
zodiacs has also ignited numerous scholars’ interest and prompted them to make
abundant descriptions and analyses of twelve zodiacs from the perspective of
metaphor, semantics, cultural linguistics and translation. However, all their
discussions are mainly in a static level. All papers only describe information about
twelve zodiac animals. No paper studies the Chinese zodiac idioms by constructing a
theory model to analyze their meaning formation mechanism.
This paper is based on Conceptual Blending Theory, Cognitive Prominence
Theory and Conceptual Metaphor Theory and proposes an integrated theory
frame—BPM Model, aiming to conduct a quantitative analysis and establish the
constitution model of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms. Data are collected from
the Xinhua Idioms Dictionary, and the whole numbers of Chinese four-character
zodiac idioms are 310 items.
The paper consists of the following five chapters.
Chapter One focuses on a general introduction to this study, including the
motivations, the objectives, methodology and layout of the paper.
Chapter Two presents the previous studies on the twelve zodiacs, and the gaps
found in the previous studies.
Chapter Three reviews the main theories which will be applied in the paper—
Conceptual Blending Theory, Cognitive Prominence Theory and Conceptual
Metaphor Theory, and points their limitations on the interpretation of Chinese
four-character zodiac idioms. In the hope of filling the gaps, it proposes a new
theoretical model, namely, BPM Model to better interpret the meaning formation
process of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms.
Chapter Four concerns data analysis and discussion, specifically, the
establishment of the corpus and analysis of the constitution model under the
above-proposed theoretical frame.

  iii
 Chapter Five deals with conclusion and three contributions of this paper:
First, the study conducts a comprehensive research on Chinese four-character
zodiac idioms based on the corpus of 310 items and a BPM Model, the meaning
formation mechanism has been analyzed.
Second, the paper integrates a new theoretical model to analyze the meaning
formation process of the Chinese four-character zodiac idioms and proves the
feasibility of the new model.
Third, what this paper has done makes a great contribution to the TCFL (teaching
Chinese as a foreign language). Furthermore, the limitations are listed out and some
suggestions for future research in Chinese zodiac idioms are proposed.

Key words: BPM Model; Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms; Conceptual

Blending Theory; Cognitive Prominence Theory; Cognitive Metaphor
Theory 

  iv
 Acknowledgements
It is really a great delight to write down my gratitude to those, without whom,
this dissertation would hardly have been possible.
Words fail me when I am trying to express my oceans of thanks and love to Prof.
Li Jianping, my most respectable supervisor. Her patient and insightful guidance has
always been of immeasurable value to me, both for her intellectual guidance and for
her warm and constant encouragement during the process of writing this thesis. With
patience and prudence, she labored through drafts of this thesis and pointed out
defects in my theorizing. Therefore, I owe all the merits in this thesis, if any, to her,
though I am fully aware that the thesis might still contain some mistakes, for which I
bear the whole responsibility.
My gratitude also goes to all the teachers that have taught me, from whose
enlightening and instructive courses that I have learned so much.
Cordial thanks also go to my schoolmates, fellow classmates and friends, for
their kind help and encouragement over the past three years.
Last but by no means the least, I am indebted greatly to my family who have
shared with me my worries, frustrations, and hopefully my ultimate happiness in
eventually finishing this thesis.

  v
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter One Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 
1.1 Motivations of the Study ................................................................................................... 1 
1.2 Objectives of the Study ..................................................................................................... 1 
1.3 Methodology of the Study ................................................................................................. 2 
1.4 Layout of the Thesis .......................................................................................................... 3 
Chapter Two Literature Review .................................................................................................... 4 
2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 4 
2.2 Chinese Zodiac Idioms ...................................................................................................... 4 
2.3 Previous Studies on Chinese Twelve Zodiacs .................................................................. 4 
2.3.1 The Origin of the Chinese Zodiac ......................................................................... 4 
2.3.2 Semantic Studies of the Chinese Zodiac ............................................................... 5 
2.3.3 Cultural Linguistic Study of the Chinese Zodiac Idioms .................................... 7 
2.3.4 Translation Studies of the Chinese Zodiac ........................................................... 7 
2.3.5 Cognitive Studies of the Chinese Zodiac .............................................................. 8 
2.4 Limitations of Studies on Chinese Zodiacs ..................................................................... 9 
2.5 Summary .......................................................................................................................... 10 
Chapter Three Theoretical Basis: BPM Model .......................................................................... 12 
3.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 12 
3.2 Theoretical Basis ............................................................................................................. 12 
3.2.1 Conceptual Blending Theory and Its Limitations ............................................. 13 
3.2.2 Cognitive Prominence Theory and Its Limitations ........................................... 16 
3.2.3 Conceptual Metaphor and Its Limitations ......................................................... 19 
3.3 The Feasibility of the Integration of CBT, CPT and CMT .......................................... 23 
3.4 BPM for the Gaps ............................................................................................................ 24 
3.5 Summary .......................................................................................................................... 28 
Chapter Four Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms: A BPM Approach .............................. 29 
4.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 29 
4.2 Data of Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms ........................................................... 29 
4.2.1 The Cultural Sign of Twelve Zodiacs .................................................................. 29 
4.2.2 The Classification of Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms .......................... 34 
4.3 A BPM Analysis of Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms ........................................ 35 
4.3.1 Analysis of Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms of Coordination .............. 35 
4.3.2 Analysis of Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms of Subject-Verb ............... 37 
4.3.3 Analysis of Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms of Modifier ...................... 39 
4.3.4 Analysis of Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms of Double Verb-phrase ... 41 
4.4 Summary .......................................................................................................................... 43 
Chapter Five Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 45 
5.1 Summary of the Study .................................................................................................... 45 
5.2 Major Findings and Contributions ................................................................................ 45 
5.3 Limitations and Suggestions ........................................................................................... 47 
References ...................................................................................................................................... 49 
Appendix: The Data of Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms ............................................... 52 

  vi
 Chapter One Introduction
Chinese zodiac plays a very important part in the Chinese culture. And the zodiac
idioms occupy a large proportion in the Chinese vocabulary. Chinese zodiac idioms
are idioms such as “龙腾虎跃”, “马到成功”, “虎头虎脑”, “画蛇添足”, etc. These
idioms express not only express the good wishes, but also implicate something
worship to animals. The present thesis sets out to make a cognitive study of Chinese
four-character zodiac idioms by means of BPM Model (the integration of Conceptual
Blending Theory, Cognitive Prominence Theory and Conceptual Metaphor Theory).
In this chapter, we mainly introduce the motivations, the objectives, the
methodology and the layout of the present paper.

1.1 Motivations of the Study

The twelve zodiacs are one of the precious culture heritages in the history of
Chinese nation. From ancient times to now, the twelve zodiacs are used to mark the
year, to stand for the year of one’s birth and to be compiled to the story. It is closely
related to people’s daily life. Those twelve animals are the most familiar animals in
the daily life, such as, “ox”, “sheep”, “pig”, “dog” and “rooster”. They are the most
familiar culture sign in people’s daily life. They are so representative and classic that
studies of Chinese twelve zodiacs arise large numbers of scholars’ interest. However,
there is no paper discussing the meaning formation process of Chinese four-character
zodiac idioms by constructing a theoretical model. Therefore, this arises the author’s
interest in the study on the Chinese four-character zodiac idioms.

1.2 Objectives of the Study

Chinese zodiac culture occupies a significant part in the Chinese culture. It plays
not only an important role in spreading and transmitting the whole Chinese culture,
but also influences the culture of the whole world. The Chinese twelve zodiacs are
tightly related to human beings’ activities. Zodiac culture is one of the most important

1 
parts in the splendid traditional Chinese culture. Zodiac culture is the most
characteristic and typical element in the Chinese culture. Animals are the intimate
partners of human beings and are also the main ways for humans to know the world
around them. Vocabularies composed of zodiac animals have not only bright images,
but also contain profound cultural connotation. These vocabularies, as a sign of
animals, own a great majority of proportion in the Chinese modern vocabularies.
These zodiac vocabularies represent the most unique features in the Chinese language
and are of great importance to the development of language. Though many scholars
have done some researches on twelve zodiacs, such as their semantic meaning,
cultural meaning, metaphorical meaning, translations or whatever, there is no paper
involving the meaning formation mechanism of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms.
Therefore, this thesis is in an attempt to dig out the internal mechanism of the
formation and understanding of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms under the
framework of BPM Model (the integration of Conceptual Blending Theory, Cognitive
Prominence and Conceptual Metaphor Theory).

1.3 Methodology of the Study

On the basis of the previous achievements and assumptions in cognitive
linguistics, the author attempts to adopt a data-driven approach and propose a
cognitive explanatory account for Chinese four-character zodiac idioms. Thus, this
study is not only a qualitative analysis (we establish a related corpus) but also a
quantitative analysis (we establish a new theoretical model). All the conclusions will
be drawn from the corpus-based analysis.
Our data in the corpus are all collected from the Xinhua Idioms Dictionary. The
total number amounts to 310 items. The twelve zodiacs are mouse, ox, tiger, rabbit,
Chinese dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. In these twelve
animals, “猪” can also be called “豕”; “狗” called “犬”; “羊” is homonymic “阳” to
express good luck. A zodiac idiom contains at least one animal, such as “鼠目寸光”;
at most two, such as “一龙一猪”.

2 
1.4 Layout of the Thesis
This thesis consists of five chapters including the introduction to the conclusion.
Chapter one gives a brief introduction to the study, including the motivations of
the study, the objectives of the study, the methodology and data collection as well as
layout of the study.
Chapter Two first presents the literature review of Chinese twelve zodiacs. On
the other hand, the author has summarized and commented on the previous
achievements of Chinese twelve zodiacs.
Chapter Three gives an introduction to the Conceptual Blending Theory,
Cognitive Prominence Theory and Conceptual Metaphor Theory, including their
achievements and limitations on the interpretation of Chinese four-character zodiac
idioms. Based on the limitations, the study proposes a new frame: BPM Model (an
integration of Conceptual Blending Theory, Cognitive Prominence Theory and
Conceptual Metaphor Theory) to better interpret Chinese four-character zodiac
idioms.
Chapter Four is data analysis and discussions of Chinese four-character zodiac
idioms. With detailed data collection, this paper applies BPM Model to 310 Chinese
four-character zodiac idioms and attempts to probe into the cognitive mechanisms of
them.
Chapter Five summarizes the major findings and weaknesses of the present study.
Suggestions for future research are also offered.

3 
 Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Introduction
This chapter will review Chinese twelve zodiacs and previous studies on Chinese
twelve zodiacs, as well as the limitations of the studies on Chinese zodiacs. Generally
speaking, previous studies of Chinese zodiacs mainly cover four aspects: semantic
studies, cultural studies, translation studies and cognitive studies.

2.2 Chinese Zodiac Idioms

A zodiac idiom is composed of at least one zodiac animal. In present thesis, we
mainly focus on the four-character zodiac idioms. The Chinese four-character zodiac
idioms refer to idioms which are formed by means of four Chinese characters, such as
“一龙一猪”, “龙腾虎跃”, “马到成功”, “鼠目寸光”, “一牛吼地”, “兔死狗烹”, “虎
头虎脑”, “打草惊蛇”, “顺手牵羊”, “沐猴而冠”. “偷鸡摸狗”, “声色犬马”, etc.
These structures may contain at least one zodiac and at most two zodiacs. And the
place of zodiac animals can be placed on the first place, such as “鼠目寸光”, the
second place, such as “吴牛喘月”, the third place, such as “狼吞虎咽”,the fourth
place, “塞翁失马”. Different zodiac animals symbolize different denotative meanings
and cultural connotation meanings.

2.3 Previous Studies on Chinese Twelve Zodiacs

2.3.1 The Origin of the Chinese Zodiac
On the origin of the Chinese Zodiac, there are many legends, mythologies,
various versions and stories in different regions. People’ Forum has reported that the
Chinese Zodiac, also known as Sheng Xiao, originated form Xia Dynasty and Shang
Dynasty, is a scheme, which uses Twelve Earthly Branches and twelve animals to
symbolize the year when a person is born. The sequence of the zodiac animals are the
mouse, ox, tiger, rabbit, Chinese dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog
and pig. Such a sequence is from a legend that The Jade Emperor (The Emperor in

4 
 Heaven in Chinese folklore) once ordered that animals would be designated as
calendar signs, and the twelve that arrived first would be selected. The mouse, in
order not to fall behind other animals, made the straightforward ox carry him and slid
in front of the ox to become the first lucky animal of the Chinese Zodiac. Second the
ox to the last one, the pig.
Interpretations about the origin of the Chinese Zodiac go also to Huang Jianrong
(1994, 1998). Huang holds that Yin Yang Theory and Wu Xing Theory are the
philosophical origin of the Chinese Zodiac. Five aspects have been discussed in the
paper including the philosophical thinking and life philosophy, mystification, concrete
animal sign, Yin Yang theory and Xiang Sheng or Xiang Ke. The following table
shows the relationships between Twelve Earthly Branches, Wuxing elements and
twelve zodiacs.

十二地支 寅 卯 巳 午 戌 辰 丑 未 申 酉 亥 子

五行 木 火 土 金 水

十二生肖 虎 兔 蛇 马 狗 龙 牛 羊 猴 鸡 猪 鼠

Table 2.1 the relationships between three kinds

Zhang Shanshan (2007) has pointed out that the Chinese zodiac can be divided
into two groups: exotic and native origin. And the native origin is composed of
totem-origin and non-totem origin. Zhang holds that the birth of the Chinese zodiac is
influenced by several kinds of factors, and advocates the multi-origins.

2.3.2 Semantic Studies of the Chinese Zodiac

In this field of study, three aspects have been mainly discussed: the meaning
source of the Chinese zodiacs; the semantic features of the Chinese zodiac
vocabularies and the reasons that result in the semantic differences of the Chinese
zodiac vocabularies.
Wang Juan (2011) notes that the meaning sources of the Chinese zodiac
vocabularies derive from animal’s physical characteristics, from Chinese legends and

5 
literatures, and from folk psychology. Liu Lili (2012), Wang Fei (2011) and Hu
Hongyun (2013) contend that meaning extension is with the help of the metaphor.
Besides, Wang (2011) adds that the meaning of the zodiac animals is closely related
with one figure of speech, namely, to express emotions by means of comparing with
other things.
Wang Fei (2011) and Jang Jiao (2012) have summarized respectively three
semantic features of the zodiac vocabularies by making a comparison between
Chinese and English culture. Wang (2011) concludes three features:  A. semantic
overlapping (both animals in two cultures have the approximate associative
meanings); B. semantic deletion (there are other two situations: a. the same animal in
one culture has no correspondence with the other culture; b. the associative meaning
of one animal in one culture is totally contrast with that in another culture); C.
semantic dislocation (different animals have the same associative meanings in two
cultures). And Jang’s (2012) statement is roughly equal to Wang’s (2011), namely, A.
semantic overlapping; B. semantic conflicting and C. semantic vacancy.
Wang Fei (2011), Chen Siyu (2012) and Jin Guangyu (2007) all talk about the
reasons for semantic differences of the zodiac idioms between different cultures.
Reasons are the way of thinking (the effect of religion, myths, legends, arts, literature,
and ethics on the way of people knowing the world), differences on aesthetic
psychology (different associations from one thing), natural environment, different
social customs (individualism & collectivism) and different language families (one
Chinese syllable may have more than one meanings).
Both Cao Rong (2006) and Zhang Xuejing (2012) mention that it should be
taken first the semantic factor into consideration when translating the names of the
Chinese zodiacs.
Ma Dan (2006), however, talks about the symbolic meaning of the zodiac idioms
from four aspects: to know the zodiac animals’ image and symbolic meanings
according to what zodiac animals stand for in the Chinese culture; to know the zodiac
animals’ symbolic meanings from the relationship between zodiac animals and the
other animals; to know the zodiac animals’ symbolic meanings according to the

6 
special phenomenon and customs; and to exemplify the zodiac animals’ images and
symbolic meanings between Chinese and English culture.

2.3.3 Cultural Linguistic Study of the Chinese Zodiac Idioms

Culture and the language are closely interrelated with each other. The language
can root in the culture of one country and meanwhile reflect one’s culture. These
twelve zodiacs in different cultures have different denotation and connotation. Jin
Guangyu (2007), Chen Zhiming (2011), Chen Siyu (2012) and Zhang Liyan and Li
Zongcheng (2012) have compared these twelve zodiac animals between Chinese and
Korean culture, Chinese and Vietnamese culture and Chinese and English culture. As
the neighbor countries, twelve zodiacs in Korea and Vietnam have the great
similarities with those in China. But in Korea, there are expressions that have the
same meaning but different forms, for example, “隔墙有耳 (in Chinese)——白天的
话语鸟儿来聆听，晚上的话语老鼠来聆听” (in Korean). Zhang and Li (2012) divide
zodiac animals into three categories: the same animals with the same cultural
connotations (mouse、ox、snake、sheep、monkey、rooster、pig、rabbit); the same
animals with different cultural connotations (Chinese dragon、dog); and the different
animals with the same cultural connotation (horse (Chinese)—ox (English); tiger
(Chinese)——lion (English)).

2.3.4 Translation Studies of the Chinese Zodiac

As for the translation studies of the Chinese twelve zodiacs, one aspect is the
translation of the name of twelve zodiacs; the other is the translation of the zodiac
vocabularies about the twelve animals. Cao Rong (2006), Liu Baiyu (2010), Jia
Yuting (2011) and Zhang Xuejing (2012) discuss the way of translating the name of
the twelve zodiacs and their choices can be concluded in the following table.

7 
 鼠 牛 虎 兔 龙 蛇 马 羊 猴 鸡 狗 猪
曹 mouse ox tiger rabbit dragon snake horse sheep monkey rooster dog pig
张 mouse ox tiger rabbit dragon snake horse sheep monkey fowl dog Pig
刘 mouse bull tiger rabbit Chinese snake horse sheep monkey rooster dog boar
dragon
贾 rat bull tiger rabbit Chinese snake horse sheep monkey cock dog pig
dragon
Table 2.2 the translations of twelve zodiacs

Luo Lili (2006) discusses the translation of the zodiac vocabularies by

combining methods of literal translation, free translation and borrowings with the
cultural connotation of the animal sign: literal translation (the same animal sign with
the similar cultural connotation); free translation (the different animal sign with the
similar cultural connotation).
Based on the above table, the present thesis will employ the names of twelve
zodiacs as follows: mouse, ox, tiger, rabbit, Chinese dragon, snake, horse, sheep,
monkey, rooster, dog and pig.

2.3.5 Cognitive Studies of the Chinese Zodiac

This aspect mainly focuses on applying metaphor into the study of the zodiac
animals. On one hand, Li Ying (2012) and Sun Yi and Gao Yali (2013) discuss the
zodiac animals’ image selection. Li, Sun and Gao compare what the different zodiac
animals stand for in the Chinese and English culture. Sun and Gao also explain the
reason why some zodiac animals in two cultures have the similarities in terms of the
embodied philosophy, namely, what we know, what we experience on the world are
nearly the same although we live in the different continents. The differences are due
to the different cultural backgrounds. The geographical environment, social values,
religion and customs result in the different interpretations of the zodiac animals.
On the other hand, Gao Lei (2012) discusses the zodiac structures from the

8 
perspective of metaphor. Gao analyzes the metaphor types of the zodiac structures,
specifies the metaphor structures and semantic features of the zodiac idioms, and
finally analyzes the cultural connotation.
metaphor Culture
orientational metaphor Likes
zodiac structures ontological metaphor Dislikes
structural metaphor Worship
Table 2.3 the classification of zodiac structures

Moreover, Zhang Xiaofei (2012) studies the categorization of the Chinese zodiac
based on the metaphor theory and divides the zodiac animals into two categories: the
invented animal (Chinese dragon) and the real animals which are further divided into
two: The domestic animals (pig, ox, sheep, horse, dog, rooster, and rabbit) and the
wild animals (mouse, tiger, snake, and monkey).

Invented Chinese dragon

Real Docile: pig, ox, sheep, horse, dog, rooster, rabbit
Wild: mouse, tiger, snake, monkey
Table 2.4 the categorization of twelve zodiacs

2.4 Limitations of Studies on Chinese Zodiacs

According to the above previous studies, we find that all of the papers only
describe information about twelve zodiacs, but no paper involves the study of the
Chinese zodiac idioms. Besides, all papers mentioned above interpret zodiacs either
between Chinese and other cultural backgrounds or from the translation of the names,
zodiac vocabularies to the interpretation of different meanings (associative meaning,
symbolic meaning and metaphorical meaning). Though applying the metaphor into
the study, the scope of their studies is too extensive, including proverbs, lexical
phrases, two-part allegorical sayings and other kinds of idioms. Few of them study

9 
how this meaning construction come into being from the perspective of human’s
cognition or under the cognitive linguistic theories.
Furthermore, no related corpus and specific statistics have involved in the study
on the Chinese four-character zodiac idioms, thus we will establish a corpus by
collecting Chinese four-character zodiac idioms from the Xinhua Idioms Dictionary in
an attempt to interpret the present thesis objectively and systematically

2.5 Summary
Chinese zodiac idioms play an important part in the development and
transmission of Chinese culture. These zodiac idioms, for the Chinese nation, are
accumulated along the long history of human’s production and social practice. Thus,
those vocabularies which contain Chinese zodiacs occupy a large proportion in the
whole Chinese vocabularies, and based on this point, the present study takes Chinese
four-character zodiac idioms as the main content.
In the previous studies, scholars discuss twelve zodiacs only from the semantic,
translational, cultural and metaphor point of view. Scholars discuss twelve zodiacs
from the perspective of metaphor only considering the names of the twelve zodiacs
and few zodiac idioms, and considering simply the translation of the vocabularies of
zodiac animals. There is no complete approach to study Chinese four-character zodiac
idioms from the cognitive perspective. Because most researches have not touched
upon the internal mechanism of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms, it is the main
reason for author’s decision to pursue a study of Chinese zodiac idioms from the
perspective of cognitive linguistics. And the author finds that Cognitive Prominence
Theory is deficient in accounting for the reasons why those zodiac idioms in which
there are no typical antonymic pairs, even if we base one animal as highlighting, we
still don’t know in what way this idiom is composed, and in what way its meaning is
formed. Second, the zodiac idioms are formed by means of one or two zodiac animals
connected with other word types. It is difficult to explain the relationship between
zodiac animals and other elements in the idioms clearly. And Cognitive Metaphor

 
10
Theory neglects people’s mental conceptualization during the process of creating the
meaning of idioms, and the meaning generation process of the zodiac idioms may
highlight different objects as its most important part in the idioms.
Based on previous researches, this thesis will try to first delimit the scope of the
study to the Chinese four-character zodiac idioms. Second, we will try to establish a
new theoretical model to the interpretation of the Chinese four-character zodiac
idioms to compensate for the gaps of the previous studies that only described related
information about twelve zodiacs from a static level but not from a dynamic level by
conducting a theory model to the research of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms. In
this way, this thesis will be conducted under three cognitive theories —Conceptual
Blending Theory (CBT), Cognitive Prominence Theory (CPT) and Conceptual
Metaphor Theory (CMT). Based on these three theories, the author brings forward a
new theoretical framework called BPM Model to better interpret the meaning
formation process of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms.
In a word, the present study is in an attempt to use a relatively comprehensive
method to dig the deep cognitive mechanism that guide meaning generation of
Chinese four-character zodiac idioms by integrating Conceptual Blending Theory and
Cognitive Prominence Theory with Conceptual Metaphor Theory as its internal
mechanism.

 
11
 Chapter Three Theoretical Basis: BPM Model

3.1 Introduction
In order to improve the studies of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms, this
study tries to apply the theories of Cognitive Linguistics to analyze the four-character
zodiac idioms statistically and systematically. This chapter is mainly to establish a
new theoretical model, namely, BPM Model by combining Conceptual Blending
Theory (CBT), Cognitive Prominence Theory (CPT) and Conceptual Metaphor
Theory (CMT).
This chapter has the following parts: the introduction of three cognitive theories,
the analysis of the feasibility of BPM Model, and the description of the new model.

3.2 Theoretical Basis

Chinese twelve zodiac culture is closely related with human’s life and language.
After developed for a long time, it has its own survival advantage. Chinese
four-character zodiac idioms are the main part of the Chinese modern vocabularies,
but the previous studies mainly discuss the semantic meanings, the translations of the
names of twelve zodiacs, or some zodiac words. There are no papers from the
cognitive linguistics point of view to investigate Chinese four-character zodiac idioms
systematically and statistically.
Chinese zodiac idioms take up a large proportion in modern Chinese vocabulary
because of its important role in the Chinese culture and the very frequencies of zodiac
animals that are often seen in people’s daily life, except the invented animal—Chinese
dragon. Chinese four-character zodiac idioms refer to idioms which are formed by
means of four Chinese characters, in which the most important element is the place of
the twelve zodiac animals. In an idiom, there can be at least one zodiac animal, at
more two zodiac animals. They can be put in the first place, such as “鼠目寸光”; in
the second place, such as “吴牛喘月”, in the third place, such as “将门虎子”, and in
the fourth place, such as “望子成龙”.

 
12
3.2.1 Conceptual Blending Theory and Its Limitations
Conceptual Blending Theory was proposed by Fauconnier in 1985, deriving
from Mental Space Theory and Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Conceptual Blending
Theory is to fill the gaps that traditional cognitive scientists employ a static system to
the study of words’ meaning. However, the actual language in people’s daily
communication is flexible and changeable, only the static frame theories cannot
answer this question perfectly, so Conceptual Blending Theory is put forward.
Conceptual Blending Theory is based on two ideas: (1) structure mapping and
metaphorical projection. (2) the ability of mental simulation. Schwartz and Black
(1996) hold the opinion that mental simulation would not only help people explain
complex spaces but also work with non-real-world reference of mental space (Su
Xiaojun & Zhang Ailing, 2001). And CBT must follow a five optimality principle to
ensure that it works effectively. Fauconnier and Turner (1997) put forward five
optimality principles. These five optimality principle include the following parts:
Integration: The blend must constitute a tightly integrated scene that can be

manipulated as a unit. More generally, every space in the blend structure should have

integration.

Topology: For any input space and any elements in that space projected into the blend,

it is optimal for the relations of the elements in the blend to match the relations of its

counterpart.

Web: Manipulating the blend as a unit must maintain the web of appropriate

connections to the input spaces easily and without additional surveillance or

computation.

Unpacking: The blend alone must enable the understander to unpack the blend to

reconstruct the inputs, the cross-space mapping, the generic space, and the network of

connections between all these spaces

Good reason: All things being equal, if an element appears in the blend, there will be

pressure to find significance for this element. Significance will include relevant links

to other spaces and Trelevant functions in running the blend.

(Fauconnier, 1997, pp. 184-185)

 
13
 The most important part in CBT is Conceptual Integration Network, which have
basically four spaces in which the process of conceptual blending is showed in the
following diagram (Fauconnier and Turner, 2002, p. 46).

Generic Space

● 
● 

Input space  Ⅱ 
Input Space Ⅰ
●  ● 
●    ●  ●      ● 

  ● 
●      ● 
●          ●

Blended Space

Figure 3.1 Illustration of CBT

As is illustrated in the above diagram, Fauconnier and Turner believe that a

complete conceptual integration network includes four mental spaces: Input Space I,
Input Space II, Generic Space and Blended Space. Conceptual integration is a set of
cognitive activities which combine frames from different cognitive domains, that is,
two input mental spaces projected into the third space—the blended space through
some of the match reflected in the two input spaces optionally. And common
information, common structures or common elements can be found in the generic
space. In this diagram, circles represent mental spaces; dark spots in the circles
represent the various elements in a mental space; projection of the relationships
 
14
between elements connected by lines. The dotted lines and the solid square in the
blended space stand for the emergent structure. In conceptual integration, the
emergent structure is achieved by three processes: composition, completion and
elaboration. (Wu Weisan, 2011).
“Conceptual blending involves three processes, namely, composition, completion and

elaboration, each of which may possibly lead to the production of emergent structure”

(Coulson, 1997, p. 192).

Composition: Blending composes elements from the input spaces, providing relations that

do not exist in the separate inputs. Counterparts may be brought into the blend as separate

elements or as a fused element.

Completion: Blends recruit a great range of background conceptual structure and knowledge

without our recognizing it consciously. In this way, composed structure is completed with

other structure. The fundamental subtype of recruitment is pattern completion. A minimal

composition in the blend can be extensively completed by a larger conventional pattern.

Elaboration: Elaboration develops the blend through imaginative mental simulation

according to principles and logic in the blend. Blended spaces can become extremely

elaborated.

(Fauconnier & Turner, 1998, p. 144)

Taking “阿猫阿狗” as an example, “阿猫” and “阿狗” work as two input spaces.
“阿猫” and “阿狗” are childhood names which are used frequently by human. This
common information will be projected into generic space. Several information of “阿
猫” and “阿狗” are projected to the blended space selectively. The projected structure
and the information existing in the human’s long-term memory are matched with each
other. The emergent structure is formed then. The emergent structure is processed
through people's cognitive imagination. The idiom “阿猫阿狗” is produced. Its
meaning is extended to the people and means something that is not worthy to pay
attention to. The process is shown as follows:

 
15
 childhood
names
●

阿猫  阿狗 
●  ● 

● 
the
structure—“
阿猫阿狗”

Figure 3.2 The illustration of “阿猫阿狗”

Although the Conceptual Blending Theory complies with a universal principle, it

overthrows the meaning combination in traditional semantics and reflects the
multi-structure of the language and human thinking. However, it also composes some
shortcomings in explaining Chinese four-character zodiac idioms. This theory ignores
idioms’ forming background and people's psychological factors. It also cannot explain
the process which Chinese zodiac idioms with something about context.

3.2.2 Cognitive Prominence Theory and Its Limitations

Cognitive linguistics argues that the creation, study and use of language can be
basically explained through human cognition, because cognitive ability is the
foundation of human knowledge. Objective world and conceptual category are very
complex, how to accurately interpret language in the complex phenomena,
prominence is a very important way. In cognitive linguistics, prominence refers to the
selection and arrangement of the information expressed in language (Ungerer &

 
16
Schmid, 2001, F38). According to Ungerer and Schmid, this kind of linguistic
phenomenon goes beyond logical reasoning and objectivity, and it is the result of
human beings’ understanding. Prominence has a very close relationship with the
schema. Prominence clearly reveals the focus of the cognitive subject under the
background of overall cognitive schemata. Schema is a psychological phenomenon; it
corresponds to a certain concept or a category. When people perceive physical objects,
they will trigger mental images, and start the conceptualization of language or
cognitive thinking program, prominence, in this cognitive process, is the core content.
Prominence is based on our ability to determine the direction and focus of cognitive
attention.
In research of cognitive linguistics, the notions that express concept of
“prominence” have different names or terms, such as “highlighting”, “profiling” and
“foregrounding”. “Highlighting” is focusing on one side while covering other sides in
comprehending an object (Lakoff, 1980). The “highlighting” means to illuminate
some part with highlight to make it striking, while let other parts become faint.
Halliday (1971, p.331) has defined “foregrounding” as “prominence that is
motivated”. Chen Zhong (2006, p.135) has interpreted as: For every object is
multi-dimensional, it can perform various attribute in many different cognitive
domains. Take “the Great Wall” for example, from perspective of military, it is for
military defense; viewing from perspective of architecture, it embodies a supreme
artistic level; viewing from perspective of culture, it reflects an abundant historical
and cultural connotation. In other words, “the Great Wall” has various profiles in
cognitive domains. When one certain profile is activated, other profiles are weakened,
namely, the prominent part is the focus of attention (Deane, 1992), (Wang Wenbin &
Xiong Xueliang, 2008).
According to Langacker, there are two different types of prominence, which are
Profile-Base and Trajector-Landmark. They are the specific application of
Figure-Ground Theory. Figure refers to concepts or awareness that is highlighted in
part and is the focus of attention, while Background is played as a foil for the
extruded shape. What a semantic structure in the related cognitive domain covered is
 
17
known as Base, while a portion of a base is to become “profile” if it is highlighted as
the “focus of attention”. The meaning of a word is determined by the combination of
Base and Profile, known as Profiling. The concept of Projector-Landmark comes from
Figure-Ground segregation. In cognitive linguistics, Langacker used
Projector-Landmark instead of Figure-Ground. Projector-Landmark is primarily based
on another view—Prominence View, that is to say, the choice of the subject of the
sentence depends on the salience of the elements in the scene described.
From the above analysis, it is clearly that the notions of “foregrounding”,
“profiling” and “highlighting” all have meanings of prominence. Nevertheless, these
notions cannot be overlapping. The notion of “foregrounding” expresses the
prominence of one certain profile of the same object. “Highlighting” expresses the
prominence of one side or one point of certain object. By comparison, “prominence”
or “salience” is more widely applied. Prominence can be expressed as salience on the
other hand. Due to the perspective or the attention that we see in different ways, we
will form different patterns and images in our minds (Ungerer & Schmid, 2001). For
quite a long time, in traditional linguistics, it was believed that the function of
language is mapping components of external world to linguistic forms. According to
this view, situation can be discomposed to a few components, each corresponding to
linguistic components. As a contrary, cognitive linguists believed that there is no
mapping exists in language and situation. A particular situation can be construed by
many different ways, and decoding the situation mode constructs many different
conceptualizations (Wen Xu). It suggests that the structure used correlates with the
construal chosen. The construal embodied by a linguistic expression constitutes a
crucial facet of its meaning (Hamawand, 2005).
Taking “一龙一猪” as an example, we try to recognize this idiom by denoting
two zodiac animals, “龙” and “猪”. But why these two zodiac animals are chosen, not
others? What highlight here is the symbolic images that these two zodiac animals
stand for. If we know these two zodiac animals well, we can get these two images,
“龙”, in Chinese culture, sands for ones that are noble, rich, aristocratic, and dignified.

 
18
It stands for something splendid, gallant and fine; while, in many people’s eyes, “猪”
represents something dirty, foul, filthy and grubby. According to this cultural
interpretation, in this idiom, we can say that “龙” and “猪” can be one pair of
antonyms, the meaning of this idiom can be that something contrast. Obviously, in
this idiom, we highlight the image of “龙” but depreciate the image of “猪”.
Moreover, the number “一” is the most flexible number; it stands for one; it is
singular, here, using “一” to connect these two animals is clear enough to express the
meaning, thus, the idiom “一龙一猪” is formed.
Cognitive Prominence Theory is explanatory to some Chinese four-character
zodiac idioms. It not only explains the one highlight and two targets but also indicates
human’s cognitive process that they intend to have the meanings positive and
affirmative but try to avoid negative or bad expressions. However, there are still some
shortcomings in the interpretation of four-character zodiac idioms. First, it cannot
explain those zodiac idioms in which there are no typical antonymic pairs, namely,
even if we base one animal as highlighting, we still don’t know in what way this
idiom is composed, and in what way its meaning is formed. Second, the zodiac idioms
are formed by means of one or two zodiac animals connected with other word types.
It is difficult to explain the relationship between zodiac animals and other elements in
the idioms.

3.2.3 Conceptual Metaphor and Its Limitations

Metaphor, in the traditional rhetoric view, is regarded as an approach of a figure
of speech, a modifier of words and is only a linguistic phenomenon. While in
cognitive linguistics, metaphor is used as a means of understanding and experiencing
things. In 1980, Lakoff and Johnson consider in “Metaphors We Live By” that the
metaphor is not only a rhetorical device, but also a means of cognition and thinking.
According to Lakoff, metaphor is a mapping based on an abstract schema to a
concrete one, that is to say, we conceive concepts from a more familiar, specific and
easily understood source domains to a less familiar, abstract and difficult target
domain. In the opinion of Burke (1945, p. 503), metaphor is a device for seeing
 
19
something in terms of something else. The source domain and the target domain are
linked with the similarities of these two domains. This process is achieved by the
mapping. Through mapping, people use their own cognitive domain to recognize
unfamiliar domain in order to achieve an objective perception of the world. Projection
of the metaphor is formed between the concepts of source domain projected to the
target domain, generally from the simple to the complex, from the concrete to the
abstract, from the substantial to the non-substantial. In a word, metaphor is not a
figure of speech, but more significantly, is a universal thinking pattern based on the
physical experiences, through which people experience, perceive, understand and
express the physical and the mental world. The process can be shown in the following
chart:

SOURCE SIMILARIT TARGET

DOMAIN  DOMAIN

Figure 3.3 the process of metaphor

Lakoff and Johnson argue that “metaphor is conceptual in nature rather than a
matter of ‘mere language’,” and “the essence of metaphor is understanding and
experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, pp.
171-172). The central claim of contemporary metaphor theory is that human
conceptual system is pervasively structured by metaphor and other kinds of
imaginative structures. In the corpus, we find that many of the four-character zodiac
idioms contain metaphorical meanings. The same with Michael Reddy, it is estimated
that English expressions resulting from metaphorical concepts “account for at least 70
percent of the expressions we use for talking about language” (Lakoff & Johnson,
1980, pp. 10-11).
Metaphor has ignited most scholars’ interest. Lakoff and Johnson (1980, pp.
36-40) remark that “metaphor is not just a poetic or rhetorical device, nor just a matter
of language; it is part of our everyday way of thinking and an essential part of
experiential view of language, is grounded in basic experiences and subject to general
 
20
and systematic principles, and it structures our thought and actions”. Zhao Yanfang
(2001, p. 100) states “nature of metaphor is similarity, but this does not mean that
metaphor is simply a comparison of two events or entities on the basis of their
similarities”. The following examples can illustrate how we understand one thing in
terms of another (Wang Yin, 2007, p. 407).

Time is money
独生子 是 小皇帝
概念域 A 概念域 B
目标(Target) 始源 (Source)

The understanding of target domain (Domain A) is mainly based on the

understanding of source domain (Domain B). That is, by means of human cognition
and reasoning, one or more features of source domain are mapped onto the target
domain. In the process of mapping, source domain and target domain interrelates with
each other, and the mapping is selective, only a certain feature or features is mapped.
In the example Time is Money; the value of money is mapped onto time. Therefore,
we can say “waste time” because “waste money” is widely used in daily
communication. As for the example 独生子是小皇帝, many features of “皇帝” such
as the head of an empire, the utmost authority, delivering orders, etc. are mapped onto
“独生子”.
The working mechanism of a metaphor is mainly a cross-domain mapping
involving projections from a concrete source domain to an abstract target domain,
namely metaphor involves a mapping across different cognitive models. The mapping
is partial in that only part of the structure of the source domain is projected onto the
target domain. Metaphorical mappings follow the Invariance Principle: the structure
of the source domain is projected onto the target domain in a way that is consistent
with the inherent structure of the target domain. In terms of the properties, the system
of conventional conceptual metaphor is mostly unconscious, automatic, and is used
constantly without noticeable efforts. This metaphor system plays a major role in both
grammar and lexicon of a language. Novel or poetic metaphors are mostly extensions
 
21
of conventional metaphor. Some conceptual metaphors are universal or near-universal,
which are widespread, and some seem to be culture-specific.
Metaphor theory is a powerful tool for explaining Chinese four-character zodiac
idioms. This is because the majority of Chinese zodiac idioms contain metaphorical
meanings. For example, the idiom “春蚓秋蛇”. There are two source domains:
“earthworm” and “snake”, what these two domains similar? It is their body shape. As
we know, “earthworm” and “snake” all belong to the reptile animals, with a long, thin
body and a tail. When this characteristic refers to the handwriting, its metaphorical
meaning is that one’s handwriting is so clumsy that just like the body of earthworm
and snake.

similarity
earthworm snake

body shape
(curved and hasty)

Figure 3.4 the illustration of “春蚓秋蛇”

However, there are some shortcomings in explaining Chinese four-character

zodiac idioms. First, although many Chinese four-character zodiac idioms have
metaphorical meanings, it neglects peoples’ mental conceptualization during the
process of creating the meaning of idioms. Second, the meaning generation process of
the four-character zodiac idioms may highlight different objects as their most
important part in the idioms. These two aspects can’t be fully explained by metaphor
theory.
To sum up, Cognitive Blending Theory complies with the universal principle
which human cognition regards semantic as cognitive means, by integrating two input
mental spaces to the blended space to form the emergent structure. Cognitive
Prominence Theory is explanatory to some four-character zodiac idioms. It not only
explains the one highlight and two targets but also indicates human’s cognitive
process that they intend to have the meanings positive and affirmative but try to avoid
 
22
negative or bad expressions. However, there are still some shortcomings in the
interpretation of four-character zodiac idioms. First, it cannot explain those zodiac
idioms in which there are no typical antonymic pairs, namely, even if we base one
animal as highlighting, we still don’t know in what way this idiom is composed, and
in what way its meaning is formed. Second, the zodiac idioms are formed by means of
one or two zodiac animals connected with other word types. It is difficult to explain
the relationship between zodiac animals and other elements in the idioms. Cognitive
Metaphor Theory is powerful to explain the Chinese four-character idioms, but it
neglects peoples’ mental conceptualization during the process of creating the meaning
of idioms. Second, the meaning generation process of the zodiac idioms may highlight
different objects as its most important part in the idioms. Therefore, this paper
attempts to combine Conceptual Blending Theory, Cognitive Prominence Theory and
Cognitive Metaphor Theory to explain the meaning generation mechanism of Chinese
four-character zodiac idioms with a qualitative and quantitative analysis of 310 items
of four-character zodiac idioms.

3.3 The Feasibility of the Integration of CBT, CPT and CMT

Conceptual Blending Theory, Cognitive Prominence Theory and Cognitive
Metaphor Theory have their own advantages and disadvantages, and offer their own
framework for meaning formation. However, when applied to the meaning formation
of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms, they have their disadvantages respectively. If
applied only one theory to explain zodiac idioms, no one cannot provide a unified and
relative systematic account for these zodiac idioms. Therefore, this paper integrates
these three theories together to analyze the meaning formation of Chinese
four-character zodiac idioms. That is to say, the focus of this chapter is to discuss the
feasibility of the integration of CBT, CPT and CMT.
At first, Conceptual Blending Theory and Cognitive Metaphor Theory are
complementary in many aspects. Firstly, Conceptual Blending Theory and Cognitive
Metaphor Theory are complementary in the process of analyzing Chinese

 
23
four-character zodiac idioms. In fact, the process of blending and the projection of
metaphor mapping are similar. They both share spaces or domains. By projecting one
object into another space or domain, the meanings of idioms are formed. Secondly,
CBT and CMT are complementary in the scope of analyzing Chinese four-character
zodiac idioms. CBT exists in a universal way because it studies from a philosophical
point of view; the conceptualizations depend on the two or more input spaces to
project into the blended space and form an emergent structure, while CMT depends
on the similarities of the source domain and the target domain to establish the
relations. Third, both these theories discuss the meaning formation. Some meanings of
zodiac idioms can be directly known by readers if they are acquainted with the hidden
cultural connotation, while CBT is the blending of meaning.
Then, Cognitive Prominence Theory and Conceptual Metaphor Theory are
complementary to some extent. Both of them are the fundamental ways of thinking
and cognitive tool to know the world, furthermore, prominence plays an important
role in the process of metaphor. Metaphor emphasizes the similarities of different
domains, we may notice that some part is very typical or prominent but others not.
In summary, these three theories can be compatibly adapted with each other. As a
result, it is possible to integrate these three theories into a new one.

3.4 BPM for the Gaps

According to the analysis mentioned above, the Chinese four-character zodiac
idioms cannot be analyzed very well with only one theory. Therefore, the author will
combine the Conceptual Blending Theory, Cognitive Prominence Theory and
Conceptual Metaphor Theory into one theoretical model to explain the meaning
generation of the Chinese zodiac idioms. The three theories are interactive with each
other in conceptual process of the Chinese zodiac idioms. The thesis proposes the
BPM Model to give a full explanation to the Chinese zodiac idioms in detail. The
BPM Model to the Chinese zodiac idioms goes as follows:
There are three steps of BPM Model. Firstly, the image of zodiac animal or other

 
24
parts should be regarded as two input spaces (there is one zodiac animal), or two
zodiac animals as the two input spaces (there are two zodiac animals) in the
Conceptual Blending Theory. In the process, different conceptualizations that animal
stand for will be processed respectively. These two input spaces will project into the
generic space with something similar.
The second step, those integrated conceptualizations go into the domain of
metaphor, something metaphorical enter the sight of readers. In this process, on one
hand, idioms contain metaphorical meanings can be put directly into the blended
space to form the meaning. While on the other hand, idioms without metaphorical
meanings are chosen out of the whole process.
The third step, principle of prominence will apply to the above combined steps.
But we should determine what part should be chosen as highlighting. Generally, the
similar part or parts will be prominent in an idiom, and all of these steps are projected
onto the blended space to form an idiom. The model is illustrated in the following
diagram.

 
25
 ●Generic Space 

similar part from similar part from

Input space I Input space II

similarity

Input space I
●Input space
●
II 
becom
e faint prominent

other parts from

other parts from
Input space I
Input space II

● 
Blended Space

1: Input Space I (zodiac one)

2: Input Space II (zodiac two)
3: Generic Space
4: Blended Space (zodiac idiom)
Figure 3.5 the BPM Model

We will take the Chinese four-character zodiac idiom “望子成龙” as the

example. The process is displayed in the following diagram.

 
26
 To be
excellent
Parents’ hope of their  Dragon  in  Chinese  culture  is 
children  to  become  a  symbol  of  a  noble,  high 
excellent  position 

similarity
Children’s Chinese
future dragon
development
become faint prominent
Another cultural
Other elements from input symbol of dragon
space I such as children’s from input space II
dislike of their study or such as the vitality
even leave off their studies and energy
望子成
龙 

Figure 3.6 illustration of “望子成龙”

From the above diagram, we put the future development of children and the
zodiac animal Chinese dragon as two input spaces. The future development of a child
may be excellent or mediocre. The Chinese dragon symbolizes meaning positive. It is
a symbol of vigorous, strong, grave, energetic, and auspicious meaning. This
information will be mapped with each other. According to metaphor theory, their
similarities, namely, the characteristic that the child wants to go ahead in his future
development is comparable to the certain symbolic meaning of Chinese dragon, that is,
the representatives of the noble, or a leader. Of course, all parents want his child or
children to be excellent, or in a high station. Therefore, from the stand of parents,
what they highlight most is the satisfied state of their children’s future development.
As a result, other instances of Chinese dragon like the symbol of power and mighty or
others are automatically neglected or ignored but the part “to be excellent” becomes

27 
prominent.

3.5 Summary
In this chapter, the introduction of CBT, CPT and CMT is described. Their
advantages and shortcomings in the interpretation of Chinese four-character zodiac
idioms are also discovered. CBT is a theory about the blending and also is a theory
about the constructing. CPT, a typical point to choose what part in the idioms to be
prominent, is complementary to the metaphor theory. CMT, complementary to the
blending theory, together determines the meaning generation of four-character zodiac
idioms. Therefore, the chapter has established a new model—BPM Model by
integrating CBT, CPT and CMT. Through our demonstration, first, choose two input
spaces to enter the process of the blending; second, the internal meaning formation of
Chinese zodiac idioms itself in the light of metaphor theory; third, choose what part to
be prominent, and the whole blending close.

 
28
 Chapter Four Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms: A BPM

Approach

4.1 Introduction
In the third chapter, the BPM Model is established. This chapter tries to analyze
the meaning formation process of the Chinese four-character zodiac idioms in details
to illustrate the feasibility of the BPM Model. And we have also collected 310 items
of the Chinese four-character zodiac idioms and will explain the internal mechanism
of them. This chapter focuses on the detailed description, analysis and discussion of
the meaning formation mechanism of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms on the
basis of the established BPM Model. The qualitative and quantitative methods will be
used in the analysis. The main difficulties of this chapter chiefly lie in how to apply
BPM Model to analyze and explain the meaning formation mechanism of Chinese
four-character zodiac idioms on the basis of the established corpus. The author
constructs the database by following the steps below.
(1)310 items of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms are selected out from the
Xinhua Idioms Dictionary.
(2) Putting them in an excel table;
(3) Classifying Chinese four-character zodiac idioms and make forms.
(4) Analyzing the meaning formation mechanism of Chinese four-character
zodiac idioms.
The research of this paper employs a qualitative method by establishing a new
theoretical model and a quantitative method by constructing a related corpus in an
attempt to explain the meaning formation process of Chinese four-character zodiac
idioms. The detailed discussion will be presented in the following parts.

4.2 Data of Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms

4.2.1 The Cultural Sign of Twelve Zodiacs
A zodiac idiom contain different twelve zodiac animals, but different zodiac

 
29
animals represent different connotations, either positive or negative, for example,
some zodiac animals like “龙”, and “马” depict a positive picture, whereas zodiac
animals like “猪” and “鼠” describe a negative image. Furthermore, some animals are
related with some special events, such as “马” and “牛” are attached to the state of
war. Because the zodiac animals represent the year of one’s birth, so they represent
different zodiac meanings and these different meanings play a vital role in the
construction of idioms’ meaning, so we listed below the respective connotations of
these twelve zodiac animals.
zodiac animals connotations of twelve zodiac animals
Mouse mouse is dirty, inferior, humble, coward and narrow-minded; but wit
and content
Ox ox is a good helper of human’s farming, with great strength; but
stubborn and ugly
Tiger tiger is the king of the forest, is fierce, violent and dangerous but
energetic or evil
Rabbit rabbit is timid and cunning; a symbol of the fleeting time
Chinese dragon Chinese dragon is auspicious, noble and worshiped by humans; high
position
Snake snake is evil, vicious and greedy
Horse horse is honest, wit and with strength
Sheep sheep is timid and coward; a sacrifice in the old times
Monkey monkey is cunning, thin and swift; but ugly
Rooster rooster is timid, diligent but humble
Dog dog is loyal to the master but contemptible or hypocritical
Pig pig is dirty, humble and ugly
Table 4.1 the connotations of twelve zodiac animals

First, mouse is in the first place in the twelve zodiacs because it played a small
trick on the straightforward ox that it rushed into the first line from the ox’s back. And

 
30
just because of this, mouse has a symbol of wisdom. But for most people in China,
mouse is an animal that is considered as a dirty, inferior, humble, coward and
narrow-minded animal. It is hated very much by many people. Idioms, such as “鼠目
寸光”, “孤雏腐鼠”, “鼠窃狗盗” and “过街老鼠”and so on belong to this kind.
Mouse, with a tiny body, a pair of small eyes and a long tail, enjoys eating rice, grain
and family leftovers in the household. If found and saw by people, it will run away
rapidly and seldom caught by humans. Idioms like “抱头鼠窜”. The only enemy of
the mouse is cat, for example, idiom “猫捉老鼠”. There are idioms, such as “猫鼠同
乳”, “猫鼠同眠” expressing an ironic meaning. Mouse and cat is the inborn enemy.
Whenever mouse meets cat, it will be chased after by cat. Such idioms put mouse and
cat in the same place, in the same net; hence it means that one cannot tell good or bad
from something.
However, just as one coin has two sides, mouse, on the other hand, symbolizes
something positive, such as abstinence, moderate, content and the symbol of a
fighting animal. For example, “相鼠有皮” and “穷鼠啮狸”. “穷鼠啮狸” means that
if mouse is repressed tightly by cat, it will fight against cat, even though cat is its
natural enemy.
Ox is the second animal to arrive. Actually, ox thought himself being the first one,
but let mouse win. It is known that in China, ox is an animal that helps human beings
plough the land. It worked diligently and conscientiously. As an important partner to
help humans plough, ox is an animal whose power is very great, idioms like “牛高马
大”, “力大如牛”, “气壮如牛” and “如牛负重” and so on. Ox is also an important
transport vehicle, used for transport military supplies. Therefore, together with horse,
it stands for the situation of a war. If war stops, humans will “休牛散马”, “卖剑买牛”,
“卖刀买犊”. On the other hand, ox stands for something ugly, stubborn, clumsy,
slow-witted, humble, stupid and suspicious. Someone is often said “牛脾气”; we can
say someone is trapped by one question, he is “钻牛角尖”. Idioms which express ox’s
ugly include “牛头马面”, “牛鬼蛇神”. If someone likes to boast, we can say “吹牛拍
马”. This idiom is compose by two phrases: “吹牛皮”, and “拍马屁”. These two
phrases all indicate that someone is flattering other people.
 
31
 Tiger, the king of the forest in Chinese culture, is a very dangerous, fierce, and
violent animal. If symbolized to human, it is obvious that this person is strong,
powerful, but at the same time, maybe a bad person, an evil person, an official who is
powerful but do harm to his people. If symbolized to women, it is said that this
woman is very furious and brutal, just as the saying “母老虎”. Since tiger is so
dangerous and violent that when Chinese nation is oppressed by foreign power
severely, we Chinese people referred “tiger” to replace those imperialist countries, for
example, “虎穴龙潭”, “官虎吏狼”, “谈虎色变”, “为虎作伥”, “畏之如虎” and “豺
狼虎豹”, etc. On the other hand, tiger symbolizes the images of power, magnificent
force such as emperors, generals and ministers, heroes, outstanding figures and
talented persons, and it can also be symbolized to the poetry, calligraphy, art, things of
the situation, idioms like “将门虎子”, “酒虎诗云” and “生龙活虎”, etc. Idioms like
“虎头虎脑” describes children’s clever, lovely and energetic state. There are many
idioms state the dangerous situation that person encountered, such as “羊入虎口”,
“饿虎扑食”, “虎视眈眈”, “饿虎扑羊”, and “虎入羊群”.
Rabbit is the fourth arrival among the twelve zodiac animals. It is often regarded
as a lovely animal. It symbolizes the image of timid, cunning and coward, such as “狡
兔三窟” and “狼奔兔脱” and so on. These aspects are the negative points of the
rabbit. On the other hand, it symbolizes the images of hyperactivity, flexible, agile,
and swift. It is also a symbol of the Buddhism, the gods, the moon, and the fleeting
time. For example, “动若脱兔”, “乌飞兔走” and “东兔西乌”.
Chinese dragon, the fifth arriver, symbolizes the meaning positive. It is the
symbol of a vigorous, strong, grave, energetic, and auspicious figure. It is also the
representatives of the emperor, Poseidon, god, senior officials, heroes, sages, and
gentleman. Furthermore, those honorable, respectable and noble persons can be
described with the image of Chinese dragon. For example, “真龙天子”, “乘龙快婿”,
“人中之龙”, “藏龙卧虎”, “麟凤龟龙” “乘龙佳婿” and “云龙风虎”etc. However, in
the westerners’ eyes, dragon is a vicious animal. It symbolizes something stubborn,
cruel and heartless, outrageous, arduous and dangerous. For example, “擒龙伏虎”,

 
32
“降龙伏虎” etc. Among these twelve zodiac animals, Chinese dragon keeps a close
contact with tiger, snake and horse. There are lots of idioms composed by either above
two zodiac animals to express either positive or negative meanings, such as “龙潭虎
穴”, “龙蛇混杂”, “龙马精神”, “马如游龙”, “潜龙伏虎” and “龙神马壮”, etc.
Chinese dragon is an invented animal in the Chinese history, which stands for the
male, while another invented animal representing the female is “凤”, these two
invented animals are auspicious animals in the Chinese culture, therefore, idioms
consisted of these two animals represent something dignified, such as “龙肝凤髓”,
“龙肝凤胆”, “龙凤呈祥”, and “龙飞凤翔”, etc.
Snake is a symbol of poisonous, harmful, greedy, cruel, evil, ugly, and abusive
figure. Humans are frightened of it, but to some extent worship it, such as “牛鬼蛇
神”, “杯弓蛇影”, and “蛇欲吞象” and so on. On the other hand, snake symbolizes
the powerful person, the person who was to pay off his gratitude to the person who
gives the gratitude. Because of the body shape of snake, it symbolizes often as the
landform, calligraphy movements, clues, stature, common sense and attitudes, such as
“灵蛇之珠”, “笔走龙蛇”, and “草蛇灰线”.
Horse, as an animal that takes burden of household, is an animal for people to
drive and ride. Meanwhile it symbolizes that one’s attention is distract, one’s mood is
depressed and the person who break the rules of a group, such as “害群之马”, “心猿
意马” and so on. But more often, horse is the symbol of strength, speed, freedom, the
fleeting time, a war transportation, wisdom, and even truth, philosophical proposition,
good or bad fortune and blessing, such as “快马一鞭”, “车水马龙”, “塞翁失马”, “窗
间过马”, “代马望北”, and “代马依风”, etc. Because horse is the most important
vehicle for war, there are the great majority of idioms belonging to this kind, such as
“千军万马”, “秣兵厉马”, “单枪匹马”, “兵强马壮”, “兵荒马乱”, “戎马生涯”, etc.
Sheep is a symbol of timid, weak and mediocre image. It is eaten by carnivores
such as tiger, like “羊落虎口”, “羊入虎口”. On the other hand, it provides delicious
food and cloth for human beings. In ancient times, it is the sacrifice to the god.
Moreover, it symbolizes honesty and innocence, reason and senses on the Buddhism.

 
33
For example, “杀猪宰羊” and “兔丝羔羊” belong to this kind. What’s more, “羊” is
homonymic “阳”, representing the auspicious things, such as “三阳开泰”.
Monkey is an animal swift, fast and cunning, but in the Chinese culture,
meanings of idioms composed of “monkey” are negative. It symbolizes a thin, ugly,
sharp and pliable image, such as “尖嘴猴腮”, “沐猴而冠”, “弄鬼掉猴”.
Rooster is the most important fowl in people’s daily life. It symbolizes the
female, a bad luck, a humble and timid person. Idioms consisted of “rooster” and
“dog” together symbolize something bad, generally associated with stealing and thief,
such as “偷鸡摸狗”, “鸡鸣狗盗” and “鸡鸣狗窃”. It is also associated with one’s
temperament, saying someone is mean and narrow-minded, such as “鸡肠狗肚”.
However, as we all know, “rooster” is the natural alarm clock in the morning. Its crow
tells people the time in the morning no matter what weather is like. Such
characteristics prove the diligent feature of “rooster”, such as “牝鸡司晨”, and “鸡鸣
而起”.
Dog, as the old saying goes, love me, love my dog. We heard often that dog is
the best friend of human beings. Although dog in Chinese culture is a representative
of faith to human beings, it more often symbolizes a negative meaning that
symbolizes something mean, despicable, vicious, shameless and frivolous, such as
“丧家之狗”, “狼心狗肺”. And if you make friends with a bad person, you will be
called “狐朋狗友”, “狐群狗党” and “狐朋狗党”.
Pig is the last one to arrive. It is undoubtedly that pig in the Chinese culture is
often a negative image. It is a symbol of fool, stupid, greedy, ugly, and humble, such
as “泥猪疥狗”. However, in the ancient times, possessing a pig means you are rich,
because pig is used as the sacrifice to the god. The meat of pig is also delicious for
human beings. In a word, pig and idioms containing “pig” are full of derogative
senses.

4.2.2 The Classification of Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms

By carefully studied the corpus, we divide Chinese four-character zodiac idioms

 
34
into seven categories, namely, idioms of coordination like “鼠目獐头”, idioms of
subject-verb like “吴牛喘月”, idioms of verb-object like “望子成龙”, idioms of
modifier like “汗马功劳”, idioms of complement like “畏之如虎”, idioms of double
verb-phrases like “打草惊蛇” and others, for instance, “狡兔三窟”. To sum up, the
divided categories of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms are listed in the following
table.
Types Examples
Idioms of coordination 狗盗鸡鸣, 泥猪瓦狗, 鸡飞蛋打

Idioms of subject-verb 虎落平原, 塞翁失马, 羊落虎口

Idioms of verb-object 钻牛角尖, 指鹿为马, 投畀豺虎

Idioms of modifier 胆小如鼠, 多如牛毛, 一马平川

Idioms of complement 畏之如虎, 矫若游龙

Idioms of double verb-phrases 抱头鼠窜, 守株待兔, 卖剑买牛

Idioms of others 龟毛兔角, 杯弓蛇影, 范张鸡黍

Table 4.2 the classification of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms

4.3 A BPM Analysis of Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms

4.3.1 Analysis of Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms of Coordination
This kind of idiom in the whole classification occupies a large proportion. It
refers to idioms in which the structure of the first two Chinese characters is parallel
with the last two characters, for example, “鼠牙雀角”, “龙章凤姿”, and “宝马香车”,
etc. And we further divide these kinds into another four categories, that is, NP+NP, as
“鼠目獐头”, VP+VP, as “握蛇骑虎”, NV+NV, as “龙飞凤舞” and VN+VN, as “偷鸡
摸狗”.

 
35
 idioms of examples
coordination
NP+NP 鼠目獐头

VP+VP 握蛇骑虎

NV+NV 龙飞凤舞

VN+VN 偷鸡摸狗

Table 4.3 the classification of idioms of coordination

In the idiom “鼠目獐头”. The two mental spaces are “鼠目” and “獐头”. By our
experience, we know that the eyes of a mouse are small and round; the head of a roe
deer is small and chin. Both are all ugly animals. By metaphorical mapping, this
feature is mapped onto the body of a human. We know that if one’s outward
appearance is small, round and chin, he or she is not very handsome or beautiful. The
unpleasant external features of two animals (mouse and roe deer) become the
prominent part and projected onto the human’s outward appearance. Though mouse is
a symbol of cunning, he always use this cunning in “stealing” grain, therefore, the
idiom “鼠目獐头” also describe someone is not honest and kind, and his intention
lack sincerity. The meaning of this idiom is parallel to what Wang Juang (2011) holds
that the meaning source of the zodiac idioms derive from animals’ physical
characteristics such as animals’ body shape or their living habits.

 
36
 the body shape
of two animals
round, small (chin, small and
small, chin
ugly)

similarity
eyes of a
mouse head of a
roe deer

become faint prominent

other features
like dirty,
running fast 鼠目獐头 

Figure 4.4 the illustration of “獐头鼠目”

By analyzing the first kind of zodiac idioms, we find that some idioms are
related with human’s body part, for instance, “虎头蛇尾”, “虎背熊腰”, “虎头虎脑”,
“龙肝凤髓”, “龙肝凤胆”, “鼠腹鸡肠” and “鼠肝虫臂”, etc. This is because in the
long history of the relationship between animals and human beings, especially in the
early times, we human beings would put one animal in the nature as our own worship,
expressing the esteem and respect to them. Huang Jianrong (1998) points out that we
not only worship animals, but also worship plants, which indicate one opinion that in
the early times, human beings is rather dependant and respectful to the nature.

4.3.2 Analysis of Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms of Subject-Verb

Chinese four-character zodiac idioms of subject-verb occupy a relatively large
proportion, amount to 31.7%. It refers to idioms that composed of a subject and a
predicate, for example, “龙蛇飞动”, “蛟龙得水” and “驷马难追”, etc. These idioms
reflect vividly zodiac animals’ living scene. Different from idioms of coordination,

37 
zodiac animals as a prompter of an action do some actions to the other animals,
normally, the predator aims to the herbivores, for instance, the tiger and the sheep. We
know that tiger eats sheep for a living, the idioms “饿虎扑羊”, “狮子搏兔”, “羊落虎
口”, “羊入虎口” reflect vividly the great power of predators when they chase after
their prey.
Take the idiom “饿虎扑羊” for example. The relationship is shown in the
following diagram. The idiom has two input spaces, input spaceⅠ— tiger, input
spaceⅡ— sheep. The relationship between “tiger” and “sheep” are eating or eaten.
The sheep is the prey of the tiger. By our cognition and embodied experience, sheep
are very soon caught by the tiger because of its great power and fast speed, especially
the tiger is in the state of starvation. The tiger and the sheep form a relation of food
chain. The structure of the idiom is formed. The metaphorical meaning is reflected on
the action that tiger pounces upon sheep. It stresses the very quick and fierce action.
Therefore, some other features of tiger as the symbol of energy and those of sheep as
the characteristic of meek or timid become less prominent. Only the action that the
tiger pounces upon the sheep becomes salient.
The idiom “饿虎扑羊” describes the scene that a hunter pounces on his prey.
However, in another context, the idiom expresses the eager feeling that two friends do
not meet with each other for a long time, then if meet again, one will be extremely
excited to move forwards and hug his or her friend.

 
38
 the relation of
food chain
sheep eat
tigers eat sheep with
grass but
their fast speed
eaten by tiger

similarity

tiger sheep

become faint prominent

other symbolic images

like vitality and
other symbolic
energetic state 饿虎扑羊  images like its
timid characteristic

Figure 4.5 the illustration of “饿虎扑羊”

4.3.3 Analysis of Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms of Modifier

The four-character zodiac idioms of modifier refer to idioms that the first one or
two Chinese characters should modify the last two or three Chinese characters, such
as, “胆小如鼠”, “蛇蝎心肠” , “羊肠小道”, “羊肠小路” and “呆若木鸡”. According
to examples, it is clear that “胆小” modifies “鼠”, thus mouse has the characteristic of
being timid. That “心肠” is vicious indicates someone is exceptionally bad, full of
evil ideas. That “小路” is like “羊肠” suggests the road is so narrow like the bowel of
a sheep, and is full of twists and turns.
We will take “蛇蝎心肠” as an example.

 
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 the toxicity
of two
animals
poisonous shoot out
and evil venom

similarity

snake scorpion

become prominent
faint

other elements of
snake’s symbolic
image such as 蛇 蝎 心
one’s calligraphy 肠 

Figure 4.6 the illustration of “蛇蝎心肠”

The zodiac animal snake and animal scorpion are regarded as two input spaces.
They both share a thin and long tail and both two will shoot out venom when attacked
by others. Of course, most of snakes in the nature are non-poisonous. In the formation
of this idiom, what highlights most is the toxicity of snake and transfers it to refer to
the whole group of snake. Therefore, the toxicity of snake and cruelty of scorpion
construct the meaning, namely, metaphorical meaning, of describing someone with a
heart as malicious as snakes and scorpions.

 
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4.3.4 Analysis of Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms of Double Verb-phrase
The four-character zodiac idioms of double verb-phrase refer to idioms which are
composed of two pairs of verb phrases, and the first pair of verb phrase is acted in
front of the second pair of verb phrase, for example, “卖剑买牛”, “卖刀买犊”, “放虎
归山” and “走马看花” etc. Those idioms are closely connected with each other. The
first pair of verb phrase guarantees the next pair of verb phrase. They are in a relation
of simultaneity. Taking “卖剑买牛” as an example.

to sell one’s to buy ox

swords

far away from for farming

the war

卖剑买牛  (lay down

one’s swords and
engage in the farming)

Figure 4.7 the illustration of “卖剑买牛”

From the diagram, we have two domains: to sell one’s swords and to buy ox.
These two domains are projected to form the meaning that someone sells his swords
to exchange money because of the war ended and he buys ox to plough the land. That
is to say, someone lays down his swords and engages in the farming. The idiom
emphasizes the ox as a representative of the war, because ox is an animal whose
 
41
power is very great that it becomes an important transport vehicle, used for transport
military supplies. When the war ended, people buy ox for farming.
Based on the previous researches of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms, the
author finds that meanings of some zodiac idioms are closely related with the origin
of zodiac idioms. The author summarizes several aspects of the main origin of zodiac
idioms below:
First, some four-character zodiac idioms mainly come from the historical story.
They are extracted from ancient fable story, such as “画蛇添足”. It said that in
ancient country Chu, one day the host invited others to drink alcohol. Lots of people
came but only one people could drink the alcohol. Thus, the host thought out one idea
that the one who drew the picture of snake won the game. One guest finished the
picture quickly and intended to drink the alcohol. At the same time, another added that
it did not finish. It should draw a tail of snake. However, the third guest insisted that
the snake should not have a tail, and then drank the alcohol. This story was evolved
into the idiom “画蛇添足” later. There are some other zodiac idioms with similar
derivation, such as “指鹿为马”, “狐假虎威”, “叶公好龙” and “亡羊补牢”.
Second, some zodiac idioms are intercepted from the original sentence of some
poems and books. These kinds of Chinese zodiac idioms count most. For example,
“老马识途” comes from Han Feizi. It is said that Guanzhong and his friends travelled
out of the home, they departed in spring and returned in winter. Unfortunately, they
got lost on the way. At this moment, Guangzhong said the old horse might help us to
recognize the way. As a result, it was the old horse that found the right way. Later, the
idiom “老马识途” was formed and handed down to generations. It represents that
someone is experienced at something so as to be the guide of a team. “素丝羔羊”
literally means to make the clothes, but it actually stands for the officer who never
abuse his power to exploit his people and never make them living a miserable life.
There are some other zodiac idioms with similar derivation, such as “狗吠非主”, “狗
急跳墙”, “白衣苍狗”, “鸡鸣狗盗”, “羊续悬鱼”, “车水马龙”, “非驴非马”, “肥马轻
裘”, “青梅竹马”,“龙德在田” etc.

 
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 Third, some zodiac idioms describe some parts of human body, such as “眼”,
“头”, “脑”, “心”, “嘴”, “腮”, “目”, “牙”, etc. These kinds of zodiac idioms have a
large proportion, such as “鼠目寸光”, “鼠目獐头”, “鼠牙雀角”, “贼头鼠脑”, “鼠腹
鸡肠”, “鼠肝虫臂”, “虎背熊腰”, “虎口拔牙”, “虎头虎脑”, “虎头蛇尾”, “龙眉凤
目”, “龙肝凤髓” and “龙肝风胆”, etc. “鼠目寸光” is often used to describe the
person who knows less and is not open-minded, because we all know that the eyes of
the mouth is rather small, and adding the modifier “寸光” to the idiom, it expresses
the more narrow-minded people.
Fourth, some idioms come from the Chinese myths and legends. For example,
“牛鬼蛇神”, “牛头马面”, “龙鬼蛇神”, “龙生九子”, “画龙点睛”. They are formed
according to the ancient legend or myths. In the Chinese legends, people created the
palace where once a person died, he or she would go. There would be a leading
person who led the dead going to another world. This is the formation of idioms “牛
头马面”. Dragon, in Chinese culture, is charge of the rain falling to the land. It is said
that he would have nine children, idiom as “龙生九子”. What this idiom wants to
express is that even being the close brothers, there will be the different personalities
and characteristics.
Fifth, some idioms come from a two-part allegorical saying, of which the first
part, always stated, is descriptive, while the second part, sometimes unstated, carries
the message, such as “猫哭老鼠(—假慈悲)”, “过街老鼠(—人人喊打)”, “钻牛角尖”,
and “打马虎眼”. These kinds of idioms are few, but as time goes by, people tend to
employ much simpler and easier structures by deleting the second part to express
meanings, ideas and point of view.

4.4 Summary
This chapter applied BPM Model to analyze Chinese four-character zodiac
idioms. We analyzed four categories of four-character zodiac idioms, namely, idioms
of coordination, idioms of subject-verb, idioms of modifier, and idioms of double
verb-phrase to prove the feasibility of BPM Model in the better interpretation of

 
43
Chinese four-character zodiac idioms. And finally the author summarizes the main
origin of these Chinese four-character zodiac idioms. There are mainly five aspects of
meaning sources, that is, meanings come from the historical story, some poems and
books, descriptions of some parts of human body, some myths and legends and the
last from a two-part allegorical saying.

 
44
 Chapter Five Conclusion
This chapter summarizes the main content of this paper, talks about the findings
and illustrates limitations and suggestions for further research.

5.1 Summary of the Study

This paper first reviews the previous studies on the Chinese twelve zodiacs from
the semantic, cultural, translation and cognitive point of view. We talk about their
respective advantages, and find out their shortcomings. In this case, we try to find a
solution that can better explain the meaning formation of the Chinese four-character
zodiac idioms. Then we have a brief introduction to the Conceptual Blending Theory,
Cognitive Prominence Theory and Conceptual Metaphor Theory, and analyze their
respective advantages and disadvantages in the interpretation of Chinese
four-character zodiac idioms. Finally we find out that they are complementary in
explaining the meaning formation of the Chinese four-character zodiac idioms, thus
we combine these three theories into a new model, namely, BPM Model. Since the
new theoretical framework has been established, the paper puts it to the interpretation
of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms, which are divided into three steps. In this
new theory, the symbolized animal images are put into different mental spaces
according to the blending theory. Metaphorical meanings can directly go into the
mapping space to blend the above spaces. The third step is to choose what part to be
prominent, normally, the similar parts are the choice.

5.2 Major Findings and Contributions

This study has analyzed the meaning formation of Chinese four-character zodiac
idioms in the light of BPM Model. The findings and contributions are listed as
follows:
First of all, the study establishes a theoretical framework by integrating three
cognitive theories—Conceptual Blending Theory, Cognitive Prominence Theory and

 
45
Conceptual Metaphor Theory into a BPM Model to better interpret the meaning
generation of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms.
Secondly, the study makes a comprehensive and systematic research on Chinese
four-character zodiac idioms based on the 310 items of four-character zodiac idioms.
Finally, we have four findings:
First, three basic theories are integrated into a theoretical new model to
investigate Chinese four-character zodiac idioms.
Second, the meaning sources of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms mainly
come from the steps what this new theory presents. Idioms with literal meanings are
projected into the mental space, according to people’s experience and cognition, it
will be processed into the metaphorical meanings and choose one part to be prominent
as the whole meaning, and then all of those are put to the blended space to form the
meaning of an idiom.
Third, twelve zodiac animals represent different senses in the culture. Mouse is
representative of something timid, dirty, humble, coward, and narrow-minded. But at
the same time, it is abstinent, moderate, and content. Ox is an animal that helps
human beings plough the land. It worked diligently and conscientiously. And it stands
for something ugly, stubborn, clumsy, slow-witted, humble, stupid and suspicious.
Tiger symbolizes power, magnificent force, such as emperors, generals and ministers,
heroes, outstanding figures and talented persons, and it can also be symbolized to the
poetry, calligraphy and art, but it is also dangerous, fierce, and violent. Rabbit
symbolizes the image of timid, cunning and coward, and also the symbol of the
Buddhism, the gods, the moon, and the fleeting time. Chinese dragon is the symbol of
vigorous, strong and mighty, grave, dignity, energetic, and auspicious, and also
outrageous, arduous and dangerous. Snake is a symbol of poisonous, harmful, greedy,
cruel, evil, ugly, and abusive but sometimes a powerful person. Horse is the symbol of
strength, speed, freedom, the fleeting time, a war transportation, wisdom, and even
truth, philosophical proposition, good or bad fortune and blessing. Sheep is the
symbol of timid, weak and mediocre but also symbolizes honesty, innocence, reason
and senses on Buddhism. Monkey is swift, fast, and cunning but also symbolizes a
 
46
thin, ugly, sharp and pliable image. Rooster on one hand, is diligent, and tells people
the time, on the other hand, symbolizes the female, a bad luck, a humble and timid
person. Dog symbolizes something mean, despicable, vicious, shameless and
frivolous. It is its negative meaning occupy the first. Pig is a symbol of fool, stupid,
greedy, ugly, and humble but also the wealth in the ancient times.
Last but not least, having understood and knew well the cultural sign of Chinese
twelve zodiacs, it is helpful to TCFL (teaching Chinese as a foreign language).
Foreign students know well the cultural connotation of those twelve zodiacs, know
well the contexts those idioms use, therefore, to better understand and use the zodiac
idioms. Take “一龙一猪” as an example, there are two images or two domains
——“龙” and “猪”. But why are these two images compared? It is known that the
Chinese nation is the decedents of “long”, thus “long” is the symbol of the noble,
dignity and the super power, in contrast, pig in Chinese culture, is the representative
of the dirty and humble. These two images contrast distinctively. The zodiac idioms
“一龙一猪” belong to the idioms of coordination, that is to say, “一龙” and “一猪”
should be equally stood, however, their meanings are not parallel. Therefore, the
idiom highlights “龙” but takes “猪” as a background. Such mapping is formed
through people’s basic experience and the familiar cultural patterns of thinking,
resulting in the different production of inferences and the associations. The rich
cultural connotation of the zodiacs stimulates learners to get a good communication
and inspire them to learn Chinese language and culture, finally further promote the
development of language and culture.

5.3 Limitations and Suggestions

Due to the internal and external causes, the present thesis has some inevitable
limitations and flaws. The construction of a corpus is a concrete work. It is
time-consuming and needs great effort in order to ensure the precision. Certainly, the
conclusion will be more convincing if the source of corpus could be enlarged to
involve all Chinese zodiac idioms instead of those only from a dictionary.

47 
 Owing to the limited references, time, and author’s abilities, the results and
discussions of this study are not so adequately convincing. At first, the abundant data
should be collected from other sources to support the study and the reliability of this
thesis. Meanwhile, the classification of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms mainly
relies on introspection, and it needs more proofs to testify the feasibility of this
categorization. Last, because of the limited capacity of the author, it is possible to
have limitations on the analysis of Chinese four-character zodiac idioms.
Finally, it is expected that this study can serve to inspire more researchers to a
better study of the Chinese zodiac idioms.

 
48
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 Appendix: The Data of Chinese Four-character Zodiac Idioms
Based on the corpus, we divide all Chinese four-character zodiac idioms into seven
categories, namely, idioms of coordination, idioms of subject-verb, idioms of
verb-object, idioms of modifier, idioms of complement and others, the abbreviations
are IOC, ISV, IVO, IOM and ICP respectively.
idioms structure of idioms idioms structure of idioms
鼠目獐头 IOC 獐头鼠目 IOC
鼠窃狗盗 IOC 鼠窃狗偷 IOC
鼠牙雀角 IOC 投鼠忌器 double vps
鼠目寸光 ISV 以狸诱鼠 IOM
梧鼠技穷 IOM 首鼠两端 IOM
贼头鼠脑 IOC 罗雀掘鼠 IOC
猫鼠同眠 ISV 稷蜂社鼠 IOC
进退首鼠 ec 孤雏腐鼠 IOC
过街老鼠 IOM 抱头鼠窜 double vps
胆小如鼠 IOM 相鼠有皮 IOM
猫鼠同乳 ISV 吴牛喘月 ISV
穷鼠啮狸 ISV 钻牛角尖 IVO
休牛放马 IOC 气冲斗牛 ISV
如牛负重 IVO 庖丁解牛 ISV
气冲牛斗 ISV 牛刀小试 ISV
牛溲马勃 IOC 目无全牛 ec
泥牛入海 ISV 卖刀买犊 double vps
卖剑买牛 double vps 老牛舐犊 ISV
老牛破车 ec 九牛之力 IOM
九牛一毛 ec 归马放牛 IOC
汗牛充栋 ec 对牛弹琴 IVO
多如牛毛 IOM 牛鬼蛇神 IOC

 
52
吹牛拍马 IOC 一牛吼地 IOM
舐犊情深 IOC 畏之如虎 ICP
牛高马大 IOC 虎视鹰扬 IOC
虎背熊腰 IOC 与虎谋皮 IOM
鹰扬虎视 IOC 纵虎归山 double vps
照猫画虎 double vps 三人成虎 ec
放虎归山 double vps 如虎添翼 IOM
如狼似虎 IOC 骑虎难下 IOM
如虎生翼 IOM 两虎相斗 ISV
鲁鱼帝虎 IOC 虎咽狼吞 IOC
两虎相争 ISV 画虎成狗 double vps
狼吞虎咽 IOC 虎口逃生 ec
投畀豺虎 IVO 虎落平川 ISV
虎口拔牙 ec 虎入羊群 ISV
虎口余生 ec 虎头虎脑 IOC
虎落平原 ISV 虎尾春冰 IOC
虎视眈眈 IOM 虎穴龙潭 IOC
虎头蛇尾 IOC 饿虎扑羊 ISV
虎啸风生 double vps 暴虎冯河 IOC
狐假虎威 ISV 谈虎色变 ec
为虎傅翼 IOM 为虎添翼 IOM
为虎作伥 IOM 畏敌如虎 IVO
调虎离山 double vps 将门虎子 IOM
官虎吏狼 IOC 饿虎扑羊 ISV
豺狼虎豹 IOC 兔死狗烹 double vps
酒虎诗龙 IOC 兔走乌飞 IOC
兔起鹘落 IOC 守株待兔 double vps
兔死狐悲 IOC 惊猿脱兔 IOC
乌飞兔走 IOC 见兔放鹰 double vps

 
53
狮子搏兔 ISV 龟毛兔角 IOC
狡兔三窟 ec 动若脱兔 ICP
见兔顾犬 double vps 土龙刍狗 IOC
狼奔兔脱 IOC 降龙伏虎 IOC
东兔西乌 IOC 生龙活虎 IOC
望子成龙 IVO 烹龙炮凤 IOC
叶公好龙 ISV 龙争虎斗 IOC
群龙无首 ISV 龙吟虎啸 IOC
攀龙附凤 IOC 龙腾虎跃 IOC
龙章凤姿 IOC 龙蛇混杂 ISV
龙骧虎步 IOC 龙蛇飞动 ISV
龙潭虎穴 IOC 龙眉凤目 IOC
龙蛇飞舞 ISV 龙马精神 IOM
龙盘虎踞 IOC 龙肝风胆 IOC
龙驹凤雏 IOC 老态龙钟 IOC
龙肝凤髓 IOC 来龙去脉 IOC
龙飞凤舞 IOC 矫若游龙 ICP
老迈龙钟 IOC 活龙活现 ISV
惊鸿游龙 IOC 藏龙卧虎 IOC
蛟龙得水 ISV 真龙天子 IOM
画龙点睛 double vps 麟凤龟龙 IOC
白龙鱼服 ec 降龙缚虎 IOC
乘龙快婿 IOC 龙神马壮 IOC
云龙风虎 IOC 握蛇骑虎 IOC
马如游龙 ISV 养虺成蛇 double vps
龙凤呈祥 ISV 画蛇添足 ec
虚与委蛇 IOM 春蚓秋蛇 IOC
蛇蝎心肠 IOM 杯弓蛇影 ec
打草惊蛇 double vps 草蛇灰线 IOC

 
54
笔走龙蛇 ISV 驷马难追 ISV
蛇欲吞象 ISV 脱缰之马 IOM
束马悬车 IOC 万马齐喑 ISV
天马行空 ISV 宝马香车 IOC
万马奔腾 ISV 信马由缰 IOM
香车宝马 IOC 招兵买马 IOC
心猿意马 IOC 蛛丝马迹 IOC
悬崖勒马 IOM 走马换将 IOC
指鹿为马 IVO 一马平川 IOM
走马观花 double vps 塞翁失马 ISV
走马上任 double vps 人仰马翻 IOC
一马当先 IOM 人困马乏 IOC
戎马倥偬 ISV 人高马大 IOC
人强马壮 IOC 千军万马 IOC
人欢马叫 IOC 单枪匹马 IOC
青梅竹马 IOC 驽马十驾 ISV
骑马找马 double vps 厉兵秣马 IOC
盘马弯弓 IOC 马首是瞻 ISV
秣马厉兵 IOC 马前泼水 IOM
盲人瞎马 IOC 车水马龙 IOC
马失前蹄 ISV 马放南山 ISV
马马虎虎 IOC 马到成功 IOC
马革裹尸 ISV 马不停蹄 ISV
马耳东风 IOM 老马识途 ISV
马齿徒增 ISV 金马玉堂 IOC
驴年马月 IOC 鲜车怒马 IOC
快马加鞭 ec 横枪跃马 IOC
金戈铁马 IOC 害群之马 IOM
见鞍思马 double vps 非驴非马 IOC

 
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汗马功劳 IOM 兵强马壮 IOC
肥马轻裘 IOC 鞍前马后 IOC
车马盈门 ISV 窗间过马 ISV
兵荒马乱 IOC 代马依风 IOM
鞍马劳顿 IOM 亡羊补牢 double vps
代马望北 IOM 羊肠鸟道 IOM
顺手牵羊 IOM 羊落虎口 ISV
羊续悬鱼 ISV 羊质虎皮 IOC
羊肠小道 IOM 羚羊挂角 ISV
羊肠小路 IOM 三阳开泰 IOM
羊入虎口 ISV 杀猪宰羊 IOC
歧路亡羊 IOM 沐猴而冠 IOM
羝羊触藩 ISV 猴年马月 IOC
杀鸡吓猴 double vps 弄鬼调猴 double vps
兔丝羔羊 IOC 土鸡瓦犬 IOC
尖嘴猴腮 IOC 杀鸡取卵 double vps
猴头猴脑 IOC 金鸡独立 ISV
偷鸡摸狗 IOC 家鸡野鹜 IOC
闻鸡起舞 double vps 鸡飞狗跳 IOC
杀鸡儆猴 IOM 鸡毛蒜皮 IOC
嫁鸡随鸡 ec 鸡皮鹤发 IOC
鸡飞蛋打 IOC 鸡犬不惊 ISV
鸡零狗碎 IOC 鸡犬不宁 ISV
鸡鸣狗盗 IOC 鸡争鹅斗 IOC
鹤发鸡皮 IOC 范张鸡黍 ec
鸡犬不留 ISV 呆若木鸡 IOM
鸡犬升天 ISV 鸡鸣狗窃 IOC
鹤立鸡群 ISV 蜀犬吠日 ISV
斗鸡走狗 IOC 声色狗马 IOC

 
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 鸡骂狗 IOC 狗苟蝇营 IOC
鸡鸣而起 ec 粤犬吠雪 ISV
声色犬马 IOC 白衣苍狗 IOC
行若狗彘 ISV 丧家之犬 IOM
蝇营狗苟 IOC 犬马之劳 IOM
丧家之狗 IOM 狼心狗肺 IOC
犬牙交错 ISV 桀犬吠尧 ISV
狗肺狼心 IOC 狐朋狗党 IOC
狂犬吠日 ISV 狗彘不若 IOM
狐群狗党 IOC 狗血淋头 ISV
狐朋狗友 IOC 狗尾续貂 ISV
狗仗人势 ISV 狗吠非主 ISV
狗血喷头 ISV 阿猫阿狗 IOC
狗急跳墙 ISV 封豕长蛇 IOC
狗盗鸡鸣 IOC 泥猪疥狗 IOC
狼奔豕突 IOC 一龙一猪 IOC
猪朋狗友 IOC 泥猪瓦狗 IOC
 

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