Applying conceptual metaphors to enhance vocabulary learning in English classrooms

Abstract

According to Kövecses [3: p.3], conceptual metaphor is “a systematic set of similar attributes, or mappings, between two domains of experience”. The Source domain is formed mainly by human expe-rience through activities of perceiving the surrounding space, affecting objects and perceiving the objec-tive world. Therefore, the images (a specific name for concepts) of the Source domain can be understood as things that are familiar, tangible, and perceptible by the senses. The Target domain is a domain that lacks concreteness, such as thoughts, emotions, time, life, death, knowledge, etc. Concepts belonging to the Target domain are often not perceptible by the senses, we can only feel and perceive them by thinking and mind.