RESEARCH ON WORDS CONTAINING "火" (FIRE) IN MODERN CHINESE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF COGNITION

Abstract

For many generations, fire has become a symbol of human culture with many meanings. For each ethnic group, the symbol of fire richly reflects the religious life, daily life, production life, and emotional life of people. From a cultural symbol, fire has gone deeply into the field of words so that there, the symbolic meanings of fire continue to be restructured and reorganized in relation to the elements of the communication process. In order to better understand the semantics and cultural implications of the word (fire) in Chinese, the article applies cognitive metaphor theory, through analytical and comparative methods, to conduct semantic research and cultural implications of the word 火 (fire) in Chinese, and at the same time comparing it with the equivalent expressions in Vietnamese.  Research results show that the Chinese word fire is not simply the light emitted by a burning object, but also maps to another field as tool, disaster, danger, the emotion of hope, love, anger.... The metaphorical meaning of 火 fire in Chinese is derived from people's life, culture and perception, showing the unique cultural language of China.