A Corpus-Based Cognitive Linguistic Analysis of Taste Words: The Case of English “Bitter” and Chinese Ku

. This study explores the polysemy of the word “bitter” in English and ku in Chinese. It examines the similarities and differences between their semantics and identifies the cognitive mechanisms that motivate their semantic expansion. The study attempts to answer two questions: (1) What are the similarities and differences between Chinese ku and English “bitter” in terms of meaning? (2) What cognitive mechanisms motivate meaning extensions of these two words? To this end, 汉语大词典 ( Chinese Dictionary ), 英汉大词典 ( English-Chinese Dictionary ), the British National Corpus (BNC) and BLCU Corpus Center (BCC) were employed. The two dictionaries were utilised to investigate the multiple meanings of the two terms, while the BNC and the BCC were employed to identify metaphors and metonymies in sentences. Theoretically, the study is informed by Lakoff and Johnson’s conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy. The results showed that half of the meanings of “bitter” and ku overlapped, but there were still some differences. Their semantic expansion is motivated by both conceptual metonymy and conceptual metaphor. In addition, the words under investigation differ in the emotions expressed. English “bitter” is more negative, while Chinese ku is more positive. The present findings have important implications for education and cross-cultural communication in language.


Introduction
The vocabulary is the basic unit of language and meaning lies at its heart.Polysemy, or the occurrence of numerous meanings, is common in language.This linguistic phenomenon has garnered substantial scholarly attention across various disciplines within the field (Carston 2021;Rodrigues et al. 2020;Srinivasan and Rabagliati 2021;Vicente 2018).Perception serves as the initial foundation for human cognition of the world (Peng 2019) and taste, as one of the five human senses, holds significant importance in the cognition process.It enables us to perceive and experience the world and serves as a medium for expressing our comprehension of the world (Wang 2010).Rooted in the cognitive principle, the ancient Chinese held that getting inspirations about what lies near the body and getting inspirations about what lies afar from the universe (Wang and Han 1999).Similarly, in the west, Protagoras proclaimed that "Man is the measure of all things". 1 Both traditional Chinese and Western civilisations show that the natural world is being humanised.Taste, as a bodily sense, is universally intertwined with personal preferences and dislikes in various domains.For instance, an individual's taste in clothing or art might be indicative of their interests in those areas and serve as a form of selfexpression and identification (Sweetser 1990).Taste terms, which serve as the cornerstone for human cognition, not only play a crucial role in interpreting the world but also exhibit interconnectedness with other affective concepts.From a cognitive perspective, a systematic comparison and examination of taste terms between English and Chinese taste terms contribute to the investigation of their underlying cognitive systems.Furthermore, language is the reflection of thought.Cognitive linguistics, by encompassing the cognitive aspect of "human beings" within its research scope, not only diverges from previous theories but also provides valuable insights into the nature and essence of language.
The cognitive semantic research on taste words in English and Chinese has farreaching implications because it not only improves our understanding of the semantic system of taste words in both languages, but it also helps us understand the cognitive similarities and differences between English and Chinese cultures.However, research into the semantic features of taste terms is still limited.In comparison to colour words (red, green, blue and so on), which belong to the same category of sensory vocabulary, research on taste words lag behind in terms of the volume of literature and depth of conclusions (Liu 2011).Existing studies on taste words, according to the relevant literature, primarily focus on their classification (Hartley, Liem and Keast 2019;Liu 2011), diachronic changes in the semantic meanings of taste words (Ni and Zhu 2023;Mo 2020;Pettersson-Traba 2018) and cross-linguistic comparative research on the meaning of taste words (Zhao, Huang and Long 2018;Juanjuan and Ya 2020;Li 2021;Zawisławska and Falkowska 2018).There is, however, a scarcity of study on the cognitive semantics of taste terms, particularly in English and Chinese.As a result, this topic provides substantial research area and significance.This study investigates the cognitive semantics of basic taste terms, specifically "bitter" in English and ku in Chinese, with a particular focus on conceptual metaphor and metonymy theory.
Overall, this article presents a comprehensive comparative analysis of the polysemy of "bitter" and ku, investigating the metaphors and metonymies in these two terms and identifying similarities and differences from the standpoint of cognitive linguistics.This study not only improves our comprehension of the cognitive patterns and thinking tendencies of English and Chinese speakers, but it also advances semantic theories.Furthermore, it offers valuable insights for a variety of linguistic applications such as vocabulary training, English-Chinese translation and cross-cultural communication.The study attempts to answer two questions: 1. What are the similarities and differences between Chinese ku and English "bitter" in terms of meaning?
2. What cognitive mechanisms motivate the meaning extensions of these two words?

Related literature
Metaphor, in traditional sense, is a figure of speech discussing one topic by reference to another.Conceptual metaphor theory, however, expands and develops "traditional metaphor" into "cognitive instrument" (Black 1979) or "cognitive mechanism" that enables us to comprehend and conceptualise a relatively abstract concept with the help of a more concrete, more directly experienced and more acquainted one (Lakoff and Johnson 2008;Lakoff 1993;Kövecses 2000).The mappings from the source domain to the target domain actualise a metaphor (Ungerer and Schmid 2013) and there is a systematic mapping relationship between two conceptual domains (Kövecses 2020).For instance, TIME IS MONEY conceptual metaphor underpins sentences like "Don't waste time" and "Find a better use for your time".In these sentences, MONEY (the source domain) is mapped onto TIME (the target domain).Both these domains possess the shared attribute of being precious and irretrievable, thus establishing a systematic mapping and forming a metaphorical representation.Sweetser (1990) introduced the conceptual metaphor of MIND-AS-BODY.In this image, the bodily terms are metaphorically used to talk about the mind.This metaphorical mapping is driven by the correspondence between our external experiences and our internal emotional and cognitive states.Subsequently, numerous scholars have built upon Sweetser's viewpoint to further deepen their research on metaphor (Baek 2020;Mezghani 2021;Kim 2019).
Metonymy and metaphor exhibit both similarities and differences.Many scholars have provided definition of metonymy.According to Lakoff and Johnson (1999), metonymy is the process of conceptualising an item through its contiguity with other items.For instance, the "White House" stands for American government.At the same time, they believe that like metaphor, metonymy is a cognitive mechanism rooted in experience.Barcelona (2003) suggests that in many or even all cases, metonymy is the basis of metaphorical mapping.He further underscores metonymy's fundamental cognitive nature, asserting its crucial role in enabling and motivating certain types of metaphors.Many scholars have followed this viewpoint from Barcelona (Bolognesi and Vernillo 2019;Przymus 2023;Ria and Tau 2022;Kashanizadeh and Forceville 2020).In China, Shu (2003) defines metonymy as the substitution of one salient thing with another within a single cognitive domain, for instance, in the sentence "There are a few new faces in our class, new faces refer to new classmates".This mapping involves PART FOR WHOLE and occurs within the PEOPLE domain.
As a basic way of perceiving the world, the distinction between metaphor and metonymy may seem clear-cut, but it is not.Metaphor and metonymy interact and form a continuum between them (Barnden 2010;Goossens 1990;Zhang 2016;Choi 2019).Ibáñez and Masegosa (2011) delved deeper into the relationship between metaphor and metonymy, positing that metonymy is a subset of metaphor and thus an integral component thereof.Liu and Zhang (2020) put forward a "nonlinear interaction" model of metaphtonymy based on cognitive linguistics, with the aim of providing explanations for a broader range of metaphor-metonymy interactions.In another study, Hu (2022) conducted a comprehensive analysis of Geeraerts' prism model, highlighting its role as a specific and process-oriented elaboration of Goossens' metaphtonymy.In recent years, metaphtonymy has gained wide acceptance and has been the subject of extensive research conducted by scholars from diverse academic disciplines (Chatti 2020;Jin, Lin and Oakley 2021;Kovyazina 2020).In summary, metaphors and metonymies serve as crucial means for individuals to comprehend the world.Recognising the link between source and target domains via metaphorical and metonymic mappings will make abstract concepts more accessible to individuals (Lahlou 2021;2023;Lahlou and Hajar 2020;2023).
In the realm of taste word research, numerous studies have extensively explored taste words from various perspectives.For instance, Liu (2011) compared the morphological characteristics, grammatical function characteristics and syntactic characteristics of Chinese and Korean taste words to draw the similarities and differences between them.Based on the theory of synesthetic metaphor, Ni and Zhu (2023) conducted a systematic investigation into the semantic evolution of the taste word ku using a comprehensive quantitative and qualitative methodology, drawing upon the extensive CCL corpus.The study findings demonstrated that the semantic evolution of ku in synesthetic terms adheres to the established mapping regularities of Chinese synesthetic metaphors.This research contributes to a better understanding of the fundamental and metaphorical meanings of ku in the context of teaching Chinese as a foreign language.Li (2021) applied the corpus analysis toolkit Antconc to analyse the metaphors of taste in Chinese and English based on the corpus of Fortress Besieged written by Ch'ien Chung-shu and its translations by Jeanne Kelly and Nathan K. Mao.The study utilised quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the taste words used in the original text and their translation techniques, exploring the similarities and differences in the metaphorical meanings of Chinese and English taste words.The findings revealed that the metaphors of taste are more prevalent in the original Chinese text compared to its translation, with Chinese exhibiting a richer metaphorical meaning of taste words.This research held practical implications for future translation endeavours.
From the research, it is evident that scholars from various countries have extensively investigated taste words from diverse perspectives, yielding valuable insights in certain areas.However, these studies exhibit several weaknesses that can be categorised as follows.Firstly, there is a lack of synchronic comparative study of "bitter" and ku from the perspective of cognitive linguistics.For example, a comparative study of multiple meanings and cognitive mechanisms motivate meaning extensions of these two words.Secondly, there is no in-depth analysis of the two terms from the cultural and historical levels.In view of the limitations and gaps in previous research, the authors attempt to conduct a comparative study of English and Chinese taste words from several perspectives, revealing the similarities and differences between "bitter" and ku in different languages.

Methods
This research mainly compares the semantics and conceptual metaphors and metonymies of "bitter" and ku in English and Chinese.The Chinese and English data were selected from the 汉语大词典 (Chinese Dictionary) (22 volumes in total, edited by Luo Zhufeng [1994]) and 英汉大词 (English-Chinese Dictionary) (2nd Ed.), edited by Lu Gusun (1989).These dictionaries are widely recognised and published by reputable publishing houses.
The 汉语大词典, compiled by the Chinese Dictionary Editorial Committee, is a comprehensive reference work encompassing various aspects of social life, ancient and modern customs, Chinese and foreign cultures and even teachings from different religions.The dictionary consists of 12 volumes, containing approximately 50 million characters and 2,253 illustrations.On the other hand, the 英汉大词 is the first large-scale comprehensive English-Chinese dictionary compiled by English professionals.It comprises 200,000 words, with a total word count of around 15 million.This well-established reference dictionary serves both academic and practical purposes, focusing on objectively recording and describing the actual usage of diverse English varieties, literary and linguistic styles.It places emphasis on collecting firsthand linguistic information.In this study, two dictionaries were used to provide all meanings of "bitter" and ku respectively, enabling the authors to identify and analyse the corresponding relationships between these meanings in English and Chinese.
In addition to the dictionaries, part of the data of this study comes from the corpus of the British National Corpus (BNC) and BLCU Corpus Center (BCC).The data on "bitter" was collected from BNC, which was originally created by Oxford University Press in the 1980s to early 1990s and it contains 100 million words of text from a wide range of genres (e.g., spoken, fiction, magazines, newspapers and academic).The data related to ku was collected from BCC, which comprises a comprehensive collection of approximately 9.5 billion words.It includes various domains such as newspaper (2 billion), literature (3 billion), comprehensive (1.9 billion), ancient Chinese (2 billion), dialogue (0.6 billion, from microblog and film and television subtitles) and others.This large-scale corpus provides a comprehensive representation of the language used in contemporary society.The selection of the BNC and BCC corpora for this study is based on their similarity in terms of language diversity, as both corpora contain data from newspapers, literature, spoken language and written texts.They offer a substantial volume of data covering metaphorical and metonymical extensions of meaning, accompanied by examples derived from real-life language usage, ensuring the relevance and currency of the research findings.
With the dictionaries and corpora mentioned earlier, there are ample resources for data collection.Firstly, the data collection process from the dictionaries involves extracting the meanings of "bitter" and ku from their respective dictionaries and establishing their corresponding relationships.Secondly, we turn our attention to the data collection process from the corpora.
Before discussing the collection of Chinese language data, it is important to consider the characteristics of the Chinese language.Due to the limited use of individual Chinese characters, they often appear in association with other characters, resulting in the variability of a particular character's meaning.In the current study, ku as the object of the research is a single character.In the dictionary, ku can function as both an adjective and an adverb and these parts of speech are also reflected in its contextual usage, whether appearing alone or in combination with other characters.
As previously mentioned, Chinese characters are frequently combined to form compound words, which enhances the understanding of individual characters through their association with other characters.In the search process, we conducted searches for ku along with characters that possess metaphorical meanings and identified the literal meanings and metaphorical meanings of these words while excluding those without metaphorical meanings.Most words demonstrate both metaphorical and literal meanings like ku se (苦涩), which can refer to the taste of coffee and pills, as well as the unpleasant experience.Hence, it was imperative to discern and extract the metaphorical meaning within the contextual usage of these words.
While searching the BNC corpus, the word "bitter" is examined along with its adjacent words to identify the domains in which it is employed.Contrasts are made to check the differences and similarities between the domains the "bitter" is used in and the domains where their counterpart in Chinese are used.Notably, the metaphorical use of "bitter" can be easily distinguished from its literal use, making it relatively easier to identify the English domain compared to the Chinese counterpart.At last, the collected data are juxtaposed and contrastively analysed.In this process, we meticulously identified and extracted the metaphorical meanings within the contextual usage of the words.
The data analysis consists of two steps.First, two dictionaries were employed to collect all the meanings of English "bitter" and Chinese ku, comparing and analysing their meanings.This was achieved by identifying the different meanings of two terms that emerge from an analysis of the concordance data generated from the 汉语大词典 and the 英汉大词.Second, the meaning projection of "bitter" and ku is examined based on the cognitive mechanisms that appear in the corpora.This step relies on the rich data of two corpora, where the authors can find all semantic extensions and ample examples for research.

Results and Discussion
This part focused on the use of dictionaries to analyse the polysemy of "bitter" and ku in English and Chinese and the use of corpora to examine the conceptual metaphors and metonymies of the two terms and to explore their similarities and differences.The transliterations of the Chinese texts are provided in brackets while the translations of the texts are in parentheses.As depicted in Table 1, "bitter" and ku share certain common meanings.In Table 1, both "bitter" and ku denote "having a sharp, pungent taste or smell", representing their primary denotation.Both terms refer to a common taste in people's lives that evokes disgust or unpleasantness.Examples 1, 2 and 7 in Table 1 can be interpreted as unpleasant physical conditions, psychological feelings and environmental circumstances.These meanings can be attributed to SENSORY ICM, which pertains to individuals' subjective feelings, moods and experiences and some other similar cultures.Through the aforementioned analysis, it evident that Chinese and English speech communities may share analogous physical experiences.

The polysemy of "bitter" and ku
However, "bitter" and ku exhibit differences in some other meanings, particularly in relation to people's emotions and attitudes.In general perception, attitudes can be categorised into three types: positive, negative and neutral."bitter" carries more negative emotions and extreme disgust.Examples 3, 4 and 9 in Table 1 present unique meanings associated with "bitter", such as "anger and acrimony", "anger, hurt, or resentment" and "acerbic and ironic", which clearly convey negative extensions.On the other hand, Examples 6, 8, 10 and 11 illustrate the distinctive meanings of ku in Chinese, expressing positive connotations such as "try the best; do one's utmost" and "sincerely; earnestly".For instance, in the examples of ku du (苦读), where du signifies learning as a verb, the literal meaning of ku du is "try one's best to learning".Similarly, in the case of ku qiu (苦求), where qiu is also a verb meaning to ask for.So ku serves as an adverb in both ku du and ku qiu to modify the verbs.The terms "laborious; tired; overworked" and "extremely and sharply" carry neither positive nor negative meaning, signifying a more apparent neutral attitude.It is worth noting that in Example 6, ku functions as an adverb to modify the adjective duan (短, short), indicating the degree.The above analysis reflects Chinese have a more accepting and tolerant attitude towards ku.It is worth mentioning that in Chinese, ku can be used as an adjective or an adverb without undergoing any form changes, whereas in English, "bitter" can only be used as an adjective and needs to be transformed into "bitterly" to become an adverb.

The conceptual metaphors and metonymies on "bitter" and ku
In conceptual metaphor, two key concepts are involved, the source domain and the target domain.Lakoff (1993) describes the source domain as the vehicle and the target domain as the tenor.The interaction between the two domains is mapping, wherein metaphors are understood as mappings from the source domain to the target domain.As evident from the aforementioned table, despite the differences in geographical and social contexts between English and Chinese speakers, there exist numerous shared cognitive patterns in their thinking processes.This shared cognitive foundation is also manifested in their conceptualisation of the taste word "bitter"/ ku.Hence, there are numerous analogous metaphorical projections of "bitter" and ku in these two languages.Further in this discussion, Examples 1 to 34 are derived from Table 2.

The common metaphors in English and Chinese
"Bitter" denotes a taste resembling bile or coptis coptidis, which is generally not favoured by individuals.When people consume bitter food, their facial expressions are naturally display pain and discomfort.Interestingly, a worried or unhappy expression bears resemblance to the facial expression people make when tasting something bitter.In Examples 1, 2, 3 and 4, the terms "smile", "expression", xiao (笑 "smile") and biao qing (表情 "expression") belong to visual perception.Consequently, Figure 1 presents the conceptual metaphor SAD FACIAL EXPRESSION IS BITTERNESS, showing the conceptual mapping TASTE (the source domain) onto VISION (the target domain).People often have a resistant reaction to bitter-tasting foods and as a result, their internal experience is often unpleasant when confronted with bitterness.This connection is reflected in language, where "bitter"/ku is frequently employed to express negative emotional states, ranging from mild sadness and disappointment to intense anger and resentment.The correlation exemplifies the conceptual metaphor UNPLEASANT FEELING IS BITTERNESS in Figure 3, demonstrating the conceptual mapping TASTE (the source domain) onto EMOTION (the target domain).In Examples 11 and 12, "bitter" is used to convey the sadness experienced after hearing a story, as well as the dejection felt from an inability to envision the future.Similarly, in Examples 13 and 14, ku is utilised to express the sorrow of being unable to escape the current predicament or the frustration of being trapped in a challenging situation.These usages in English and Chinese bear similarities.Thus, the word "bitter"/ku in both English and Chinese is used as a metaphor for mental suffering.This process of arousing emotional sense from physiological sense completely conforms to the cognitive principle of transitioning from concrete to abstract and from physiological to psychological.(Target Domain 5), "bitter" and ku expressed resentment and dissatisfaction towards a particular treatment or a past event.This metaphorical mapping aligns with the findings of Sweetser (1990).Her research suggests that sensory experiences, such as touch and taste, are highly subjective, leading to their extended meanings often being associated with emotions.Specifically, taste-related words tend to extend to encompass meanings related to personal preferences.The aforementioned research indicates that "bitter"/ku is mapped onto the experience domain, signifying adversity and suffering.When encountering hardships, our mental state is often not elevated and when sharing our experiences with others, our voices also exhibit a tone of sadness and vulnerability.When we hear someone's tragic story or experience, we also associate it with a bitter taste sensation.This correlation can be exemplified by the conceptual metaphor SORROWFUL SOUND IS BITTERNESS, illustrating the conceptual mapping TASTE (the source domain) onto SOUND (the target domain) as shown in Figure 6.In Examples 31, 32, 33 and 34, "bitter"/ku directly modifies voice and sound, conveying sadness, vulnerability and suffering in the tonality of speech.This metaphor is widely accepted by Chinese and English speech communities.The analysis shows that "bitter" and ku share similar metaphorical mappings in English and Chinese, highlighting the great consistency between the two speech communities in employing the concept of "bitter"/ku to comprehend related abstract concepts.However, due to the distinctive social cultures shaped by different nations and variations in thinking patterns, some conceptual metaphors of "bitter" and ku differ across the two languages, resulting in differ.
Language exhibits a close connection to real-life circumstances.China is a country with many disasters.In the process of historical development, due to natural disasters and outdated social system, ordinary people live in great poverty.In the preceding analysis, it is mentioned that individuals from different linguistic communities associate "bitter" with the hardships they encounter.However, in the specific sociopolitical context of China during that period, where poverty stood as the predominant plight, it naturally became intertwined with the concept of ku.
As a result, terms such as qiong ku (穷苦) in Example 21 and pin ku (贫穷) in Example 22 representing poor, emerged in the Chinese language.These examples exemplify the conceptual metaphor POOR IS KU, denoting a conceptual mapping from the TASTE (the source domain) to the ECONOMY (the target domain) as shown in Figure 7.In contrast, "bitter" does not have the mapping of "poor" in English, necessitating the use of additional terms such as "poverty" or "poor" to convey the same meaning.Therefore, the utilisation of ku to describe poverty in Chinese reflects the unique characteristics generated within China's specific history and culture.In this metaphor, ku as an adverb signifies maintaining patience.In Examples 27 and 28, both of ku kou po xin (苦口婆心) and ku xin jing ying (苦心经营) convey the meaning of work patiently, striving to achieve something.This mapping embodies the conceptual metaphor MAINTAINING PATIENCE IS KU, establishing a connection between TASTE (the source domain) and EMOTION (the target domain) (as shown in Figure 8).It conveys that when substantial effort and patience are required to attain desired results, the taste experience associated with it is ku.This mapping is unique to Chinese and is related to traditional Chinese medicine culture.The Chinese word ku confirms the traditional Chinese medicine saying that "good medicine tastes bitter to the mouth and benefits the disease".The term ku is consistently employed in proverbs and old sayings to encourage the cultivation of one's character through challenging experiences.It serves as a symbol for sincere advice or earnest suggestions that may initially appear harsh but ultimately prove beneficial for personal development.This usage underscores the motivational and inspirational potency of candid recommendations.Thus, in this particular context, ku metaphorically represents a sincere and patient manner to advising or behaving, indicating a positive meaning rarely found in English.Indeed, all medicines are bitter.English culture also has the proverb "A good medicine tastes bitter" conveying a positive connotation.However, this meaning has not been extensively expanded within food culture.As a result, the metaphorical usage of "bitter" predominantly remains confined to negative implications without further extension into positive connotations.The Chinese term ku encompasses the mental and physical misfortunes, such as illness, poverty and a difficult life.Ku is a kind of taste not favoured by people, but it possesses remarkable word-forming abilities in Chinese, reflecting the arduous journey of survival and development undertaken by the Chinese nation.
In the face of ku, individuals do not always exhibit pessimism and negativity; instead, they often adopt an optimistic attitude.Moreover, within the Chinese language, it is believed that enduring hardships (吃苦 chi ku in Example 29) or experiencing suffering (历尽苦难li jin ku nan in Example 30) are the secrets of success, embodying a fundamental quality that every aspiring individual should possess.Thus, in Figure 9, KU/TASTE (the source domain) can be metaphorically mapped onto the EXPERIENCE (the target domain), symbolising the journey of enduring suffering and torment as a pathway to eventual triumph.This embodies the conceptual metaphor ENDURING HARDSHIP IS KU, linking the difficulty to achieve success with consuming bitter food.This ideology also finds reflection in English culture, albeit typically expressed in terms of suffering, hardships and similar concepts, rather than explicitly expressing in terms of "bitter".The unique metaphors of "bitter" in English The consumption of bitter food triggers a potent sensory response within the human body.Likewise, engaging in debates or arguments often evokes heightened emotional states and intense passion.The existence of commonalities between the two is evident.Consequently, Figure 10 presents the conceptual metaphor FIERCE STATE IS BITTERNESS, showing the conceptual mapping TASTE (the source domain) onto the FIERCE STATE/EXPERIENCE (the target domain) (as shown in Figure 10).In addition to debate and argument appearing in Examples 9 and 10, "bitter" can be paired with terms such as dispute, criticism, fighting, argument, struggle, comment and conflict.The comparative analysis reveals that the metaphors of "bitter" and ku exhibit a "largely identical but with minor differences" relationship on the whole.These metaphors are deeply rooted in human perception and everyday experience associated with "bitter"/ku.These findings confirm the point of Lakoff and Johnson (2008), that is, metaphor arises from the cognitive process of constructing intricate and abstract concepts based on vivid and tangible experiences.

Conceptual metonymies of "bitter"/ku
By searching a large number of example sentences in corpora for analysis, it becomes evident that the metonymy mechanism plays a crucial role in the semantic expansion of "bitter"/ku.The following is an analysis of metonymy in English and Chinese.
Example 35: "Pint of bitter, please", he said with obvious reluctance.
Example 36: Two halves of bitter please, thanks, love.(Don't eat sour food in spring and don't eat bitter food in summer.) According to Shu (2003), metonymy is characterised by perceiving the entirety of something through the prominence of a specific part or feature, or through the proximity of something that shares a special relationship within one conceptual domain.Under the principles of proximity and prominence, the meaning of the word undergoes expansion.In Examples 35 and 36, "bitter" is used to refer to "bitter beer".It is worth noting that almost every one of the beers in the world has a bitter taste to a greater or lesser extent, primarily attributed to the presence of hops in their ingredients.However, when it comes to "bitter beer", it mostly refers exclusively to Bitter, a kind of British beer.This specific beer exhibits a more pronounced bitterness due to its high hop content.Consequently, in the English examples provided, "bitter" is used to refer to "bitter beer".This is a typical conceptual metonymy ATTRIBUTE FOR OBJECT, where bitter, as the most prominent attribute, represents the concept of bitter beer (as shown in Figure 12).
Nevertheless, it is essential to acknowledge that this usage is contextually limited and predominantly relevant within English-speaking communities that possess a drinking tradition.Outside of such contexts, its applicability may be diminished.

Metaphtonymy (metonymy within metaphor) on "bitter"/ku
The meaning extension processes of "bitter" and ku in these four examples exemplify the metaphtonymy mechanism.
Example 39: …in which Job demanded why light was given to him that was in misery and life to the bitter in soul.(Baoqing took a closer look at his daughter, who had lost weight recently, perhaps due to a loss of appetite caused by the hot summer.) In Example 39, based on conceptual metaphor UNPLEASANT FEELING IS BITTERNESS, "bitter" in TASTE (the source domain) mapping onto EMOTION (the target domain), specifically denoting the psychological experience of suffering.However, the simple interpretation of "bitter" as "the unpleasant psychological feeling" is inadequate from syntactic and semantic perspective.The sentence relies on the conceptual metaphor while being supplemented by conceptual metonymy, which contains a metonymic meaning to "bitter" in the context of the whole sentence, referring to a person who is experiencing suffering in his soul.In this content, "an unpleasant feeling" is metonymically projected to "an individual with such a feeling", driven by CHARACTERISTIC FOR PERSON metonymy.The process of meaning expansion is depicted in Figure 13.Similarly, the meaning expansion process in Example 40 closely resembles that in Example 39, which is illustrated in Figure 14.This semantic extension can be explained in terms of SORROWFUL SOUND IS BITTERNESS metaphor.In this image, TASTE (the source domain) is mapped onto SOUND (the target domain).However, considering the context, it is evident that the "bitter" here refers to the bitter song, thereby exemplifying the embodiment of the metonymic mechanism.In this instance, "an unpleasant or sorrowful sound refers to a song possessing such characteristics", motivated by the conceptual metonymy ATTRIBUTE FOR OBJECT.In Examples 41 and 42, 苦船 (ku chuan), 苦车 (ku che) and 苦夏 (ku xia) are not their literal meanings "bitter boat", "bitter car" or "bitter summer".Instead, they hold alternative connotations, as elucidated in the following analysis.Within these three terms, the taste sensation of ku bears resemblance to the physical experience of discomfort.Consequently, based on the conceptual metaphor MISERABLE EXPERIENCE IS BITTERNESS, the term KU/TASTE (the source domain) extends its meaning to physical discomfort in EXPERIENCE (the target domain).Further examination reveals that this uncomfortable physical experience is attributable to a car, boat, or hot summer.Hence, this extension is motivated by the conceptual metonymy EFFECT FOR CAUSE.The process of semantic expansion is illustrated in Figure 15: The aforementioned analysis highlights the significant role of metonymy in the semantic expansion of "bitter" and ku in both English and Chinese.Furthermore, it reveals certain similarities in the process of metonymic semantic extension between the two terms, albeit with slight differences.

Conclusion
The present study delved into the polysemy of the term "bitter" in English and ku in Chinese, shedding light on the cognitive mechanisms that drive their semantic expansion.
The findings of the study indicate that there is a considerable overlap in the semantic perception of "bitter" and ku across English and Chinese speech communities.The basic meaning of "bitter"/ku activates the framework of taste, mental perception, weather and experience.However, due to diverse cultures and histories, the two speech communities have maintained their own understanding for "bitter"/ku, the emotional expression of "bitter" in English tends to be more negative and intense, whereas the emotional expression of ku in Chinese is predominantly positive or neutral.It is worth noting that in Chinese, ku also activates the degree framework.
At the same time, the authors discovered that the semantic expansion of "bitter"/ ku is mainly through conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy.The roles played by these mechanisms in the process of semantic expansion are meticulously analysed.The metaphorical mechanism is based on the similarity between cognitive domains, whereby "bitter" and ku form conceptual metaphor based on various factors such as shared experience (physical and psychological experience), similarities in perception (vision, sound, touch) and manner.The analysis reveals that there is substantial overlap in the metaphors associated with "bitter"/ku in both English and Chinese.Both of them map from the source domain (TASTE domain) to the same target domains (VISION domain, EXPERIENCE domain, TOUCH domain, EMOTION domain, SOUND domain), thereby sharing certain metaphors.However, notable differences do exist.In Chinese, ECONOMY and MANNER domains are unique for ku.Conversely, in English, "bitter" in the TASTE domain mapping into the "fierce struggle/argument and unbearable consequence", is absent in the Chinese context.
The metonymy mechanism is based on the correlation and proximity within the same cognitive domains.The metonymy process of "bitter" and ku reflects similar ways of thinking, whereby "bitter" for "bitter beer", ku for ku gua (bitter gourd).These semantic extensions are processed within same domain and can be explained in terms of ATTRIBUTE FOR OBJECT metonymy.
Furthermore, our research highlights the significant role of metaphtonymy in the semantic extension of "bitter" and ku.While the metaphorical processes have been discussed in the previous analysis, it is crucial to note that their metonymic mechanisms differ entirely.The extension of the meaning of "bitter" to "bitter people" or "bitter song" mainly reflects the metonymy mechanism of CHARACTERISTIC FOR PERSON and ATTRIBUTE FOR OBJECT, respectively.On the other hand, in Chinese, the expansion from ku to ku che, ku chuan and ku xia employs the metonymy mechanism of EFFECT FOR CAUSE.Through the combined influence of metaphor and metonymy, "bitter" and ku have effectively expanded their semantic domains.Overall, the relationship between "bitter" and ku can be characterised as "largely identical but with minor differences", reflecting both the universal and culture-specific features of the languages.
This study offers a comprehensive comparative research on "bitter" and ku from various linguistic dimensions.The inclusion of cultural factors throughout the research process provides a fresh perspective for understanding the underlying reasons behind semantic expansion.Consequently, this study delves deeper into the rationale and regularity of semantic expansion.The findings of this research have significant implications for education and cross-cultural communication in language.By recognising the distinction between "bitter" and ku, educators can effectively explain the difference in the educational contexts.For instance, Chinese-speaking teachers instructing Chinese as a foreign language to Englishspeaking students, or English-speaking teachers teaching English as a foreign language to Chinese-speaking students can benefit from this understanding.
The explanation provided by educators will facilitate learners in enhancing their comprehension of these two terms.Furthermore, exploring the similarities and differences of language, cognition, thinking and culture through the contrasting analysis of English and Chinese contributes to the field of cross-language and cross-cultural communication.Finally, the current study elaborated the practical application of conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy in linguistics, serving as the comprehensive comparative study of "bitter" and ku from the cognitive linguistic perspective.

Note
1.This quotation is recapitulated in Plato's Theaetetus at 152a.Sextus Empiricus gives a direct quotation in Adv.Math.7.60: πάντων χρηµάτων µέτρον ἐστὶν ἄνθρωπος, τῶν µὲν ὄντων ὡς ἔστιν, τῶν δὲ οὐκ ὄντων ὡς οὐκ ἔστιν.The translation "Man is the measure…" has been familiar in English since before the rise of gender-neutral language; in Greek, Protagoras makes a general statement, not about men, but about human beings (his word is anthrōpos).

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.The meaning expansion of "bitter"/ku from TASTE domain to VISION domain

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. The meaning expansion of "bitter"/ku from TASTE domain to EXPERIENCE domain

Figure 3 .
Figure 3.The meaning expansion of "bitter"/ku from TASTE domain to EMOTION domain

Figure 4 .
Figure 4.The meaning expansion of "bitter"/ku from TASTE domain to EMOTION domain

Figure 5 .
Figure 5.The meaning expansion of "bitter"/ku from TASTE domain to TOUCH domain

Figure 6 .
Figure 6.The meaning expansion of "bitter"/ku from TASTE domain to SOUND domain

Figure 7 .
Figure 7.The meaning expansion of ku from TASTE domain to ECONOMY domain

Figure 8 .
Figure 8.The meaning expansion of ku from TASTE domain to EMOTION domain

Figure 9 .
Figure 9.The meaning expansion of ku from TASTE domain to EXPERIENCE domain

Figure 10 .
Figure 10.The meaning expansion of "bitter" from TASTE domain to EXPERIENCE domain

Figure 11 .
Figure 11.The meaning expansion of "bitter" from TASTE domain to EMOTION domain

Figure 12 .
Figure 12.The meaning expansion of "bitter"/ku in TASTE domain

Figure 15 .
Figure 15.The meaning expansion of ku in Examples 41 and 42

Table 1 .
The polysemy of "bitter" and ku [wo du zhe zhe xie yuan ku, chen tong nai zhi jue wang de hua, nan yi xiang xiang...] (I read these bitter, painful and even desperate words, it is hard to imagine...) 3. (Of a conflict, (Continued on next page)

Table 2 .
The conceptual metaphors of "bitter" and ku (Continued on next page)

Table 2 (
Continued) (Continued on next page)

Table 2 (
Continued) Example 40: Best song of the night though, is the bitter.[baoqing zi xi kan le kan nv er, ta jin lai shou le, ye xu shi ku xia.]