本文试图对英语和汉语中有关害怕的隐喻和转喻展开系统的对比研究。有关害怕的隐喻指的是莱考夫和约翰逊（1980）隐喻理论框架下的有关害怕的概念隐喻和概念转喻。最近，概念隐喻和概念转喻在一系列有关情感（笼统的或具体的）的研究中发挥着越来越重要的作用。但是对一系列相关文献的综述显示绝大多数的此类研究都是在英语中展开的；一些对比研究往往由于所依据的语料有限而缺乏深度。为了给将来有关具体感情的研究树立模型，对于某一情感（本文中为害怕）的系统全面研究便很有必要。本研究试图在现有语料的基础上提取出尽可能多的有关害怕的概念隐喻和概念转喻。针对研究中所发现的英汉语言中在此方面的异同，本文将从医学、文化、地理等方面做出解释。为了让此对比研究更加全面清晰，本文采用了定性和定量两种研究方法。研究发现，在英汉“害怕”概念化的过程中，概念隐喻和转喻都发挥了很大的作用。一方面，绝大多数的概念隐喻和转喻都以身体的感知为基础并能在医学中找到科学根据；另一方面，它们也受到文化模型的影响。此外，在英汉语这两种不同的文化之间，有关害怕的隐喻和转喻存在着相当多的相似之处。本文分六个部分。第一部分为导入，包括研究课题、研究意义、研究目标、研究问题以及本文大纲。第二章是对以往有关情感语言和害怕的研究的综述。第三章为理论基础和研究方法。第四章是英汉语中有关害怕的概念隐喻和概念转喻的系统对比和分析。第五章为英汉语言中有关害怕的原型认知模型比较。第六章为全文的总结。这项研究使人们对害怕这一概念有了根深入的理解；其次，它以“害怕”为切入点增加了人们对英汉两种文化的了解；再次，它为其它情感的全面研究树立了榜样；最后，它也启发人们对英汉语言以外的其它语言进行相似的研究。

This thesis sets out to conduct a relatively systematic contrastive study of fear metaphors and metonymies in English and Chinese. Fear metaphors and metonymies refer to conceptual metaphors and metonymies of fear under the metaphor theory by Lakoff and Jonson (1980). Recently, conceptual metaphors and metonymies have been playing an increasingly important role in a large number of researches on emotion, being general or specific. A review of the relevant literature shows that most of such studies are done in English, and contrastive studies in this field are often done without much depth or sufficient data to support. Thus, a thorough study of a specific emotion, fear in this thesis, is necessary as a model for further researches on other specific emotions. The present study aims to provide as many fear metaphors and metonymies as possible in both languages based on the available data. Besides, explanations will be given from such aspects as medicine, culture, or geography. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies are applied to make the comparative study thorough and clear. It is found that both English and Chinese make extensive use of conceptual metaphors and metonymies in the conceptualization of fear. Most of the conceptual metaphors and metonymies are, on the one hand, based on bodily experiences and can find scientific basis in medical science; on the other hand, they are also influenced by cultural models. Moreover, there are considerable cross-cultural similarities in conceptual metaphors and metonymies between English and Chinese. The thesis falls into six parts: Part one is the introduction, which clarifies the objectives, research questions, research topic, significance of the study as well as the organization of the thesis. Part two is a review of the relevant literature on emotional language and the study of fear. Part three is about the theoretical foundation and research method. Chapter four is a thorough comparison of fear metaphors and metonymies between English and Chinese. Chapter five is the comparison of prototypical cognitive model (PCM) for fear in English and Chinese while chapter six is conclusions of the present research and suggestions for further studies.The significance of the study lies in that it sheds new light on people’s understanding of fear. Secondly, it reveals cultural differences between English and Chinese with the study of fear as a breakthrough point. Besides, it sets a model for thorough study of other specific emotions. Last but not least, it can serve to lead to a new initiative in the comparative study of prototypical cognitive model of other emotions between not only English and Chinese but also other languages.