| dc.description.abstract | Proverbs are a kind of folk phrases among public, and what they reflect are the experiences and philosophy of ancestors. Through classifying the meaning of the proverbs,
we discuss the relevance between zodiac signs and the general idea of Hakka. In short, the thesis deals with the implication of zodiac signs in Taiwan Hakka proverbs, and tries to figure out the notion of what Hakka have in the language. The objective of this study is to identify the metaphorical concept embodied in zodiac signs in proverbs, and then find the distinguishing feature retained in Hakka phrases.
The thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter is an introduction that consists of the motive and objective, scope, methodology and procedure, literature review, and theoretical background of metaphor, including Prototype Theory, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, and Blending Theory. The second chapter focuses on the definition of proverbs and analyzes the tempo, rhyme, and tonal pattern of material in this study. In the third chapter, we categorize the proverbs on the basis of meaning. We put emphasis on the diversity as well as relation of explicit and implicit meaning, and confer with the characteristics of expression in proverbs in chapter four. Chapter five offers the analysis on metaphorical concept of proverbs, and shows particular features appeared in Hakka proverbs. Chapter six is the conclusion, and lastly, the limitations and deficiencies of this thesis are presented as well as the possible direction of future study can be developed in this subject. | en_US |