Beehives and wet markets : expat metaphors of Hong Kong

Abstract

This chapter examines how expatriate residents conceptualize Hong Kong through metaphorical source domains. By first exploring how people compare two contrasting concepts, this chapter attempts to elicit explicit comparisons of Hong Kong that can be used to understand the role of metaphorical comparison in understanding. While it can be seen that the conceptualized source domains differ, the underlying inferences between the source domains and the target domain coalesce around the notion of contrast within Hong Kong. This demonstrates that even when new, ad hoc metaphors are generated, the underlying meanings often share similar features. These commonalities, then, can be looked to when evaluating competing theoretical views concerning metaphors and suggests that these competing views may both be valid under different circumstances.