The concept of dragon has different meanings in different cultures.

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1 CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES Xu Xianming* and Ji Hongli The Concepts of Dragon in Chinese Language and Culture Institute of Foreign Languages, Yuxi Teachers College, Yunnan Province , People s Republic of China. *Corresponding author. xxming110@yahoo.com.cn 57 ABSTRACT The concept of dragon has different meanings in different cultures. In western cultures, the dragon is often something terrible a fire-breathing demon with wings a symbol of evil and violence. In Chinese culture, on the other hand, the dragon is a widely-revered totem, symbolizing power, authority, talent, wealth, prosperity and good luck. When Chinese people speak of the dragon, many different categories can be represented through the concept. Why do Chinese people have so many dragon-related concepts? How is the distinctive concept dragon organized cognitively? This paper aims to provide a semantic analysis to the concept dragon by using prototype as a main theory (Lakoff, 1987). Key words: Chinese Dragon, Concept Exploration Introduction The concept dragon has different interpretations in different cultures. In western culture, a dragon is a kind of fire-breathing demon with wings; it is the symbol of violence and evil. In the Bible, dragon is described as Satan in Revelation. In Southeast Asian cultures, for example, Thai and Burmese cultures, dragon is regarded as an animal that looks like a snake which has human being s mind. In Chinese culture, dragon is a kind of animal that can bring good luck to people and control cloud and rain. Thus, it is a symbol of authority, power, prosperity and so forth. The concept of dragon is widely used in Chinese vocabulary: such as the wrath of dragon, dragon bed, dragon-head enterprises, the son of dragon; it is widely used in Chinese culture, dragon boat and the dragon dance have become popular in Chinese festivals, as well as international events.

2 CMU. J. of Soc. Sci. and Human Research questions It remains unknown whether the dragon existed or where it came from. However, there is no doubt that the concept of the dragon has experienced a history that is as long as Chinese history, and the dragon is deeply rooted in the Chinese mind. For Chinese, the dragon is a composite of the parts of nine animals, which includes the horns of a deer, the head of a camel, the eyes of a devil, the neck of a snake, the abdomen of a large cockle (a kind of animal like crocodile), the scales of a carp, the claws of an eagle, the paws of a tiger and the ears of an ox, as shown in Figure 1: Figure 1. The prototype of dragon in Chinese culture. The concept of dragon has greatly influenced Chinese culture. It is thought that dragon is credited with enormous power that allows them to make rain and to control floods. It is also considered as an animal that is in charge of happiness and fortune; it seems to be a Deity for Chinese people. Therefore, they worship the dragon and describe it in numerous articles and books. In addition, people carve dragons on furniture, roofs and even on bodies as tattoos. As early as the Qin Dynasty, the dragon had become the sign on the national flag as a symbol of power and of a conqueror. Thus, the Chinese people regard themselves as the descendants of the dragon. What does the prototype of dragon mean? Why are there so many words linked with the concepts of dragon in Chinese vocabulary? How are these words related to the prototype of dragon? This paper explores these questions.

3 CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES Prototype theory Prototype theory covers semantics, and was proposed by Eleanor Rosch (1978: 27) in 1870 s, and newly applied in the analysis of cognitive linguistics. The prototype theory includes: the concept of prototype, prototype structure and prototype effect, as well as metaphor and metonymy that are applied for the extension of a concept within certain category. In building the concept, people always recognize the typical features of that concept by comparing and narrowing down its scope, and identifying the differences and similarities. Thus, prototype refers to the best exemplar among a category (Taylor, 1991). What prototype defines is certain phenomena, some of which are central, some of which are non-central. In addition, in the concept, similar concepts tend to coincide, thus, the prototype motivates experience and imagination, and differentiates the best example by applying family resemblance principle (Taylor, 1991). For example, on the bird list, bat, sparrow, parrot, owl, dove, penguin, peacock, sparrow is considered an excellent example, parrot, owl, dove, peacock, penguin are thought of as moderate or poor examples of a bird, and bat is ruled out of the category. In this case, we say sparrow is the prototype of the bird, because it represents the characteristics of an ideal bird: feathers, wings, beak, nest-building and flying ability. The others such as peacock or dove are regarded as poor examples of birds because they share less characteristics of an ideal bird compared to a sparrow. They are members of bird category because they are similar to the prototypical bird. In other words, to test whether any new example belongs to a category or not, we can match it against the characteristics of the prototype. It doesn t have to match exactly the same; just share similarities, though not necessarily visual. From this perspective, prototype theory provides a good explanation about why words may be used with different meanings, and how people can recognize good or bad examples of a category. When approaching the concepts of psychology linguistics, the existence of prototype motivates experiences and imaginations, then the family resemblance provides references to judge inner structures to set up prototype effect. Therefore, some variants may overlap; some are extended via family resemblance and motivated by the central member. This asymmetry radial structure is prototype effect, as shown in Figure 2. 59

4 CMU. J. of Soc. Sci. and Human Figure 2. Prototype effect of bird. The prototype of dragon The concept of dragon can be traced back to the Shang Dynasty. The dragon was described as an animal with horns, teeth, scales and claws, and has been considered as a combination of nine animals since ancient times. These animals represent power, authority, elegance, good luck, gift, abilities. Thus, the concept of dragon is rooted in Chinese culture as supernatural and powerful animal. It can control rain and wind, and it can live in the sky or under the ocean. There is nothing that is beyond its abilities. In summary, a prototypical dragon contains the following bundles of features: authoritative and elegant Dragons are always high above and everyone is under their control. They are the most super ordinate beings in the world. talented Dragons are talented, they are gifted with all humanity s talents; moreover, they can do many things that are beyond humanity s means. Dragon can: control cloud and fly into the sky; swim in the water; bring rain for human. It seems that nothing is beyond a dragon s abilities. strong and powerful Dragons have the claws of an eagle and the paws of a tiger, which make very strong and sometimes fierce. Therefore some people like to make a dragon engraved on the body to show their masculinity. the symbol of fortune and good luck Dragons are regarded as the protection of human; they can bring good luck to human. In Chinese culture, dragons and phoenixes are the animals that stand for future. On some special occasions, like wedding, spring festival, people like hanging pictures of dragons and phoenixes to pray for good luck in the future.

5 CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES controlling rain It is widely believed that dragons are in charge of rain. Only dragons can decide when and where to bring rain. In the past, people built many temples to show their respect for dragons, wishing that dragons could bring rain for them so that they could have a good harvest. This is another important reason why people like the dragons so much. With so many features and equipped with so many abilities, a prototypical dragon is a perfect creature and it is widely admired and respected. Wherever a dragon appears, an ordinary thing can become mysterious and supernatural. During the development of history, Chinese people have a variety of dragon culture, which they use dragon words and concepts that they use to characterize and describe daily life. The concepts of dragon will be analyzed in Section 5. The concepts of dragon in Chinese culture First set derivations in the concepts of dragon The dragon is an animal, and can be used to refer to many distinctive persons and things such as emperors and water. The dragon was first used to refer to the Chinese emperors. In feudal times, the political system was an autocratic monarchy. An emperor was the only ruler supreme power. Whenever the emperor appeared, everyone had to kneel down and show respect. The emperor was just like a dragon, in the highest position, having the power to do everything. Thus, they declared themselves the sons of dragon and separated themselves from the ordinary people. Besides, emperors also separated their belongings by using dragon, an emperor s chair was called a dragon s chair, an emperor s bed was a dragon s bed, and an emperor s robe was a dragon s robe. If an emperor was angry, people usually said the dragon was anger in example (1): Example (1): 61 大 minister 臣的 possessive 一 one 番 classifier words 惹 cause 得 aux 他 him 怒 angry dragon color 大 very

6 CMU. J. of Soc. Sci. and Human What the minister said caused the wrath of the emperor. Emperors are related to dragon, because emperors shared some features with the prototype of dragon. Since a dragon is capable of everything, it is believed to be the most talented creature in the world. When talking about the concept talent, people often experience it with the concept of dragon by using a conceptual metaphor. Therefore, if a person is gifted and versatile, people often use dragon to describe this kind of person. This is reflected in example (2): Example (2): 望 wish 子 son 成 become dragon 是 be 中 Chinese 父 father 母 mother 最 superlative 大 great 的 possessive 心 heart 愿 will. What the parents expect mostly is that their sons are outstanding among their peers. Chinese parents place a lot of expectations on the next generation, especially to their sons. Traditionally, sons are the successor of the whole family. Whether a family can be prosperous or not mainly depends on the son. If the sons are outstanding among their peers, the parents will be very happy and proud of them. In order to help their sons, parents would rather give up their own needs and regard their sons achievements as the greatest pleasure. Dragon here is an outstanding son, namely a talented person. With the familiar concept of dragon, the abstract concept of talented is expressed. The mapping between these two concepts can be shown in Figure 3: A B A B Dragon (source domain) Talent (target domain) Figure 3: Domains about the concepts of dragon.

7 CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES In the source domain, A stands for a prototypical dragon s features: it can do so many things, like swimming, flying, bringing rain and wind, and other benefits for people. B stands for perfection of a prototypical dragon: a dragon seldom fails to bring rain and wind, it controls raining. In the target domain, A signifies a people s skills in different fields: they have good knowledge about science and they solve many problems just like dragon. B signifies the good foundation of people s specialization: People are experts in this field just like dragons control rain. With the conceptual metaphor, A is mapped onto A and B is mapped onto B. Thus, with the conceptual metaphor TALENT IS DRAGON, the abstract concept of talent is understood in the concrete term of dragon. The semantic link in example (2) is the conceptual metaphor. From the prototype, we know that dragons are in charge of rain and thus they are regarded as closely related to water. In the past, many people like going to temples to pray for rain from dragons. People think, a dragon is the owner of water, wherever there is no dragon, there is no water. This concept about dragon can be traced back to this example, example (3): Example (3): 他 he rush into 屋 house 找 search 水 water 喝, drink mother mother 笑 smile particle speak dragon 上 climb 天 sky 63 了 particle He rushed into the house for searching water to drink; His mother said to him with a smile: the dragon has gone to the sky. The concept about dragon in this sentence is water, because it can bring rain for people. In Chinese culture, it is believed that the dragons natural habitat is the sky and it can take people to heaven after death. The dragon is conceived as supernatural, graceful, talented, and most important it can help people go to heaven. This means that the dragon can bring good fortune to people. The metonymy DRAGON FOR GOOD FORTUNE is the case mentioned by Lakoff and Johnson (1980): symbolic metonymies link people s everyday experience with religious and cultural concepts. The metonymy concept about dragon is shown in example (4):

8 CMU. J. of Soc. Sci. and Human Example (4): 他 he 昨 Yesterday 晚 night 作 make 了 particle classifier dragon 夢 dream 64 Last night, he had a dream, a dream which can bring fortune to him. In this sentence, the concept of good fortune is experienced by the cultural symbol dragon. With the domain of good fortune, there are many cultural symbols in Chinese people s mind and experiences. For example, the number of two and the color of red are traditional symbols which stand for fortune in Chinese culture. The concept of dragon is one of the symbols in this domain. It can be linked to good fortune because of conceptual metonymy. Another concept about dragon is based on the appearance similarities between them. If an object looks like a dragon or a part of a dragon, it is usually called dragon xx, this is common way to generate considerable names related to a dragon. Their semantics link is based on the similarity of shape or form. See example (5): Example (5): 他 He 把 make 衣 coat 服 挂 hang 在 location 自 bicycle 行 handles head 上. on He put his coat on the handles of the bicycle. If the similarity between dragon and handles happens by chance, there is another case in which people make some artifacts by imitating the shape of a dragon. For this case, people naturally link artifacts with the concepts of dragon, as in example (6):

9 CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES Example (6): 多 much 漂 beautiful 亮 bright 的 possessive dragon 舟 boat 啊! exclamation What a beautiful dragon boat it is! From the analysis above, we can see that the deviant concepts about dragon are linked with the prototype dragon because they more or less share some features with it. The radial categories are mainly based on similarity comparison. If the category is not similar to the prototype, or they may have nothing to do with the prototype, how can they be linked with it? This is another case about the concept dragon which will be discussed in Section 5.2. Chaining categories in concepts of dragon A chaining category is another source to extend the concepts of dragon. It derives not from the prototype but from one specific deviant category. Meanings from chaining are widely accepted by people and some of them have become idioms, as shown in example (7): Example (7): Cantonese 州人 喜 like dragon 虎 tiger 斗. Fight 65 Cantonese like the dish of Dragon and Tiger Fighting. Dragon in this sentence actually refers to the meat of snakes. Cantonese eat a lot of things unusual. There is a saying to describe their eating: eating all those flying in the sky except planes, all those crawling on the land except tanks, all those swimming in the water except submarines. Here, dragons and tigers is a dish that mixes the meat of snakes and cats. In mandarin, snake is pronounced as she[ ], which is the same as 折 (a loss of money). Tiger is a member of cat family. There are many similarities between them. Considering that many clients are businessmen, such a menu will not be welcome if using Snake and Cat Fighting. People want to find a substitute that sounds good and can bring them good fortune, thus, they change the menu snakes and cats into dragons and tigers. Whenever people talk about this menu, they always say Dragon and Tiger

10 CMU. J. of Soc. Sci. and Human Fighting instead of Snake and Cat Fighting. As it can be seen that dragon in example (7), it doesn t come from the prototype, since the meat of a snake doesn t have any relationships with the prototype dragon. People call snake a dragon in order to avoid the unlucky pronunciation produced by the word snake. Since a dragon stands for good fortune, it is natural to replace snake with dragon. This extension of the prototype about dragon indicates that the semantic link is chaining. 66 Conclusion In summary, the concepts of dragon are shown in Figure 4: 7a.Dragon Chair 7b.Dragon Robe 6 Dragon Boat 1 Emperor Handle 5 dragon 2 Good Fortune 8 Dragon and tiger (menu) 4 3 An Outstanding Son Water 9 Son (made) Figure 4. The concepts of dragon. It can be seen in Figure 4 that the central dragon is the prototype of the category. Examples 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 compose the general categories of dragon. They are linked to the prototype based on family resemblance. They share some features in common with a dragon that derive directly from the prototype. From the six radial categories, the concept about dragon is realized by chaining. They are not directly related to the prototype, chaining lets similar concepts occur with some concepts about dragons. For example, 7a (dragon chair) and 7b (dragon robe) are linked to the prototype through the general category 1 (emperor) because they are belongings of the emperor. From 2 (good fortune), the semantic link is conceptual metonymy; then through chaining, the concept about dragon is extended to 8 (dragon and tiger). Similarly, from the prototype to 4 (an outstanding son) then to 9 (son), it is the third chaining. The semantic link between the prototype and deviant 9 (son) is a conceptual metaphor.

11 CHIANG MAI UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES 9 (son) can be derived from 4 (an outstanding son) because they are both male. 5 (handles), because their shapes share the similar function, they are the key part among the composition elements. The examples have also shown that the concepts about dragon involve cultural background as well as cognitive categories. The concepts of dragon in each category can be linked by semantic chains through similarity comparison, conceptual metaphor and metonymy. Prototype is used through the whole process of analysis, and provided a way to explain how people can cope with words when there are so many concepts. By analyzing a prototypical exemplar of a word, many new examples close to the characteristics of the prototype can be identified. This explains how words can be used with different meanings and concepts and how people can recognize new examples of a category. The analysis supports the theories applied in this paper. It shows that prototype theory provides a means to explain how to deal with the different concepts about dragon. It also displays the prototype effects based on family resemblance in the deviant categories of prototype, and the use of conceptual metaphor and metonymy. The deviant meaning about dragon are related to dragons by certain semantic links. Radial categories, extensions and chaining all derive from the primitive dragons, namely the prototype of dragon. They do not present the exact dragon which is deeply rooted in the Chinese peoples mind, however, they share some features in common with the prototype. The prototype of dragon is the source of the meanings about dragon in Chinese culture. 67 REFERENCES Aitchison, J Words in the mind: An introduction to the mental lexicon. Oxford: Blackwell. Anonymous Chinese dragons. Available from http: // com/chinadragons.html. Bussman, H Routlledge dictionary of language and linguistics. London. Car, M Chinese dragon names. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman area. Vol 13: Chutiphan, K A semantic analysis of Thai proverbs and metaphors about women. Payap University MA thesis. Lakoff, G., and M. Johnson Metaphors we live by. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.

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