Abstract:

From the perspective of cognitive linguistics, personification is a rhetorical device grounded in the conceptual metaphor that attributes human qualities to non-human entities. To systematically elucidate its construction, this study introduces fractal theory and the concept of “feature-based metaphor”. Its cognitive mechanism involves extracting specific features from the fractal manifestations of the vehicle “human” and mapping them onto the tenor. By integrating frame semantics and individual behavior theory, this study deconstructs the concept of “human” into six fractal dimensions - physiology, behavior, cognition, emotion, personality, and situation - yielding six models of personification metaphors. Cross-cultural personification metaphors of “wind” in Chinese and Russian literary works serve to validate the models’ applicability. This research clarifies the cross-domain integration of personification metaphors, advances the application of fractal theory in cognitive linguistics, and offers new insights for cross-cultural metaphor comprehension in foreign language teaching.

Key words: frame semantics, fractal theory, cross-cultural cognition, personification metaphor, feature-based metaphor