本文探討漢語「龍」與「鳳」隱喻在政治經濟對話中所表達的意涵，提供漢語固定語式中動物隱喻研究更深更廣的研究面向。本研究取材於報紙新聞的政治經濟議題及對話，並採用關聯性理論(relevance theory, Sperber & Wilson, 2001)及語意分子(semantic molecules, Goddard, 2007)的概念做為分析的基礎。研究目的在於：(1) 傳說動物隱喻在政治及經濟對話中所呈現的隱喻概念；(2) 相較於先前的研究，傳說動物在人類解讀中所呈現的想像及寓意；(3) 對照人的成長與發展，傳說動物隱喻在政治及經濟新聞用語中所表達的不同階段及意象。
研究結果顯示，「龍」、「鳳」隱喻在政治經濟對話中，都表達了稱讚、讚美的概念，例如：「立院龍頭戰」等，對工作地位和事業的描述。以「鳳凰」的例子來說，除了稱讚其地位崇高之外，「鳳凰」也傳達了面臨困境及挑戰時所表現的堅強意志與毅力，例如：「廬山溫泉浴火鳳凰」，所傳達的是歷經災難和困苦背後的艱辛與努力。
此外，我們從所收集的語料歸納整理出了「龍」與「鳳」所呈現的動物特徵與形象；更進一步，我們發現「龍」、「鳳」的固定語式多用於形容或表達人的生命階段中，出生到蓬勃發展的意象，相較於之前對人與經濟體隱喻的研究(Chung, Ahrens and Huang, 2003)，動物隱喻在政治及經濟對話中也傳達了生命成長階段的發展概念，例如：「台灣經貿一尾活龍」、「兩岸交流龍鳳呈祥」，兩個例子都表達了活力及熱絡的好兆頭。
再者，相較於其他動物對人們形成隱喻的概念描述，除了外表的形體，動物本身的行為之外，「龍」、「鳳」的固定語式，更多了人們對於傳說動物的想像及理想化概念，藉由傳說動物給人的未知其神秘力量，人們在表達及運用其隱喻概念時，更多了幾分崇拜及信仰的思想，也透過對於傳說動物的神話及理想化，找到生活中，改善及進步的力量與寄託。舉例來說，「春燕來臨，景氣回春」對照於「鳳凰展翅」，除了體型上的差別之外，兩種動物讓人產生的期待也會有所不同。
總而言之，對於動物隱喻在政治及經濟對話中的研究，連結了間接表達在談話中所扮演的功能及人們對動物形象的描述，也就是說人對於動物的理解及認識，發展出語言中對動物隱喻的概念傳達，藉由傳說動物隱喻在對話中的應用，使得語言的表達更加的豐富及精準，也發展出更有效與順利的溝通。

This study investigates long2 (dragon) and feng4 (phoenix) metaphors in political and economic discourse to provide a broader view of animal metaphors in Mandarin Chinese fixed expressions. Data are mainly collected from two corpora: Newspapers in Taiwan Corpus (Tudor Tech Systems, 2011) and Newspaper Information System (National Central Library, 2010). Examples of political and economic discourse are collected from the last twenty years (1993-2010). Relevance theory (Sperber & Wilson, 2001) and semantic molecules (Goddard, 2007) are the theoretical background of this work, and we attempt to answer the following research questions: (1) What do animal metaphors in political and economic discourse reveal based on relevance theory? (2) Do the results support those of previous metaphor studies on mythical animals? (3) Do the metaphors of legendary animals, dragon and phoenix, in political and economic discourse conform to their animal characteristics as that of their semantic molecules? What else do they reflect when contrasted with human life?
The results show, firstly, that dragon and phoenix metaphors in political and economic discourse are mainly used in compliments, such as li4yuan4long2tou2zhan4 立院龍頭戰 ‘the leadership election of Legislative Yuan’. For phoenix, expressions related to change, determination and concealment are revealed in the examples, in addition to the meanings of success and superior. For instance, Lu2shan1wen1quan2 yu4huo3feng4huang2廬山溫泉浴火鳳凰 ‘the business of the hot spring in Lushan struggle over difficulties’.
Secondly, the results of the study show that the dragon and phoenix metaphors used in political and economic discourse are related to descriptions of the process of growth and development in human life. Moreover, the fixed expressions turn out to support the conclusions of Chung, Ahrens and Huang (2003), who presented ECONOMY IS A PERSON metaphor. The economy is sometimes described as a person, and dragon and phoenix metaphors also provide similar descriptions of growth and prosperity in political and economic discourse, for example, Tai2wan1jing1mao4yi4wei3huo2long2台灣經貿一尾活龍 ‘The economic trading in Taiwan becomes flourishing’ and liang3an4jiao1liu2 long2feng4cheng2xiang2兩岸交流 龍鳳呈祥 ‘The interaction and communication between Taiwan Strait is in extremely good fortune’ indicate that the political and economic situations are very good fortune.
Thirdly, when compared with other animal metaphors, those that use dragon and phoenix relate to meanings that are both magical and idealized. Dragons and other four-legged animals are all considered powerful, and phoenixes and other birds suggest the possibility of improvement. As the belief of the mythical power and the expectation of the ideal life, human beings seem to express the future ideal life through the legendary animals fixed expressions. For example, chun1yan4lai2lin2春燕來臨 ‘the coming of the spring swallow brings hope to economy’ and feng4huang2zhan3chi4鳳凰展翅 ‘The phoenix stretched its wings to fly’. The spring swallow and the phoenix both indicate that the economy will be improved, but the phoenix is more optimistic.
In sum, the study of animal metaphors used in political and economic discourse through the indirect speech is interpreted by human impressions for specific purposes. How Mandarin Chinese native speakers’ perception of the animals’ characteristics influences their utterances and expressions. In other words, animal metaphors demonstrate not only the animals’ feature but also the interpretation of human beings. As a result, discourses are modified and expressed in more precise and implicit meanings.

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