Metaphorical interactions between the Chinese color terms <i>hóng</i> “red” and <i>hēi</i> “black”: a cognitive semantic analysis based on cross-modal data

Abstract This study investigates metaphorical interactions between the Chinese color terms (CTs) hóng 红 “red” and hēi 黑 “black” from a usage-based perspective. While previous research on color metaphors has largely examined metaphorical extensions of individual CTs in isolation, the present study addresses how metaphorical extensions of different CTs interact to form higher-order conceptual configurations. Integrating the corpus-based Behavioral Profile approach with the image-based Visual Analysis approach, this research adopts a cross-modal methodological framework to examine both multimodal perceptual groundings and linguistic usage patterns of the co-occurring CTs with metaphorical extensions. Focusing on 15 hóng - hēi meaning pairs, the image-based results reveal systematic perceptual distinctions between the co-occurring CTs in both sensorimotor (brightness and saturation) and affective (valence and arousal) dimensions. The corpus-based results revealed distinct interactional relations among the co-occurring CTs, including evaluative polarity, affective complementarity and causal sequencing, figure-ground eventive frame, and binary attributes for institutional normativity, with differentiated yet structured usage patterns. The findings suggest that metaphorical interactions between CTs are jointly motivated by multimodal perceptual experiences and further shaped by cultural factors and daily usages. Methodologically, the adopted cross-modal framework illustrates the value of integrating sensory data from online images with usage-based linguistic evidence in cognitive semantic research.