The article presents the metaphorical mappings of the verb 煎 (fry) in
Chinese language, and attempts to analyze the mechanismsof emergenceof
the corresponding metaphors. Applying the formula of interaction between
the cognitive structure of the source domain and the cognitive structure of
the target domain (A is B), developed by J. Lakoff and M. Johnson in the
framework of the theory of cognitive metaphor, and using materials from
authoritative Chinese dictionaries and texts from the online corpus of modern
Chinese language, the author reveals the main metaphors associated with the
studied verb in Chinese.