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Lyrics of popular music reflect the thinking, phenomena, and values of the contemporary society. The works of Wen-Shan Fang, a lyric writer in Taiwan, merit further research because they are well known and influential and have even appeared in Chinese language tests. Studies on Fang’s works have mostly focused on their rhetoric, which is considered the top layer of his language. However, no studies have explored the underlying operating mechanism of the language. On the basis of the theory of conceptual metaphor by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, this study explored this underlying mechanism from the perspective of cognitive language. A corpus analysis was conducted on love-based metaphors; specifically, the reflection between source domains and target domains was examined. Fang’s works were then compared with the works by the Taiwanese band Mayday to generalize his language style and characteristics. The results indicated that Fang specialized in using metaphors to create lyrics that leave a deep impression in listeners, thereby creating a broad resonance with them. Love is the most frequently used theme in his works. This study identified 17 source domains used by Fang to reflect on love metaphors, the most prominent of which being objects, nature, and food. A comparison of the lyrics Fang wrote for singers such as Jay Chou further revealed that his metaphorical techniques differed with each composer. A comparison between the works of Fang and Mayday revealed that Fang employed 5 metaphor styles, of which the most prominent 3 were faith, trade, and animals. Fang also excelled at using trendy words and homophones on the Internet to reflect the currently popular culture and backgrounds, demonstrating a profound and unique lyric writing style. |