本研究运用概念隐喻归纳测验，对不同语言水平的 251 名 1—4 年级英语专业大学生与 24 名美国大学生的概念隐喻归纳能力进行实证研究。研究发现: 1) 不同年级被试概念隐喻归纳的源域范畴基本相同; 2) 中国英语专业大学生与美国大学生概念隐喻归纳的源域范畴基本相同。概念隐喻归纳结果并未因主体的语言水平的不同而出现差异性。由此，我们得出结论: 1) 语言水平可能不是影响被试概念隐喻归纳能力的关键变量; 2) 实证数据并不支持认知主体心智中存在概念隐喻表征体系的观点。

This paper，with conceptual metaphor induction test， aims to empirically compare the differences of conceptual metaphor induction competence of 251 Chinese tertiary English majors of grade 1 to 4 and 24 American university students． The results indicate: 1) the source domain categories of conceptual metaphor induced by 1-4 grades of English majors are quite similar; 2) the source domain categories of conceptual metaphor induced by Chinese English majors and American university students are quite similar． The conceptual metaphor induction results don't show any differences because of the different English proficiency levels of the subjects． Therefore it can be concluded that: 1) language proficiency may not be the key variable for the conceptual metaphor induction competence; 2) the empirical results don't support the view that there exists mental representation of conceptual metaphors in every cognitive subject．