A Study On The Metaphor System In Mencius From The Reference-Point Perspective

Metaphor is an important feature of human language and one of the thinking patterns we live by.As an important means of conceptualizing abstract concepts in terms of concrete ones,metaphor exists at all levels of human language.Historically,scholars home and abroad have studied metaphor from three major perspectives: the traditional rhetoric study of metaphor from the word-sentence perspective;the cognitive study of metaphor from the word-sentence and discourse perspective.Although scholars have made great achievements on metaphor studies,they haven't paid enough attention to the dynamic construction of metaphor's semantics and the relationship between metaphor and theme construction of discourse.Cognitive linguistics holds that sentence and discourse constitute a continuum,and they link closely with each other in the language system.Metaphor is a reference-point phenomenon and conceptualizers always complete the meaning of a sentence or the theme of a discourse in dynamic cross-domain projection by making reference to a single object or multi-objects.With regard to the existing deficiencies of the present studies on metaphor and adhering to the two core principles,i.e.“embodiment-based” and “usage-based”,this thesis,guided by Langacker's “cognitive reference-point” theory and Lakoff &Johnson's “conceptual metaphor” theory,investigates the metaphors in Mencius,their semantic features and their roles in the theme construction by quantitative and qualitative methods.It is found that,firstly,the application of metaphor is the main feature of Mencius.By making reference to a variety of things,events and stories,Mencius constructed different levels of metaphors.These vivid metaphors run through the whole text of Mencius and provide Mencius with ideal “handles” to express his abstract concepts and develop his themes in the text.Through the facilitation of these vivid metaphors,Mencius effectively constructed his “Five Themes”,i.e.“Kingship ofBenevolence”,“Kindness of Human Nature”,“Virtue of the Sage”,“Human Relations” and “Philosophy of Learning and Governing”.Secondly,the metaphor system in Mencius consists of monomial metaphor,polynomial metaphor and story metaphor,which are constructed by making reference to single things or events,multi-things or multi-events,and allegory stories,historical stories and daily life stories respectively.In these metaphors,the projection patterns are more diversified than Lakoff & Johnson's conceptual metaphors and their semantic features are obviously characterized with dynamic extension.Thirdly,the metaphorical reference projections of the monomial metaphor,polynomial metaphor and story metaphor in Mencius are richer and more diversified than Langacker's reference-point model,including not only direct projection of “single thing reference” and “single event reference”,but also progressive and parallel shifting projection of “multiple things reference”,“single story reference” and “multi-stories reference”.Fourthly,the metaphorical expressions in Mencius are deeply imprinted with the Chinese culture,such as the traditional Chinese medical culture of “treating diseases with Ai”,and “benevolence and righteousness first”,reflecting the profound influence of social culture on Mencius when making reference to construct metaphors.Fifthly,through the construction of various images of metaphors,the “Five Themes” in Mencius has become an important part of Chinese core culture,which plays a vital role in linking the preceding and the following in Chinese cultural and social development,as well as shaping the common character of the Chinese,the humanistic characteristics of its culture,and the continuous development of its society.This study presents certain theoretical value and practical significance by integrating the conceptual metaphor and the cognitive reference-point theory and applying them to the study of the metaphor system of Mencius,a classic Confucian work.The theoretical value consists of two aspects.Firstly,this study has significantly extended Lakoff & Johnson's “conceptual metaphor” by proposing the concepts of monomial metaphor,polynomial metaphor and story metaphor.Secondly,based on the collected corpus of Mencius,this study concludes that the“single-thing reference”,“single-event reference”,“multi-things reference”,“multi-events reference”,“single-story reference” and“multi-stories reference” are also beneficial extensions of Langacker's“reference-point theory”.The practical significance of also includes two aspects.Firstly,applying western linguistic theories to the study of Confucian classics in China is a useful attempt to localize relevant studies.Secondly,the study of metaphor in Mencius through monomial,polynomial and story dimensions from a cognitive perspective overcomes the limitations of previous studies which are largely confined to a certain aspect,and it may provide a useful reference for the study of metaphor system in other Chinese classical works.This thesis is divided into 8 chapters.Chapter 1 is the introduction,including the background,questions,methods and significance of the study.Chapter 2 is literature review of scholars' studies on metaphor and Mencius home and abroad,figuring out their shortcomings and putting forward the new perspective of this study.Chapter 3 is the theoretical framework,introducing the reference-point theory and its cognitive interpretation on metaphor.Chapter 4,Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 discuss the cognitive interpretation of the monomorphic metaphor,polynomial metaphor and story metaphor in Mencius by reference-point theory respectively.Chapter 7 discusses the role of metaphors in the theme construction of Mencius,including“Kingship of Benevolence”,“Kindness of Human Nature” and the like.Chapter 8 is the conclusion,summarizing the main findings and significance of the study,pointing out the shortcomings and the prospect for future studies.