A Supplementary Research Into Lakoff's Conceptual Metaphor Theory

Conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) has been in existence for nearly 30 years and is still being developed. Unfortunately, it is far from being perfect even from the very beginning. Instead of criticizing it or substituting it with new metaphor theories, this thesis attempts to make some improvement to it. By taking Langacker's cognitive grammar and Talmy's cognitive semantics as my theoretical bases, I find both Langacker and Talmy develop new interpretations of metaphor in their different linguistic studies, which happen to make up for some inadequacies in conceptual metaphor. In my opinion, both of them work as good supplements to CMT.In the process of his researches into cognitive grammar, Langacker realizes metaphor is relevant to cognitive grammar in the following two aspects: many of the cognitive domains invoked by predications are metaphorically structured; and at the analytical level, metaphor exerts a powerful influence on linguistic theorizing. Consequently, in some cases, especially in the case of "abstract motion", the metaphorical expressions are not in the sense of conceptual metaphor. Sometimes, it is a semantic extension from one domain to another; sometimes, it comes from the manner in which the motion is conceptualized; still sometimes, it just means the process of subjectification. Since Langacker's cognitive grammar is a model based on usage, the metaphor in this sense can be named usage-based metaphor. Usage-based metaphor takes contexts into consideration, which are usually neglected in CMT, therefore, it would be regarded as a good supplement to CMT.As we know, Talmy focuses his study on cognitive semantics. He studies semantics from the perspective of the linguistic representation of conceptual structure. Therefore, he attempts to analyze the specific way in which language shapes and structures conceptual content. Talmy analyzes the semantics of grammatical and lexical subsystems and the ways in which they interact. In his opinion, grammatical forms point to various conceptual categories, which he calls "schematic categories". These schematic categories further organize into extensive and complicated systems for structuring concepts, which he calls "schematic systems". Among the four schematic systems that Talmy discusses, force dynamics figures significantly in language structure. Force-dynamic notions are most easily illustrated on examples of interactions between concrete entities, the notions readily generalize, as we have seen, to other domains, such as interpersonal relations, psychological processes, and modal expressions of necessity and possibility. Therefore, fore-dynamic concepts offer themselves as a valuable supplement to conceptual metaphor and metaphor study in this sense can reasonably be named force-dynamic metaphor. Different from the static description of metaphor in CMT, force-dynamic metaphor emphasizes the dynamism of metaphor. Therefore, it works as another supplement to CMT.In short, usage-based metaphor and force-dynamic metaphor play important roles in improving CMT, and their harmonious interweave will broaden the horizon of metaphor study in the sense of cognitive linguistics.