| The importance and ubiquity of metaphor in human language and thought have long been recognized. In the traditional rhetorical view, metaphor is one of the rhetorical devices. During recent years, with the development of cognitive linguistics, however, in the view of cognitive linguistics metaphor means primarily conceptual metaphor. Conceptual metaphor has been explored from various perspectives. But few studies have focused the attention on its coherent functions in discourse. This thesis researches on discourse coherence from a new angle. The thesis makes an analysis of the coherent functions of conceptual metaphor in some discourses. This study is carried out on the basis of the theory of cognitive linguistics and the theory of discourse analysis. In order to prove that conceptual metaphor is one of the most important factors in discourse coherence, and it can make the discourse develop vividly and consistently. |
