Interpretation Of Metaphor From Perspective Of Relevance Theory

Metaphor as a kind of linguistic phenomenon exists broadly in our daily life. It reflects and forms our concept system. It plays an important role in our daily thinking and cognitive action.Metaphor study has a long history. Different linguists have given different definitions of metaphor from different angles. They have provided their separate theories and made contribution to this linguistic phenomenon, which provides theoretical grounds for further studies.First, a literature review of research both abroad and at home. On the basis of surveying the prior studies, relevance theory's unique perspective on metaphor was brought up.Next, several important concepts of relevance theory are introduced in relation to this study. They include relevance, context and contextual effect, optimal relevance and ostensive-inferential communication and so on.There is no boundary between metaphorical expression and ordinary utterance. Relevance theory interprets the working mechanism of metaphor and points out any the propositional form of an utterance is a kind of interpretative expression of the speaker's thought. It explores on the nature of metaphor and regards that it is a kind of"loose"talk. It is a kind of non-literal expression and vague expression. The purpose of the speaker with metaphorical expression is to pursuit the optimally relevant expression of his thought.Metaphor interpretation from the perspective of relevance theory involves three sub-processes: the identification of explicatures; the construction of contextual assumptions and the deduction of implicated conclusion. The meaning of metaphor is obtained through inferring and searching for the optimal relevance between utterance and contexts according to an array of contextual assumptions. Metaphor is not literal expression. It is a kind of vague language and connection with the indirect utterance. Therefore, the hearer must pay extra processing effort. Finally, it sums up the finding of the study. Moreover it presents factors related to metaphor understanding that have not been discussed in preceding chapter as a supplement. Meanwhile, the author points out the deficiency and proposes some suggestions for the future study.This study shows that relevance theory is a kind of cognitive theory, it regards relevance as principle and cognitive context as a foundation, metaphor understanding just as that of an ordinary utterance, is a process of searching for the optimal relevance, which provides us a unique perspective for metaphor understanding.