Image Schema-Based Interpretation Of Metaphor In The Book Of Songs

In traditional way, metaphor is considered as a figure of speech and an ornament of language. With the development of cognitive linguistics, the role and nature of metaphor has acquired a renewed recognition. In the newly rising cognitive linguistics, metaphor is not just a matter of language, but also an important cognitive tool, which helps us understand this world better. As an important method by which people knows the world around him, image schema takes a key role in the construction and construal of metaphor. Image schema focuses on the rich images in people's mind while thinking, which, to some extent, is accordance to the rich images in Chinese classical poems. However, image schema doesn't mean the concrete images, but an embodied structure that associates abstract relation and concrete images.As the origin of Chinese classical poetry, The Book of Songs, which contains abundant metaphors, is the gem of Chinese literature and crystallization of Pre-Qin culture. Previous scholars and researchers usually studied the poems in the The Book of Songs from the perspectives of literature, especially rhetoric and images. This thesis aims to analyze the metaphors in The Book of Songs from cognitive approaches and also seeks to show how image schema theory can help to understand Chinese classical poems and produce better, more reliable literary interpretations. Meanwhile, exploring image schemas behind Chinese classical poetry will help better understand the culture in ancient China as well as the poems themselves. With the metaphors in The Book of Songs as data, this thesis attempts to make a breakthrough in the appreciation and interpretation of the poems from cognitive approaches. By applying image schema theory, the thesis can test the feasibility and applicability of image schema theory in Chinese classical poetry interpretation and appreciation.