The Study Of Conceptual Metaphors In The Bluest Eye

Metaphor is a kind of mapping mode in our life and experience, which isreflected in language and affects our recognition about the world. In the dailycommunications, metaphor is used frequently. With the development of cognitivelinguistics, linguists regard the metaphor as a kind of thinking mode as well as acognitive tool. The metaphor is a cross-domain mapping, which means we use thefamiliar and specific concept to explain the unfamiliar and abstract concept. So, theresearch of metaphor is extremely important. In1980, with the publication ofMetaphor We Live By, the study of metaphor entered in a new era. In this book, Lakoffand Johnson put forward the conceptual metaphor. They thought the essence ofmetaphor is the process of cognition.This paper will take one of novel named The Bluest Eye by a black femalewriter--Toni Morrison as the object to illustrate the conceptual metaphor on the basisof cognitive linguistic. In this paper, the writer will illustrate the metaphor in the novelfrom the cognitive point of view, mainly use the theory of conceptual metaphor, andthen applies this theory to analyze of examples of novel. It mainly focuses on analysisof the three types of conceptual metaphor in the novel. Through the research the paperaims to find out how the conceptual metaphor is applied in the novel, and to enhancethe understanding of the novel. This paper firstly studies some basic concept andfunctions of conceptual metaphor from the perspective of cognition. And then itexplains how conceptual metaphors and its cognitive functions are applied in thenovel. What’s more, it illustrates cross-domain mapping analysis of conceptualmetaphor in the novel. At last, the conclusion is reached:1. The conceptual metaphor is not only a language phenomenon; it’s also a basicway of human thinking. The conceptual metaphor plays a very important role inunderstanding of the novel. In the same breath, from the view of cognition of research,it helps us to have a deeper understanding that conceptual metaphor does not only enable people know the theme and language feature of novel it is also a kind ofcognitive mode which people live by.2. The whole novel runs through the conceptual metaphor. With the use ofmetaphor, it deconstructs the white-oriented idea of value, reconstructs the Black’shistory and value. It also exposes the discrimination and unequal treatment which theBlacks suffered and are still suffering.There are some shortcomings in this paper, such as, the incompleteness of dataand the limitations of the analysis. So, it leaves room for the later studies to broadenthe horizon from more scientific perspectives, and to make a research under asystematic theoretical framework of conceptual metaphor.