The Diachronic Research On Metaphorical Sentence

The metaphors is a structure which represents the similarity between different objectsor different things.It mainly consists of four fators:thing-in-itself(本体)、likening verb(比拟助词)、vehicles(喻体)、likening auxiliaries(比拟助词).Based on formal benchmark ofmetaphorical sentence,we review the metaphorical sentence of the whole history ofChinese emphasized on diachronic angel,sum up its features of different historicalphases,and outlines its developmental clues.Paying attention to the specific sententialforms,we pay more attention to the semantic styles and relations between metaphoricalitems and the statistical measurement of the distribution of likening verb and likeningauxiliaries.Meanwhile,we have a preliminary study on the mechanism of metaphoricalsentence.In this thesis,we pay attention to the organic unite of syntactic form,semanticcharacteristics and pragmatic function which are called “three planes”.When it comes tothe syntactic form of metaphorical sentence,we clarified it according to its external formalbenchmark.It demonstrates four forms in the history of Chinese:(A)(thing-in-itself)+likening verb+vehicles;(B)(thing-in-itself)+likening verb+vehicles+likeningauxiliaries;(C)(thing-in-itself)+vehicles+likening auxiliaries;(D) vehicles+likeningauxiliaries+thing-in-itself.It appears likening verb in the first two forms,but it doesn’tappear in the latter two forms.To proceed from the forms,we clarified metaphoricalsentence of likening verb when it appears,otherwise,we clarified it according to thelikening auxiliaries when likening verb doesn’t appear.Thereafter the two categories divideinto the different minor sorts according to the frequency of the likening verb and thelikening auxiliaries.When it comes to the semantic characteristics of metaphoricalsentence,the semantic types ranges from the quality or state to movement or behavior,fromabstract reasons to concrete objects,from appearance to emotion or attitude.Themetaphorical items have to spread in different semantic categories,but it can tell thesimilarities from the difference in the deep semantic relations.When it comes to thepragmatic function of metaphorical sentence,we pay more attention to the clarification of it in the process of verbal communication、the deduction of the meaning of it,and themechanism of it.In conclusion,metaphorical sentence of the history of Chinese comes throughevolution of form with the evolution of semantic characteristic and pragmatic function.Andthey consummate gradually.