A Study Of Discourse Coherence From The Perspective Of Image Schema

As complex linguistic phenomenon, coherence has always been a focus of concern. Itwas originally a concept of rhetoric where coherence was an important prerequisite of articleunity. Nowadays it has developed into important study subject of discourse. Coherence as acomplex phenomenon relates to the semantic, pragmatic and cognitive aspects, etc. Alongwith the increase in awareness of discourse and rapid development in cognitive linguistics,recently interpreting discourse from cognitive perspective has been paid more and moreattention.As to the study point of view, in recent years many scholars concern about analyzingcoherence from internal factors of discourse, metaphor and metonymy, etc, however, thisthesis adopts image schematic view. Overview previous accounts, image schemas providecoherence in two fundamental methods. The first method is image schemas serve to unify thedifferent sensory and motor experiences in which they manifest themselves in astraightforward fashion. They have the structure which can be directly understood. We findthat this method is insufficient to aware complexity of image schema and other factorsinvolved. The selected image schemas are too static, single, and therefore it lacks researchdepth. The second method is image schemas may be metaphorically projected from the realmof the physical to other more abstract domains. It focuses on interaction between imageschema and metaphor; however, it ignores image schema’s operation on other models of ICMso as to realize discourse wholeness.In the light of above methodological drawbacks, the supplements and extensions of thepresent study can be reflected in the following aspects. In a given discourse, image schema isnot only in a single mode. It often involves compound image schemas which emerge from thesuperimposition and interaction of several image schemas as well as the complex imageschemas which are acquired in more specific interactions with context and culture-specificartifacts. All of these affect coherence. In this paper, we call these image schemas as extendedimage schemas which include compound image schemas, cultural image schemas and situatedimage schemas, and investigate their functions and significance in discourse coherence; Image schemas based on perception and experience is the foundational model of ICM (idealizedcognitive model). People get image schemas from time and space then apply it to structureother complex experiences. Different from previous studies which focus role of image schemaon metaphoric coherence in discourse, this thesis will separately investigate interactionbetween image-schema and other models of ICM by constructing propositional model,operating metaphoric model and activating metonymic model. Image schemas are trigger toevoke or active other models so as to achieve discourse coherence.This thesis tries to design a relatively systematical image-schema theoretical frameworkfor the issues of discourse coherence. It provides a worthy reference point for complementaryaspects of cognitive linguistics and functional linguistics. It aims to do theatrical deductionand deepen people’s understanding of the nature of discourse and its operational mechanism.