The Effect Of Frequency On Metaphor In SLA: Usage-based Approach To Metaphor

Under the theoretical support of UBL views on metaphor and on the basis of previousstudies concerning usage–based approach to metaphor research and research on frequency andmetaphor abroad and at home, this thesis hypothesizes that frequency effects operate onmetaphor in SLA similarly, and aims to support the claim that metaphor in SLA is also ausage-based phenomenon. Specifically speaking, the acceptability, comprehension andproduction of metaphor in SLA will be influenced by frequency. Based on the hypothesis, thefollowing three questions were designed:(1) how does the frequency affect the acceptabilityof metaphor in SLA?(2) How does the frequency affect the comprehension of metaphor inSLA?(3) How does the frequency affect the productivity of metaphor in SLA?To testify the above hypothesis and answer the research questions, the study employedthe quantitative analysis, and107English majors from three different classes in the thirdacademic year in a university of Shandong province were chosen to take part in threeexperiments and finished three corresponding questionnaires by convenient sampling. Aftercompleting experiments, data were processed and analyzed by SPSS13.0.The major findings are as follows:Overall, the results of paired samples t-test for three experiments indicate that thereexists significant difference in acceptability, comprehension time and production betweenfrequent and infrequent metaphors. In other words, participants accept the metaphoricalexpressions that instantiate frequent metaphors more easily and comprehend them morequickly, compared with those metaphorical utterances that are sanctioned by infrequentmetaphors. Meanwhile, turning to metaphor production, they tend to choose linguistic itemsfrom categories of frequent metaphors. It indicates that whether at the conceptual or linguisticlevels, metaphor in SLA is affected by frequency. The results testify the hypothesis andprovide empirical support for the claim that metaphor in SLA is a usage-based phenomenon.Results of Pearson Correlation analysis show that overall their correlation betweenparticipants’ English performance, their rate of accepting new things, the degree of theirjudgment about the fondness for and influence from English-speaking nations’ cultures andthinking mode is not striking, while turning to correlation between those four factors and sub-underlying metaphors, some are significantly correlated. This kind of inconsistent resultsclaims that under the circumstance of SLA, other factors that interrupt the motive role offrequency in metaphor construction are not confined to the above mentioned factors. Due tosome limitations, the study did not investigate them one by one. The major findings of the study make some contributions to metaphor research in SLAtheoretically, methodologically and pedagogically. Theoretically, the verification offrequency effects on metaphor in SLA contributes to the construction of usage-based viewson metaphor in SLA. Regarding methodology, the employment of data from a large linguisticcorpus guarantees the authenticity of language materials, which contributes a little to the wideapplication of usage-based approaches to metaphor research in SAL. Besides, on the basis ofthe theory of UBL views on metaphor, the verification of frequency effects on metaphor inSLA provides strong evidence that metaphor in SLA emerges and is constructed from usage.Therefore, the focus of metaphor pedagogy in SLA should not be only on differences andsimilarities between metaphorical systems in Chinese and English. In addition, how to letChinese EFL learners get metaphorical expressions with high quality and help them minimizethe effects from interrupting factors should be the top priority for future metaphor pedagogy.The shift of focus provides some useful references for compiling English textual materialsand metaphor teaching and learning.This thesis is composed of six chapters in total: The first Chapter gives a general andbrief introduction to the present research, describing the research background, objectives,significance, research methodology, and the organization of the study. Chapter two presents aliterature review on relevant theories and situations of previous and current studies onmetaphor abroad and at home. The third chapter comes to Experiment1. After describingexperiment design, results of experiment and discussions of results are reported. Chapter fourand five deal with Experiment2and3respectively, concerning the same three aspects asExperiment1. In the last chapter, after conclusions and the implications of this study in thefields of metaphor research in English instruction are given, the limitations of this study arepointed out and future research suggestions are offered finally.