Elemental Metaphor In Neijing Suwen

Based on the grammatical metaphor theory of Halliday, this thesis attempts to investigate the elemental metaphor in Neijing Suwen from the element perspective. Through the quantitative and qualitative studies, the thesis contributes the backward elemental metaphor. It claims that the perfect combination of the elemental metaphor towards Thing and the backward elemental metaphor towards Process in Neijing Suwen makes the discourse more dynamic, vivid, lively and friendly and keeps its authority at the same time. Therefore, two important notions are involved—elemental metaphor towards Thing and backward elemental metaphor towards Process. The former is a grammatical metaphor drifting towards Thing while the latter is a grammatical metaphor drifting towards Process. The latter is contrary to the former in the direction of rankshifts.The discourse that the thesis tries to analyze is a medical discourse. Though it belongs to the scientific discourse, it involves the language research of Neijing Suwen which is an ancient Chinese medical discourse. Some scholars use the grammatical metaphor to study English medical discourses and translated traditional Chinese medicine discourses. Nevertheless, few of them apply it to the ancient Chinese medical discourse. Additionally, the previous approaches to Neijing Suwen are only restricted to the commentariology, the rhetorical research and the cognitive metaphor. Grammatical metaphor approach will provide a brand-new vision.The thesis argues that Halliday’s elemental metaphor fails to encompass the reverse and backward grammatical metaphor in Neijing Suwen. In view of that, the thesis establishes a comprehensive model to include the backward elemental metaphor in Neijing Suwen. Data are collected within that comprehensive model while the analysis is in accordance with the syndrome types caused by elemental metaphors. Conversely, the syndromes of backward elemental metaphor are also different from those of downgrading elemental metaphors. They can transfer:a) from element to figure, b) from figure with mental/causative process to figure with material process, c) from figure with relational process to figure with material process, d) from figure with process to figure with quality as process. Results of the present study prove the hypotheses in the thesis:(1) Neijing Suwen is not a typical scientific discourse though it concerns the medical science.(2) Besides the elemental metaphor towards Thing, there is the backward elemental metaphor towards Process in Neijing Suwen. Backward elemental metaphors cluster into syndromes, different from and even opposite to Halliday’s syndrome types.(3) Apart from the’favorite clause types’ in scientific discourses, Neijing Suwen has other’favorite clause types’of its own. The research is expected to enlighten the successive researchers to re-inspect grammatical metaphor from the perspective of congruence and incongruence, paying attention to backward elemental metaphors. Hopefully it can offer some insights into the language research of ancient Chinese and especially the language research of traditional Chinese medicine.