A Contrastive Study Of Metaphor Of Modality In English And Chinese

The study of metaphor can be traced back to ancient times in the western world. Referring to former researches, Halliday approached metaphor from another point of view, called "grammatical metaphor", which is classified into two categories as ideational metaphor and interpersonal metaphor. And metaphor of modality is one of the two branches of interpersonal metaphor. This thesis is trying to conduct a contrastive study of metaphor of modality in English and Chinese based on Halliday’s theory of grammatical metaphor.This study will be done by a combination of qualitative and quantitative way of research. The Chinese and English versions of the novel Fortress Besieged will be taken as the source of data for analysis. The overall cases with the use of metaphor of modality will be searched out by examining the two versions sentence by sentence. Based on the collected cases, the overall distribution of metaphor of modality in English and Chinese will be explored first. Thereafter, the cases will be further categorized according to the four parameters, namely type, orientation, value and polarity. Then the similarities and differences will be analyzed respectively, and the reasons behind those differences will also try to be explained. In the process of comparison, specific cases will be presented as examples for analysis.The conclusion of the study is that there exist both similarities and differences in the use of metaphor of modality in English and Chinese. Similarities mainly lie in type and polarity. English and Chinese are highly consistent with each other in those two parameters-both the overall distribution and specific rates are all rather similar in terms of type and polarity. Differences mainly consist in three aspects:first, in the overall distribution, English has a higher frequency in the use of metaphor of modality than Chinese. Influenced by different thinking modes, Chinese is a paratactic language connected by covert coherence, while English is a hypotactic language connected by overt coherence. Formal instruments are more emphasized in English, which may explain why metaphor of modality is more frequently used in English than Chinese. Second, in terms of orientation, Chinese is with a higher frequency in explicit subjective orientation, while English has a higher rate of explicit objective orientation, which can probably be explained by different language habits. Chinese is accustomed to employing animate object such as "I" as the subject, while the inanimate formal subject "it" is widely used in English, especially in expressing something certain. Third, as far as value is concerned, English has a relatively higher frequency of high value, while Chinese is with a higher rate of medium value, and the reason behind may be different cultural traditions. Chinese people are not supposed to strongly express their opinions in social communication, which will violate their doctrine of modesty and humility. English, with no such idea, is freer to express something certain. That can probably be applied to explain the difference in value.It is hoped that through the research mentioned above, there will be a relatively clearer understanding of the similarities and differences in the use of metaphor of modality in English and Chinese, thus a more smooth communication between the two cultures will probably be promoted.