| Li Sao is the most essential part of the Chu Ci, a total of373sentences.2461words, this book boasts a rich expression of metaphors and provides a valuable resource for linguistics, rhetoric and literary researches. However, there are few cognitive studies of Li Sao, and no scholars have ever studied on the conceptual metaphor system hidden under the metaphorical expressions in Li Sao from the cognitive perspective. According to the cognitive linguistics, metaphor is cognitive in nature and it is a kind of thinking method manifested by the speech. It is ubiquitous and has its own system. This study makes a careful classification and analysis of the metaphorical expressions in Li Sao and uncovers the conceptual metaphor system hidden behind the lines. It serves as a systematic research on the application of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory to the study of poems in literature.The systematic study in this paper eventually leads to the following findings:(1) In the metaphorical expressions of Li Sao, there exist four principal source domains:a) PLANTS; b) ANIMALS; c) NATURE and d) DAILY UTENSILS.(2) Although this study has covered various source domains in the Li Sao, it has revealed the most obvious and prominent conceptual metaphors which are used most repeatedly and frequently in it.(3) In Li Sao, there exists a conceptual metaphor system hidden behind the lines. It is "THE HUMAN WORLD IS THE NATURAL WORLD" system. In this system," THE NATURAL WORLD" is the source domain from which metaphorical expressions are drawn to understand the human world. The target domain is "THE HUMAN WORLD" that is understood in terms of the natural world. The mappings are a set of correspondences including the four listed below:a) HUMAN BEINGS ARE ANIMALS and PLANTS;b) SOCIETY IS NATURE;c) CHARACTERS ARE DAILY UTENSILS.This study also expounds the experiential basis and rationale of "THE HUMAN WORLD IS THE NATURAL WORLD" system. On the one hand, this thesis confirms the main point of view of cognitive metaphor after a careful analysis of the language data that abstract thinking is mostly metaphorical; on the other hand, this study emphasizes the role of the embodiment in the constitution of metaphors. After all, this study is a meaningful attempt to examine poems in literature within the framework of cognitive linguistics. It is hoped that it can provide a new perspective for literary study. |
