The Influence Of Metaphors On Coherence In William Shakespeare’s Sonnets

Scholars have strived to shed light upon metaphors since ancient times. Theoriginator of metaphors is thought to be living more than2,000years ago. The studyof metaphors has spanned many different disciplines and many great works havecome into being, especially in1970s and1980s, when several milestones of the mostimportance were established in the field. At the same epoch, theories on cohesion andcoherence were established, revised and ameliorated. Coherence is vital to people’sunderstating of discourse. Cohesions are the means by which to realize coherence.Traditionally, discussions regarding metaphors are mostly limited to the relationsbetween tenors and vehicles, the interpretation of metaphors, the pragmatic functionof metaphors, the classifications of metaphors or the aesthetic value of metaphors.Studies on coherence have concentrated on conventional cohesions like reference,substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical cohesion. To be noted is that in recentyears metaphors are found to be able to act as a cohesive device in poetic texts, whereconventional cohesions are often absent. This is what Wei JiDong (2009) called the“textual function” of metaphors.This does not mean that every metaphor can be working as cohesive device, nordoes it indicate that a ragbag of metaphors casually put together can constitute acohesive mechanism. Metaphors can be cohesive only under some circumstances. Inthis study, the author will make an attempt to find out what lies behind the cohesiveforces shown by some metaphors in William Shakespeare’s sonnets.This study also provides some implications for poem instruction. In poems,coherence is not easy to discern owing to the absence of conventional cohesions. Thismay lead to difficulties in readers’ understanding. This study is going to show howpoetic metaphors can give some clues to the hidden cohesions in poetic texts and helpreaders to obtain a better understanding of English poems.