An Analysis Of Interpersonal Metaphor In Emma

Interpersonal metaphor, which belongs to Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar, can be mainly realized by the metaphor of mood and the metaphor of modality. In recent years, some scholars in China have explored the interpersonal metaphor in texts like advertisements, news, speeches, novel, dramas, etc. But few researches have been carried out to study the function of interpersonal metaphor in one character’s utterances in a novel based on systematical statistics and classification.Therefore, this thesis analyzes the employment of metaphors of mood and those of modality in Emma’s speech so as to reveal Emma’s character and social skills by adopting these metaphors and thus shows the interpersonal meaning of interpersonal metaphor in communications.Based on the novel text, all Emma’s utterances are collected and those containing interpersonal metaphors are selected, classified and analyzed. The study proves that interpersonal metaphors exist in Emma’s interactive communications in large quantities and perform different communicative functions. Metaphors of mood help Emma realize the transference of speech functions, which leads to the combination of two speech functions, so as to express more complicated meanings that Emma wants to express. The employing of metaphors of modality mainly shows Emma’s subjective or objective attitudes. And she chooses more subjective expressions than the objective ones. From the analysis of interpersonal metaphors in Emma’s speech, it can be seen that Emma is smart, decent and polite, but sometimes she also behaves as strong-willed, prejudiced and self-centered.This thesis applies interpersonal metaphor to the analysis of Emma’s speech,aiming to demonstrate the explanatory power of interpersonal metaphor and to providea new perspective in appreciating Emma and other literary works, and also to provide a reference of adopting suitable strategies in communications.