| Metaphors have the degree of metaphoricity,namely,a continuum where there is two-pole metaphoricity,living metaphors with great metaphoricity on one side and dead metaphors without metaphoricity on the other side.Dead metaphors,as a kind of metaphors,are cognitive ways of understanding language,thought and action.Dead metaphors are not really “death” of metaphors,but “living” in human beings’ mind,and they merely become conventional due to frequent use.However,dead metaphors can“reactivate” or “regain” their “life” if they are placed in a certain specific context.In the past two decades,metaphor scholars,from the perspectives of cognition,semantics and pragmatics,have investigated definitions,motivations and general mechanisms of dead metaphors.Although some great findings are gained from the previous researches,by the analysis of data,cultural context is hardly taken into consideration.However,culture is closely related to language,and language is transmitted by culture.Therefore,social culture should be taken into consideration in the diachronic metaphor research.In order to investigate formation and revival of dead metaphors,the present study chooses thirteen adjective English animal dead metaphors from Metalude Metaphor Corpus as research materials.According to Brinkmann,Riegler and Aliakbari and Faraji,they are divided into two categories: English domestic animal name dead metaphors(hereinafter abbreviated as EDANDMs)and English wild animal name dead metaphors(hereinafter abbreviated as EWANDMs).Besides,based on two theories relevant to cognitive semantics(Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Conceptual Integrated Theory)and Cognitive-culture(cultural-historical analysis),by means of Corpus of Historical American English(hereinafter abbreviated as COHA)and Microsoft Office Excel 2007(hereinafter abbreviated as EXCEL),the present study will aim at answering the following questions: 1)In which period do EANDMs form and revive during the diachronic semantic evolution studies on English? 2)Which is earlier,EDANDMs or EWANDMs in terms of the time of formation and revival? and why? 3)What are the mechanisms of formation and revival of EANDMs?In order to deal with the questions above,by means of COHA,noun collocates of adjective EANDMs are retrieved out in 200-year period(1810s-2000s)and analyzed.In addition,according to conceptual metaphor HUMAN IS ANIMAL,the source domain is animal,and the target domain is human.That is to say,EANDMs are the source domains and noun collocates of adjective EANDMs are the target domains.Moreover,the source domains are divided into EDANDMs source domains and EWANDMs source domains,while noun collocates are divided into noun collocates in HUMAN target domains and noun collocates in NONHUMAN target domains.Most importantly,the present study focuses on noun collocates in NONHUMAN target domains.By means of EXCEL tool,after description,explanation and discussion about the data,the major findings are summarized below.Firstly,in the diachronic study on adjective EANDMs,developmental trends of frequency of noun collocates of EANDMs in NONHUMAN target domains are obviously different in preformation period,formation period and revival period.Through further discussion,these three periods are 1810s-1850 s,1860s-1880 s,1890s-1950 s for EDANDMs,and 1830s-1870 s,1880s-1900 s,1910s-1990 s for EWANDMs respectively.Secondly,on the whole,time points of the formation and revival of EDANDMs are earlier than those of EWANDMs.As for the formation period,the reasons why EDANDMs form earlier than EWANDMs are as follows: frequent use,degree of familiarity,and shared background culture.As for the revival period,metaphorical meanings of EANDMs have changed.Moreover,the reasons why EDANDMs revive earlier than EWANDMs are as follows: the economy principle in language and local cultural context.Thirdly,as for the formation mechanism of EANDMs,under the guidance of Conceptual Metaphor Theory,animal meaning elements that have conventional meanings in source domains are mapped onto HUMAN target domains,and meanings of EANDMs become common and conventional.After that,conventional meanings are compiled into dictionaries until they are frequently used.As for the revival mechanism of EANDMs,by combining cultural-historical analysis with Conceptual Integration Theory,text context highlights some meaning elements in two input spaces,and thesalient meaning elements that get the prior right to enter into the blended space are contradictory to cultural context.However,by means of appropriate inference,the salient meaning elements,together with the other meaning elements that are mapped onto the blended space,are reintegrated into new meanings.Therefore,EANDMs that have new meanings can revive.Apart from above findings,other findings are as follows: Conceptual metaphor HUMAN IS ANIMAL is the conventional and entrenched metaphor in human beings’ mind;EANDMs can form and revive in certain periods of development history of English language,and social culture is the key factor affecting formation and revival of EANDMs.Therefore,social-linguistics will supply a new perspective to diachronic dead metaphors research.In addition,studies on semantic meanings of dead metaphors will be helpful to compile metaphor dictionaries,but meanwhile type choices of animal dead metaphors,research time span,and language in the diversity are needed to be further improved and complemented in the future. |
