| Traditionally metaphor was seen as a mere matter of language,a figure of speech used as an ornament to language.But the latest research of cognitive linguistics has demonstrated that metaphor is a common cognitive phenomenon and a thinking mode of human beings.It is a useful cognitive tool by which human beings understand and experience the surrounding world.It is cognitive in nature and it is pervasive and essential in language and thought.To check the pervasiveness of metaphor and enhance the understanding of its nature,considerable work has been done based on the data collected from literary works,which is one of the new tendencies of recent research of metaphor.As one of the most important and essential aspects of human experience,emotion is tightly interwoven with cognition.The exploration of emotion of human beings plays a significant role in the research of human cognition.However,since human emotions are so complex and abstract that there is no way but to resort to metaphor to perceive them in a vivid and clear way.As one of the most pervasive emotional expressions in Chinese classical poetry,“chou”(sorrow)has a rich connotation and extensive manifestation.Writers in ancient times used to employ metaphors to convey complicated emotions.Especially in Song Ci-Poems,“chou” and“chou” metaphors can be seen everywhere.Based on the cognitive metaphor theory and a linguistic corpus from Song Ci-Poems,this thesis attempts to explore the conceptualization and categorization of “chou” metaphors in Song Ci-Poems.What is also discussed embraces their working mechanism,semantic structures and features.The basic conclusion of this study is summarized into the following four aspects: Firstly,in addition to the use of ontological metaphors,Chinese Ci-Poets also prefer employing image metaphors,personification,synaesthetic metaphors and reverse metaphors to describe the abstract emotion concept “chou”.Secondly,no orientational metaphors are found in Song Ci-Poems describing “chou” though it is a very common kind in modern Chinese.Thirdly,three main semantic structures of “chou” metaphors are summarized in this study: co-occurrence of tenor,vehicle and ground;co-occurrence of target and vehicle;co-occurrence of target and ground.Fourthly,five main semantic features of “chou” metaphors are also touched upon in this paper: systematicity,locality,contradictoriness,diversity and temporality.The present study is a new attempt to examine Chinese traditional culture from the modern western metaphorical point of view.The value of Song Ci-Poems,which is not only aesthetic,but also historical,truthfully reflects culture of the specific period.It is believed that the present study will shed light on a better understanding and appreciation of Song Ci-Poems and other traditional Chinese literary works. |
PDF Full Text Request