A Cognitive Linguistic Analysis Of The Conceptual Metaphors In The Tibetan Proverbs In King Gesar

As one of the core theories of cognitive linguistics,Conceptual Metaphor Theory（CMT）argues that metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon,but a fundamental cognitive device for humans to approach and comprehend the world.The Great-Chain-of-Being metaphor is one of the major metaphor systems,accounting for how different forms of beings are perceived and depicted metaphorically.The Great Chain of Being Metaphor Theory（GMCT）addresses proverb cognition（Honeck,1997,pp.122-128）and understands pro verbs as providing ways of comprehending the complex faculties of human beings in terms of other levels of things（Lakoff and Turner,1989,p.166）.The Great-Chain-of-Being metaphor,as one of the four basic concepts on which GCMT relies,works together with the GENERIC IS SPECIFIC metaphor,the Nature of Things and the Maxim of Quantity to produce proverb comprehension（ibid,pp.162-181）.As cultural models are constituted by conceptual metaphors（K（?）vecses,2015,p.7）,the Great-Chain-of-Being metaphor has recently been developed and applied to the investigations into the conceptual patterns lying behind central metaphors of a specific culture.Following this line,this study takes the proverbs in the Tibetan classic King Gesar as the focus of textual analysis to explore Tibetan cultural models through the framework of GCMT.Based on Tibetan folk tales,legends,folk songs and proverbs,the epic of Gesar is like an encyclopaedia for the study of ancient Tibetan society and wins the title of "oriental Iliad"（Gyanpian,2017）.The version taken by this study is a revised one in 2014 from King Gesar compiled by Gyanpian Gyamco and Wu Wei（1985）.Referring to the extended Great Chain proposed by Lakoff and Turner（1989,pp.204213）and considering how the proverbs in King Gesar are constructed,this study establishes the Great Chain of Being of Tibetan culture by adding the levels of SOCIETY/KINGDOM,NATURAL ENVIRONMENT,HEAVEN and DEITIES/BUDDHA above the level of HUMANS.With regard to the relative positions of the source and target domain along the Great Chain,we recognize upward Great-Chain-of-Being metaphors and the downward ones.In doing so,this study carries out a cognitive analysis of the metaphorical expressions in the proverbs in King Gesar,aiming to get a glimpse of the underlying Tibetan culture and explore the interrelationship between metaphor,cognition and culture.Three questions are addressed in this study:1.What are the main conceptual metaphors in the proverbs in King Gesar?2.What do these metaphors reveal about Tibetan people’s conceptualization of the world?3.In what ways are these metaphors tied to Tibetan culture?How to explain the mind of Tibetan culture via the conceptual patterns lying behind the central metaphors?Based on the three-step paradigm of Critical Metaphor Analysis（CMA）,i.e.,metaphor identification,interpretation and explanation,this study construct a specific methodological framework integrated with GCMT for actual data identification and analysis.Altogether there are 382 proverbs and 785 metaphorical expressions identified,the majority of which belong to the Great-Chain-of-Being metaphor system.This study finds that there are basically more downward metaphors than upward ones,and the proverbs in King Gesar tend to compare humans to animals,plants and natural phenomena.Among these metaphors,HUMANS ARE ANIMALS takes up the majority.This corresponds to Tibetans’ nature worship,especially their worship for animals,which is associated with Tibetans’ living conditions and environment.We further discover that the proverbs in King Gesar tend to map some specific animals,like tigers and lions,onto distinguished figures or respectable heroes,which embodies the idea of Totemism in Tibetan culture.This is also reflected in metaphors that take plants,objects and natural phenomena as source domains.The spiritual worship and fetish worship of Tibetan people are also incorporated with the metaphors.This study contributes to conceptual metaphor research in following ways.Through the creative application of GCMT and CMA,this study comprehensively analyzes the conceptual metaphors in the proverbs in King Gesar,revealing how Tibetan people conceptualize the world and enabling us to get the gist of the four cultural phenomena in Tibetan culture:nature worship,spiritual worship,fetish worship and Totemism.Thus,this study can shed light on the interrelationship between metaphor,cognition and culture.This study will hopefully provide a better understanding of King Gesar and its artistic vitality from a cognitive perspective.