A Study On Metaphors In Ecological Discourse Under The Framework Of Conceptual Blending Theory

In recent years,with the increasingly serious environmental pollution,the relationship between ecology and language is becoming a hot topic for scholars both at home and abroad.As a common linguistic phenomenon,metaphors in ecological discourse play an important role in advocating the protection of ecosystem.The ecological news discourses in China Daily and CGTN convey the ecological concepts to public in a conceptual way by the metaphorical expressions.In this study,the ecological news discourses from China Daily and CGTN websites are classified into the beneficial,ambivalent and destructive ones guided by the ecosophy of “Living!” proposed by Arran Stibbe;Lakoff’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory is used to identify the metaphors and the distribution of specific types of metaphors is described;the construction mechanisms of various types of metaphors within the networks of Conceptual Blending Theory is explained so as to reveal the ecosophy in the ecological discourses.The research content involves the following four aspects: 1.the distribution of ecological discourse types in ecological news discourses;2.the distribution of metaphors types in different types of ecological discourses;3.the distribution of different types of metaphors within the four networks of Conceptual Blending Theory;4.the meaning construction of metaphors and the embodied ecosophy within the four networks.After the selection and analysis,the major findings are as follows.The beneficial discourses accounts for the most,followed by ambivalent ones.No destructive discourses are found.The types of metaphors in beneficial discourses include personification,war,travel,architecture,relational,place and economic ones and ambivalent discourses include container and machine ones.Based on Lakoff’s classification of specific types of metaphors,structural metaphors include war,journey,building,relationship,economy and place ones and ontological metaphors include personification,container and machine ones.No orientational metaphors are found in the selected news discourses.The four types of networks in the Conceptual Blending Theory are unevenly distributed in the ecological news discourses,with single-scope network and simplex network as the main types,followed by mirror network and double-scope network with low participation.The single-scope network includes war,journey,building,container and machine metaphors.The simplex network includes personification and relational metaphors.Mirror and double-scope networks involve the least number of metaphor types,which are place and economic metaphors respectively.The single-scope and the simplex networks have strong explanatory power for conventional and simple conceptual metaphors.Mirror network requires symmetry in the construction of metaphors and some linguistic skills are required to construct metaphors with this feature.Double-scope network is the most complex to operate and is mainly used to explain novel metaphors.The news discourse is for a large number of ordinary readers,and its language is characterized by simplicity and comprehensibility.Therefore,there are more conventional and simple metaphors in the discourse,and fewer novel metaphors.Through the analysis of the construction of different types of metaphorical meanings,it is found that the metaphors in the selected ecological news discourses embodied ecosophy of “Living!” proposed by Stibbe.The use of conceptual metaphors enables ecological news discourses to convey Chinese policies and achievements in ecological and environmental protection efficiently and accurately and tell the story of China’s ecological protection to readers both at home and abroad.The study of metaphor types and their cognitive construction mechanisms in ecological news discourse can verify the explanatory power of Conceptual Blending Theory and help readers better understand the abstract and complex concepts in ecological news reports,the important expressions and ideas in the field of ecological environmental protection,which is of great significance for calling on readers at home and abroad to work together to build a harmonious community of life on earth between humans and nature.