A Study Of Conceptual Metaphors In Pearl S.buck’s The Good Earth

After the 1970 s,with the development of cognitive linguistics and the proposal of Conceptual Metaphor Theory,the study of metaphor began to shift from a general language phenomenon or a rhetorical device to linguistic cognition.In addition,with the progress of science and technology,the development and application of corpus provides scientific and objectivity for metaphor research.However,the analysis of a large number of literature data proves that the research on conceptual metaphor is mostly focused on news,political speech and so on,while there are few studies on the use of conceptual metaphor to analyze literary works.The Good Earth is a full-length novel written by American woman writer Pearl S.Buck who shows what she has seen and felt to create a series of hardworking Chinese peasants with simple images of which crosses the gap between Eastern and Western cultures.This thesis takes the novel text as the corpus to establish the metaphor corpus of The Good Earth,with the help of the metaphor identification method of Pragglejaz Group and the corpus tool Ant Conc 3.5.7,it is guaranteed to search and identify accurately the metaphors in the novel.Meanwhile according to the relevant Conceptual Metaphor Theory,the metaphors are classified and analyzed in the novel.This thesis will reply the following three questions:1.What are the types and distribution of conceptual metaphors in The Good Earth?2.What is the mapping process of conceptual metaphors in The Good Earth?3.What functions are embodied by conceptual metaphors in The Good Earth?With the combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis methods,the findings of the study of conceptual metaphors in The Good Earth are as follows: First of all,among the conceptual metaphors in The Good Earth,Ontological metaphor accounts for the most,followed by structural metaphor,and finally orientational metaphor,each accounting for48.70%,43.85% and 7.45% respectively.In addition,thirteen categories of metaphor have been studied,such as “animal metaphors”,“container metaphors”,“plant metaphors”,and“down metaphors” and so on.Secondly,from the perspective of the mapping relationship between the source domain and the target domain,the working mechanism of conceptual metaphors has been expounded with the further detailed classification of the types of both source domain of the metaphor and the target domain of the metaphor.Among the source domain,the three categories of metaphor,“animals”,“human”,and “worth” metaphors are demonstrated owing to the high frequency of their occurrence.They are projected into target domains to create different abstract meanings to reflect the relationship between characters and deepen characterization in the novel.Finally,combined with Pearl Buck’s own surroundings and life experiences,this thesis explores such functions of conceptual metaphors as embodying Pearl Buck’s flexible use of cross-cultural elements,reflecting her sympathy for the hard life of the lower class of Chinese society and women,and deepening the theme of the novel.The research of this thesis is helpful to establishing the objective connection between language learning and literature research.The study of conceptual metaphor in The Good Earth further interprets the influence of Pearl Buck’s own cross-cultural mode of thinking on her works,simultaneously,proving that conceptual metaphor is powerful in analyzing environmental description,character mapping and theme deepening in literary creation.