Literature Review of Studies on Metaphor.docx

Literature Review of Studies on Metaphor.docx

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LiteratureReviewofStudiesonMetaphor

LiteratureReviewofStudiesonMetaphor

　　【Abstract】Thispaperprovidesanoverviewofmajortheoriesofmetaphorandsomebriefcomments.Inthispaper，thestudiesofmetaphorathomeandabroadandsomerelatedresearchesarepresented.Fourinfluentialmetaphortheories（thecomparisontheory，thesubstitutiontheory，theinteractiontheoryaswellasthetheoryofconceptualmetaphor.）willbeintroduced.

　　【Keywords】literaturereview；studiesofmetaphor；metaphortheory

　　1.Introduction

　　Metaphorisfoundinalllanguagesbecauseitisanimportantpartoflanguageandcultureofsociety.Metaphorexistsinbothliteratureandeverydaylanguagepervasively.Traditionallyitisconsideredasafigureofspeechuntiltheearlytwentiethcenturywiththeintroductionoftheinteractiontheory，butwiththepublicationofMetaphorsWeLiveByin1980，GeorgeLakoffandMarkJohnsonfirstdevelopedtheviewthatchallengedallaspectsofthepowerfultraditionalviewandthesystematicapproach.Thisviewmarkstheestablishmentofthecognitiveapproachtometaphor.Metaphorhasbecomeahottopicathomeandabroadsincethen，notonlyinlinguistics，butalsoinpsychology，philosophy，sociologyandmanyotherfields.Metaphorhasbeenstudiedfromdifferentangles，includingrelevancetheorywhichstandsforoneofthelatestdevelopmentsofcognitiveresearches.

　　2.StudiesonMetaphorabroad

　　Therearefourinfluentialtheoriesinthehistoryofstudyofmetaphor，Theyarethecomparisontheory，thesubstitutiontheory，theinteractiontheoryandtheconceptualmetaphortheory.AccordingtoBlack（1993），thesetheoriescanbedividedintotwotypes：

thetraditionaltheoryandthecontemporarytheory.Thecomparisontheory，thesubstitutiontheoryandtheinteractiontheorybelongtothetraditionaltheory.Theyconsidermetaphorasamatteroflanguage，atheatricaldevice.Theconceptualmetaphortheorybelongstothecontemporarytheory，whichregardsmetaphorasacognitivetool，animportantmeansofunderstandingtheworld.

　　Atpresent，conceptualmetaphortheoryhasbeenwidelyacceptedandusedinmanyfields.Anditissupportedbymoreandmoreempiricalevidences.Thoughthetraditionaltheoriesarenotupdated，theyareadvancedatthattime.Andwithouttheilluminationofthetraditionaltheories，theconceptualmetaphortheorywillnotappear.

　　2.1Comparisontheory

　　ComparisontheorygetstheinspirationfromAristotleandclaimsthatmetaphorinvolvesacomparisonorsimilarityoftwoormoreobjects.Accordingtothistheory，metaphorsareellipticalsimilesandcanbeunderstoodintheformof“AislikeB”（Black，1962）；thefunctionofmetaphorisarhetoricdevicewhichisusedtoachievevividnessorpersuasiveness：

anditisakindof“word-metaphor”.ThefollowingdefinitionisgiventometaphorinAristotlePoetics：

“Metaphorliesingivingthethinganamethatbelongstosomethingelse；thetransferencebeingeitherfromgenustospecies，orfromspeciestogenus，orfromspeciestospecies，orongroundsofanalogy”（Aristotle，1457：

69）.Aristotle（1459：

3-8）alsopointedoutthatthegreatestthingistohaveacommandofmetaphor，thisalonecannotbepassedontoanother；thisisthesignofgenius，fortomakeagoodmetaphormeansaneyeforsimilarities.　　Forexample，themetaphor，TIMEISMONEY，isactuallyequaltothesimile，TIMEISASVALUABLEASMONEY.Infact，comparisontheoryplaysacrucialroleintheprocessofinterpretationofmetaphor.Itisthefirstinfluentialmetaphortheoryinthehistoryofthestudyofmetaphor.Thoughitisadvancedatitsage，ithasitsweaknesses：

　　Firstly，metaphorisbasedonpreexistingsimilarities.

　　Secondly，metaphorisregardedassomethingthathappensjustatthewordlevel.

　　Last，metaphorisconsideredasarhetoricaldevice，onlygeniuscanseizeit.

　　2.2SubstitutionTheory

　　Comparisontheoryisaspecialcaseofsubstitutiontheory.RomanrhetoricianQuintilianus（1A.D.）isthefounderofsubstitutiontheory.Accordingtothistheory，ametaphoricalexpressionisusedinplaceofsomeequivalentliteralexpression.（Black，1962：

31）Hebelievesthattheinterpretationofmetaphorinvolvesaliteralparaphrasetoreplaceanoriginalmetaphor.Forinstance，inthemetaphor“Andrewisalion”，wehavetoparaphrasethemetaphoricalpart，“alion”intoitsliteralequivalent，“abraveman”whenwearereadytograspthetruesenseofthemetaphor.

　　Metaphoristreatedastheatricaldeviceinboththecomparisontheoryandthesubstitutiontheory.Itsmajorfunctionissecondaryalongwithornamental.Theirviewsofmetaphoraredifferentfromeachother.Comparisontheoryputsemphasisonthenatureofmetaphorformulation，whilesubstitutiontheoryfocusesonthewaysofmetaphorformulation（ShuDingfang，1996：

17）.

　　2.3Interactiontheory

　　LanChun（2003：

11）pointsoutthatthepublicationofRichards’ThePhilosophyofRhetoric（1936），wheretheinteractionviewisproposedistherealbreakthroughinthefieldofmetaphorstudies.Richards（1936：

21）pointsoutthatwhenweuseametaphor，wehavetwothoughtsofdifferentthingsactivetogetherandsupportedbyasingleword，orphrase，whosemeaningisaresultoftheirinteraction.Inotherwords，metaphoris“aborrowingbetweenintercourseofthoughts，transactionbetweencontexts”（Riehards，1936：

94）.HoweverRichardsdoesnotexplainwhattheresultsofinteractionareandhowtheinteractiongoesoninmetaphor.

　　Black（1962，1993）inheritsandpolishesinteractiontheory.Heclaimsthataninteractionbetweentheprimarysubject（frame）andthesecondarysubject（focus）ofasentencecreatesmetaphoricalmeaningby.Healsoputsforwardthatametaphoriscomprisedofafocuswithinaframe，andthefocusgetsitsmetaphoricalmeaningfromitsinteractionwiththeframe.　　Theprimarysubjectofasentence（frame）andtheinteractionoftwosubjects（focus）betweenthegenerationofametaphoricalsense.Healsoproposedametaphoriscomprisedoffocuswithintheframeworkandfocusfromtheinteractionwiththeframegotitsmetaphoricalsignificance.

　　Comparedwiththecomparisontheory，bothofthemattachimportancetoroleofsimilarityontheinterpretationofmetaphor，butBlack’stheorygoesastepfurtherandpaysmoreattentiontothecreatedsimilarityratherthanthepreexistedone.

　　Black’sworkbringsalongsignificantprogressinclarifyingthefieldofmetaphor：

Afterhim，someotherscholarshavealsomadeattemptstoclarifytheinteractiontheory.Amongthem，thereareMdcCormacandIndurkhya.MdcCormac（1990[1985]）undertakestoprovideaformalexplanationformetaphorbyusingthesettheoryandIndurkhya（1992）promisedtobuildanewsimpleframeworkwhichcanofferaexplanationofsimilaritiesbetweenitstwocomponentscreatedbyametaphor.（LanChun，2003：

12）.

　　AlthoughBlackmakesprogressintheinteractiontheory，heisstillunabletoprovideaclearexplanationaboutwhatstructuresandfeaturesmetaphorshave.

　　2.4Conceptualmetaphortheory

　　Forthestudyofmetaphor，the20thcenturyisanimportantperiod，becausemanycognitivelinguists，suchasLackoff，Johnson，Gibbs，Sweester，Koveeses，madetheirstudyofmetaphorfromanewangle---cognitivelinguisticperspective.Theybelievethatmetaphorisnotonlyamatteroflanguage，butalsoawayofthinkingofhumanbeing.Theybegintoprobedeepintothenatureofmetaphor.TherealbeginningofcognitivestudyofmetaphorismarkedbythepublicationofLackoff&Johnson’sfamousbookMetaphorsweliveby.theconceptualmetaphortheoryisproposedandmetaphorisdefinedasunderstandingoneconceptualdomainintermsofanotherconceptualdomaininthisbook.Theybelievethatmetaphorisubiquitousineverydaylife，notonlyinlanguagebutalsointhoughtandaction，that“intermsofwhichweboththinkandact，ourordinaryconceptualsystemisfundamentallymetaphoricalinessence”andthat“ourconceptualsystemislargelymetaphorical，thentoagreaterextent，thewaywethink，whatwedoeverydayandwhatweexperienceisamatterofmetaphor.”（Lakoff&Johnson，1980：

3）Reddyalsonotesthat“thelocusofmetaphoristhought，notlanguage，thatmetaphorisasignificantandindispensablepartofourordinary，traditionalwayofconceptualizationoftheworldandthatourdailybehaviorreflectsexperienceofourmetaphoricalunderstanding”（Reddy，1979；Lakoff，1994）.　　Intheconceptualmetaphortheory，metaphorisconsideredasacross-domainmappingfromtargetdomaintosourcedomaininconceptualsystem.thetargetdomainistheconceptualdomainthatwetrytounderstandandthesourcedomainistheconceptualdomainthatweuseforthispurpose.Conceptualmetaphorstypicallyemployamorespecificconceptassourceandamoreabstractconceptastarget.Constituentconceptualelementsofsourcedomaincorrespondsystematicallytoconstituentelementsoftargetdomain.Theseconceptualcorrespondencesarecalledmappings.Tounderstandametaphormeanstounderstandthemappingsystembetweenasourceandatarget.（Koveeses，2002）

　　Thecognitivelinguisticviewofmetaphorconsistsofseveralcomponents：

sourcedomain，targetdomain，experientialbasis，neuralstructurescorrespondingtosourceandtargetinthebrain，relationshipsbetweenthesourceandthetarget，metaphoricallinguisticexpressions，mappings，entailments，blends，nonlinguisticrealizationsandculturalmodels.

　　3.Studiesonmetaphorathome

　　Thetraditionalstudiesofmetaphorareimportantnowadaysbecausetheyconfinethemselvestotherealmofrhetoric.Andthetraditionaltheoriesofmetaphorareputforwardbyscholarsabroad.WewillnotdiscussthetraditionalviewsinChina.What’smore，thecurrentstudyfocusesontheconceptualmetaphortheoryinthecognitivelinguistics，sothestudiesof