英语论文网

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Previous Study on Conceptual Metaphor
In western countries, the study on metaphor has always drawn many scholars’attention and many theories have been put forward by them. According to thedevelopmental sequence of metaphor theory, we may list the following fourwell-known theories, namely, the comparison theory, the substitution theory, theinteraction theory, as well as the conceptual metaphor theory.In the first way, the comparison theory which regards metaphor as a rhetoricaldevice or a figure of speech is assumed to be traced back to Aristotle. He put forwardthe definition, classification and function of metaphor in his famous writingsRhetorics and Poetics. Inspired by Aristotle, later on all the interpretation of metaphoris developed into the comparison theory. The comparison theory is inclined to such aview, that is, metaphor is the comparison of similarity between two things. Therefore,the comparison theory can be defined as a theory which maintains that two wordsbelonging to different semantic domains can have a connection via their similarities orresemblances.In the second way, the substitution theory holds that words coming from thesame domain can replace each other. This theory was developed by Quintilian and hepointed out that metaphor was a rhetorical phenomenon which one word was replacedby a metaphorical one. Actually, this theory is considered as a refined summary ofAristotle's "transference" argumentation (Wang 2006: 25). Here it is not difficult tosee that both the comparison theory and the substitution theory have their ownlimitations and weaknesses. First and foremost, we have to notice that both of thesetheories confine metaphor to the rhetorical realm. Furthermore, both of them hold thatmetaphor can only function at the syntactic level. Last but not least, not everymetaphor needs the preexisting similarities, in that metaphor can create similarities.
…………

2.2 Previous Study on Discourse Functions of Conceptual Metaphor
After Lakoff and Johnson claim that conceptual metaphor may create realities forus, especially social realities, the significance of conceptual metaphor in theinterpretation and expression of human experience immediately draw many scholars’attention. Then some researchers apply conceptual metaphor to analyze somediscourses which can be considered as one of the main forms for humans to organizeexperience, and they suggest that the study of metaphor has entered into a new stageof research and application. In spite of the fact that some researches have graduallyfocused on the particular aspects of discourse metaphor, and there is no doubt that aturn to discourse research on metaphor has outlined a recent tendency, in that aworldwide study directed to the discourse approach to metaphor research has beendeveloped over the past years, and in this case, conceptual metaphors at the discourselevel find its place as a new field among all the popular topics in linguistic field, asystematic framework on this issue still needs exploring anyhow. Some researches ofinvestigating conceptual metaphor at the discourse level are conducted at home andabroad, namely, the contribution of conceptual metaphor to discourse cohesion andcoherence. And most researches on discourse metaphor are mainly devoted toinvestigating how conceptual metaph本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。