英语论文网

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Research Background
For a long time, metaphor was regarded as a very common rhetorical device, just like simile,metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole, etc. This theory about metaphor was highly valued by manymetaphor researchers for a long period, with Aristotle as the most influential representative.Even though all these theories and their representatives were powerful, a https://www.51lunwen.org/languagethesis/ turning point still tookplace in the studies of metaphor and people made a great step forward. Nowadays, metaphor ismore likely to be viewed as a cognitive phenomenon rather than a simply means of rhetoric. Thisradical change in people’s understanding of metaphor mainly followed by the publication of theground breaking book Metaphors We Live By coauthored by Lakoff and Johnson in 1980. In thisbook, the authors provided people a new perspective—cognitive perspective for the analysis ofmetaphor. As long as they considered, metaphor was pervasive in everyday life, not just inlanguage but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we boththink and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980: 7). In otherwords, the relationship between language and thought, between metaphor and conceptualizationare the key points in perceiving metaphor which is considered as a cognitive mechanism bycognitive linguists. Norman Fairclough was another great linguist that shared the same point ofview. He insisted that metaphors structure the way people think and the way people act, andpeople’s systems of knowledge and belief, in a pervasive and fundamental way (Fairclough,1992: 194).Over the past few years, linguists made great efforts to carry out the study of conceptualmetaphor in different kinds of discourses. Some drew close attention to conceptual metaphorstudy in English political discourses. Some high lightened the analysis of conceptual metaphorthrough comparative study between Chinese and English discourses about politics, economy,news, etc. But only few people preferred to specifically analyze speeches addressed by famouspeople at American universities’ graduation ceremonies, especially when the speeches weregiven not by American presidents or politicians in the US. These ten commencement speecheswere delivered by celebrities who contributed a lot to the movie industry, literature, economy,teaching and so on. The thesis is expected to make a difference from the previous studies ofmetaphor in getting rid of the breath of politics to further prove the abundance of metaphor inour daily life.Based on theories above, this thesis aims to with the application of the conceptual metaphor theory put forward by Lakoff and Johnson to analyze conceptual metaphors employed in the“Top 10 Commencement Speeches in American Universities.”

1.2 Research Data and Methods
It is well known that Education, especially high school education has a tremendous impacton the human society, particularly on the human mind. Education can help a man become a greatthinker and then a practitioner. University students who are going to leave school for their newfuture are just the fruit of education. Speeches addressed on their graduation ceremonies by greatpeople they admire and want to be play a vital role in their lives. In this thesis, the authorchooses the widely appreciated 10 commencement speeches given by accomplished people indifferent fields, such as teaching, econ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。