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摘要：If the ordinary word in the source domain cannot findits normal counterpart in the target domain through mapping，a new sense will pop upand the process of polysemization begins． When the new senses are accepted and co-exist with the original senses of the word，this word is polysemized． And the coexis-tence of original sense and derived sense is the case of polysemy．

g many scholars，and its history can betraced back to Aristotle and Confucius． Different definitions to metaphor have beengiven by linguists，philosophers，logicians，and cognitive scientists． In rhetoricians’o-pinion，metaphor is a figure of speech and a means of ornament for language; in phi-losophers’opinion，metaphor is the basic characteristic of human language; in logi-cians’words，metaphor is a categorical misplacement． As far as linguistics is con-cerned，in An Encyclopedia of Linguistics，“metaphor，belongs to one type of figure ofspeech，and in metaphor，figurative words，such as‘is’，‘become’etc． are often usedto connect tenor and vehicle”． While in the cognitive view，metaphor is not the matterof language，but a cognitive process of mapping across domains． The essence of meta-phor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another．From the definitions given above，we can sum up their common grounds:1． Metaphor is a figure of speech．2． Metaphor is a substitution between words．3． Metaphor is a special type of simile．4． Metaphor involves similarity among things or concepts．The above － mentioned definitions try to describe the general characteristics ofmetaphor from the angle of pattern and essence，but they have generally regarded met-aphor as merely a language and rhetoric phenomenon． In this paper，we think meta-phor is an important means for people to understand the world，which plays a necessa-ry role in human cognition． And in the following illustrations，from the perspective ofcognition，we defined metaphor as the process for people to map one cognitive domainonto another by resorting to similar association and creative imagination so as to assistpeople in describing and understanding things unknown and the world surroundingthem．The key notion of metaphor is experiencing and understanding one kind of thingin terms of another． In other words，metaphor can be understood as the mapping froma source domain to a target domain． Lakoff uses the term domain to refer to concept，and the term mapping to represent the interaction between two domains． They togetherprovides us with the relationship between mapping and metaphor: each metaphor has asource domain，a target domain，and a source － to － target mapping; metaphor is themapping from the source domain to the target domain; mapping is the systematic set ofcorrespondences that exist between constituent elements of the source and the targetdomains; the properties mapped from the source domain must fit the inherent structureof the target domain; after mapping，the properties of source domain go with those oftarget domain．In short，metaphors are general mappings across domains． The focus of metaphoris not in language at all，but in the way we conceptualize one mental domain in termsof another． The general theory of metaphor is given by characterizing such cross － do-main mappings． And in the process，everyday abstract concepts like time，states，change，causation，and purpose also turn out to be metaphorical． The result is thatmetaphor is absolutely central to ordinary natural language semantics，and that thestudy of literary metaphor is an extension of the study of everyday metaphor． Everymetaphor is characterized by a huge system of thousands of cross － domain mappings．

Ⅳ． Interpreting the Polysemy of Head in Terms of Metaphor

Head is one of the most important body parts which control the thinking process．It is a polysemous word a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。