A Mapping-based Exploration Into Metaphoric Texts

Metaphor is a way to understand and experience one kind of thing in terms of another by mapping from the source domain concept onto the target domain concept for the purposes of cognition, expression and emotional release. It is multi-faceted: It is cognitive in the first place, and metaphors in language and for rhetorical use are derivatives which play their role through the cognitive function of metaphor; its creation is an individual action, and at the same time it is rooted in the social and cultural soil; it provides an effort-saving model to cognize abstract, new and difficult things via concrete, familiar and simple ones, and at the same time it can also work reversely to render simple, familiar and concrete things complicated, alien and abstract.Metaphor study has been an evergreen tree since the ancient times, and the metaphor-mania since the late twentieth century further pushes it to the very center of interdisciplinary studies. This dissertation will approach metaphor on the textual level based on metaphorical mappings from a multi-dimensional perspective of cognitive linguistics and discourse analysis. To be specific, it looks into metaphorical mappings and their relations with metaphoric texts: the contents, patterns, features of metaphorical mappings and their resultant cognitive forces; the patterns in which metaphors are organized into metaphoric texts; metaphorical mappings and their textual functions; metaphorical text analysis from a multi-dimensional perspective.Metaphor is of concept which is organized as an abstract schema made up of slots, properties, relations and knowledge that can be mapped during metaphorical mapping from the source domain conceptual schema onto the target domain conceptual schema, thus structuring the target domain, providing options for the instantiation of the target domain conceptual schema, supplying inferential patterns for the reasoning about the target domain, and serving as bases for the evaluation of relevant entities in the target domain. It is especially pointed out that a concept that is frequently used as the source domain of metaphor can be a convenient and available tool for cognizing things effortlessly. Metaphorical mappings are systematic, directional and partial, which observe the Invariance Principle.Six patterns of metaphorical mappings are proposed altogether:Pattern 1: mapping of slotsPattern 2: mapping of slots + propertiesPattern 3: mapping of slots + relations Pattern 4: mapping of knowledgePattern 5: mapping of slots + relations + propertiesPattern 6: mapping of slots + relations + properties + knowledgeMetaphorical mappings are closely linked with the texts they construct, i.e. metaphoric text. A text in this dissertation is regarded as a stretch of language in the written form that makes a relatively independent whole to perform a certain writing function among description, exposition, argumentation and narration in unity of cognition, linguistic form and context. A text can be made up of at least one sentence, several sentences, a paragraph, a whole passage, even a book. Smaller texts can be woven into larger ones, and of course larger ones can be broken down into smaller ones.A metaphorical text is defined as"a stretch of language governed by the influence of a single metaphor or multiple metaphors, either implicit or explicit, in the written form, that makes a relatively independent whole to carry out a certain writing function among description, exposition, argumentation and narration, with some effects in unity of cognition, linguistic form and context".Metaphors can be implicit or explicit in a metaphorical text. Explicit metaphoric texts can be divided into the dispersed type and the coherent type, and in each type, there are the single type and the multiple type. Since in the dispersed type (either single or multiple) metaphoric texts the appearance of metaphors is not regular, the focus of study here is on the coherent type. Then there are the single coherent type and the multiple coherent type. Under the single coherent type, there are the ordinary extensive single type and single type parables. The ordinary extensive single type is regarded as the most prototypical among all types of metaphoric text, though some scholars may have placed it under a different type. Under the coherent multiple type, there are six sub-types: multiple parables, the parallel type, the progressive type, the transitional type, the alternate type and the complementary type. Of course a metaphorical text can be of a combined type. For a clearer view, please refer to Diagram Two about the proposed classification of metaphoric texts on Page 62. Implicit metaphoric text can not have so complicated configurations due to the implicitness of the metaphor in the text, so many of them are of the single extensive type.Metaphorical mappings can perform the most frequently used textual functions, including description, exposition, argumentation and narration. The classification of the textual functions is relative, which should depend on the dominant purpose a text serves: a description can be an exposition in a different environment; a narration often argues for or against something; an argumentation is quite often built on a narration…. Therefore, it can only be suggested that mapping of properties are normally related to static description, mapping of relations to dynamic description and narration, mapping of knowledge to argumentation, while exposition can be realized by almost any of the above depending on the focus of writing. A text can be realized by a single function, but what is more frequently seen is the combination of functions that brings about a more complicated piece of writing in which there is a dominant function.Metaphoric texts vary in their degrees of metaphoricity. The more elements are mapped from the source domain onto the target domain, the more complete the mapping is. The more complete mapping patterns subsume the less complete ones, so when a more complete mapping is analyzed, it may need to be broken down into less complete ones so as to analyze their separate constructive forces for different aspects of a text which go together to form the overall metaphorical construction of the text.This dissertation dedicates much space to the illustration of how the most complete metaphorical mapping constructs the most prototypical writing—narration, because it involves the most complete, most inclusive mapping which frequently involves description, sometimes exposition, and which always sells some idea. The dissertation chooses a very prototypical narration, a short story, Babylon Revisited, written by the U.S. Jazz Age writer, F. S. Fitzgerald, to illustrate quite in detail how metaphorical mappings help construct the setting, characters, plot and theme of the novel. The whole story is constructed completely based on a single extensive macro-metaphor PARIS IS BABYLON, which pre-determines the construction of all the essential elements in the novel. It is discovered that the mappings of slots from the source domain Babylon lay out the setting, characters, the main events and the theme for the novel; the mappings of slots + properties instantiate the setting and the images of the relevant characters; the mappings of slots + relations + properties form a chain of events in order of time, which constitute the plot of the novel; the mappings of knowledge constitute the logic underlying the plot, and at the same time help evaluate the relevant entities concerning the target domain Paris, thus highlighting the theme of the novel.Analysis of metaphoric texts is unavoidable in a complete study of metaphoric texts. The dissertation proposes a five-dimensional model of metaphorical text analysis which is composed of cohesion, context, coherence, implication inference and critique in the light of discourse analysis theories and the relevance theory. The five dimensions can occur in order, with some dimension(s) repeatedly or simultaneously activated. In the process, the metaphor parameters, including the novelty, complexity and semantic open-endedness of the metaphor(s), and the receiver factors, including his cognitive abilities and his imagination, are involved; at the same time the two principles of relevance serve as underlying forces.Cohesion is the start point of the process with the purpose to make certain what is said in a text. It can be achieved by lexical, grammatical and metaphorical cohesive means. Context here refers to the cognitive environment composed of co-text and con-text. Coherence refers to the logic behind the text, which can be realized by semantic relevance, thematic relevance, contextual relevance and metaphorical relevance. Metaphorical relevance is guaranteed by metaphorical cohesion, and both of them are based on consistent metaphorical mappings. Implicature inference can be broken down into two steps: assumption(s) construction and assumption(s) confirmation. The last dimension is critique which becomes more and more indispensable. In case of metaphoric texts, critique should involve not only the stuff commonly touched in a non-metaphoric text, but also the influence exerted by the use of metaphor on the text. For a clearer idea, please refer to the Flow Chart of Metaphorical Text Analysis on Page 111.This model is for metaphoric texts constructed via novel metaphors. As to those based on conventional metaphors, the process may go from the first dimension directly to the fourth dimension.A poem,"A noiseless patient spider"from the American poet Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, is taken as an example to show how the model works.As to the research methods, theoretical studies are combined with exemplification and introspection to finish the dissertation. The theories that are mainly referred to are the conceptual metaphorical mapping theory, the relevance theory and discourse analysis theories. The data may come from specialized theoretical books, journal papers, excellent degree theses and dissertations, online papers, conference proceedings, literary works, TV programs, movies and so on. The sources of quotations and examples will be listed in the Bibliography. However, some examples are from very famous literary figures; some are collected from daily life; still others are self-coined, therefore, their sources of quotation may, or may not be marked.Research on metaphor throughout the whole world has entered the stage of maturity and popularization; however, the study on the textual level only begins. A dedicated study on the production and analysis of metaphoric texts follows the tide of current metaphor study. It is firmly believed that the study that has been done here will contribute, at least slightly, to the furthering of metaphor studies.