Hierarchical Metaphor In China’s Imagery Construction

"Imagery" (意免, yi xiang) is one of the main issues of interest in sociology of knowledge. "Imagery" is the basic concept and has been subject of interest of the sociology of knowledge. But it is mostly translated as "形象, xing xiang" in Chinese. In the paper, great interests are put on "China’s imagery and its construction" which is one of the core issues of the sociology of knowledge. This study focuses on the relationship between knowledge and society. In this paper, the study of "the hierarchical metaphor in China Imageries Construction " is actually the use of the perspective of Hierarchical Metaphor researching "China imagery." Its central idea is the "China Imagery" research.Through academic review, I found that "China’s imagery has been metaphorized," and there is some correlation with Hierarchical metaphor, so the paper proposes a question, "Is China’s Imagery Hierarchically metaphorized?" Through "China’s diaspora imagery" which is an important platform of China’s imagery Study, I firstly found that there is a certain association between China’s imagery and Hierarchical metaphor. Then by comprehensive discussion of the research methods of Hierarchical metaphor, the new perspective of China’s imagery study, I seek correspondence between the two. After, through the North American media discourse study, I made qualitative and quantitative analysis only to confirm that "to a certain extent, China’s imagery has been hierarchically metaphorized." This study examines many aspects of China’s imagery through the perspective of Hierarchical metaphor, focusing on "low profile" China’s Imageries, i.e., two Chinese imageries like the "short term" and "regional groups". It concluded that in both cases, "China’s imagery has been hierarchically metaphorized."The paper is briefly divided into three research sections, the China’s imagery study, the hierarchical metaphor study and the "Investigation of China" of the North American media with the context of corpus research background.The first section, or the first chapter, studies the metaphorized China Imagery, which functions as the academic review of China’s imagery issues. This section first sorts the metaphorized old imageries of China, including Yellow Peril, "made in China", the US debt problem, China threat theory, China collapse theory and so on. Then with the context of "big profile" Imageries of China, I decode several channels of metaphorizing China imageries and also decode how these metaphor channels construct China imagery. In addition to the channels like communication and contact, there are many categories of text data, including media discourse, the writings of United Kingdom visitors to China and the British and American missionaries, literature, textbooks, scholar’s studies and so on.The second section is the hierarchical metaphor study. This section plays three roles. First, hierarchical metaphor is introduced as a new perspective of China’s imagery study. Second, it serves as the introduction of hierarchical Metaphor study platform. Third, a comprehensive discussion of hierarchical metaphor research methods, which can work as a foreshadowing for the study in the third section. This section includes five chapters from the second to the fifth chapter. The second chapter is the introduction of hierarchical metaphor methods, i.e. hierarchical metaphor as a New Perspective of China’s imagery study is introduced. This chapter first proposed hierarchical metaphor as a new form of metaphor which extends the pragmatic boundary of metaphor. This chapter also review the past and the present of metaphor study. The third chapter is the platform of hierarchical metaphor research. Firstly the case study of "Chinese diaspora survival situation" with Canada as an example is reviewed. The investigation concluded that "the Chinese people will always be foreigners," thus, the "otherness" who is difficult to integrate. The fourth and fifth chapters reviewed two classifications of hierarchical metaphor. Namely, the "physical" and "ideological" state of hierarchical metaphor. "Physical state" hierarchical metaphor research, which is the lower level part of the hierarchical metaphor, is also called the study of external symbols. "Ideological state" metaphor is the higher level part, including racial prejudice, racial profiling and racial derogatory. This is the ultimate level of metaphor, which characterizes the most intense part of hierarchical metaphor. In short, the hierarchical metaphor is an aggregate form of many metaphors, covering different areas and different levels of hierarchical metaphor, and different emotional levels of metaphor will lead to different levels of hierarchical metaphorical representation.The third section is the corpus based "investigation of China" in North American Media Discourse. This section is the "Pigeon-holing" of the study of hierarchical metaphor in the fourth and fifth chapters, and it is to be proved scientifically through qualitative and quantitative analysis. Analysis is given in chapter six and seven, respectively, by using the English media discourse and Chinese media discourse. In North American English media discourse corpus based discourse analysis, corpus data analysis and evaluation theory are used. It concluded that:"There is almost nothing found in the English media discourse, just reported in different point of views." The research of Chinese media discourse mainly makes "corrupt customs imagery" investigation. The method first makes the social survey on "corrupt customs", and then grade them after sorting through an analysis, then measure and match the semantic distance data distribution by identifying the semantic meaning. I concluded from the results of matching that diaspora’s "corrupt customs" led to the hierarchy set. Finally, the conclusion of the paper is given:The hierarchical metaphorical elements are inherent in in China’s imagery construction within the context of North American media discourse, In other words, "To a certain extent, China’s imagery has been hierarchically metaphorized."Through the perspective of discursive constructionism, the paper utilizes research methods of discourse analysis and corpus linguistics. Discourse analysis, which is a research standpoint, takes social constructionism as a philosophical basis. This way, I can deconstruct the social context of the China imagery, and can question the "social reality" of "Hierarchical Metaphor" in China imagery. This article also uses corpus linguistics research methods for reference and thus enriches the function of hierarchical metaphor in China’s imagery research. Corpus Linguistics makes discourse studies according to the big data of the textual material and makes discourse analysis by using the collocation theory and evaluation theory, and also judges and identifies the conditions of the use of the hierarchical metaphor when North American media discourse investigating China.This study has the following three aspects of innovation. First, a comprehensive presentation on "hierarchical metaphor" issue is made for the first time. The hierarchical metaphor was summarized and reviewed in the fourth and fifth chapters of this paper. By doing this, I am extending and innovating metaphor theory. I made a theoretical innovation when the paper extracts the hierarchical metaphor elements in the construction of media discourse and undertakes a comprehensive discussion on them. Second, the innovation of theoretical framework of the China’s imagery study is made when the paper studies China’s imagery by using hierarchical metaphor as a new perspective. Applying this new perspective, I found the existence of the hierarchy set and hierarchical metaphor in the construction of China imageries. By introducing corpus linguistics research methods and the "news semantic proximity" methods, the theoretical framework of the study is enriched. Third, the innovation of concept. This paper presents two different ways of "low profiles" "China Imagery", i.e., "short term" and "regional groups" China’s imagery study; adds the two new concepts "compelling" and " triggering" into "Evaluation Theory"; and uses the unifying concept of "China’s diaspora" replacing overseas Chinese, Chinese overseas, ethnic Chinese and so on.