Understanding Of The Sorrow Metaphor In Song Lyrics: A Cognitive Perspective

Traditionally metaphor was viewed as a mere matter of language, a figure of speech used as an ornament to language. But the latest research of cognitive linguistics has demonstrated that metaphor is a common cognitive phenomenon and a mode of thinking of human beings. It is pervasive and essential in language and thought. It is a valuable perceptual and cognitive tool by which human beings understand the surrounding world. Metaphor is cognitive in nature. To check the pervasiveness of metaphor and enhance the understanding of its nature, considerable work has been done based on the data collected from various languages. This is one of the tendencies of the recent research of metaphor.Emotion is one of the most important and pervasive aspects of human experience. Emotion and cognition are tightly interacted. The exploration of the emotion of human beings plays a significant role in the research of cognition. However, people's emotions are so complex and abstract; there is no way but to resort to metaphor to perceive them vividly and figuratively.Based on the cognitive metaphor theory and the linguistic corpus from Song lyrics, the thesis explore the conceptualization of the emotion of sorrow in Song period, and find out that the numerous linguistic expressions describing the emotion of sorrow in Song lyrics can be categorized into several conceptual metaphors and metonymic principles. For example,"SORROW IS AN OBJECT","SORROW IS SUBSTANCE IN A CONTAINER","SORROW IS FOOD","SORROW IS NATURAL FORCE","SORROW IS FLUID"and"THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFCETS OF SORROW STAND FOR SORROW"and so on. On the one hand, the findings reveal that metaphor is grounded in our similar bodily experience of the physical world and in turn serve as evidence in language to testify its authenticity; on the other hand, they also show the characteristics of Chinese culture and those of the specific period. The thesis makes a further study on the role Chinese cultural models playing in shaping and constraining the conceptual metaphors in Song lyrics:(1) Song lyrics tend to utilize body parts, especially internal organs such as"heart"and"intestine"in conceptualizing sorrow. This is partly because emotion experience originates from physiological and psychological effects caused by emotions. It also has a deep root in the Chinese theory of five elements along with their application in Chinese medicine.(2) Song lyrics employ lots of natural images in the conceptualization of sorrow metaphor. These metaphors establish its deep philosophical basis upon the theory of Yin-yang and the theory of universe in unity"Nature and man as a whole"(天人合一).(3) Synaesthesia is an important cultural phenomenon in Chinese literature. Lots of novel and unique synaesthetic metaphors are created in Song lyrics. To understand these novel metaphors, it demands rational thought and judgment as well as experience.(4) No orientation metaphors are found in the lyrics describing sorrow in Song period, although it is very common in modern Chinese. For example,"我情绪低落。"(I fell into a depression.)(5) Yan(颜), when it means'face', is always used asymmetrically, in a happy but never unhappy sense in modern Chinese. For example, one can say xiao yan (笑颜smiling face), but not ku yan (苦颜crying face). However, it did use symmetrically in both happy and unhappy sense in Song lyrics.The research can be regarded as a try conducted in different language and different culture except English. It is also an attempt to observe the Chinese traditional culture and spirit from the modern metaphorical point of view in the West. The value of Song lyrics is not only aesthetic, but also historical. They reflect the culture and the line of cognition of the specific period truthfully. Therefore, we believe that the present study is useful for the better understanding of Song lyrics and can do some help to the learning of them.