A Study Of Metaphors In Chinese Economic Discourse (1949～2006)

The studies of metaphors in Chinese Economic discourses are relatively disperse and incomplete, and the systematicity of conceptual metaphors in the economic field have been long neglected by domestic scholars. On the basis of the contemporary theory of metaphor mainly expounded by Lakoff and Johnson, this dissertation is intended for filling the gap by providing a comparatively thorough and systematic analysis of the most common metaphors used in Chinese economic discourses of two different periods. Metaphor, as a language phenomenon, has been an issue of great concern since the ancient Greek time. Traditional rhetoricians viewed metaphor as rhetorical in nature and independent of human cognition. Therefore, the study of metaphor was limited to the realm of literary works. However, the contemporary theory of metaphor argues that metaphor is a product of bodily experience and a main mechanism for human beings to perform abstract reasoning and comprehend abstract concepts. It is based on the contemporary cognitive view of metaphor that this dissertation studies metaphors in Chinese economic discourses.The first-hand data of this study are randomly selected from 400 economic texts of three prestigious official and local newspapers and some economic magazines in China. In the study, a large number of metaphorical expressions are collected and classified in accordance with their source domains. By a qualitative method of linguistic analysis and a method of diachronic contrast, this thesis achieves two purposes: (1) identifying several conceptual metaphors that systematically occur in Chinese economic discourses by the descriptive analysis of numerous instantiations in the two different periods (1949~1978 and 1979~2006); (2) examining the similarities and differences in the source domains between the data in the two periods from a diachronic perspective, thereby concluding with a coherent conceptual framework.The study shows that metaphor in economic texts is not merely used for explanatory purposes; instead, it is one of the main mechanisms used to reason about those abstract economic phenomena. The study indicates that metaphors in economic discourses are grounded in our bodily experience, and verifies the pervasiveness of metaphor in our language and life and the systematicity of metaphor. The contrastive study also reveals the cognitive functions and the cultural coherence of metaphor with both striking similarities and differences between the metaphors used in the two different periods. All these findings contribute to a better understanding of pervasiveness and the role of metaphor in economic discourses and reinforce some views claimed by the contemporary theory of metaphor.The dominant systems of conceptual metaphors established by the study may offer a new perspective in the study of Chinese economic discourse, and may also find their applications in other relevant fields.