A Contrastive Study Of Grammatical Metaphors In English And Chinese Poems

Metaphor is the living principle of poetry, in terms of traditional rhetoric, metaphor is one of the most frequently adopted devices in poetry. As we look the metaphor was treated as a rhetoric device, we call this kind of metaphor as Micro-metaphor, but as we look from a deeper perspective, the metaphor also reflects the traditional Old Chinese cultural ideologies--- Nature and Man as a whole. The discussions of the thesis will be centered on three basic research questions: 1. a contrastive one with an aim at demonstrating the universality of grammatical metaphor and exploring the similarities and differences of their functions in English and Chinese poetry discourse. 2. Is the GM framework feasible and workable in analyzing metaphors of poetry discourse? 3. The differences of grammatical metaphor functions between English and Chinese poetry discourse whether reflects the underlying ideological cultural differences? This thesis consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 presents the background knowledge of the present study, the objectives to achieve, the research methodology adopted, the data collection and research questions. Chapter 2 traces the history of GM theory, especially illustrating the three metafunctions of GM: Ideational GM, Interpersonal GM and Textual GM, and propose a functional framework of poetry analysis. Chapter 3 applies the Ideational GM theory to explore the similarities and differences of their functions in English and Chinese poetry. Chapter 4 applies the Interpersonal GM theory to carry on a qualitative study centering upon samples from Old Chinese poetry and English poetry, exploring the similarities and differences of their functions in English and Chinese poetry. Chapter 5 explore the textual GM theory to their different and same functions in the Old Chinese poetry and English poetry. Chapter 6 draws a conclusion, figures out significance of the research .The significance of this research is presented in two spheres. One is the extension of research scope of poetry analysis. Previously GM theory exerts much attention to the contrastive analysis between the English translations of the Old Chinese poetry. The other is the construing of the functional framework of poetry analysis.