Grammatical Metaphor And Conceptual Metaphor

Both grammatical metaphor and conceptual metaphor have been studied abundantly in the literature. Few researchers, however, have brought them into comparison and contrast. As a result, they tend to be treated as two distinct kinds of metaphors, like a dog and a cat being treated as two different kinds of animals. Therefore, it is necessary to make a comparison between grammatical metaphor and conceptual metaphor to better understand the theories on metaphor, and this is what this thesis is doing.After a systematic account of both grammatical metaphor and conceptual metaphor, we found out that they are not two kinds of metaphors as is claimed by most researchers; rather, they are different perspectives on metaphor, with differences, similarities, and overlaps in their theories.Grammatical metaphor and conceptual metaphor are different in that they have different natures and different focuses of study; grammatical metaphor tends to be universal, while conceptual metaphors vary across cultures and through time; the former cares about the forms of the language, i. e. different ways in which meaning is expressed, while the later is part of our cognition, with its focus on the way of our reasoning and acting.Grammatical metaphor and conceptual metaphor share a number of common grounds: both take a constructivist view on metaphor, i. e. care about the effect of metaphor not only on language but also on our thought; both view metaphor as a semantic phenomenon, since metaphor in its essence focuses on the expressing of meaning; both believe that metaphor is a way to reshape human experience and create social realities; both insist that metaphor reveals the user's ideology, attitude, and perspective.Theories of grammatical metaphor and conceptual metaphor have many overlaps of different kinds, such as the ideas of nominalization and ontological metaphors, the conceptual metaphor system and the conversion from a mental process to a material process in the framework of grammatical metaphor. The existence of conceptual metaphor makes grammatical metaphor possible, since it is only because we think in metaphorical ways that we can use metaphorical forms to express meanings in our language. Due to this, grammatical metaphor and conceptual metaphor are mutually-complementary, i. e. they can be used to explain one another. In light of their mutual-complementariness, we venture to put forward the three metafunctions of conceptual metaphor, namely, ideational function, interpersonal function, and textual function, in line with Halliday's three metafunctions of language.Therefore, it is necessary and rewarding to combine grammatical metaphor and conceptual metaphor in the study to better understand them both and their interrelations. Our research serves only as a little window, through which one can peep into the immensity of the interrelations of grammatical metaphor and conceptual metaphor.