A Cognitive Study Of Synaesthesia

This thesis attempts to probe into the phenomenon of synaesthesia from theperspective of cognitive linguistics. Traditionally rhetoricians regard synaesthesia as afigure of speech employed for ornamental purposes or rhetorical effects, whilecognitive linguists maintain that synaesthetic expressions are in nature metaphorical.However, in recent years some scholars begin to argue against the metaphorical natureof synaesthetic expressions, and a few even propose that the alternative meanings ofsynaesthetic adjectives are literal rather than metaphorical. Based on someneurophysiological findings, this thesis will conduct a cognitive study of synaesthesiaby analysing its metaphorical nature and metonymic motivation, hoping to revealhuman cognitive process to some degree.This thesis first reviews previous significant researches on synaesthesia, withspecial attention paid to neurophysiological and psychological findings, then exploresthe innate property and experiential bases of synaesthetic metaphors, and makes animportant distinction between conventional and non-conventional synaestheticexpressions. This thesis also examines the explanatory powers of ConceptualMetaphor Theory and Conceptual Integration Theory to interpret synaestheticexpressions and finds that the former can reveal the metaphorical nature ofsynaesthetic expressions, while the latter can explain the dynamic meaningconstruction process of synaesthetic metaphors. It is also stated that the alternativemeanings of synaesthetic adjectives are actually metaphorical rather than literal.Finally, this thesis discusses the relationship between metaphor and metonymy,explores the metonymic motivation of synaesthetic metaphors and points out that theyare metonymy-based metaphors.