A Cognitive Analysis Of Transferred Epithet From The Perspective Of Autonomy-Dependency Analytical Framework

Transferred epithet also called hypallage, as a rhetoric tool, is applied widely inliterary works. It is defined as “a figure of language, when two utterance are associatedtogether in the mind, the author transfers the cause which belongs to one of theimpressions to the other”(Chen Wangdao,1979), and gets a connection that is novel,concise, humous, attractive, and impressive. Transferred epithet has been researched byscholars from the different angles, traditionally studied from the rhetorical view whichfocuses on the meanings, reclassification, features and functions, they stress the aestheticfunctions. Fan (1996), Li (2000)&Zhong (2004), propose that the effects of transferredepithet are brevity and uniqueness which is a way to attract reader’s attention. With thedevelopment of linguistics and psychology, linguists began to study transferred epithetfrom pragmatic perspective,(Zhang,2006; Zhang,1995), psychological perspective.(Li,2000; Liu,1997), cognitive perspective (Luo,2005; Wang,2005), and syntacticperspective,(Zhong,2004; Liu,2003). However, the previous researches cannot present asatisfactory explanation for the cognitive mechanism of the meaning construction.Autonomy-dependency analytical frame provides a new approach to the study of thetransferred epithet, which is put forward by Xu Shenghuan (2007a,b,c,d) on the basis ofModel-based stereotypical reasoning principle, with similarity and proximity as itsdimension. There are implicit expression and explicit expression in human utterancewhich build an autonomy-dependency alignment. According to the analytical framework,an incomplete utterance is explicit expression, which is named as dependency, whiledependency is derived from autonomy which is the intentional content existing in thespeaker’s mind during the way. The autonomous element rules the dependent element by means of the relation of proximity/similarity. And the autonomous element has aninfluence on the dependent element by means of nipping-along. This derivation processcan be reversed so that the dependence can be retrieved to the autonomy, if people need.The framework stresses that only applicable to those alignments whose dependentelements are deductive. Transferred epithet belongs to this type of figure speech whosedependent elements are deductive. The present research attempts to use theautonomy-dependency analytical frame to find out that cognitive mechanism oftransferred epithet is a process of derivation from autonomous elements to dependentelements by means of proximity.Data analysis shows transferred epithet is a cognitive phenomenon, and is a way ofderivation from autonomy segment to dependency segment using proximity. Dependingon context, the speaker’s intentional content is called Autonomy1, which together withthe expression of transferred epithet called Dependency2constructs theautonomy-dependency analytical framework; the speaker’s intentional content is derivedas Dependency1by means of similarity/proximity depending on his intentional attitudewhich is attractive, concise and novel; if Dependency1cannot show the speaker’sintentional attitude in complete and clear way, Dependency1would be derived asAutonomy2, later, the speaker begins the new round of the way ofbuilding; the derivationfrom the Autonomy1to the Dependency2is the perceptual comprehension and constancy,which avoids the concerns of unconventional mixing that the speaker can not beunderstood by receiver. The framework is feasible and applicable, and transferred epithet.By analyzing of the paper, on the one hand, it can be useful to make transferred epithetnovel, humorous and attractive. On the other hand, the present analysis can be helpful forpeople to perceive transferred epithet to a certain degree.