A Cognitive Approach To War Metaphors In Desperate Housewives

In1980, Lakoff and Johnson published Metaphors We Live By, in which they hold thatmetaphor is not just a decoration of language but also a matter of thinking and cognition andpropose the Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Since then, metaphor study has not only caughtlinguists’ growing attention but also draws many scholars’ interest from different fields,suchas philosophy, psychology and so on.American TV plays provide an important channel for foreign leaners to learn AmericanEnglish and understand American culture. The representative American TV series DesperateHousewives, with its humorous and metaphorical language, not only gets much popularityamong audience but also draws many scholars’ attention. Although many scholars have donemany researches on it, but there are few studies of its metaphor, especially war metaphorsfrom the view of cognition. Therefore, in the framework of cognitive linguistics, the authorplans to explore the conceptual metaphors of war in Desperate Housewives (Season1-Season3) guided by the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (war as the source domain).Through the research, the author aims to answer the following questions:(1) What arethe major conceptual metaphors of war in Desperate Housewives?(2) What are the embodiedand cultural causations of these war metaphors in Desperate Housewives?(3) Whatcultural-cognitive features are reflected by these war metaphors?(4) What cultural and socialfunctions are revealed by these war metaphors?The methodology of data collection this thesis adopts is Steen’s five-step procedure formetaphor identification. After data collection, the analysis of them produces the followingfindings:(1) There are mainly seven categories of conceptual metaphors of war according tothe theme of Desperate Housewives, namely, LIFE IS A WAR, LOVE IS A WAR,MARRIAGE IS A WAR, EDUCATING CHILDREN IS A WAR, WORKING IS A WAR,GETTING ALONG WITH MOTHES-IN-LAW IS A WAR, and GETTING ALONG WITHNEIGHBORS IS A WAR.(2) The experiential basis of these war metaphors lies in people’sbody, the outcome of interaction between people and the living environment and the American culture.(3) These conceptual metaphors of war reflect the specific features ofAmerican culture, such as religion, history and military.(4) The cultural functions of theseconceptual metaphors of war are reflecting American culture, transmitting American cultureand richening American culture. The social functions contain the euphemistic effect, thehumorous effect, the effect of expressing emotional attitudes and the educating andenlightenment effect.