An Analysis Of Metaphors Under The Framework Of Cognitive Linguistics

The Big Bang Theory is regarded as an important American sitcom that has won the Emmy nominations for several times. Language used in the sitcom is greatly humorous, and a large number of metaphors are also employed in the sitcom. Many researchers have been engaging in the linguistic data in The Big Bang Theory from the perspective of the subtitle translation, code switching, conversational implication, conversation humor and euphemism, but the conceptual metaphors in terms of the linguistic data chosen from The Big Bang Theory is seldom studied in current metaphorical study.The study of the traditional metaphors can be dated back to the Aristotle times. As a traditional figure of speech, the Comparison Theory, Substitution Theory and Interaction Theory are well known as the original theories for the study of rhetorical metaphor. In recent years, with the development of Cognitive Linguistics, the study of the metaphors from the cognitive perspective has been paid more attention by researchers. In the 1980s, Layoff and Johnson put forward the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) in Metaphors We Live By, which leads to the broad study of the cognitive metaphors. Lakoff believes that metaphors are ubiquitous which is not only a figure of speech for the linguistic expression, but more basically a form of thought in terms of the cognitive functions. Based on the CMT, Fauconnier and Turner put forward the Blending Theory (BT). Since the 1980s, most of the studies on metaphors have been concentrating on the theoretical study. And the linguistic data used in the studies of metaphors are mainly extracted form Metaphors We Live By. In addition, researchers seldom draw attention on the the study of the metaphorical concepts applied in real life or literary works.Owing to the current situation of the theoretical and linguistic data study, the author selects a total of 123 samples from The Big Bang Theory of Season 3 to Season 5. The working mechanism of the CMT and BT are used to analyze the samples qualitatively and quantitatively. As the metaphorical samples are classified and analyzed in detail, three conclusions are reached. Firstly,123 samples chosen from The Big Bang Theory clearly confirm the viewpoint raised by Lakoff and Johnson, "Metaphor is ubiquitous in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action". Secondly, the analysis of the concrete linguistic data proves that except the mapping from concrete concepts to abstract concepts, there also exist other cross-mappings among conceptual metaphors:from the concrete source domain to the concrete target domain, from the abstract source domain to the abstract target domain and from the abstract source domain to the concrete target domain. Thirdly, the study of the cognitive metaphors makes great contributions on the vocabulary teaching especially the creative words.The significance of this thesis contributes to two aspects. Firstly, researchers can deeply comprehend the cognitive mechanism of the CMT and BT, and more abundant linguistic data are provided for later study. Moreover, people can better understand the metaphors used in real life or literary works. Secondly, through the analysis of the linguistic data in real life, people could form a new habit of cognition that makes them study the conceptual metaphors from the perspective of cognition.