| The studies of metaphor have experienced different stages of development. Traditional linguistics regards the metaphor as a kind of rhetoric means, a kind of linguistic phenomenon and a kind of decoration to the language. However, the emergence of cognitive linguistics has subverted the traditional views of language. Metaphors We Live By, published by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in 1980, marks the birth of cognitive linguistics. They interpret metaphor from a new perspective. Metaphor is ubiquitous, which is a cognitive tool we perceive the world and is our way of thinking. Conceptual metaphor, put forward George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, is divided into structural metaphor, orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor. In addition, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson also explore the working mechanism of these three kinds of conceptual metaphors, which provides the powerful theoretical foundation for perceiving the world. Based on the three kinds of classifications of metaphor, the thesis, from the perspective of cognition, analyses how these conceptual metaphors are represented in the advertisement and discusses their cognitive functions in the advertisement.With the rapid development of economy, advertisement is playing a growing role in promoting products, leading the consumption and passing message, which have drew the attention of the professionals as well as scholars in other areas. They study the advertisements from different angles, such as semiotics and semantics, achieving the remarkable results. Based on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, combined with advertising examples, the thesis makes the tentative analysis of the conceptual metaphors, as well as their cognitive function in advertising. We can get a better understanding of the cognitive processes and operating mechanism of the conceptual metaphor.This thesis contains three parts: introduction, body and conclusion. The main contents of the thesis are as the following:The first part is introduction, which mainly summarizes the developmental history of metaphor studies. It also illustrates the emergence and development of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Then the thesis puts forward the significance of the research topic.The second part is the main body, which consists of four chapters:Chapter One explores the historical studies of metaphor, respectively from the rhetoric angle, semantic angle and the multidisciplinary points of view. Then, it analyzes the essence, the inner structure and the characteristics of conceptual metaphors. The thesis further analyzes the classifications of conceptual metaphor and their cognitive function.Chapter Two, Three and Four are the core of this thesis. Based on Lakoff’s conceptual metaphors of three kinds of classification, the thesis makes the detailed analysis of metaphor in advertising by employing specific examples. Through the analyses, the thesis further explores the cognitive functions of conceptual metaphors in advertisement. Specifically speaking:Chapter Two mainly discusses the structural metaphor in advertisements from the perspective of cognition and also analyzes its cognitive function in advertisements. The author makes use of Conceptual Metaphor Theory to analyze the classical structural metaphors and their cognitive function in the advertisement; through the analysis of advertisement instances, it mainly discusses the highlighting role of structural metaphor in advertisements; then it introduces creative and imaginative metaphors of structural metaphors in the advertisement, including the working mechanism of their cognitive functions in advertisements.Chapter Three mainly discusses the orientational metaphors from the cognitive angle and their cognitive functions in advertising. Four classical orientational metaphors and their respective cognitive functions in the advertisement are analyzed systematically. On the basis of the significant schema in orientational metaphors, the schemata and their cognitive functions in advertisements are well analyzed.Chapter Four mainly does the research of ontological metaphors and their cognitive functions in the advertisement. It analyzes four types of ontological metaphor: entity and substance metaphors and their cognitive functions in the advertisement; container metaphors and personification metaphors and their cognitive function in advertisements. In addition, it analyzes the structural metaphors in ontological metaphors and their cognitive functions in advertisements.The third part is the conclusion, which introduces the main findings of the thesis and its theoretical significance and practical significance. Through the above analyses of the three types of conceptual metaphors in advertisement, the thesis points out the advantages and disadvantages of this thesis, and lays the groundwork for the further study of metaphor. In this thesis, through the analysis of conceptual metaphors in advertising, it explores the cognitive mechanism of metaphor and cognitive process. We can get a better understanding of the conceptual metaphor’s connotation from the perspective of cognition, which has the practical meaning for the future study of metaphor. |
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