Poetic Metaphor Analysis From The Perspective Of Conceptual Blending Theory

This thesis is theoretically based on Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT), which was put forward by Fauconnier in the1980s. The task of the research is to prove the explanatory power of CBT in poetic metaphors, compared with Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). The research shows the strong power in explanation and persuasion of CBT as a common cognitive mechanism, verifies the theoretical and practical value of CBT in the analysis of poetry discourse, and so provides a novel and indispensable cognitive tool for discourse analysis and meaning construction. On the basis of genuine corpus, the research provides a new cognitive perspective for the traditional poetic metaphor analysis. Significantly, the research is not only to find a theoretical framework and an approach for the analysis of poetic metaphors, but also to inspire people to learn from the latest foreign linguistic theory, to introduce some profound thought and insight for the study of Chinese linguistic phenomena, and to promote both Chinese and western linguistics to cooperate and develop further.The thesis emphasizes that conceptual blending is a kind of common cognitive way and thinking mode for human beings. A lot of poetic metaphor analyses have been made in the thesis in order to prove the powerful explanation of CBT in poetic metaphors, compared with that of CMT. The results show that the methods mixed by example analysis and comparison can contribute to achieving the unity of theory and practice, successfully solving the questions in the research task.The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter is introduction, illustrating the background, the research objective and significance, the research methodology and data collection, as well as the structure and organization of the thesis. The second chapter concerns literature review, which expounds the research achievements of the specialists and scholars at home and abroad and forms the starting point and source of the research. The third chapter is a theoretical framework, which illustrates in detail such main contents as mental space, four-space model (network), four mappings, five principles of CBT, in order to lay a solid theoretical foundation for this thesis. The fourth chapter is a core part, aiming to prove the universal applicability and strong explanatory power of CBT in practice. In this chapter, it adopts the methods of example analysis and comparison to show the relationship between metaphor and poetry, the importance of image and metaphor in poetry discourse, the types of poetic metaphors, the cognitive process of CBT and the generation of emergent meaning. Then, it selects a famous American poet Emily Dickinson for a case study to explore the poet’s cognitive thinking mode and the meaning behind poetic metaphors. The fifth chapter is the final part of the whole thesis which summarizes briefly the findings, the theoretical and practical value, as well as the deficiencies of this research. It also points out the new possibilities and suggestions of the future study.During the process of the research, some findings have been explored as follows. First, CBT can be adapted well in the analysis of poetry discourse with different culture background. Second, four mappings in the four-space model or network of CBT play an important role in the full interpretation of poetic metaphor meanings, which may occur alternatively or simultaneously. Third, the emergent structure is the very core for conceptual blending which is quite different from the entrenched structure in CMT, so the former precedes the latter in the interpretation and function on poetic metaphors. Fourth, Emily Dickinson’s poetry is an idealized sample for the practice of CBT, which has an effect on the study of Chinese poetic metaphors to some extent.