A Study On The Conceptual Metaphor In The Educational Discourses Of TED Speech

As a common linguistic phenomenon,metaphor has always attracted the attention of linguists.The study on metaphor can be traced back to Aristotle,who believed that metaphor serves as a rhetorical method.In 1980,Lakoff and Johnson put forward the Conceptual Metaphor Theory in their masterpiece Metaphors We Live By,which shifted the study on metaphor from rhetoric to cognitive perspective.They believe that metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon,but also a cognitive and thinking mode.Since then,the study on metaphor has entered a new stage.TED(Technology,Entertainment and Design)is a non-profit organization in the United States.It advocates innovative and critical thinking,adheres to "disseminate valuable ideas",and its theme has been gradually expanded to psychology,business,education,medicine,economy and other fields.In the spotlight,celebrities from all walks of life share their unique insights and ideas in 18 minutes.Previous studies on conceptual metaphor have mainly focused on political and economic discourse,while less on educational speech discourse.Therefore,under the guidance of Conceptual Metaphor Theory,this thesis makes an analysis of conceptual metaphors in educational discourse of TED speech,and tries to answer the following questions:(1)In the educational discourse of TED speech,what are the types of metaphorical expressions and how about their frequency of usage respectively?(2)What are the functions of metaphorical expressions used in the educational discourse of TED speech?In order to answer the above questions,the author selected 20 educational speeches on the official TED website as the research object,spanning from June 2016 to June 2019.In the process of research,qualitative and quantitative methods are used to analyze the data in order to achieve the accuracy of the research.Based on Pragglejaz Group's metaphor identification procedures,the author identifies,classifies,counts and analyzes the metaphorical expressions in educational discourse,and draws the following conclusions: Firstly,conceptual metaphor does exist widely in educational discourse of TED speech.This study summarizes and analyzes 10 kinds of conceptual metaphors,namely,journey metaphor,war metaphor,commerce metaphor,building metaphor,plant metaphor,up metaphor,down metaphor,human metaphor,container metaphor,entity or substance metaphor.Among them,container metaphor is the most frequently used.Secondly,through the analysis of conceptual metaphors in educational speeches,the author finds that metaphorical expressions mainly embody three functions,that is,cognitive function,motivational function and the function of constructing textual coherence.As the basic function of conceptual metaphor,cognitive function enables people to understand abstract concepts,thus expanding their physical experience to new fields.The motivational function is mainly reflected in the structural metaphor,which arouses audience's sense of responsibility,confidence and enormous passion in education.In addition,conceptual metaphor plays an important role in textual coherence since every metaphorical expression can promote the information flow.