A Study Of The Conceptual Metaphors In Emily Dickinson’s Nature-themed Poems

With the attention of cognitive linguistics focused on metaphor in the 1980 s,research on metaphor gradually shifts from rhetoric to conceptual cognition.Relevant research mainly covers the discussions on the embodiment basis,activation modes,mapping mechanism,production and perception of metaphor at the conceptual level.Recently,interface studies between pragmatics and conceptual metaphor have begun to further explore the functions of metaphor.Besides,contemporary rhetoric has also begun to pay attention to the rhetorical functions of metaphor except for the functions of polishing language.At present,researchers pay more attention to the functions of metaphor in daily discourses and speeches.However,there is a lack of systematic inquiry into the functions and the realization of the functions of metaphors in poetry.This thesis orients from Conceptual Metaphor Theory but combines with the latest development of rhetoric so as to analyze the conceptual metaphors and metaphorical instances in Emily Dickinson’s nature-themed poems.Two research questions are to be answered:(1)What are the metaphors used in Emily Dickinson’s nature-themed poems?What are the characteristics of those metaphors?(2)What are the functions of metaphors in Emily Dickinson’s nature-themedpoems?Combining the perspectives of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and rhetoric,this thesis pays equal attention to the ideational function of conceptual metaphors and their instances at conceptual level as well as the rhetorical function at lexicogrammatical level so as to carry out a more comprehensive interpretation of the function of metaphor in poetic text.Starting from Conceptual Metaphor Theory,this thesis shall find the distribution of the source and target domain of metaphors so as to lead to the metaphorical network and metaphorical themes of Dickinson’s naturethemed poems,which will unveil the realization of ideational functions.Derived from rhetoric,this thesis will focus not only on the rhetorical functions of metaphor on lexico-grammatical level but a communicative intention behind the poet’s personal writing.Combined with introspection and peer review,this thesis selects the basic data from The Pomes of Emily Dickinson(2003),which has four clear-divided themes including “life”,“nature”,“love” and “time and eternal life”.A clear topic division facilitates the selection of the data for this study.The research findings of this thesis are as follows.Firstly,the distribution of metaphors in Dickinson’s nature-themed poems is systematic,coherent and innovative.Based on observation,perception,and experience of nature,Dickinson’s use of metaphors mainly cover plant and animal metaphors,natural phenomenon metaphors,time metaphors,religious metaphors,and ontological nature metaphors,which extend to thoughts on themes of the relationship between time and existence,religion and freedom,nature and all things in nature.The metaphorical network and metaphorical scenes in Dickinson’s metaphor instances have shown an internal systematicity and external coherence.The internal system inherits the productivity of conceptual metaphors.A large number of metaphor instances complete the conceptual mapping that highlights different aspects of the same upper conceptual metaphor framework.External coherence refers to the intertextuality of conceptual metaphors.In other words,the mapping of metaphor instances in different metaphoric scenes together point to the same metaphorical theme.Secondly,conceptual metaphors and their metaphor instances have ideational and rhetorical functions.Ideational function means that metaphor can construct experience and logic on semantic level.Specifically,the realization of the conceptual function of metaphor in poetry is achieved by filling in the semantic gap and challenging the traditional category to construct a new view of the world.Dickinson’s poetic language is known for its mystery,obscurity and ambiguity.However,by analyzing the systematic and coherent metaphorical mapping system of her metaphor instances,it is found that the seemingly incomplete sentences and irrelevant images function to activate the cognitive frames and encyclopedic knowledge of readers through metaphorical mappings,which presents how she constructs her world experience and logical thinking.The rhetorical function refers to the linguistic rhetorical function that enhances the effect of language expression and the social rhetorical function that realizes identity construction.In poetry,the realization of the rhetorical function is to create a sense of strangeness by using unfamiliar images,short and broken sentences,deviated collocations and revisited traditional metaphors.Because of the innovativeness and uniqueness of her metaphors,Dickinson achieves a deep dialogue with readers which may arouse their philosophical thinking on the theme of religion,nature and all things,existence and time,and immortality.At the same time,it also conveys the poet’s worldview and therefore constructs the poet’s identity in the wave of the times.Based on the development of rhetoric and Conceptual Metaphor Theory,this thesis studies the metaphors in poetry,regarding metaphor as a unity of form and meaning to explore the rhetorical function and ideational function of metaphor,which expands the understanding of metaphor and its function.At the same time,this thesis provides enlightenments to the interdisciplinary study of linguistics and literature.