A Comparative Study Of The Attitudinal Meaning Of Metaphorical Rhetoric In Tang Xianzu’s And Shakespeare’s Plays ——A Case Study Of Heroines’ Discourse

In both Chinese and English,figures of comparison are rhetorical devices that are used frequently and extensively to make language vivid and powerful,and thus better able to impress and persuade readers or listeners.As representative dramatists in China and the West,Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare used a lot of figures of comparison to portray their heroines’ characters.Therefore,it is of great importance to study dramatic language,characters and themes by exploring the attitudinal meaning of metaphorical rhetoric in the discourse of the heroines in Tang Xianzu’s and Shakespeare’s plays.This thesis takes the discourse of the heroines in Tang Xianzu’s plays The Peony Pavilion and The Purple Hairpin and Shakespeare’s plays Macbeth and The Merchant of Venice as the research object and uses the knowledge of the attitude system of the appraisal theory to discuss the following questions:（1）What is the attitudinal meaning of figures of comparison in the discourse of the heroines in Tang’s and Shakespeare’s plays? What are the characteristics of their distribution?（2）What are the similarities and differences of the attitudinal meaning that is embodied in figures of comparison in the discourse of the heroines in Tang’s and Shakespeare’s plays?（3）What are the functions of the attitudinal meaning of figures of comparison in the discourse of the heroines in Tang’s and Shakespeare’s plays?The findings are as follows:（1）Figures of comparison embody the attitudinal meaning in all the four plays,including affect,judgement and appreciation meaning,and the number of figures of comparison that embody the attitudinal meaning in the discourse of the heroines in Tang Xianzu’s play is more than that in Shakespeare’s plays.In the discourse of the heroines in Shakespeare’s plays Macbeth and The Merchant of Venice,the metaphor embodies the attitudinal meaning most frequently;while in Tang Xianzu’s plays The Peony Pavilion and The Purple Hairpin,the organic metaphor that embodies the attitudinal meaning appears most frequently.（2）The similarity between the attitudinal meaning of figures of comparison of the heroines’ discourse in Tang’s and Shakespeare’s plays is that both the simile and metaphor（which includes the organic metaphor）embody the attitudinal meaning.The difference is that: among the attitudinal meaning of figures of comparison in the heroines’ discourse in Tang Xianzu’s plays,the affect meaning appears most frequently,then followed by the appreciation meaning,and last is the judgement meaning;while in Shakespeare’s plays,the judgement meaning appears most frequently,then followed by the affect meaning,and last is the appreciation meaning.From affect to judgment and then to appreciation,it is a process in which the degree of subjectivization and personalization of language is decreasing,while the degree of objectification is increasing.（3）The different attitudinal meanings embodied by figures of comparison of the heroines’ discourse in Tang’s and Shakespeare’s plays have different functions: the affect meaning reveals the theme of ‘love’ and portrays the inner image of the heroines;the judgement meaning reveals the theme of ‘kinship’ and portrays the inner image of characters in plays,and the appreciation meaning can portray the external image of characters in both Tang’s and Shakespeare’s plays.This thesis uses the appraisal theory to study the attitudinal meaning of dramatic rhetoric,hoping to probe into the relationship between Tang Xianzu’s and Shakespeare’s dramatic language rhetoric and character portrayal and dramatic themes,thereby enriching our understanding of the dramatic language of these two dramatic masters.