Font Size: a A A

Source-language Conceptual Influence In Metaphorization

Posted on:2009-09-03Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:J JiangFull Text:PDF
GTID:1115360272459740Subject:Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
The thesis attempts to contribute to the cognitive theory of metaphor from the perspective of English and Chinese and to explore source-language conceptual influence on the acquisition of English metaphorical senses by Chinese EFL learners.The cognitive approach to metaphor is mainly inspired by the assumption that "conceptualization" exists between the objective world and language.In this thesis,we propose the notion of metaphorization to refer to a multi-layered dynamic conceptual mechanism which profiles our experience with the world and underlies the metaphorical language.Metaphorization admittedly features universality and relativity across different cultures.Generally speaking,the differences in metaphorization surface as the differences in metaphorical languages.When applying cross-linguistic congruence in metaphorization to second language acquisition,we may find that the influence exerted by the L1 metaphorization on L2 metaphorical uses can be ascribed to a deeper conceptual level.Thus we establish the framework of SL Conceptual Influence(SCI) to explicate language transfer from the cognitive perspective.The current study mainly addresses the issue of SCI in learning metaphorical senses of English lexicons by Chinese EFL learners.Based on Dirven & Verspoor's suggestion of three processes in conceptualization (1998),we generalize three main conceptual mechanisms involved in metaphorization, i.e.,schematization,categorization and interaction.Accordingly,a cognitive model underlying the formation,of metaphorical senses is formulated.The model systematically structures image schemata and metaphorical mappings,each with different degrees of prototypicality,in a hierarchical network.Thus the conceptual variables of schema,mapping,and prototypicality are closely observed in the lexicosemantic analysis of three specific concepts in the study.For the purpose of disclosing SCI in metaphorization at the lexicosemantic level,a contrastive analysis of the metaphorization in English and in Chinese is of necessity. The study,adopting Lakoff's classification of conceptual metaphors into three basic categories,focuses on the metaphorization via structural,orientational and ontological metaphors.A macro-perspective contrastive analysis is firstly employed to provide an overview of the correspondence between English metaphorization and Chinese metaphorization.All of the data are taken from Berkeley Metaphor Database.It turns out that structural metaphorization presents more apparent E-C variance than orientational and ontological metaphorizations.In the data analysis,the three concepts RED,UP and OUT are found to be most representative in the three metaphor categories. Therefore,in order to closely observe the specific cases of the English and Chinese metaphorization,a dictionary-based and corpus-based micro-perspective contrastive analysis proceeds to investigate the concepts RED,UP and OUT.The dictionaries used are Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary(1996) and Chinese Great Dictionary(2006),and the corpora are Wordbank and part of The Contemporary Chinese Corpus.On the linguistic level,the concept RED is more used metaphorically in Chinese than in English while UP and OUT are more metaphorical in English rather than in Chinese.A deeper insight into the underlying variables of schemata and mappings and their prototypicality of the three concepts unveils that the different patterns of linguistic uses could be attributed to the conceptual causes behind.On the basis of the conceptual differences found between English and Chinese,a corpus-based contrastive interlanguage analysis and an error analysis are manipulated to testify SCI of Chinese metaphorization on Chinese EFL learners' metaphorical productions of the three concepts RED,UP and OUT.The English native-student corpus is part of the LOCNESS corpus with the English essays written by American students.The Chinese EFL-learner corpus is self-built,comprising the English writings by 269 Fudan University students at two proficiency levels.The metaphorical uses by Chinese learners,as compared to those by native students,demonstrate three types of linguistic manifestation of SCI,namely,underproduction,overproduction and error. These manifestations have the conceptual origin,i.e.,E-C disparity in metaphorization represented by schema,mapping and prototypicality.SCI can be validated as learners tend to employ more metaphorical uses in the category of E-C shared schemata and mappings.Furthermore,the pattern of learners' metaphorical uses is more conformable to Chinese prototypicality ranking.Among the erroneous metaphorical productions,SCI can also be detected in that generally more than half of errors are L1-induced and there's a statistical significant correlation between the counts of these errors and the variable Chinese prototypicality.Among the three metaphor categories represented by the three concepts,the structural metaphorization displays more obvious SCI.In view of whether SCI changes with English proficiency,we find SCI decreases with the increase of proficiency level,but the difference of SCI between the two groups does not reach a statistical significance.On account of this,the models of learners' metaphorization at a lower proficiency level and at a higher proficiency level are hypothesized.Theoretically,our research on SCI in metaphorization is an attempt to bridge the gap between the theoretical study of conceptual metaphors in cognitive linguistics on one hand and the practical applications of such theories in applied linguistics on the other.It also has a pedagogical implication that we need to attach the importance to metaphorical competence and conceptual fluency as well as linguistic competence and verbal fluency of EFL learners.In a more moderate sense,SCI awareness needs to be promoted in second language acquisition.
Keywords/Search Tags:SL conceptual influence, metaphorization, image schema, metaphorical mapping, prototypicality
PDF Full Text Request
Related items