On The Identification Of Metaphor

The subject of metaphor has long been the focus of much thought. Traditionally, metaphor was viewed as a kind of decoration addition to ordinary plain language, a rhetorical device to be used at certain times to gain certain effects. But in the past few decades, the study of its structure, mechanism, function, effect, and cognitive force has grown rapidly in a broad range: linguistics, anthropology, philosophy, psychology, education, etc. Metaphor is not merely viewed as a matter of language, but a mode of thought and an effective cognitive tool for human to understand things from a new perspective.The interpretation of metaphor has long been the center of many linguistic theories of metaphor, for the working principles and the cognitive function of metaphor are embodied in the process of interpreting metaphor. The study of the interpretation of metaphor involves two stages: the identification of metaphor and the inference of the metaphorical meaning. Many linguists focus their study on the inference of the metaphorical meaning, whereas the identification of metaphor has received little attention. This thesis is an endeavor to apply Grice's theory of implicature and Kittay's theory of first-order meaning to the study of the identification of metaphor. The author of this thesis will give a detailed analysis of some particular examples of metaphor to attempt to provide a set of necessary conditions in which a hearer or reader could interpret an utterance metaphorically. Theoretically, this study could offer some criteria for the data collection in the research of metaphor. The practical purpose is to help a language user to distinguish metaphorical meaning from literal meaning, so as to avoid miscommunication arising from the false interpretation of an utterance.This thesis consists of six chapters:Chapter one is the introduction of the research background of the present study, the purpose of this study and an overall organization of the thesis.Chapter two offers a detailed review of the literature on metaphor. In this chapter, the comparison theory, the interaction theory, the perspectival theory and the cognitive theory of metaphor are introduced.Chapter three, chapter four and chapter five are the main parts of this thesis. Chapter three demonstrates how Grice's theory of implicature is applied to the study of the identification of metaphor. When we assume that an utterer adheres to the Co-operative Principle (CP), but a maxim, especially the maxim of quality is flouted, then the hearer or reader could expect an implicature which is different from the literal meaning of the utterance, it could be a metaphorical meaning.Chapter four is designed to analyze the identification of metaphor within the framework of Kittay's theory of first-order meaning so as to provide more conditions in which an utterance could be interpreted metaphorically. There is a detailed study of the first-order interpretation and its governing rules (the projection rules, the semantic combination rules) in this chapter. Incongruity is the most distinguishable semantic feature of a metaphor. The incongruity in a metaphor is related to the violation of the rules governing the first-order meaning of an utterance. Therefore, a hearer or reader could identify a metaphor by locating an incongruity in the process of the first-order interpretation.Chapter five states the importance of context in the identification of metaphor. Though there are incongruities in some utterances, they could still be interpreted literally in the proper context. Thus the identification of metaphor involves condition on the context, that is, the context does not require us to change our shared beliefs of the world to interpret an odd utterance literally.Chapter six is a conclusion chapter where the major findings, the significance of the present study, and the recommendation of further studies are presented. If we are to characterize an utterance as a proper candidate for a metaphorical interpretation, the following conditions must b...