A Study Of Metaphorical English Economics Terms

Metaphor used to be regarded as a rhetorical device. Since the 1970s, people havelooked at it in an unconventional way and researched into metaphors in various fields.Metaphor is taken to be a thinking tool for perception and thinking. This thesis intends tostudy metaphorical economics terms with a view to revealing the way economistsconceptualize economic events.Lakoff and Johnson put forward the new theory of Metaphorical Concept System in theirseminal work on metaphor. They analyze metaphor from the cognitive perspective. Metaphoris believed to be related to human thoughts and behaviors rather than a mere rhetorical device.Metaphor is mapping across domains. One domain is used to conceptualize the other. Thedomain that is conceptualized is the target domain, and the domain used to conceptualize theother one is the source domain. Perceiving metaphor is, in fact, to map the experience of thesource domain onto that of the target domain. This theory lays a foundation for later researchinto metaphor.Many scholars find that metaphor is pervasive in the economic field. Understanding themetaphor in economy is conducive to improving our capability of thinking and perceivingabstract economic events better.This thesis studies metaphorical economics terms. They are picked out, groupedaccording to the characteristics of their source domains, and analysed to find out why andhow economists describe economic phenomena and economic activities in terms ofphenomena and activities in other domains. The study will help us better comprehendeconomics terms and cultivate sensitivity to metaphor.