On The Function Of Conceptual Metaphor In Constructing Text Coherence

Studies of metaphor have always been attracting attentions from philosophers, psychologists and linguists since Aristotle's time. Scholars have, in different periods of history, made their contributions to the understanding and applying of metaphor. From language ornamental device to semantic change, from the meaning none natural to cognitive mechanism, people have gradually come to the essential characters of metaphor beneath the surface of language expressions. During this process, researching approaches and fruits from other academic fields like philosophy, semantics, pragmatics, psychology and cognitive science have been adopted into the study of metaphor, which helps people reaching closer and closer to the essence of metaphor that is covered by linguistic expressions.Studies have showed us the inner mechanism and the function of metaphor. However, scholars still have different opinions on such questions as: Is there a precise definition of metaphor? What kind of role does metaphor play in the studies of other subject? However, these different opinions did not become the obstacles in the studying of metaphor. On the contrary, it is the competition and complementation between these different opinions that spurs the study of metaphor to go further.After a development of more than twenty years, the most efficient and fruitful approach to metaphor study now would have to be the cognitive approach. According to cognitive linguistics, metaphor is a universal thinking pattern based on the physical experiences, through which people experience, perceive, understand and express the physical and the mental world. In details, metaphor is a kind of mapping taking place between different conceptual domains: from concrete to abstract, familiar to strange, simple to complex, and measurable to immeasurable, and usually not vice versa. Generally speaking, metaphor is a powerful tool in understanding, communicating and experiencing.After adopting the mental spaces theory of psychology, cognitive linguistics...