A Cognitive Study On Metaphors In Chinese Song Lyrics

Recent years have witnessed an ever-increasing interest in multi-disciplinary studies of metaphors. More and more people realize the significance of metaphor researches and the west has already run into a metaphormania. In China a growing number of scholars have been showing their interest in metaphors.This thesis first of all presents a general review of the traditional studies of metaphor, analyzing the theory of each school and indicating its weaknesses and limitations. Aristotelian approach, the traditional linguistic approach, the pragmatic approach, and the interactionist approach all failed to reveal the conceptual nature of metaphor. The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another (Lokoff & Johnson, 1980:5). Metaphor is a means of human beings' cognition, and it plays an indispensable role in human conceptualization.The cognitive approach claims that metaphor is a prevalent phenomenon in ordinary language, that metaphor arises from mapping among different cognitive domains, especially the mapping from the concrete (source) domains to the abstract (target) domains, and that metaphors are grounded in our bodily and physical experience. Cognitive approach to metaphor is grounded philosophically on experientialism, category and image schema, which are the basis of a cognitive linguistic study. A working mechanism of metaphor should include Lakoff and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and Fauconnier and Turner's Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT). The former holds that metaphor works by mapping from the source domain to the target domain;the latter, as a complement to the mapping theory, claims that metaphor arises from the simultaneous interaction among four mental spaces, with the result of blended space andemergent structure. This thesis will elaborate them by investigating metaphors in Chinese song lyrics.This thesis carries out a cognitive study on metaphors in Chinese song lyrics, using CMT and CBT to analyze metaphors in Chinese song lyrics and describing the working mechanism of metaphor with the aim of supporting and perfecting the contemporary cognitive theory of metaphor.Metaphor is an important means and basic element to create song lyrics. Song lyrics are the main text for the lyric writers. Lyric writers express and think of abstract emotions and ideas by means of metaphor, and they turn something abstract into something concrete so as to avoid boring song lyrics. It is the great deal of metaphors that make the song lyrics vivid and interesting. Song lyrics give the readers a new perspective and a deep, unforgettable impression.This thesis mainly studies the following issues:1. Metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon but also a cognitive means which results in so many metaphors in Chinese song lyrics. Metaphor is such a cognitive means that human beings conceptualize the world, because metaphorically thinking one term in another results in meanings. By investigating metaphors in Chinese song lyrics, we can understand the creation and generation of metaphors in Chinese song lyrics.2. The investigation of metaphors in Chinese song lyrics partly supports the cognitive metaphor theories and provides evidence to prove that metaphor research is a way to investigate human mind through language analysis. Metaphor research, from the aspect of linguistics, involves conceptual system, language system and their embodiment relation. By investigating metaphors in Chinese song lyrics, we can find much evidence for the cognitive metaphor theories. This throws light on investigation of human thinking underlying this metaphorical analysis in Chinese song lyrics.3. The investigation of the cognitive functions of metaphors in Chinese song lyrics shows that understanding metaphors in song lyrics is the key to understand the whole song lyrics. This thesis points out the process ofunderstanding metaphors actually is the cognitive process. Meanwhile, this thesis gives a new way to create and appreciate song lyrics and some suggestions for lyric writers and lyric readers.