Study On Metaphors In BBS Cyber Language: A Cognitive Perspective

The study on metaphor got a tremendous development from"transference"theory of Aristotle 2000 years ago to Richards's"Interaction Theory". With the development of contemporary cognitive science, more and more scholars devote to study metaphor from cognitive aspect. Lakoff & Johnson proposed conceptual metaphor theory on the basis of empiricism and cognitive linguistics. Fauconnier & Turner proposed a more elaborated theory, conceptual blending theory (CBT). To CBT, four mental spaces are constructed immediately and inferences can be extracted by cutting, mapping and integrating all the known information through network of the four spaces. In this thesis, cognitive analysis on metaphor is elaborately made. Through the study on metaphor in cyber language, the reader will understand metaphor deeply, and make a clear recognition of metaphor as one of the reasons for language change and development; moreover metaphor is also the stimulus for development of human mind. Otherwise, metaphor also provides a reasonable basis for teaching and technology.