On The Dynamic Effects Of Contexts On Metaphor Interpretation

Metaphor, as an important component of linguistic study, has attracted many researchers'attention. Although some approaches are helpful and enlightening, the study of metaphor is far from perfect and no complete and satisfactory theory has been proposed.The present thesis is intended to explore metaphorical meaning and its relevance to the dynamic context within the framework of Adaptation Theory. Context is a most important notion in pragmatic study and it contributes a lot to the interpretation of metaphorical meaning. The traditional study of context was static and seldom explained fully the dynamic process of communication. The present author expounds a dynamic approach to the study of context, which regards context as the product of a generation process and treats language users as actors who can actively manipulate and choose aspects of context for the interpretation and production on the basis of Adaptation Theory. It could be helpful in revealing the nature of metaphor interpretation.The author of the present thesis combines Adaptation Theory and dynamic context to explore the dynamic effects of context on metaphor interpretation. The significance of the present thesis is to explore metaphor from the dynamic influence of context, which can help reveal the nature of metaphor meanwhile, the application of Adaptation Theory will be widened.