A Cognitive Study Of Transferred Epithet

Transferred epithet, also called"hypallage", is one of the figures of speech frequently used in daily expressions and literary works. It is more dynamic and vivid in communication and is full of inspirations. It is considered to be the typical picturesque and informative expression. Most of the traditional study of this rhetorical device focused on its definitions, classifications and aesthetic functions. Transferred epithet is a supernormal collocation, but it can be generated and understood. What are the underlying mechanisms of its production and understanding? Some linguists have paid attention to the issue and put forward some analytical mechanisms to explain its production and understanding, however, none of them have been widely recognized up to now.This paper attempts to make out the underlying mechanisms of the production and interpretation of transferred epithet in the light of cognitive linguistics. Our key theoretical goal is to search a feasible account for the complex issue of why this seemingly illogical way of speaking can be produced and understood. Our study is made by applying the Mental Model-Based Pragmatic Reasoning Hypothesis proposed by Xu Shenghuan. The hypothesis consists of two interrelated parts, namely, the Autonomy-Dependency Analytical Framework and the Mental Model-Based Explicature-Implicature Reasoning Framework and they provide explanation for the production and interpretation of utterances respectively.This paper is composed of six chapters.Chapter One serves as a brief introduction of the whole thesis. We point out the object of the study, describe the methodology used in the study, present the significance of our study and exhibit the arrangement of the paper.Chapter Two is a literature review. The author generally reviews the study of transferred epithet both inside and outside rhetorical field, including its definitions, classification, functions, and pragmatic and cognitive studies. Then we will raise our main research questions.Chapter Three is an introduction of the theoretical framework. We first briefly recall the theoretical background——cognitive linguistics, gestalt theory, Mental Models and Stereotypical Relations. They are the foundation of our theoretical framework the Mental Model-Based Pragmatic Reasoning Hypothesis, and we will introduce it in detail. It is the guideline of our study.In Chapter Four we make a closer observation of transferred epithet with the purpose of making the following analysis rational and tenable.Chapter Five is the analysis of the production and understanding mechanism of transferred epithet in line with the Mental Model-Based Pragmatic Reasoning Hypothesis, which is incorporated with Mental Model-Based Explicature-Implicature Reasoning Hypothesis and the Autonomy-Dependency Analytical Framework.This thesis concludes with the sixth chapter, in which we will present our primary findings as well as the limitations and prospect of the study.The Mental Model-Based Pragmatic Reasoning Hypothesis proposed by Xu Shenghuan has given us so many theoretical inspirations that we have the following findings about the mechanisms of transferred epithet's production and interpretation:(1) The production of transferred epithet is motivated by the speaker's intentionality, which determines how people use language,specifically in our study the goals of using transferred epithet.(2) The modified the epithet really belongs to and the modified that the epithet modifies by using transferred epithet have proximity relation, which is one of the two essential dimensions of Stereotypical Relations.(3) The derivation of the generated collocation (GC) in transferred epithet (the explicit expression) is inherently limited by the original collocation (OC). OC is autonomous and GC is dependent.(4) The generated collocation (GC) is intrinsically incomplete. In the understanding of it, the reader has to seek the complementation and elucidation by the implicit expression that is the original collocation (OC) embodied in it. The elucidation and/or supplementation are actually a process of stereotypical reasoning with the help of stereotypical relations by which the organization of knowledge in Mental Models can be embodied. The stereotypical relations here are represented as the relation of proximity.(5) After the reader finds out the proper form of proximity, and thus works out the implicit autonomous expression, this implicit expression will be interpreted together with the explicit expression for the overall understanding of the whole utterance and the detection of the speaker's intentionality by using transferred epithet.