Studies On Meaning Construction Of Figurative Language

Based on experientialism, cognitive linguistics holds the opinion that figurative language has no longer been regarded as an embellishment of human language nowadays, but widely considered as a highly revealing instance of the human capacity for meaning construction. Therefore, cognitive approach to meaning construction of figurative language is better than traditional approach based on either subjectivity or objectivity. This dissertation applies relevant cognitive theories to compare and contrast the analysis of conventional metaphor and novel metaphor, aiming at exploring the mechanism of meaning construction process of figurative language.Lakoff (1980) put up with Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), which functions as the cognitive basis of meaning construction of figurative language. Although CMT in useful to explain the entrenched conventional metaphor from the macro perspective, but is inadequate in explaining the meaning construction process of novel metaphorical expressions. Based on CMT, Fauconnier and Turner (2002) propose Conceptual Integration Theory (CIT)---a more comprehensive analysis model for the on-line meaning construction of both conventional metaphor and novel metaphor. However,CIT seldom takes cognitive context and psychological factors into consideration.This dissertation endeavors to solve the following research problems:1. What are the similarities and differences of the meaning construction process between conventional metaphor and novel metaphor?2. What is the basis for meaning construction of figurative language?3. What is the mechanism of meaning construction of figurative language?4. How does the emergent meaning work for figurative language and literal language? According to the degree of metaphoricity, this study classified the data collected into conventional metaphors and novel metaphors in order to facilitate the analysis consistent with objectives of the study. It finds that experientialism provides the philosophical basis for meaning construction of figurative language; relevance the pragmatic basis; and image schema the cognitive basis. Conceptual Integration Theory explains the inner mechanism to meaning construction of figurative language. Its emergent structure makes it account for the differences and similarities of meaning construction process between novel metaphor and conventional metaphor. Coulson(2005) adds Grounding box to the model of conceptual integration from the perspective of Pragmatics, which points out the vital role of context. Meanwhile, this dissertation points out that the functions of individual psychological and emotional factors can not be neglected. Through analysis, it is found that metaphors and other figures of speech may sometimes require a little more creativity than literal language, but the difference is quantitative, not qualitative. The meaning construction of figurative language employs the same process with literal language, but there is a matter of degree. Figurative language requires knowledge by the speaker and the listener of the semantic, pragmatic and social context surrounding the utterance to an even greater extent than most literal language.A complete theory of meaning construction must explore the interplay of factors including the application and integration of utterance meaning, background knowledge, contextual information and individual difference. Although it has done some research on meaning interpretation from the perspective of conceptual integration as the inner mechanism with philosophical, pragmatic and cognitive basis, this dissertation is not perfect. Now it is a trend to combine the general knowledge of neuroscientist with processing models of figurative language processing, which is worth further exploring.