A Study On Distinctions Between Similes And Metaphors From Contextual Perspective

This thesis explores the distinctions between similes and metaphors, the two most common figures of speech in language. Similes and metaphors are both figures of comparison, however, they are different in essence. Many researchers at home and abroad have made further studies on the distinctions between similes and metaphors. They found distinctions syntactically or with respect to the relationship between the tenor and the vehicle. It is usual to study similes and metaphors with little reference to discourse context. Context, which refers to language environment, is the basis of language communication. Therefore in this thesis some similes and metaphors from The Golden Cangue and The Great Gatsby are cited and analyzed in the context. At the same time, the main research objects are confined to noun metaphors and similes with'like'. Methodologically speaking, the present study belongs to a qualitative study based on the data collected from literature.So metaphors and similes in context are distinct in these aspects:1. Conventionality: Conventional vehicles are expressed as metaphors, while novel vehicles are expressed as similes.2. Communicative function: Metaphors are felt more profound and expressed stronger claims than similes.3. Aptness: Metaphors are often used when a tenor has many pertinent properties associated with the vehicle, and similes are often used when the tenor does not have many of those properties.4. Thought: Metaphors suggest that the listener should first access the abstraction associated with the vehicle and then align it with the target representation, whereas similes invite directly aligning the literal vehicle and tenor concepts.5. Interpretation: Metaphor vehicles refer to an abstract category that includes the literal referent of the corresponding similes. In turn, the simile predicate refers to a literal, concrete exemplar of the metaphor-vehicle category.6. Pragmatic force: The metaphor form may lend additional pragmatic force to the statement.7. Comprehension: Similes are more likely than metaphors to highlight nonobvious similarities between tenors and vehicles.8. Similarity: If the tenor and the vehicle are perceptually alike then the simile form will be preferred. If both items are functionally alike then the metaphor form will be preferred.9. Comparison: All metaphoric analogies are assimilative. The comparison in a simile is objective or assimilative.10. Literality: The linguistic representation of simile is'literal'use of language; a metaphor, by contrast, always involves'nonliteral'use of language.11. Behavior: The simile form is more likely to be interpreted as regarding the behavior of the tenor.An experiment is adopted in order to verify those findings. 40 undergraduates were asked to fill in a questionnaire. They need transcribe some similes and metaphors cited from the two novels. The result of the questionnaire and the analysis on similes and metaphors are identical. At the same time, similes and metaphors are used in a similar way in English and Chinese novels.Similes and metaphors are ubiquitous in languages. It is hoped that the results of this study could more or less be applied to the language class. An effective lesson on these two figures of speech can improve not only students'language skills but their reasoning capabilities as well.