A Contrastive Study Of David Copperfield Between The Original Version And The Simplified Version-from The Perspective Of Ideational Grammatical Metaphor And Interpersonal Grammatical Metaphor

Metaphor，as an important language phenomenon, has attracted many linguists’attention all along. Ever since Halliday, the forefather of grammatical linguistics putforward “grammatical metaphor”(GM) in his book An introduction to FunctionalGrammar, many linguistics have made relative studies on GM. He divided GM intotwo types based on the meta-function of language: ideational GM and interpersonalGM. Martin later supplemented and perfected Halliday’s GM theory, and proposedtextual GM in1992.Mainly based on Halliday’s GM theory, this thesis is an attempt to give acontrastive analysis of David Copperfield between the original version and thesimplified version from the perspective of GM, exploring the reasons why ideationalGMs and interpersonal GMs are used more frequently in the original version in orderto dig out the significance of the comparative studies. From the perspective ofideational GMs, it is found that owing to different contexts of situation and contextsof culture, the metaphorical forms are more lively and the original expressions aremore diverse, though demanding better grasp of English; whereas the congruent formsin the simplified version are plain, natural, and closer to human being’s experientialmode, hence easier for English beginners or kids to grasp the main information. Fromthe angle of interpersonal GMs, it is discovered that the application of metaphors ofmodality in the original version strengthens the speaker’s subjective attitudes towardsor opinions on his judgment or underlines the speaker’s command to the listener, thusvividly demonstrating the character’s personality, and the employment of metaphor ofmood greatly increases the communicative effect, making the expressions in theoriginal version more vivid and lively. While the congruent forms in the simplifiedversion are more direct to show the speaker’s opinion or emotion, which is easier forkids or less able English learner to understand.This comparative analysis of the two versions of David Copperfield from theperspective of GMs also inspires English teaching practice. For learners of English at primary stages, teachers should focus on congruent forms that reflect the naturallogical sequence of language. Particularly in English listening and speaking classes,the congruent forms of expression conveyed from the teachers can facilitate students’comprehension; as a result the teaching effect can be achieved smoothly andsuccessfully. As students’ English level is raised, teachers should expose GMs asmuch as possible and guide them to find out GMs especially in English readingcourses so as to train them to use GMs in their writings. By this way, students’English proficiency will be improved step by step.