Strategies Of Recognizing Grammatical Metaphor In English Reading Comprehension

The origin of metaphor study can be dated back to the rhetorical studies in ancient Greece, but most of the previous studies concentrate on the lexical level of language. The notion of grammatical metaphor is first proposed by Michael Halliday in the mid-1980s. He argues that lexical variation is only one aspect of lexicogrammatical selection or wording; and metaphorical variation is lexicogrammatical rather than simply lexical and hence there is also such a thing as grammatical metaphor (Halliday,1985). Lexical metaphor is theorized as "same signifier, different signified" while grammatical metaphor is "same signified, different signifier" (Halliday,1994). There are many other scholars making further researches on grammatical metaphor following Halliday, such as Martin (1992,1993), Matthiessen (1992), Ravelli (1985,1988,1998) and many scholars in China, such as Hu Zhuanglin (1996,2000), Yan Shiqing (2003), Fan Wenfang (2001). They develop and complete grammatical metaphor theory from different aspects, such as its nature, its classification, and its mechanism and so on. Besides, some studies attempt to apply grammatical metaphor into analyzing the characteristics of scientific discourse (Dong Hongle,2005). However, Halliday (1994) asserts that grammatical metaphor is found in all types of adult discourse, so the previous researches are restrained to the analysis of scientific discourse and ignore a fact that metaphorical realizations have become an indispensable and common phenomenon in daily written discourse rather than simply in scientific discourse. So in recent years, some scholars have made researches combining grammatical metaphor and foreign language teaching, such as Li Ruifang and Meng Lingxin (2004) find out that the complexity of grammatical metaphor reduces language input; Xiong Xueliang and Liu Donghong (2005) investigates that the higher language proficiency the second language learners have and the higher lexical density their compositions have, the stronger metaphorical thinking and the better expressing ability they have. However, studies about the relationship between grammatical metaphor and English reading comprehension are rare. Dong Hongle and Yang Xiaoying (2003) discuss the functions that nominalization has in a discourse are precisely the obstacles in text understanding.As for the relationship between grammatical metaphor and the difficulty of a discourse, some linguists hold that if more grammatical metaphors exist in a discourse, then the discourse is more difficult to be understood. Halliday (1985) assumes that grammatical metaphor, even if not innately good or bad, is at least innately complex and the least metaphorical wording will often be the one that is maximally simple. Fan Wenfang (1996) proposes that grammatical metaphor is another indispensable factor to influence the difficulty of a discourse in addition to the average length of words and sentences; the more grammatical metaphors a discourse contains, the more difficult the discourse is to be understood when other things being equal. Hu Zhuanglin (2000) holds that sometimes people can understand the grammatical metaphor directly, but sometimes they have to go through a cognitive process of unpacking the language information, which means that understanding grammatical metaphor requires more cognitive effort. Ravelli (1988) points out that the large existence of grammatical metaphor in a discourse increases the difficulty of the discourse itself, and decreases the reading speed of learners, thus reduces the intelligibility of the discourse and decreases the language input for learners. Thus, grammatical metaphor constitutes one of the difficulties in reading comprehension. Therefore, it is plausible to make a systematic and detailed research which discusses the complexity brought about by grammatical metaphor to English reading comprehension, and then explores the recognizing strategies of grammatical metaphor in English reading comprehension so as to help learners to diminish the difficulties caused by grammatical metaphor and understand the discourse better and deeper.This thesis will firstly analyze the factors why grammatical metaphors increase the difficulties of discourse understanding. The complexity of grammatical metaphor is attributed to the dual semantic feature, lexical density and cognitive effort contained in grammatical metaphor. The particular metaphor selected adds further semantic features and causes ambiguity to an expression; increases the lexical density by condensing much information in a clause and transfers the concrete event into abstract concept; as well as requires more cognitive effort in unpacking it since it breaks away from human’s regular perception and understanding of the world. So grammatical metaphor increases the difficulty of understanding for learners and makes a higher request for cognitive ability. Then the recognizing strategies of grammatical metaphor are proposed. It is possible for us to recognize grammatical metaphor from the lexicogrammatical perspective and semantic perspective. Finally, by the detailed analysis of the recognition of ideational and interpersonal grammatical metaphor in English reading comprehension, it is clear that grammatical metaphor indeed increases the difficulties of comprehension, and the recognition of grammatical metaphor in a discourse indeed not only helps to diminish the difficulties of understanding but also helps students to understand the discourse better and deeper.This study is of great significance both in theory and practice. Theoretically, the study broadens the research scope of grammatical metaphor, and offers a deep understanding about the characteristics and nature of grammatical metaphor. Practically, it throws light upon English reading comprehension, which helps students to improve their reading comprehension ability and provides a new guiding principle for teachers to give instructions in teaching English reading.