A Cognitive Approach To The Study Of Conceptual Metaphors In Chinese Weather Forecast Discourse

Weather forecast has been playing an indispensable role in our life, instructing thearrangement of daily life and industrial and agricultural production. Due to its informativefunction however, for a long time, the stress has habitually been placed on its practical value,and few linguists cast attention to its linguistic value, which in turn offers a novel perspectiveto study conceptual metaphors in weather forecast discourse.This thesis employs Lakoffian conceptual metaphor theory as its theoretical framework,based on which the conceptual metaphors applied in Chinese weather forecast discourse arecategorized into structural metaphors, orientational metaphors and ontological metaphors.Ontological metaphors are further classified into entity and substance metaphors, containermetaphors and personification. The data for the analysis are from modern Chinese, whereasthe theoretical framework is English-based. Thus, in the process of analysis, some currentresearch findings towards modern Chinese are borrowed which are relevant to the study.The proportion of ontological metaphors ranks the highest among the conceptualmetaphors used in Chinese weather forecast discourse. It is by using enormous ontologicalmetaphors that the weathercasters intend to make it easier for the audience to understand theabstract concepts. Orientational metaphors rank second among the conceptual metaphors inChinese weather forecast discourse. With orientational metaphors, people can easilyunderstand non-spatial, abstract concepts like TIME, QUANTITY, STATES, andHIERARCHY. Though structural metaphors are the least frequently used metaphors inChinese weather forecast discourse, they allow us to understand abstract and unfamiliarconcepts in terms of concrete and familiar concepts.A close examination indicates that although Chinese weather forecast discourse shares a bulk of common conceptual metaphors with everyday language, there are some distinctiveconceptual metaphors used in Chinese weather forecast discourse. In orientational metaphors,the AT A HIGH LEVEL IS MORE DANGEROUS/AT A LOW LEVEL IS LESSDANGEROUS metaphor constructed in weather forecasting agrees with negative correlationwhereas the HIGH STATUS IS UP/LOW STATUS IS DOWN metaphor used in everydaylanguage agrees with positive correlation. In container metaphors, some cases like “我们就将进入夏至节气了” in Chinese weather forecast discourse are different from those frequentlyused in everyday language like “这两个国家只有携手进入21世纪，才能保证这个世界的�'�平” in that我们(we) should be treated as the observer rather than the trajector whilethe real trajector is the abstract concept of TIME. Besides, in container metaphors, anothertypical feature is that weather conditions are frequently conceptualized as containers. Forinstance,“但是下一周，江南华南将会再次进入多雨阶段。”“长江中下游地区即将进入一段降雨集中期。”Apart from the conventional conceptual metaphors, some novel metaphors are alsoconstructed in Chinese weather forecast discourse, amongst which the color metaphor is mosttypical. For instance,“暴雨蓝色预警”,“干旱黄色预警”,“高温橙色预警”. By adopting thecolor metaphors, the Chinese weather forecast can effectively draw people’s attention to andheighten their vigilance against meteorological disasters.This study demonstrates that conceptual metaphor theory can be applied to the analysisof Chinese weather forecast discourse. This, on the one hand, could definitely enrichLakoffian conceptual metaphor theory and enhance the practicability and universality of thistheory, and on the other, could make us gain a better comprehension of the discourse and itslanguage features.